The world’s energy needs involve complex trade-offs between the environment and economics. Conventional coal and coal gasification plants have lost favor due to political and environmental opposition as well as pending regulations involving greenhouse gas (CO2) emissions. Nuclear plant construction costs are very high and difficult to predict. These uncertainties create major financial risks that stymie investments in coal and nuclear facilities. Absent new technologies, natural gas combined-cycle plants will be the only choice for future power plants — a less than helpful situation for the economy.

Setting aside political issues for the moment, a general comparison of the six power sources discussed in this article yields several interesting trends.

• Environmental issues favor the natural gas fueled hybrid nuclear and combined cycle plants.
• Market driven profits prefer conventional coal and hybrid/ nuclear coal plants.
• Consumer cost factors support conventional coal plants and hybrid-nuclear/coal units.

Factor in pending climate change concerns, and hybrid nuclear energy becomes exceptionally attractive.

Hybrid-nuclear Merits
The many virtues of this developing technology include:

• Significantly reduced emissions
• High efficiency/low-cost of combined-cycle plant
• Outstanding safety/high efficiency of helium reactor
• Simplicity of the gas turbine
• More stable economics due to use of two fuels, particularly low-cost nuclear (uranium and thorium) and coal fuels which we possess in abundance
• Readily available materials of fabrication due to use of modest reactor temperatures
• Ease of fabrication, as massive foreign steel forgings are unnecessary, unlike conventional nuclear plants
• Readily manufactured in North America, Euro-Asia and most industrialized countries The disadvantages of the parent power technologies are minimized.

The hybrids offer a more effective solution than any of the single fuel options.

©2009 Hybrid Power Technologies, LLC
Last Modified: February 4, 2009