Nuclear Power May Come to Baja
Mexico’s secretary of energy, Rocio Nahle, told the Senate that her agency is looking into the possibility of bringing nuclear power to the Baja Peninsula to produce electricity and desalination of ocean water. Both utilities are of utmost importance as most of the peninsula is powered by plants using diesel that produces large levels of pollution and drinking water is scarce. Nahle did not indicate where the nuclear plant would be deployed but suggested it would cost around $7 billion USD to build. Mexico has only one nuclear plant in Laguna Verde, in the state of Veracruz in the Gulf of Mexico. Stay tuned.
3 Comments
I think this is a positive! Most people are afraid of nuclear energy but mostly is because they don’t understand it!!
Nuclear power is very efficient and clean!
Go for it!
When having such a plant can be reasonably expected, and will areas other than Los Cabos benefit from it (e.g. La Paz, Todos Santos, San Jose) thank you
I assume they are evaluating small modular reactors, or SMRs which would be perfect for baja. These are self contained reactors that have no pumps they use natural flow cooling so they can not have a failure from a pump. These cost a fraction of what a large scale reactor costs. When the fuel is spent they remove the entire reactor and put in a new one. Another thing baja should be doing is solar concentrating plants that have towers and thousands of mirrors heating the towers, several operating in USA built by the Spanish. Due to Mexicos low labor cost this is a huge cost savings in installation which I would bet is 30% of the cost of the ones in USA. In conjunction with a small nuclear plant this could make CFE a lot of money vs the fuel oil burners thy have polluting. In essence with fuel oil burning they way they are doing it is probably approaching having a old style nuke plant melt down with the smoke damage it causes to the environment.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/mini-nuclear-reactors-offer-promise-of-cheaper-clean-power-11613055608