The answer is blowing in the wind & shining from the sun: not small modular reactors

When it comes to electricity generation, the solution to climate change involves wind, solar, battery storage, energy efficiency, and conservation.

You may have heard hype about new designs for nuclear power plants, called small modular reactors, and hype about them being the solution for generating electricity in the future.  However, small modular reactor technology is unproven and risky.  small modular reactors carry the same problems as their larger ancestors - high cost, creation of nuclear waste that is radioactive for thousands of years, and mining operations that leave piles of toxic waste.  The vision of its proponents is that several of them will be built on one site, rather than one large reactor like was done historically.  Some of them use the old light-water technology while others are using new designs and technology.  Unlike in the past, the manufacturers would like to build these in factories, mass-produced in cookie cutter fashion.  They have been under design for two decades.

Nuclear power is dirty, dangerous, and expensive:

Dirty

• Mining is environmentally ruinous, destroying land, contaminating water

Dangerous

• Accidents can contaminate wide swaths of the land around the plant and endanger public health
• We still have not solved the waste problem
• Waste is radioactive and dangerous for thousands and thousands of years
• Some of designs use highly enriched nuclear fuels that can be easily converted to weapons in the wrong hands
• No permanent repository has been built to permanently store all of the spent fuel

Expensive

• Renewables (wind, solar, battery storage) are cheaper
• Likewise for energy efficiency and conservation
• Timing is not soon enough to eliminate climate change
• Investing in small modular reactors drains resources from cheaper renewable energy sources
• They require massive taxpayer subsidies

 Too late to solve the climate problem

 Although the SMRs have been discussed and under design for two decades, they are still not expected to be deployed until 2029 or 2030. 

We are in a race to find clean energy to power our state and country.  That is where wind, solar, battery storage, energy efficiency, and conservation come into play.  Solar and wind energy have become cost-effective.  Solar and wind energy production is safe.  Combined with battery storage, solar and wind can power all of our needs and provide baseload power.  Plus solar, wind, battery storage, energy efficiency, and conservation are carbon-free. 

The answer is indeed blowing in the wind and shining from the sun, not small modular reactors.