I look forward with great interest to reading that next book. How frustrating that the publishing cycle requires me to wait another six months or more - sigh!
Bent Flyvbjerg is most persuasive on the virtues of small, modular production runs that capture the benefits of experience curves. (Among many other topics!)
I hope that the two of you will be able to shed light on what factors lead us so often to pursuing the opposite approach.
What combination of human nature, political dynamics and engineering practice causes us to undermine our best interests and most of all, how can we overcome those self-destructive patterns?
With respect to nuclear, what can we do to trigger a re-consideration of small reactors?
I can only hope that your book will help to stimulate that change!
Thanks for this! I came across some articles about "platforming" as a means to start scaling up technology development, which sounds compatible with the "small, modular" approach you describe here. A couple tangential thoughts: what about the safety angle? I was surprised Germany abandoned nuclear power in the wake of Fukushima, and Charles Perrow and others have strong opinions this technology should be abandoned altogether. There's also thorium power, which is apparently cheaper, safer, cleaner and the fuel more plentiful than nuclear. I read an interesting article about it years ago which agonizingly did not address why it hasn't taken off.
I look forward with great interest to reading that next book. How frustrating that the publishing cycle requires me to wait another six months or more - sigh!
Bent Flyvbjerg is most persuasive on the virtues of small, modular production runs that capture the benefits of experience curves. (Among many other topics!)
I hope that the two of you will be able to shed light on what factors lead us so often to pursuing the opposite approach.
What combination of human nature, political dynamics and engineering practice causes us to undermine our best interests and most of all, how can we overcome those self-destructive patterns?
With respect to nuclear, what can we do to trigger a re-consideration of small reactors?
I can only hope that your book will help to stimulate that change!
Thanks for this! I came across some articles about "platforming" as a means to start scaling up technology development, which sounds compatible with the "small, modular" approach you describe here. A couple tangential thoughts: what about the safety angle? I was surprised Germany abandoned nuclear power in the wake of Fukushima, and Charles Perrow and others have strong opinions this technology should be abandoned altogether. There's also thorium power, which is apparently cheaper, safer, cleaner and the fuel more plentiful than nuclear. I read an interesting article about it years ago which agonizingly did not address why it hasn't taken off.