The news that China was bringing online a test molten salt reactor I got from here and corroborated elsewhere. It remains to be seen if it will be successful. There is a promotional YT video (It’s in chinese with subtitles). That New Atlas article is somewhat skeptical of its likely success. Whilst they are not the last word in science it explains some of the inherent safety advantages.
Ireland, along with other nations, prides itself on its no nuclear stance. I ask the question what can we realistically replace fossil fuel energy with in a short timeframe? Realistically being the operative word. Renewables are not enough and have issues of their own. Hydrogen relies on renewables to be non greenhouse gas producing itself, and hydrolysis is highly inefficient. Hydrogen produced from fossil fuels is just as bad if not worse. What are we left with? It might be that we need to make the least bad decision.
“Greenhouse gases trap in more heat basically just because they are bigger molecules ………”
To be more precise a greenhouse gas (GHG or GhG) is a gas that absorbs and emits radiant energy within the thermal infrared range, causing the greenhouse effect. Water vapour is the most abundant GHG. All substances absorb and emit electromagnetic radiation at some frequencies. It’s a spectroscopic phenomenon. Hence we got that nonsense about 5G because oxygen absorbs in the microwave region. It’s not about their size per se but the fact that they absorb wavelengths in the infrared region then re-emit in the same wavelength region thus trapping heat in the atmosphere. If we didn’t have GHG’s we’d all freeze to death.