Mass effective adoption of the right technologies is the key to growth

Yukon Huang points out that China had far faster growth without innovation. China had less patents and fewer innovative services.

Patents and research are nice things and they can be good.

China got a lot of its technology through theft. All the high growth Asian countries copied technology from foreign countries and were successful in adopting the technology.

Later after they are rich enough accusations of theft become internalized. Companies within a country accuse other companies in the same country of theft.

Where the good ideas and good technology comes from does not matter

Many countries and companies complain that they can come up with ideas or prototypes but are unable to deliver commercial success.

Xerox Parc developed the concepts for computer mouse and touch screens but it was IBM and Microsoft that succeeded with Personal Computers. It was Apple that succeeded with the Mac computer and then the smartphone and tablet.

US was able to create, scale and continue to make oil and gas fracking more efficient

The US had huge recent success developing oil and gas fracking. They were able to convert it into massive oil and natural gas production. The costs have also been constantly reduced with innovations that were implemented and rapidly scaled.

Cheap natural gas has been an advantage for American industry. Cheap natural gas gave the U.S. a powerful—and unique—cost advantage. It benefits a wide range of industries across the full value chain, from feedstock to finished goods. It boosted investment and employment in various manufacturing and industrial areas.

The US invented nuclear power and the power was lower cost but then regulated it to make it more expensive

In 1963 with GE’s contract to build a low-cost light-water reactor at Oyster Creek, New Jersey. By the late 1960s, overnight construction costs for new reactors had dropped to $600 to $900/kW in today’s dollars.

More reactors were built and supply chains for parts and skilled labor became stressed, causing delays and cost hikes.

NOTE: Supply chain problems can be prevented.

Rules and requirements sometimes changed midway through construction. That meant delays. And delays are crippling for any big, labor-intensive project. Plants can be made safely and cheaply if all the agreed safety is known at the start.

In 1971, US courts ordered nuclear regulators to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act. This meant citizen lawsuits could cause licensing and construction delays.

ThorCon could implement and improve technology from the 1960s to make power at almost half the cost of coal

ThorCon is a graphite-moderated thermal spectrum molten salt reactor that will produce 250 MWe power. It will be cheaper than coal energy. Coal is 5 cents per kilowatt hour and Thorcon will be 3 cents per kilowatt-hour. The basic concept is similar to the MSRE (Molten Salt Reactor Experiment) in ORNL which was built and operated in the 1960s.

Lower cost process heat and lower cost electricity will benefit other industries in a country.

Having mass produced small and powerful nuclear reactors can allow all commercial ships to be converted to nuclear power. The ships would be faster on the oceans and could be turned around more quickly by not needing to refuel. Also, the environment would be cleaner because ships would not burn the dirtiest fuel (bunker fuel).

A commercial nuclear fleet of ships could enable a new generation of lower cost nuclear military ships and submarines.

Super Low cost and mass production from today’s ship yards

ThorCon avoids three costly LWR issues: low temperature, high pressure, solid fuel.
• Thanks to high temperature, ThorCon uses the same, competitively-sourced, $500 / kW supercritical steam turbinegenerator as a modern coal plant.
• Thanks to low pressure, ThorCon avoids reinforced concrete mausoleum and 9-inch-thick forgings.
• Thanks to liquid fuel, ThorCon can move fuel around with a pump. No exacting fuel pin fabrication. No complex reshuffling refueling systems.

Nextbigfuture has identified key technologies that need to be scaled for higher growth economies

Nextbigfuture has identified several high potential technologies that need to be scaled.

* Google loon and internet drones (more rapid deployment of multi-gigabit internet and upgradeable to even faster internet)
* thousands of internet satellites
* micron accurate GPS
* Use the above three for safer and more efficient use and deployment of drones and robots outside of factories
* space power satellites
* reversing aging with Gene therapy
* achieving full regeneration
* Many disease cures with gene therapy and biotechnology
* Artificial intelligence
* million qubit and beyond quantum computers
* Fleets of rapid reuse SpaceX BFR and the construction of orbit space stations, industrialization of the moon and colonization of space
* self driving car deployment
* passenger drones