The argument for SMRs as a “green economy” solution, when applied to a seismically active, debt-constrained, institutionally thin, tourism-dependent archipelago, becomes not merely optimistic but epistemically negligent. The book by Jorge Morales Pedraza and its successor paper are useful as catalogues of what SMR technology hopes to become. They are dangerous as blueprints for what Jamaica should do.

There is a fundamental difference between systemic corruption and state capture. Corruption ordinarily involves an individual bending or breaking a rule for private advantage. State capture is far more consequential: it occurs when powerful private interests, commercial cartels, or political networks become sufficiently influential that they can shape the rules, institutions, appointments, and public narrative by which everyone else must live. Corruption distorts the game;

There is a curious phenomenon that periodically appears in Jamaican public policy. A difficult national problem emerges. The hard work of institutional reform, technical competence, disciplined maintenance, and long-term planning remains unfinished. Yet instead of addressing those fundamentals, influential voices become captivated by a grand technological solution promising to leapfrog reality. The latest manifestation is the renewed enthusiasm for Small Modular Reactor

Fukushima taught the world an important lesson. Complex systems fail not merely because of a single event, but because multiple events can overwhelm assumptions embedded within a design. Even if a Jamaican SMR survived a major hurricane intact, the transmission and distribution infrastructure connecting it to consumers might not. A generating plant, however sophisticated, serves little purpose if the lines carrying its electricity are down. The Jun 5 blackout was a signal,

How Manufactured Consensus Masks Jamaica’s Energy Future In the lexicon of digital forensics, sockpuppetting is the act of creating multiple online identities to deceive. Unlike a pseudonym used for privacy, a sockpuppet is a tool of coordination. These artificial personas are designed to create the illusion of grassroots support, harass dissenters, and skew the perception of public consensus. When deployed as an "alias army,"....Read More

Published: Sunday | January 19, 2025 | 12:11 AM Contributed to Jamaica Gleaner Author: Trevor Blair In a move that has left many energy...