By John Skelton, Ottawa Citizen, October 25, 2018
By 2009, smog in China was killing an estimated one million people a year – worse than the infamous London Smog of December 1952, when 4,000 were killed and more than 100,000 sickened. Just as in London, fear and anger gripped the Chinese populace and demands to do something rocked the nation.
The solution in London was to phase out domestic coal fires; in Beijing it provoked a sharp U-turn towards clean energy sources. Coal-fired power plants were scheduled for closure, new wind and solar farms were initiated, and large investments in hydro and nuclear power installations were announced.
A surprising outcome of this crisis was almost overnight support for small, clean nuclear.
https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/columnists/skelton-how-small-nuclear-reactors-can-help-save-our-atmosphere