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Rolls-Royce plans mini nuclear reactors by 2029

bbc.co.uk

11–20 of 353 posts

Re: Rolls-Royce plans mini nuclear reactors by 2029

#11

I really wanted this to be about Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Limited rather than Rolls-Royce Holdings plc. A nuclear-powered Rolls-Royce Phantom would be incredibly boss.

Would a nuclear powered EV ever need refuelling?

It'd probably need to replenish the liquid (e.g. water) used for reactor cooling/energy extraction.

Re: Rolls-Royce plans mini nuclear reactors by 2029

#12

That sounds like a very bad idea. Although I am confident that the tech has evolved since Chernobyl, terrorism has evolved as well. It just takes a bunch of assholes to destroy a small town. And yes, I think they will be pretty well guarded. But if you have lots of them some of them will have security flaws.

Assholes can already destroy small and even large towns by conventional means. I'm sure you yourself can come up with a dozen ways of killing everyone in the town you are in via conventional explosives, poisons, toxins etc.

Re: Rolls-Royce plans mini nuclear reactors by 2029

#13

That sounds like a very bad idea. Although I am confident that the tech has evolved since Chernobyl, terrorism has evolved as well. It just takes a bunch of assholes to destroy a small town. And yes, I think they will be pretty well guarded. But if you have lots of them some of them will have security flaws.

How many attacks with the scale and sophistication needed to pull off something like that have we seen in the last 10 years in the West?

I mean, how many successful terrorist attacks on nuclear plants have we really seen?

Re: Rolls-Royce plans mini nuclear reactors by 2029

#14
I've been thinking about this for a bit and had a similar model in mind. You build small nuclear reactors in a containers - similar how Google builds their DC. You find an abandoned coal mine shaft and put them deep in the ground. The cost optimizations come from:

- economies of scale

- no decommission costs - you just leave them to decay.

- fewer security measures.

Re: Rolls-Royce plans mini nuclear reactors by 2029

#15
>Environmentalists are divided over nuclear power, with some maintaining it is dangerous and expensive, while others say that to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 all technologies are needed.

Yes, a mix of technologies. But there's more to it than that. We're going to need increasing amounts of power in the future to explore the solar system and to solve all kinds of existential problems. Energy usage is not inherently evil provided we learn how to do it safely, which is an ongoing process.

Re: Rolls-Royce plans mini nuclear reactors by 2029

#16

That sounds like a very bad idea. Although I am confident that the tech has evolved since Chernobyl, terrorism has evolved as well. It just takes a bunch of assholes to destroy a small town. And yes, I think they will be pretty well guarded. But if you have lots of them some of them will have security flaws.

> terrorism has evolved as well

I stopped worrying about terrorism when I realized that they could easily take out most of the European power grid with a few well-placed bombs on the central very-high-voltage power lines. Yet for some reason, they don't.

If terrorists were really hellbent on killing as many enemy civilians as possible, the world would look very different. What actually seems to be happening is that they use the smallest possible intervention that causes sufficient fear (and, conversely, sufficient support on their home turf). So I don't think they'll be blowing up nuclear reactors anytime soon. That would be unnecessary overkill (literally).

Re: Rolls-Royce plans mini nuclear reactors by 2029

#18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would a nuclear powered EV ever need refuelling?

If it were a radioisotope thermoelectric generator, then probably yes.

I don't think that would generate enough power for a car. See maximum output of some here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioisotope_thermoelectric_ge...

Re: Rolls-Royce plans mini nuclear reactors by 2029

#19

That sounds like a very bad idea. Although I am confident that the tech has evolved since Chernobyl, terrorism has evolved as well. It just takes a bunch of assholes to destroy a small town. And yes, I think they will be pretty well guarded. But if you have lots of them some of them will have security flaws.

How many attacks with the scale and sophistication needed to pull off something like that have we seen in the last 10 years in the West? I mean, how many successful terrorist attacks on nuclear plants have we really seen?

You are right, my fears might be unjustified. But fear is not rational =(
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