Have they announced an estimate of how much a reactor/cost of energy production will be? That’s kind of the most important factor, isn’t it?
Small nuclear reactors: tiny NuScale reactor gets safety approval
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Re: Small nuclear reactors: tiny NuScale reactor gets safety approval
#12This is huge. Not only are micro reactors far more economical, it dramatically reduces the need to maintain a massive nationwide grid and provides flexibility to people in remote areas including greater autonomy. Efficiency should be greater without massive transmission line losses. Might start fewer fires in California too.
Re: Small nuclear reactors: tiny NuScale reactor gets safety approval
#13"Officially safe" is a hilarious term which tries to predict the possibility of an MCA or "Maximum Credible Accident." Of course, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima were also "officially safe" when they were built.
What a bad faith post. > Three Mile Island Was handled reasonably well, resulted in safety improvements to procedures and designs for future reactors. From https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/3... > The approximately 2 million people around TMI-2 during the accident are estimated to have received an average radiation dose of only about 1 millirem above the usual background dose. To put this int…
> Accident caused by Communists who did not care about what happened to Ukrainians
There were many such RBMK reactors spread all over the Soviet world that had the same flaws . There are many problems with your summary so can I just recommend that you watch the HBO mini series "Chernobyl" instead? It's a great watch.
Re: Small nuclear reactors: tiny NuScale reactor gets safety approval
#14Is Bill Gates an investor in NuScale? Or am I thinking of another modular reactor startup in the PNW?
Re: Small nuclear reactors: tiny NuScale reactor gets safety approval
#15Previous Discussion 2 days ago
Re: Small nuclear reactors: tiny NuScale reactor gets safety approval
#16This is huge. Not only are micro reactors far more economical, it dramatically reduces the need to maintain a massive nationwide grid and provides flexibility to people in remote areas including greater autonomy. Efficiency should be greater without massive transmission line losses. Might start fewer fires in California too.
The economics are yet to be borne out. I believe the NuScale cost (feel free to correct me if this information is wrong) is still above the cost of renewables and storage [1] but below that of traditional PWRs (684Mw @ $3 billion [2], ~25 cents/kwh [3]), which is competitive in places like Hawaii (which is still relying heavily on diesel fuel for what solar isn't providing) and geographies with limited land or renewables potential, but not elsewhere (storage aside, you're still competing with renewables around 1-3 cents/kwh at utility scale).
Congrats to NuScale for making it through to the other side of US nuclear regulatory purgatory. Optimism is warranted ("all of the above" to replace fossil fuels), but cautious optimism. It's not real until a commercial reactor is generating. Vogtle is still not done [4]. I hope I get to see a factory churning out prefab reactors ready for shipment.
EDITs (to not pollute thread with replies): A carbon tax in the US is very unlikely, and you cannot count on economies of scale until you have arrived at scale.
[1] https://www.lazard.com/perspective/lcoe2019
[2] https://www.nuscalepower.com/benefits/cost-competitive
Re: Small nuclear reactors: tiny NuScale reactor gets safety approval
#17fyi, OSU college has a 1-megawatt research reactor. https://www.oregon.gov/energy/facilities-safety/facilities/P... https://www.corvallisadvocate.com/2012/got-nuke-state-of-the...
UC Irvine has one underneath the chemistry building
https://faculty.sites.uci.edu/trigareactor/
Re: Small nuclear reactors: tiny NuScale reactor gets safety approval
#18fyi, OSU college has a 1-megawatt research reactor. https://www.oregon.gov/energy/facilities-safety/facilities/P... https://www.corvallisadvocate.com/2012/got-nuke-state-of-the...
The University of Florida has a 100kW training reactor since 1959[0].
Re: Small nuclear reactors: tiny NuScale reactor gets safety approval
#19This is huge. Not only are micro reactors far more economical, it dramatically reduces the need to maintain a massive nationwide grid and provides flexibility to people in remote areas including greater autonomy. Efficiency should be greater without massive transmission line losses. Might start fewer fires in California too.
The economics are yet to be borne out. I believe the NuScale cost (feel free to correct me if this information is wrong) is still above the cost of renewables and storage [1] but below that of traditional PWRs (684Mw @ $3 billion [2], ~25 cents/kwh [3]), which is competitive in places like Hawaii (which is still relying heavily on diesel fuel for what solar isn't providing) and geographies with limited land or renewa…
I think it also depends on CO2 charges if any.
For example, right now we have a pretty serious externality with CO2 for coal and other sources, what are the costs that folks would assign to CO2 to clear to needed target? That could bring comparative cost (with CO2 impact) down a bit.
Re: Small nuclear reactors: tiny NuScale reactor gets safety approval
#20fyi, OSU college has a 1-megawatt research reactor. https://www.oregon.gov/energy/facilities-safety/facilities/P... https://www.corvallisadvocate.com/2012/got-nuke-state-of-the...
University of Illinois had one for many years in Urbana. My uncle ran the reactor and then babysat the fuel for a decade or so after it was decommissioned. It takes that long to get the fuel disposed of apparently.