Poland also has an interest in small nuclear plant modules, mostly from US and UK. I guess the advantage is that these can be produced on a larger scale and then installed on the spot, instead of having to design a nuclear plant from scratch every time one is to be created.
U.S. moves toward supplying Romania with a new style of nuclear plant
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Re: U.S. moves toward supplying Romania with a new style of nuclear plant
#12The put-upon Romanian people will be saddled with super-expensive nukes. For the rest of the decade, instead of building out low-cost renewables that get cheaper every year, they will pay for the nukes and for all the coal-fired power they are not displacing because they are just waiting for the nukes to get done. In the end, they will get much less power for their money. More likely the project will be cancelled, un…
One point is that you can't replace an entire grid with renewables due to their intermittent nature. They're also building out renewables so perhaps the nuclear generators are intended to offset some of their reliance on coal/gas on-demand generators?
Re: U.S. moves toward supplying Romania with a new style of nuclear plant
#13Why are they putting it in a region that has Earthquakes? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_earthquakes_in_Romania
This is a problem that nuclear advocates have to address; power is needed in imperfect locations.
We can (and do) build reactors to withstand these types of events. Objectively, the number of human casualties from nuclear plant disasters is comparatively very low, not even considering advances in safety technology.
Re: U.S. moves toward supplying Romania with a new style of nuclear plant
#14The put-upon Romanian people will be saddled with super-expensive nukes. For the rest of the decade, instead of building out low-cost renewables that get cheaper every year, they will pay for the nukes and for all the coal-fired power they are not displacing because they are just waiting for the nukes to get done. In the end, they will get much less power for their money. More likely the project will be cancelled, un…
We Romanians will wait to see energy at German prices and pay billions upon billions to buy batteries to store the energy. And btw wind, is really damaging to the birds in the area
Re: U.S. moves toward supplying Romania with a new style of nuclear plant
#15The put-upon Romanian people will be saddled with super-expensive nukes. For the rest of the decade, instead of building out low-cost renewables that get cheaper every year, they will pay for the nukes and for all the coal-fired power they are not displacing because they are just waiting for the nukes to get done. In the end, they will get much less power for their money. More likely the project will be cancelled, un…
We Romanians will wait to see energy at German prices and pay billions upon billions to buy batteries to store the energy. And btw wind, is really damaging to the birds in the area
The bird thing may be not very significant.
Re: U.S. moves toward supplying Romania with a new style of nuclear plant
#16>The hope is to have it operating by the end of the decade. Wow the building time even for this new style,modular nuclear plant is still takes that long time? Just curious, why an American company builds a nuclear plant in a foreign country with US government 'subsidising' them, do not build it in US soils?
because the NRC does not permit the development of new nuclear power plants
Re: U.S. moves toward supplying Romania with a new style of nuclear plant
#17The put-upon Romanian people will be saddled with super-expensive nukes. For the rest of the decade, instead of building out low-cost renewables that get cheaper every year, they will pay for the nukes and for all the coal-fired power they are not displacing because they are just waiting for the nukes to get done. In the end, they will get much less power for their money. More likely the project will be cancelled, un…
One point is that you can't replace an entire grid with renewables due to their intermittent nature. They're also building out renewables so perhaps the nuclear generators are intended to offset some of their reliance on coal/gas on-demand generators?
This is always said, but never true.
After you have built out enough renewables for day load and to charge storage, you build out storage. Not batteries, those are super expensive. Stuff that is super-cheap, instead. There are lots of choices. But you don't need to choose immediately. Prices are plummeting at different rates, and nobody knows which will be cheapest by then.
Re: U.S. moves toward supplying Romania with a new style of nuclear plant
#18Why are they putting it in a region that has Earthquakes? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_earthquakes_in_Romania
Because you need to put it somewhere on this planet, not on some ideal parallel world planet. There are various potential hazards pretty much everywhere.
The NRC has looked at all these and they have given their approval
https://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-reactors/smr/nuscale/ser-open-items.html
They have looked into earthquakes, what dangers they pose, what mitigands the design has against them, and in the end they decided the design is safe.
But if you want the actual details, you can go to section 19.1.4.8.1 Seismic Risk Evaluation in this document:
https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML2020/ML20205L410.pdfRe: U.S. moves toward supplying Romania with a new style of nuclear plant
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
One point is that you can't replace an entire grid with renewables due to their intermittent nature. They're also building out renewables so perhaps the nuclear generators are intended to offset some of their reliance on coal/gas on-demand generators?
This is always said, but never true. After you have built out enough renewables for day load and to charge storage, you build out storage. Not batteries, those are super expensive. Stuff that is super-cheap, instead. There are lots of choices. But you don't need to choose immediately. Prices are plummeting at different rates, and nobody knows which will be cheapest by then.
Can you cite what this super cheap storage is? My understanding is that li-on is the only existing option, however won't work at scale due to cost, longevity, etc.
Re: U.S. moves toward supplying Romania with a new style of nuclear plant
#20The put-upon Romanian people will be saddled with super-expensive nukes. For the rest of the decade, instead of building out low-cost renewables that get cheaper every year, they will pay for the nukes and for all the coal-fired power they are not displacing because they are just waiting for the nukes to get done. In the end, they will get much less power for their money. More likely the project will be cancelled, un…
We Romanians will wait to see energy at German prices and pay billions upon billions to buy batteries to store the energy. And btw wind, is really damaging to the birds in the area
Like the green hydroelectric power is killing all the fish and destroying the rivers? Still happens almost everywhere. Priorities.