First planned small nuclear reactor plant in the US has been canceled
1–10 of 332 posts
Re: First planned small nuclear reactor plant in the US has been canceled
#2>With the price of renewables dropping precipitously, however, the project's economics have worsened, and backers started pulling out of the project.
I would expect this to continue limiting investment in nuclear, since the outlook for renewables just keeps getting better, and the stumbling blocks are increasingly jejune, like we can't build powerlines fast enough.
Re: First planned small nuclear reactor plant in the US has been canceled
#3This was entirely foreseeable.
Notes from the Feb. 2023 meeting of the Idaho Falls Power Board (one of the utilities in UAMPS, and the place where the reactors would have been built.) https://www.idahofallsidaho.gov/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Minute...
NuScale still needed to get costs down by $700 M to reach the promised $89/MWh. Without that, it would be $105/MWh. This is also after federal subsidies.
"GM Prairie said that the CFPP would need to come down by 55% to be competitive with the market."
"CFPP is not inflation protected because cost increases above projections are borne by the developer which is UAMPS and its members in the project."
"GM Prairie commented that he has been to many meetings recently, including CFPP sales meetings and notices that utilities are still not subscribing, but instead wishing the project well. He said it was his opinion that even if the project gets to $89 LCOE and 80% subscribed by November, that it still is not an attractive deal for Idaho Falls [...]."
"GM Prairie [...] pointed out that all the big utilities have left the project but the smaller utilities stay in because they are trusting UAMPS."
"GM Prairie said [...] that the $89 LCOE is based on 40-50 modules being sold."
"GM Prairie said the UAMPS’ resolution states that the project has to come in/or under $89 LCOE and be subscribed at least by 80% and if UAMPS fails to do that, then just one member of the PMC can vote to terminate the project."
Re: First planned small nuclear reactor plant in the US has been canceled
#4>With the price of renewables dropping precipitously, however, the project's economics have worsened, and backers started pulling out of the project. I would expect this to continue limiting investment in nuclear, since the outlook for renewables just keeps getting better, and the stumbling blocks are increasingly jejune, like we can't build powerlines fast enough.
I am still very confused how power will be generated cleanly on cloudy, no-wind days with solar and wind. I am hopeful that hydrogen can be generated in the desert and moved by hydrogen-truck. Or grid-scale batteries actually exist someday. But if we write off nuclear, a lot of coal and natural gas will be burned.
Re: First planned small nuclear reactor plant in the US has been canceled
#5Nothing has changed since the early days. A helluva complicated and expensive way to boil water.
"At present, atomic power presents an exceptionally costly and inconvenient means of obtaining energy … This is expensive power, not cheap power as the public has been led to believe." — C. G. Suits, Director of Research, General Electric, who was operating the Hanford reactors, 1951. ( Ref: Power from the Atom - An Appraisal, Nucleonics, Feb. 1951 )
https://www.ieer.org/pubs/atomicmyths.html
Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free: https://ieer.org/projects/carbon-free-nuclear-free/
Re: First planned small nuclear reactor plant in the US has been canceled
#6>With the price of renewables dropping precipitously, however, the project's economics have worsened, and backers started pulling out of the project. I would expect this to continue limiting investment in nuclear, since the outlook for renewables just keeps getting better, and the stumbling blocks are increasingly jejune, like we can't build powerlines fast enough.
I am still very confused how power will be generated cleanly on cloudy, no-wind days with solar and wind. I am hopeful that hydrogen can be generated in the desert and moved by hydrogen-truck. Or grid-scale batteries actually exist someday. But if we write off nuclear, a lot of coal and natural gas will be burned.
Is it possible to transport wind / solar energy across the country via high powered transmission lines?
Re: First planned small nuclear reactor plant in the US has been canceled
#7>With the price of renewables dropping precipitously, however, the project's economics have worsened, and backers started pulling out of the project. I would expect this to continue limiting investment in nuclear, since the outlook for renewables just keeps getting better, and the stumbling blocks are increasingly jejune, like we can't build powerlines fast enough.
I am still very confused how power will be generated cleanly on cloudy, no-wind days with solar and wind. I am hopeful that hydrogen can be generated in the desert and moved by hydrogen-truck. Or grid-scale batteries actually exist someday. But if we write off nuclear, a lot of coal and natural gas will be burned.
It's never 'not windy' everywhere, plus gravity batteries can store power for days/weeks.
Geothermal is also an 'always on' renewable.
Re: First planned small nuclear reactor plant in the US has been canceled
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am still very confused how power will be generated cleanly on cloudy, no-wind days with solar and wind. I am hopeful that hydrogen can be generated in the desert and moved by hydrogen-truck. Or grid-scale batteries actually exist someday. But if we write off nuclear, a lot of coal and natural gas will be burned.
Is it possible to transport wind / solar energy across the country via high powered transmission lines?
No, because of physics you lose more power the longer distance it travels. It is also very expensive and difficult to build a network that can move power great distances to where it's needed given how dense the areas that need it are (major cities).
Re: First planned small nuclear reactor plant in the US has been canceled
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am still very confused how power will be generated cleanly on cloudy, no-wind days with solar and wind. I am hopeful that hydrogen can be generated in the desert and moved by hydrogen-truck. Or grid-scale batteries actually exist someday. But if we write off nuclear, a lot of coal and natural gas will be burned.
It's never 'not windy' everywhere, plus gravity batteries can store power for days/weeks. Geothermal is also an 'always on' renewable.
If it was this easy, gravity batteries and geothermal would be everywhere and widely used, but they remain niche.
Re: First planned small nuclear reactor plant in the US has been canceled
#10>With the price of renewables dropping precipitously, however, the project's economics have worsened, and backers started pulling out of the project. I would expect this to continue limiting investment in nuclear, since the outlook for renewables just keeps getting better, and the stumbling blocks are increasingly jejune, like we can't build powerlines fast enough.
I am still very confused how power will be generated cleanly on cloudy, no-wind days with solar and wind. I am hopeful that hydrogen can be generated in the desert and moved by hydrogen-truck. Or grid-scale batteries actually exist someday. But if we write off nuclear, a lot of coal and natural gas will be burned.
Deserts don't tend to have much water, so where do you expect to get the hydrogen from? Getting water to the desert takes a pile of energy as it is, and typically once it gets there people want to turn it into plants.