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Oh, come on. Just because old technology is too complicated to repair or upgrade doesn't mean the entire industry has stalled. This is pretty much the definiti

Oh, come on. Just because old technology is too complicated to repair or upgrade doesn't mean the entire industry has stalled. This is pretty much the definition of "cruft." An accumulation of old defunct artifacts in the face of technological advances. [0] [0] http://catb.org/jargon/html/C/cruft.html

Shivetya 9y ago
well my take away was, don't start a project unless the design is understood. I am all for nuclear power but a utility company should not be the breaking ground for new designs that are untested and not fully understood. If so, they the federal government should guarantee backing of a pilot plant/upgrade so that we don't end up with these fiascos
ethbro 9y ago
For better or worse, the regulatory environment ensures that "old technology" is the only thing getting built on a production scale. So yeah, it is a problem. Since every plant is essentially a one-off * , the economics are doomed to be terrible. Honestly, the UN should just annoint a multinational nuclear conglomerate composed of any volunteering existing nuclear companies. Standardize designs, share R&D costs across all, then use UN-approval for non-proliferation or assistance with waste disposal as the market carrot. It's a bit crazy that for things like space and nuclear technology we're burning so many resources (physical and human) reinventing the wheel in 5 different places, and telling smaller countries they just can't be trusted with wheels. * EDIT: Did some background reading and apparently this is one of the features of the AP1000 and its NRC certification. It's now certified to be built again as long as the design is not modified. Not sure if this was standard NRC practice, but the phrasing and context make this sound like a somewhat new approach.
- merpnderp 9y ago
  You're seriously making the claim that NASA is more productive than the commercial entities blowing its doors off with launch technology, with tiny fractions of NASA's budget? I can't even imagine how you got there.
  - ethbro 9y ago
    I'm making the claim that, f.ex. Africa would be happier if there was RAND technology transfer of basic spaceflight technology under the auspices of the UN, rather than having to start from zero because they're not part of the club of 3 with pre-existing manned spaceflight programs to crib from.

Shivetya 9y ago

well my take away was, don't start a project unless the design is understood. I am all for nuclear power but a utility company should not be the breaking ground for new designs that are untested and not fully understood. If so, they the federal government should guarantee backing of a pilot plant/upgrade so that we don't end up with these fiascos

ethbro 9y ago

For better or worse, the regulatory environment ensures that "old technology" is the only thing getting built on a production scale. So yeah, it is a problem. Since every plant is essentially a one-off * , the economics are doomed to be terrible. Honestly, the UN should just annoint a multinational nuclear conglomerate composed of any volunteering existing nuclear companies. Standardize designs, share R&D costs across all, then use UN-approval for non-proliferation or assistance with waste disposal as the market carrot. It's a bit crazy that for things like space and nuclear technology we're burning so many resources (physical and human) reinventing the wheel in 5 different places, and telling smaller countries they just can't be trusted with wheels. * EDIT: Did some background reading and apparently this is one of the features of the AP1000 and its NRC certification. It's now certified to be built again as long as the design is not modified. Not sure if this was standard NRC practice, but the phrasing and context make this sound like a somewhat new approach.

merpnderp 9y ago
You're seriously making the claim that NASA is more productive than the commercial entities blowing its doors off with launch technology, with tiny fractions of NASA's budget? I can't even imagine how you got there.
- ethbro 9y ago
  I'm making the claim that, f.ex. Africa would be happier if there was RAND technology transfer of basic spaceflight technology under the auspices of the UN, rather than having to start from zero because they're not part of the club of 3 with pre-existing manned spaceflight programs to crib from.