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Existing nuclear plants got as big as they are because of economies of scale. Turns out that a plant twice as big costs less than twice as much as two smaller o
by jabl 8y ago
Existing nuclear plants got as big as they are because of economies of scale. Turns out that a plant twice as big costs less than twice as much as two smaller ones.
But, due to nuclear expansion faltering we build too few of these plants, and thus all of them become essentially first-of-a-kind, which tends to mean a lot of (very expensive!) delays.
I also think SMR's are very promising, trying to break the cycle of ever-increasing costs of big plants through mass production (and passive safety) rather than just making them as big as possible. Think airliner factory rather than one-off megaprojects.
- pfdietz 8y agoThey also got big because of economies of scale of operation. Making a reactor smaller doesn't proportionally scale down the staff you need to operate it. This is relevant when as many as a third of reactors in the US are not even making an operating profit. SMRs will require changes to operational regulation if they are to compete.
- acidburnNSA 8y agoIndeed. Many microreactors of the past like the PM3A in Antarctica were just too expensive to operate and maintain so they got replaced with oil. SMRs are great for lower capital cost but they won't just automatically be cheap to operate. The nuclear industry has to focus heavily on getting maintenance and operation costs way down. Some of that is regulatory, but lots of it is inherent.