3 ms·
I'm not able to find much on this reactor. It's quite small (which is a good thing for expediency and cost of getting a new design running). It looks like the
by mechhacker 7y ago
I'm not able to find much on this reactor.
It's quite small (which is a good thing for expediency and cost of getting a new design running).
It looks like they just recently got a site permit: https://morningconsult.com/2019/12/10/advanced-reactor-developer-oklo-receives-site-use-permit-from-energy-department/ https://morningconsult.com/2019/12/10/advanced-reactor-devel...
The OP's press release indicates their use of metal fuel (as opposed to oxide) and heat pipes.
The 1.5MW design, if it uses heat pipes, likely won't scale to a larger, higher output design without changes in the heat transfer system (at the least). But, since they're testing out new fuel, that may just be part of their long term plans...
- nine_k 7y agoInstead, it can scale out, by mass-producing small modules and running batteries of them. 1.5 MW is not a lot, of course, you need two orders of magnitude more to feed a large city. Still could work great for small cities, especially remote and cold, if cost of production, construction, and service would be reasonably low. That's where the economy of scale could kick in.
- Merrill 7y ago1.5 MW is the output of a medium sized wind turbine. Of course, the "battery" has controllable, rather than variable, output.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]