5 ms·

Another article mentions their site permit is for INL: https://morningconsult.com/2019/12/10/advanced-reactor-developer-oklo-receives-site-use-permit-from-energ

Another article mentions their site permit is for INL: 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... They'll be using all the existing (and likely expanded) security and other infrastructure at that site. If you've ever been to a running plant you would notice the high security, including heavily armed guards. You can't just walk into these places and take stuff.

acidburnNSA 7y ago
The problem for a 1.5 MW commercial reactor is that paying security guards and building physical barriers very quickly becomes cost prohibitive. If you have a 1000 MW plant, it's doable. But at 1.5 MW it's really hard to run 3 shifts of guards and operators cheaply. Some have considered significantly undergrounding nuclear plants to help deal with this, but then cost of excavation gets way up there.
- simonh 7y ago
  Which is why, as mechhacker pointed out, they are using a site with existing security arrangements. That’s a common approach for plans to use mini reactors like these.
  - acidburnNSA 7y ago
    Makes all the sense in the world for reactor development and testing. For commercial deployment it'd be nice to understand the basic plan.
    - ForHackernews 7y ago
      Could you power a datacenter with a few of these? They'd typically have security already.
      - acidburnNSA 7y ago
        Absolutley. There are a lot of good reasons to look into this. Most tech companies operating data centers want to be low carbon and need large scale, long term reliable backup power.
- bsder 7y ago
  > The problem for a 1.5 MW commercial reactor is that paying security guards and building physical barriers very quickly becomes cost prohibitive. It's not clear that we won't have to do this anyhow as shooting transformers with rifles is a problem, too: https://www.stgeorgeutah.com/news/archive/2016/09/26/jla-thousands-lose-power-after-vandal-shoots-main-transformer/ https://www.stgeorgeutah.com/news/archive/2016/09/26/jla-tho... https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-grid-attack-20140211-story.html https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-grid-attack-20140211-st...
  - PaulHoule 7y ago
    When I was a teen I was working at Burger King and the power went out because somebody plinked a transformer on the West Side of Manchester, NH. We got to eat everything on the heat chute, and watched a drunk driver crash in an intersection with a non-working traffic light.
  - omegabravo 7y ago
    there is a substantial difference in severity between a transformer being compromised and a fission reactor being compromised
    - bsder 7y ago
      Probably less than you think. A lot of transformers used polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in the insulating oil. Those tend to contaminate groundwater and degrade on the same timescales as radioactivity. We have, fortunately, banned the usage of such things for quite a while. But, if a transformer hasn't been replaced in the last 20 years, it's probably hazardous.
- Proven 7y ago
  None said it has to be 1.5MWh, it can be 5 or 10 x 1.5.

acidburnNSA 7y ago

The problem for a 1.5 MW commercial reactor is that paying security guards and building physical barriers very quickly becomes cost prohibitive. If you have a 1000 MW plant, it's doable. But at 1.5 MW it's really hard to run 3 shifts of guards and operators cheaply. Some have considered significantly undergrounding nuclear plants to help deal with this, but then cost of excavation gets way up there.

simonh 7y ago
Which is why, as mechhacker pointed out, they are using a site with existing security arrangements. That’s a common approach for plans to use mini reactors like these.
- acidburnNSA 7y ago
  Makes all the sense in the world for reactor development and testing. For commercial deployment it'd be nice to understand the basic plan.
  - ForHackernews 7y ago
    Could you power a datacenter with a few of these? They'd typically have security already.
    - acidburnNSA 7y ago
      Absolutley. There are a lot of good reasons to look into this. Most tech companies operating data centers want to be low carbon and need large scale, long term reliable backup power.
bsder 7y ago
> The problem for a 1.5 MW commercial reactor is that paying security guards and building physical barriers very quickly becomes cost prohibitive. It's not clear that we won't have to do this anyhow as shooting transformers with rifles is a problem, too: https://www.stgeorgeutah.com/news/archive/2016/09/26/jla-thousands-lose-power-after-vandal-shoots-main-transformer/ https://www.stgeorgeutah.com/news/archive/2016/09/26/jla-tho... https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-grid-attack-20140211-story.html https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-grid-attack-20140211-st...
- PaulHoule 7y ago
  When I was a teen I was working at Burger King and the power went out because somebody plinked a transformer on the West Side of Manchester, NH. We got to eat everything on the heat chute, and watched a drunk driver crash in an intersection with a non-working traffic light.
- omegabravo 7y ago
  there is a substantial difference in severity between a transformer being compromised and a fission reactor being compromised
  - bsder 7y ago
    Probably less than you think. A lot of transformers used polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in the insulating oil. Those tend to contaminate groundwater and degrade on the same timescales as radioactivity. We have, fortunately, banned the usage of such things for quite a while. But, if a transformer hasn't been replaced in the last 20 years, it's probably hazardous.
Proven 7y ago
None said it has to be 1.5MWh, it can be 5 or 10 x 1.5.