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"Production line mistakes may lead to generic defects that propagate throughout an entire fleet of reactors and are costly to fix," (person from University Coll
by Kaibeezy 7y ago
"Production line mistakes may lead to generic defects that propagate throughout an entire fleet of reactors and are costly to fix," (person from University College London) warned.
Wouldn’t the knowledge gained by fixing a large one-off reactor be of limited transferable value, as compared to expensive knowledge that could be used to upgrade an existing “fleet” plus improve subsequent versions?
- osobo 7y agoThe point is that every mistake propagated over 10 reactors has to be fixed 10 times. If you have a single reactor, you just fix it once.
- imtringued 7y agoThat's a massive benefit. That means there 10 opportunities to optimize the process.
- klyrs 7y agoThe point is rather short sighted: after fixing the production line issue, you make another 100 and recoup the expense of those first 10.
- imtringued 7y agoYou can also just decide to get rid of the first 10 and never repair them because it's cheaper to build 10 new ones.
- resonantjacket5 7y agoIt also means each time you create a new reactor, you never learn from past mistakes. Thinking that mass production causes more mistakes makes no sense when you actually think about it. Cars/guns/airplanes/even furniture all benefit from mass production to keep costs and mistakes down. There's no reason why reactors would be magically exempt from it.
- pjc50 7y agoHaving to fix it at all is a serious problem. France is currently dealing with reactor fleet problems: https://www.powermag.com/frances-nuclear-storm-many-power-plants-down-due-to-quality-concerns/ https://www.powermag.com/frances-nuclear-storm-many-power-pl... ("carbon segregation"), https://www.energy-reporters.com/industry/edf-admits-to-reactor-welding-issues-in-france/ https://www.energy-reporters.com/industry/edf-admits-to-reac... ("welding issues"). In both cases they took a long time to come to light and the country is now stuck dealing with them across a large fraction of its power production.
- resonantjacket5 7y agoI mean without mass production it also means you're dealing with new mistakes every time you create a new reactor. This idea that mass production creates more mistakes really doesn't make sense when you actually think about it.
- stjohnswarts 7y agoI find that to be an incredibly naive statement to any student of mass production. It's not like they won't be tested on a small scale before they start pumping them out. Sure there is a minute chance but this is just fear mongering.
- jhayward 7y agoI'll just point out that auto makers who manufacture in the 100's of millions of units often have mandatory, stop-use, stop-sales recalls on their products 5-10 years after sale. What you are asserting isn't the reality of mass production as experienced by industrial society so far.
- klyrs 7y agoTwo scenarios: 1. A flaw is found in a standardized design impacting hundreds of units. Engineers identity a fix, and technicians receive training on how to apply the fix. They apply the fix to hundreds of units in a standardized and repeatable fashion. If the flaw is catastrophic, chances are this will prevent hundreds of catastrophes. 2. You have an industry producing hundreds of bespoke designs. Each time a flaw is found, engineers work to devise a solution, and technicians repair the flaw on an ad-hoc basis. The industry is competitive, so potential learning surrounding individual flaws does not propagate quickly. Each catastrophic flaw is a new catastrophe, endangering many lives. Funny thing about auto makers manufacturing 100s of millions of units: they're still hugely profitable and despite the risk of mass recalls, bespoke designs are practically unheard of.
- jhayward 7y agoThis is moving the goalposts quite a bit. The GP was asserting, in essence, that it was naive and fear-mongering to say that mass-produced designs may have major flaws that need recall. Now we get the argument that yes, that will happen but it will still be profitable to do so. All of this contradicts 70 years of nuclear industry experience. It is an unsupported assertion, not a truth, that modular manufacturing will experience a beneficial industrial learning curve that will bend costs toward being competitive with alternatives.