4 ms·
Sure, if you restrict yourself to 1950s technology, Nuclear is pretty handicapped. It’s just crazy to me that these articles presume some sort of revolution in
by bcatanzaro 7y ago
Sure, if you restrict yourself to 1950s technology, Nuclear is pretty handicapped.
It’s just crazy to me that these articles presume some sort of revolution in solar technology scalability but forbid nuclear power from using any better design than the first one we invented.
- colincooke 7y agoCompletely agreed. I was surpised reading the article about how fusion (irrespective of being able to achieve it with positive energy output) was obviously a non-starter due to neutron embrittlement. I think there is a place for this kind of work, however simply looking backwards at technology and propagating it forward with no change isn't it. The author points out many problems that weren't evident to me prior to reading, but also doesn't comment on how any of them are being solved or have progressed in within the past few decades. For example modern reactors last 80 years not 60 [0] (and can be extended to over 100). [0] https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/whats-lifespan-nuclear-reactor-much-longer-you-might-think https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/whats-lifespan-nuclear-re...
- fsh 7y agoThe article mentions breeder reactors and Uranium seawater extraction. Which other modern designs are missing in your opinion?
- bcatanzaro 7y agoThorium and molten salt reactors, for example. There are other promising ideas.
- fsh 7y agoThorium reactors are breeders. Molten salt reactors share many issues related to the corrosive radioactive colant with fast breeder reactors that are discussed in the article.
- bcatanzaro 7y agoFirstly, fast breeder reactors get a small fraction of the article, which is mostly devoted to the old stuff. Secondly, there are several different kinds of breeder reactor, and I don't see that lumping them all together helps understand their scalability. A liquid sodium cooled reactor fueled with uranium has completely different properties from a molten salt reactor fueled with thorium.
- fsh 7y agoAfter 70 years of research, LWRs are still the only reactor type that has ever been anywhere near economically viable. Many other approaches, such as Thorium pebble-bed reactors and sodium-cooled fast breeders have been tried and abandoned. It is simply unrealistic that all the issues that have plagued these designs will magically disappear with new ones.
- zionic 7y agoGiven the scale of the fossil fuels industry, I wonder how much money they spend yearly on demonizing nuclear.
- 666lumberjack 7y agoI'm convinced that the reason so many oil and gas companies are on board with scaling up intermittent renewables is because it secures demand for natural gas for future.