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Canadian government invests in small nuclear reactors to help meet net-zero 2050
- sneak 6y agoIs $20mm CAD enough to move the needle on these sorts of things? I was operating under the impression that r&d and production costs are more than an order of magnitude greater for projects like this.
- AtlasBarfed 6y agoHopefully there is a better regulatory apparatus in Canada without the solid fuel reprocessor/military concerns getting in the way. So perhaps the investment will go somewhere. I am a bit disappointed it is not scaled down to shipping container size, but at least it is modular/shippable (allegedly). No mention of thorium breeding in the description, but it has other key LFTR hallmarks: brayton cycle, drainage to avoid overheat/meltdown risk, liquid fuel, and they must have online processing of the liquid to remove the products. I wonder how they are avoiding the reactivity/degradation of the vessel by the salts. I think that was a major block to liquid fuel reactors
- sradman 6y agoThis is a 190 MWe molten salt reactor built by Terrestrial Energy [1] that seems seems bigger than the three core use cases for Small Modular Reactors (SMR) as outlined in the article: 1. Helping utilities replace energy capacity lost to closures of coal fired power plants. 2. Providing power and heat to off-grid industrial projects such as mines and oilsands developments. 3. Replacing diesel fuel as a source of energy and heat in remote communities. The size seems to fit between off-grid diesel and modern natural gas plants. Since it is unlikely to be cost competitive with natural gas in Canada, a fourth use case emerges: meet zero-emissions requirements in jurisdictions not suitable for wind and solar. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrestrial_Energy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrestrial_Energy