3 ms·
Exactly, people who bring this up don't understand the different one-off reactor designs used in maybe a handful of vessels, or that the Navy reactors are meant
by Klinky 5y ago
Exactly, people who bring this up don't understand the different one-off reactor designs used in maybe a handful of vessels, or that the Navy reactors are meant to go without refueling for up to 25 years. They are also made by third-party contractors, not hand-built by the Navy itself.
The complexity, capital costs and liability risks make commercial "small nuclear" unfeasible. It's "go big or go home".
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- jasonwatkinspdx 5y agoYeah, I learned this harsh lesson doing deeper research in recent years. I was really hopeful for NuScale and similar SMR style approaches, but now I understand more clearly why that's so unlikely to work out. I'd love it if someone shows up tomorrow with some clever idea that changes the capital costs and long timelines, but I don't think we should be allocating significant capital towards that as hope alone.