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It certainly could get a lot more “economy of scale”-y than a single bespoke reactor project. Indeed, look into small modular reactors—they’re designed to be bu
by throwaway894345 5y ago
It certainly could get a lot more “economy of scale”-y than a single bespoke reactor project. Indeed, look into small modular reactors—they’re designed to be built at scale in factories (rather than individual bespoke plants). The levels ed cost of energy for these is projected to be well below $100/MWh which compares favorably with fossil fuel sources.
- foepys 5y agoOne unsolved problem with those small reactors is security. How do you prevent some terrorists from building dirty bombs with material stolen from a company's basement reactor? How do you trace the vast amount of radioactive material at so many sites?
- p_l 5y agoOne solution to it from mid-1990s was sealed reactors that are refueled by sending them back to manufacturer, fitting on single railway car. Combined with being rather hard to extract the material due to coolant used (liquid metal solidifying when shut down or leaking) and various anti-proliferation poisons used, it makes a pretty good solution.
- ben_w 5y agoI am dubious. Something that fits on a single railway car can be stolen in its entirety, and then the question is “is it valuable enough someone might just do that?” It’s the same reason that puts me off houseboats: “thieves stole my house”/“my nuclear reactor has gone missing” should be Onion headlines and Pratchett storylines respectively, not things that actually happen.
- p_l 5y agoindividual fuel assemblies are much smaller, and by this logic easier to steal. There's a reason why logistics for certain materials include security services, and it's much harder to abscond with multiple-tens-of-tons container that can have tracking beacon than a single fuel assembly.