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Pertinent info FTA: Oklo co-founder and COO Caroline Cochran pointed out the stunning fact that no nuclear plant that has submitted an application since the fo
by Karunamon 5y ago
Pertinent info FTA:
Oklo co-founder and COO Caroline Cochran pointed out the stunning fact that no nuclear plant that has submitted an application since the formation of the NRC in 1975 has yet commenced operation.
Assuming accuracy, that's a damning statistic. I don't believe for a minute that every single application that's crossed their desk for nearly half a century was so flawed or unsafe that it was unworkable.
Knowing what I know of governments and bureaucrats, I'd speculate that they're being asked for a bunch of irrelevant or impossible (i.e. doesn't apply to their design) information, and the people in the bureau are being useless and obstructive about it since there's no downsisde for false negatives.
- samwillis 5y agoThere was an interesting discussion of this on Twitter the other day when Patrick Collison posted about it: https://mobile.twitter.com/patrickc/status/1480729010325766148 https://mobile.twitter.com/patrickc/status/14807290103257661...
- Gwypaas 5y agoNot really, it is very specifically worded to paint the NRC in bad light. Vogtle, Virgil C. Summer and company have gotten the applications regarding their designs approved. They just haven't managed to bring the construction to a finish yet. The NRC may be the culprit there also, but that is a completely different question.
- gautamcgoel 5y agoAren't those standard LWR designs? Have any new technologies been approved?
- burkaman 5y agoIt's pretty carefully worded, even if that's true it's possible that NRC has approved lots of applications that haven't commenced operation for other reasons. It's bad regardless, but unclear if NRC is rejecting everything or if projects are failing because of other factors.
- Karunamon 5y agoI'd imagine that the initial application is not the only touch point.
- 6gvONxR4sf7o 5y agoIt’s not that the applications are denied, it’s that they haven’t started operation. Below that quote it mentions another company that has gotten approval.
- thesausageking 5y agoNone have commenced operation, but NRC has approved applications for new nuclear plants. It's easy to blame regulators, but a big factor is simply cost. For the last 20-30 years, low fossil fuel costs in the US have meant that the huge investment needed to get a nuclear plant from application to operations didn't make sense. Westinghouse Electric went bankrupt in 2017 because of it. Add in that nuclear has been very out of favor with the public, it makes it really hard to get a reactor built.
- imglorp 5y agoAlso part of bureaucracy is cronyism. There's a lot of big contractors working for and with the NRC who might not like any new competition.
- sct202 5y agoIt's a little misleading since the expansions at Vogtle in Georgia are scheduled to finish this year and next year.
- barney54 5y agoThat’s still 47 years assuming the Vogtle is actually finished this year.