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I mean that they've never been at an organization that actually builds reactors or reactor components. Building working machines, at scale, at a price that cust
by philipkglass 5y ago
I mean that they've never been at an organization that actually builds reactors or reactor components. Building working machines, at scale, at a price that customers can afford, is hard even if you're not in a heavily regulated industry. I'd also be skeptical of the chances for a pair of people to successfully move from graduate research in solar technology at MIT to commercializing a new solar cell design through their startup.
- jjoonathan 5y agoHah, it's the opposite of "you need 5 years of experience in a 3 year old technology": they need X years of experience in an industry that has been dead for the last 40.
- rfdave 5y agoLooking at the number of failed kickstarters for physical objects that are multiple orders of magnitude less complicated than a nuclear power plant with new technology might be instructive.
- sbierwagen 5y agoChina's been building new reactors, poach some of those project managers.
- readams 5y agoThere aren't any organizations that build reactors though. You'd have to go to France or China.
- bigthymer 5y agoDoesn't Westinghouse build nuclear reactors? https://www.westinghousenuclear.com/new-plants/engineering-construction https://www.westinghousenuclear.com/new-plants/engineering-c...
- readams 5y agoThey're hoping to get to build some. Not in the US of course.
- philipkglass 5y agoThey're building reactors in the state of Georgia: https://info.westinghousenuclear.com/blog/shaping-the-future-of-clean-energy https://info.westinghousenuclear.com/blog/shaping-the-future... Other companies that manufacture nuclear components in the US include Areva, General Electric, and Framatome. But Westinghouse is the only company that has a new reactor design currently under construction in the US.
- count 5y agoThe US is still fielding new nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers. So, they ARE building new power plants, just...not commercial ones.
- PeterisP 5y agoEven if you really had to go to France or China to get some experts (which is not the case) it would be quite reasonable to expect that they do so; using a combination of modern inventions such as airplanes and money it should be possible to get some of them across the ocean.
- epistasis 5y agoFrance does not appear to have the expertise either, Flamanville and Olkiluoto have been disasters. Plus, it's really not clear how they could translate their organizational skills to entirely different culture. Maybe it would work, but it's certainly not a sure thing.