4 ms·

So let's assume 10 of these got deployed, and then one of them develops a problem. No explosion, just something which could evolve into a serious issue if not t

So let's assume 10 of these got deployed, and then one of them develops a problem. No explosion, just something which could evolve into a serious issue if not taken care of within a couple of months. This would mean that all the 9 other reactors would have to be shut down until the root cause has been fixed, due to regulations. That is 10 million homes which will require a relatively quick alternative source of energy, for around one year. Is this a problem? I don't know, that's why I'm asking. But for some reason this would appear to increase the probability of failures of the overall deployed MW capacity by all these systems together.

blibble 5y ago
reactors share a design at present has this sort of co-ordinated shutdown ever happened before in the history of the nuclear industry? because I don't think it has
- olau 5y ago
  Yes, of course it has. I'm certainly not an expert, but the plants are operating on a set of risk calculations based on assumptions about their designs. If one of the safety assumptions are challenged, you have to shut the reactors down and address it. Now, I'm sure you can find instances where this was not done. But if you just vaguely follow nuclear news around the world, nuclear power plants do indeed have correlated shutdowns. The most widely reported one in the past decade probably started with the accident at the Fukushima power plant. But there are many examples of smaller ones.
KaiserPro 5y ago
Sizewell c is 3200mw. So if that goes offline you have effectively 7 RR reactors offline. This is why design, commissioning and testing of nuclear power plants is so crucial
pjc50 5y ago
> due to regulations [citation needed]: which regulations of which country? The French nuclear fleet has a problem with cracks, but they've only shut down the affected reactors. https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/France-Closes-Two-Nuclear-Plants-After-Finding-Cracks-In-The-Infrastructure.html https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/France-Cl... Heck, they kept one of the Chernobyl units online for years after the other one blew up, because they needed the power.
7952 5y ago
Power grids are designed to have lots of redundancy and tend to have more capacity than is actually needed. It is perfectly normal for large generators to be offline. It might increase prices, but the grid should be designed to cope.

blibble 5y ago

reactors share a design at present has this sort of co-ordinated shutdown ever happened before in the history of the nuclear industry? because I don't think it has

olau 5y ago
Yes, of course it has. I'm certainly not an expert, but the plants are operating on a set of risk calculations based on assumptions about their designs. If one of the safety assumptions are challenged, you have to shut the reactors down and address it. Now, I'm sure you can find instances where this was not done. But if you just vaguely follow nuclear news around the world, nuclear power plants do indeed have correlated shutdowns. The most widely reported one in the past decade probably started with the accident at the Fukushima power plant. But there are many examples of smaller ones.

KaiserPro 5y ago

Sizewell c is 3200mw. So if that goes offline you have effectively 7 RR reactors offline. This is why design, commissioning and testing of nuclear power plants is so crucial

pjc50 5y ago

> due to regulations [citation needed]: which regulations of which country? The French nuclear fleet has a problem with cracks, but they've only shut down the affected reactors. https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/France-Closes-Two-Nuclear-Plants-After-Finding-Cracks-In-The-Infrastructure.html https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/France-Cl... Heck, they kept one of the Chernobyl units online for years after the other one blew up, because they needed the power.

7952 5y ago

Power grids are designed to have lots of redundancy and tend to have more capacity than is actually needed. It is perfectly normal for large generators to be offline. It might increase prices, but the grid should be designed to cope.