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I don't understand how modularity is meant to solve nuclear's issues. * Nuclear is expensive * Nuclear is unpopular locally (aka nimbys veto it) * Nuclear wa

I don't understand how modularity is meant to solve nuclear's issues. * Nuclear is expensive * Nuclear is unpopular locally (aka nimbys veto it) * Nuclear waste needs to be dealt with properly. Making reactors smaller doesn't seem to fix any of these does it? Are people willing to accept a 100MW reactor but not a 1000MW reactor next to their kids schools? Is it cheaper to build and run 10 100MW reactors than a single 1000MW one? I doubt it...

regularfry 5y ago
The point is that yes, it should be cheaper. More reliable, too. The way that happens is that if you're building them at all, you're building lots of them, on a production line, which lets you build them continuously, and build them well. At this point of industrial history we're far better at setting up production lines than one-off construction projects.
- LatteLazy 5y ago
  I hadn't considered the production line side of it. I guess that comes with a lot of standardization, replaceable parts etc... Thanks!
upsidesinclude 5y ago
Portability, scale Nuclear is expensive the way we do it now. Nuclear is unpopular because there have been concentrated efforts to vilify it by corporations Nuclear waste is not an issue that any nuclear scientist or physicist considers worth debating
EricE 5y ago
Nuclear is expensive due to politics, not pure science or economics Nuclear is unpopular because it has been vilified and made an emotional argument. Plus you can't see, touch, taste or feel radiation - the ultimate boogyman to trigger our lizard brain. Nuclear "waste" is waste only due to politics and stupidity. Everything we classify as "waste" today is not waste for other reactor designs that will more than happily (and safely!) burn that "waste" and turn it into useful energy. If you were able to separate out politics and emotion from the nuclear "debate" there wouldn't be a debate. It would be a slam dunk no brainer decision. Luckily for China their despotic internal rule doesn't have to suffer fools for stuff like this. They are charging ahead with Thorium and god help the rest of the world if they crack it at scale. Then people will see just how critical a role energy is to the success of a civilization. All of our ridiculous and continued postering around energy while not really doing anything significant (and all the resources wasted on many renewables that are anything but) is going to bite the west in the ASS big time. Rome is burning and we are fiddling.

regularfry 5y ago

The point is that yes, it should be cheaper. More reliable, too. The way that happens is that if you're building them at all, you're building lots of them, on a production line, which lets you build them continuously, and build them well. At this point of industrial history we're far better at setting up production lines than one-off construction projects.

LatteLazy 5y ago
I hadn't considered the production line side of it. I guess that comes with a lot of standardization, replaceable parts etc... Thanks!

upsidesinclude 5y ago

Portability, scale Nuclear is expensive the way we do it now. Nuclear is unpopular because there have been concentrated efforts to vilify it by corporations Nuclear waste is not an issue that any nuclear scientist or physicist considers worth debating

EricE 5y ago

Nuclear is expensive due to politics, not pure science or economics Nuclear is unpopular because it has been vilified and made an emotional argument. Plus you can't see, touch, taste or feel radiation - the ultimate boogyman to trigger our lizard brain. Nuclear "waste" is waste only due to politics and stupidity. Everything we classify as "waste" today is not waste for other reactor designs that will more than happily (and safely!) burn that "waste" and turn it into useful energy. If you were able to separate out politics and emotion from the nuclear "debate" there wouldn't be a debate. It would be a slam dunk no brainer decision. Luckily for China their despotic internal rule doesn't have to suffer fools for stuff like this. They are charging ahead with Thorium and god help the rest of the world if they crack it at scale. Then people will see just how critical a role energy is to the success of a civilization. All of our ridiculous and continued postering around energy while not really doing anything significant (and all the resources wasted on many renewables that are anything but) is going to bite the west in the ASS big time. Rome is burning and we are fiddling.