5 ms·
> SMRs are nuclear reactors that typically produce up to 300 megawatts (MW) of electricity, which is enough energy to power 300,000 homes for one year. I suppo
by tempestn 5y ago
> SMRs are nuclear reactors that typically produce up to 300 megawatts (MW) of electricity, which is enough energy to power 300,000 homes for one year.
I suppose anyone who has some knowledge re electricity knows what they're trying to say here, and for anyone who doesn't it won't make much difference, but reading a sentence like this still hurts me a little.
MW (megawatts) are a measure of power, not energy. This means the "per year" part is meaningless. Also for what it's worth, 300MW for 300k homes is 1kW/home, which is a pretty old rule of thumb for average household power use. I believe the current average in Canada (and the US) is considerably higher But that's also just the average; the peak is much higher. 300MW is the peak output for the plant, so the true number of homes it could power is lower regardless, absent storage.
None of that to say the prospect isn't exciting! And I suppose the source here is the weather network, so perhaps they're a bit outside their area of expertise.
- mnw21cam 5y agoIndeed. If you're going to be heating all those houses with electricity, instead of gas, coal, or wood, then you'll likely need much more than 1kW per home. Especially when winter hits -30C.
- mjevans 5y agoIt would be nice if much of the waste heat could be expelled in ways more similar to Iceland's geothermal solutions.
- ClumsyPilot 5y agoRussia has directed waste heat fron reactors into the district heating network, it's perfectly realistic.
- sudosysgen 5y agoNot just Russia, it was relatively common across the Soviet bloc.
- jamincan 5y agoThe Bruce Nuclear plant in Ontario had an industrial development adjacent to it to take advantage of steam from the plant, but I don't think it ever really went anywhere and they demolished the infrastructure related to it in the early 2000s.
- tenuousemphasis 5y agoIf you build your house better, you won't need very much energy at all to heat or cool it. The passive house standard used in Sweden calls for a maximum of 20 kWh/(m²yr), which translates to ~3,700 kWh per year for a 2,000 ft² home.
- tintedfireglass 5y agoHere in asia we use 1.5KWh approx per year. It is a real thing
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- tenuousemphasis 5y agoWhat do you mean? Kilowatts isn't a measure of energy. Kilowatts pet year makes no sense. Asia is a continent with many different climates.
- tintedfireglass 5y agoI meant KWH(units) its a typo And the country is India
- p2detar 5y agoYes, it's kWh what is important to consumers. For example, an average 4-person family in Germany uses between 2600-5000 kWh / year vs. about 10 kWh / year in the USA. All in all, the greatest feature of SMRs in my opinion, is the scalability they offer. I'd have also added decentralization, but I'm far from familiar what is most optimal in terms of electricity networks.