3 ms·
This has been known since fast breeder reactors were initially designed to be able to do this, idk when 2-3 decades ago? The problem here is the reason only con
by Maursault 4y ago
This has been known since fast breeder reactors were initially designed to be able to do this, idk when 2-3 decades ago? The problem here is the reason only conventional fission reactors have been built is that they are the least expensive designs to build. And the problem today is that even the cheaper fission reactors are too expensive to be profitable, even with all the government subsidies and not burdening investors with decommissioning, and especially storage and security of the nuclear waste, which is a significant cost left to be paid for by tax payers. And the expense is not because of regulations. It may cost $10B-$15B to build and bring a new fission plant online, but regulatory costs would only account for about $10M/yr, thus the effect of regulations on the nuclear industry is insignificant compared to the bulk of the costs, such as uranium, construction, waste storage and security, and decommissioning, and the costs of waste storage and security and decommissioning are never included in the cost of a fission plant. Once you include those costs, the real price of a fission plant is revealed to be $50B and much more.
So as it is, this idea is a non-starter, because fast breeder reactors are far more expensive to bring online than conventional fission reactors, and those are already too expensive as it is.
But I have an idea. Make cheaper fast breeder reactors! Scale them up or down, idk which, until the economics makes sense enough that they can attract investors and actually be built. Just make them economically feasible without burdening the tax payer, and we can shut the pro-nuke crowd up for good.
- credit_guy 4y ago> And the expense is not because of regulations. [...] regulatory costs would only account for about $10M/yr. You are quite funny. NuScale received the NRC approval for their Small Nuclear Reactors (SMR) in 2020. They spent half a billion dollars for that, and 2 million man-hours [1]. They were founded in 2007 and the approval came 13 years later. If they are lucky, they'll have their first SMR working by the end of the decade. Of course, that's a happy ending. Oklo, another nuclear startup was founded in 2013, and got their application rejected by the NRC in 2022 [2]. They were told they can try again, and they probably will, but for the time being they have little to show for 9 years of work. [1] https://www.nuscalepower.com/newsletter/nucleus-fall-2020/program-development-update https://www.nuscalepower.com/newsletter/nucleus-fall-2020/pr... [2] https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/news/2022/22-002.pdf https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/news/2022/22-...
- dc396 4y agoIIRC, the real problem with fast breeder reactors isn't (only) their cost, rather it's that they produce (weapons grade) plutonium which presents a nuclear proliferation risk. The concept has been around since the 60s and there have been a few built (I know about Monju in Japan, shut down in the 80s).
- pfdietz 4y agoMonju's main consequence was to provide an excuse for Japan to acquire a large stockpile of separated reactor grade Pu. This stuff is not ideal for weapons, but it can be made to work in them, so Japan has a sort of deniable potential for rapid breakout into a nuclear armed state.
- natmaka 4y agoEven worse and at the root: there is no properly-working industrial fast breeder reactor. The most advanced is the BN-800 (its little brother the BN-600 often leaks), and it is not adequate, to the point of its potential big brother the BN-1200 to be postponed ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BN-1200_reactor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BN-1200_reactor ) and the Russians departing towards a new architecture thanks to a new prototype ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BREST_(reactor) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BREST_(reactor) ). This is not due to a lack of projects, well-funded and in many nations, starting in 1946: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breeder_reactor#Development_and_notable_breeder_reactors https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breeder_reactor#Development_an...