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Nice conspiracy theory there. But take any large corporation, and it will always prefer a long string of successful contracts to a single unsuccessful but bloa

Nice conspiracy theory there. But take any large corporation, and it will always prefer a long string of successful contracts to a single unsuccessful but bloated one. If NuScale sells thousands of their Small Modular Reactors, they become the Tesla of nuclear energy - a trillion dollar company. If they start playing the game of milking a perpetually delayed project, they'll be lucky if they milk half a billion dollars. And by the way, they have already spent half a billion dollars to get their reactor approved by the NRC [1]. [1] https://www.nuscalepower.com/newsletter/nucleus-fall-2020/program-development-update https://www.nuscalepower.com/newsletter/nucleus-fall-2020/pr...

ncmncm 4y ago
You miss that it cannot be a conspiracy if it is wholly legal. Any public works projects will not be driven by NS, but by whoever is pulling together the budget for the project. There is no doubt that NS wants to make a lot of reactors, fast. On any reactor, or any public works, project, there are always people who want to deliver. But they are not commonly in the driver seat. Anyway, even if an NS project did deliver on time and on budget, its power would find no buyers at an honest price it could offer. So, the only way it could succeed is in a captive market. Even neglecting their absurd capex, nuke opex cannot compete against renewables' near zero opex. Nukes' steam turbine maintenance cost alone exceeds renewables' opex. Nukes' indemnity insurance, always 100% subsidized by government, alone exceeds renewables' opex. Nukes' fuel handling expense (mining, refining, packing, storing, disposing) alone exceeds renewables' opex. And, nukes' decommissioning cost alone exceeds renewables' whole capex. Thus, nukes can never compete in a non-captive market. Every nuke ever fielded, anywhere in the world, has relied on subsidy and coercion. Renewables are radically cheaper than anything else nukes have ever faced, and nukes were not honestly competitive even with the old stuff.

ncmncm 4y ago

You miss that it cannot be a conspiracy if it is wholly legal. Any public works projects will not be driven by NS, but by whoever is pulling together the budget for the project. There is no doubt that NS wants to make a lot of reactors, fast. On any reactor, or any public works, project, there are always people who want to deliver. But they are not commonly in the driver seat. Anyway, even if an NS project did deliver on time and on budget, its power would find no buyers at an honest price it could offer. So, the only way it could succeed is in a captive market. Even neglecting their absurd capex, nuke opex cannot compete against renewables' near zero opex. Nukes' steam turbine maintenance cost alone exceeds renewables' opex. Nukes' indemnity insurance, always 100% subsidized by government, alone exceeds renewables' opex. Nukes' fuel handling expense (mining, refining, packing, storing, disposing) alone exceeds renewables' opex. And, nukes' decommissioning cost alone exceeds renewables' whole capex. Thus, nukes can never compete in a non-captive market. Every nuke ever fielded, anywhere in the world, has relied on subsidy and coercion. Renewables are radically cheaper than anything else nukes have ever faced, and nukes were not honestly competitive even with the old stuff.