9 ms·

For those who are interested in the size (will it fit in my garage/car port?) The picture in the article is a NuScale Power Small Modular Power plant[0]. > E

For those who are interested in the size (will it fit in my garage/car port?) The picture in the article is a NuScale Power Small Modular Power plant[0]. > Each NuScale reactor vessel is expected to be 9 feet (2.7 m) in diameter and 65 feet (20 m) tall, weighing 650 short tons (590 metric tons). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NuScale_Power https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NuScale_Power

QuarterReptile 4y ago
The tallness is pretty important to the design and is pretty much antithetical to everything about home design.
- p1mrx 4y ago
  Except for Lord Farquaad's castle.
- aperson_hello 4y ago
  The 60MW seems a bit more antithetical to home design than the height! That's a not-small amount of power.
  - plasticchris 4y ago
    No but it sounds about right to supply a large parking garage (or three!) of charging EVs.
    - oittaa 4y ago
      Average American drives 14,263 miles per year. Tesla Model 3 consumes 0.27 kWh/mi. Average American driving a Tesla uses 3851.01 kWh / year. 60MW reactor produces 525,600,000 kWh / year. So a single NuScale reactor could power a garage with 136,483 electric cars.
      - plasticchris 4y ago
        Sure, but there are a couple of things to consider like peak consumption (everyone gets home from work and plugs in) or potentially much better utilization of electric vehicles from av adoption which might happen in the timeframes needed to get this tech out.
        aperson_hello 4y ago
        Nuclear is pretty terrible for peak consumption though! It's perfect for base load.
  - titzer 4y ago
    Those dogecoins aren't going to mine themselves.
- spacehunt 4y ago
  Perhaps for individual detached houses; 20m can easily fit inside apartment buildings...
- quantumwannabe 4y ago
  Or people will just have a nuclear tower on their lawn. If it can be buried (or partially buried), the tower need not be taller than the house. With some decorations similar to the ones on cell phone towers, it could even look reasonably attractive.
  - titzer 4y ago
    Back of the envelope, 60MW is 30,000 homes. So a small city or very large town could install just a couple of these and be completely set.
- pnw 4y ago
  The Nuscale design requires that the reactors are submerged in a below ground pool.
Seattle3503 4y ago
Could it be moved via a standard tractor trailer?
- aperson_hello 4y ago
  This suggests it can be shipped by truck (though probably not a standard trailer, as it's not light): https://www.nuscalepower.com/technology/technology-overview https://www.nuscalepower.com/technology/technology-overview
- WheatM 4y ago
A4ET8a8uTh0 4y ago
This may be for the best. The size alone would make it a no-go for average homeowner. I am saying this, because while I am sure there are plenty that know what they are doing on their property, there is a substantial non-zero amount of those that do not. And, separately, can you even begin to imagine that non-zero amount demanding that they have remote access to it via their favorite app? All I can think of is Snowcrash and multiple sovereigns.
- DisjointedHunt 4y ago
  This thing could power a small town, it doesn’t need to fit in your lawn. Micro grids with multiple redundancies make the size perfect for a community project.
hypersoar 4y ago
Note that the reactor vessel doesn't generate electricity, but steam. You need a turbine to make it useful. Once you include that, it doesn't look quite as miniature[0]. As far as I can tell, these aren't targeted at anything other than utility-scale power. [0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vU-IlqiP4sU&t=63s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vU-IlqiP4sU&t=63s
- h0l0cube 4y ago
  I wonder if TPV could be used instead of a turbine? https://news.mit.edu/2022/thermal-heat-engine-0413 https://news.mit.edu/2022/thermal-heat-engine-0413 > Engineers at MIT and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have designed a heat engine with no moving parts. Their new demonstrations show that it converts heat to electricity with over 40 percent efficiency — a performance better than that of traditional steam turbines.
  - credit_guy 4y ago
    Unfortunately, it can't. Nuclear reactor cores can obviously get very hot, but for safety reasons they are not allowed to. They work at about 300 degrees Celsius. The linked heat engine has the high efficiency quoted only when the hot element is extremely hot, a few thousand degrees Celsius.
- glogla 4y ago
  I think you could use these to "upgrade" coal power plants to nuclear power plants, no? Those already have turbines, cooling towers, transformers, grid connection, etc.
- ZeroGravitas 4y ago
  It also need to sit in a giant pool of water, not sure if you can share the pool if you install more than one to save volume and concrete.
kgilpin 4y ago
Who are these people who want a nuclear reactor in their garage? Folks, you may be getting a bit carried away!

QuarterReptile 4y ago

The tallness is pretty important to the design and is pretty much antithetical to everything about home design.

p1mrx 4y ago
Except for Lord Farquaad's castle.
aperson_hello 4y ago
The 60MW seems a bit more antithetical to home design than the height! That's a not-small amount of power.
- plasticchris 4y ago
  No but it sounds about right to supply a large parking garage (or three!) of charging EVs.
  - oittaa 4y ago
    Average American drives 14,263 miles per year. Tesla Model 3 consumes 0.27 kWh/mi. Average American driving a Tesla uses 3851.01 kWh / year. 60MW reactor produces 525,600,000 kWh / year. So a single NuScale reactor could power a garage with 136,483 electric cars.
    - plasticchris 4y ago
      Sure, but there are a couple of things to consider like peak consumption (everyone gets home from work and plugs in) or potentially much better utilization of electric vehicles from av adoption which might happen in the timeframes needed to get this tech out.
      - aperson_hello 4y ago
        Nuclear is pretty terrible for peak consumption though! It's perfect for base load.
- titzer 4y ago
  Those dogecoins aren't going to mine themselves.
spacehunt 4y ago
Perhaps for individual detached houses; 20m can easily fit inside apartment buildings...
quantumwannabe 4y ago
Or people will just have a nuclear tower on their lawn. If it can be buried (or partially buried), the tower need not be taller than the house. With some decorations similar to the ones on cell phone towers, it could even look reasonably attractive.
- titzer 4y ago
  Back of the envelope, 60MW is 30,000 homes. So a small city or very large town could install just a couple of these and be completely set.
pnw 4y ago
The Nuscale design requires that the reactors are submerged in a below ground pool.

Seattle3503 4y ago

Could it be moved via a standard tractor trailer?

aperson_hello 4y ago
This suggests it can be shipped by truck (though probably not a standard trailer, as it's not light): https://www.nuscalepower.com/technology/technology-overview https://www.nuscalepower.com/technology/technology-overview
WheatM 4y ago

A4ET8a8uTh0 4y ago

This may be for the best. The size alone would make it a no-go for average homeowner. I am saying this, because while I am sure there are plenty that know what they are doing on their property, there is a substantial non-zero amount of those that do not. And, separately, can you even begin to imagine that non-zero amount demanding that they have remote access to it via their favorite app? All I can think of is Snowcrash and multiple sovereigns.

DisjointedHunt 4y ago
This thing could power a small town, it doesn’t need to fit in your lawn. Micro grids with multiple redundancies make the size perfect for a community project.

hypersoar 4y ago

Note that the reactor vessel doesn't generate electricity, but steam. You need a turbine to make it useful. Once you include that, it doesn't look quite as miniature[0]. As far as I can tell, these aren't targeted at anything other than utility-scale power. [0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vU-IlqiP4sU&t=63s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vU-IlqiP4sU&t=63s

h0l0cube 4y ago
I wonder if TPV could be used instead of a turbine? https://news.mit.edu/2022/thermal-heat-engine-0413 https://news.mit.edu/2022/thermal-heat-engine-0413 > Engineers at MIT and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have designed a heat engine with no moving parts. Their new demonstrations show that it converts heat to electricity with over 40 percent efficiency — a performance better than that of traditional steam turbines.
- credit_guy 4y ago
  Unfortunately, it can't. Nuclear reactor cores can obviously get very hot, but for safety reasons they are not allowed to. They work at about 300 degrees Celsius. The linked heat engine has the high efficiency quoted only when the hot element is extremely hot, a few thousand degrees Celsius.
glogla 4y ago
I think you could use these to "upgrade" coal power plants to nuclear power plants, no? Those already have turbines, cooling towers, transformers, grid connection, etc.
ZeroGravitas 4y ago
It also need to sit in a giant pool of water, not sure if you can share the pool if you install more than one to save volume and concrete.

kgilpin 4y ago

Who are these people who want a nuclear reactor in their garage? Folks, you may be getting a bit carried away!