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Wouldn't the USA do better to build small "pluggable" nuclear power generation plants similar to those on nuclear submarines? Periodically the fuel would be rep
by giardini 4y ago
Wouldn't the USA do better to build small "pluggable" nuclear power generation plants similar to those on nuclear submarines? Periodically the fuel would be replaced.
https://www.ussjpkennedyjr.org/nuclear-reactors-on-submarines-a-reliable-source-of-power/ https://www.ussjpkennedyjr.org/nuclear-reactors-on-submarine...
Big power plants are "one-offs", with little/no interchangeability of parts and each having a unique set of problems, costly construction and maintenance.
- yellowapple 4y agoI suspect a big part of the reason why submarine reactors are able to be so small is because they sit on a planet-covering heatsink. Terrestrial plants accomplish the same with artificial lakes and large cooling towers; the actual "nuclear" parts are already pretty small in comparison. But yes, assuming the cooling systems could be similarly mass-produced, it would make sense to mass-produce small-scale nuclear plants as well.