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When I was studying nuclear in 2010 Gates was employing my professor as technical advisor for standing wave reactors, so he’s been interested in nukes for a whi

When I was studying nuclear in 2010 Gates was employing my professor as technical advisor for standing wave reactors, so he’s been interested in nukes for a while. Modular reactors were cool theoretical ideas at the time similar to 3D printers, crazy to see how far they’ve come.

cinntaile 3y ago
That's surprising considering that most modular reactors are just smaller versions of the ones we have now.
- acchow 3y ago
  How are they different from the reactors in US Navy submarines?
- kaliszad 3y ago
  Of course, all the ratios are wrong is you scale everything and you might not get to criticality. So it is a completely different design with different manufacturing techniques for many parts. It is like a model of an airplane also wouldn't fly without adjustments to many parts which of course changes various ratios.
  - flashback2199 3y ago
    I would have thought that SMR design would be more inspired by nuclear submarines and such which are already small, not necessarily large power stations, but admittedly I don't know anything in this area.
    - ajhurliman 3y ago
      Nuclear subs are a lot more exotic, you need to go from 0-60 in a few seconds, so they make fuel plates instead of rods so it really bumps up the neutron population quickly. There’s no need to adjust criticality that rapidly at a generating station.
      - kaliszad 3y ago
        Also, they tend to use much higher enrichment ratios on the fuel from what I have read. I guess that is all for the fast power output regulation as you write. Stunning technology and a security nightmare, just imagine a nuclear sub bumping into a click in territorial waters of a not-so-friendly nation and making the area uninhabitable.
  - cinntaile 3y ago
    I'm aware of that, but to get to normal sized reactors they first built smaller prototypes that had outputs that were much closer to the modular reactors that are now being investigated. So they're not really theoretical.

cinntaile 3y ago

That's surprising considering that most modular reactors are just smaller versions of the ones we have now.

acchow 3y ago
How are they different from the reactors in US Navy submarines?
kaliszad 3y ago
Of course, all the ratios are wrong is you scale everything and you might not get to criticality. So it is a completely different design with different manufacturing techniques for many parts. It is like a model of an airplane also wouldn't fly without adjustments to many parts which of course changes various ratios.
- flashback2199 3y ago
  I would have thought that SMR design would be more inspired by nuclear submarines and such which are already small, not necessarily large power stations, but admittedly I don't know anything in this area.
  - ajhurliman 3y ago
    Nuclear subs are a lot more exotic, you need to go from 0-60 in a few seconds, so they make fuel plates instead of rods so it really bumps up the neutron population quickly. There’s no need to adjust criticality that rapidly at a generating station.
    - kaliszad 3y ago
      Also, they tend to use much higher enrichment ratios on the fuel from what I have read. I guess that is all for the fast power output regulation as you write. Stunning technology and a security nightmare, just imagine a nuclear sub bumping into a click in territorial waters of a not-so-friendly nation and making the area uninhabitable.
- cinntaile 3y ago
  I'm aware of that, but to get to normal sized reactors they first built smaller prototypes that had outputs that were much closer to the modular reactors that are now being investigated. So they're not really theoretical.