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Losing 50%-67% of the energy to waste heat is not the roadblock to new nuclear. The roadblock is the immense expense of a massive, complicated, intricate machi
by epistasis 2y ago
Losing 50%-67% of the energy to waste heat is not the roadblock to new nuclear.
The roadblock is the immense expense of a massive, complicated, intricate machine requiring massive workforces of highly skilled construction labor.
Shifting from heat conversion to some sort of direct conversion, and in the process ideally eliminating a huge amount of the construction expense, is the way out.
As our economies become ever more advanced, skilled labor becomes ever more expensive. Our existing fleet of nuclear reactors is much like the intricate cathedrals of past centuries. We could build in that style, but the expense is much higher today than it was back when the cathedrals were first made.
- cinntaile 2y agoYou mentioned energy efficiency, I simply provided a possible way to boost that efficiency up a bit.
- epistasis 2y agoYou are right! I must have been thinking of different types of efficiency and written very unclearly. A pet peeve of mine is people talking about "efficiency" in energy and not defining it or switching between definitions sloppily, and I seem to have done it there. In any case apologies for not being consistent.