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This is a very cynical take. I picked NuScale because it's a PWR SMR, and is the only SMR design that was approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. HTR-PM

This is a very cynical take. I picked NuScale because it's a PWR SMR, and is the only SMR design that was approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. HTR-PM is an SMR, and comparing it with a full scale PWR reactor is not entirely fair, because reactors benefit from the square-cube law: the larger a reactor is the more efficient its neutron economy is, so you can extract more power per unit of volume. As for NuScale being a scam, it would be probably the most elaborate scam in the history of financial scams. They were founded in 2007 and went public in 2022. People don't spend 15 years to run a scam, especially if this involves not one by two government agencies (the NRC and the SEC). There's a huge probability that such a scam would not work in the end, with an additional likelihood that you get relocated to a correctional facility (see Elizabeth Holmes).

pfdietz 2y ago
The power density of the reactor vessel of a conventional large PWR is close to 20 MW/m^3 (inverse of 0.05 m^3/MW); a BWR is around half that. The peak power density in a PWR's core is around 100 MW/m^3. NuScale integrates the steam generator in the "reactor" so the volume is larger, but this means using it is comparing apples and oranges. NuScale's design is also intended to use natural convection instead of forced circulation in accident conditions. This further reduces the power density allowed. NuScale isn't a scam, but it appears to be founded on faulty principles (that the thing holding back nuclear power was safety concerns, rather than cost) so its business case doesn't appear to be working.
huijzer 2y ago
> As for NuScale being a scam, it would be probably the most elaborate scam in the history of financial scams. They were founded in 2007 and went public in 2022. People don't spend 15 years to run a scam, especially if this involves not one by two government agencies (the NRC and the SEC). I wouldn’t call it a scam, but something that runs for 15 years with the involvement of 2 government agencies (read: large bureaucracies) is not unlikely to produce very little. For example, see NASA’s space program, the European space program, and Boeing.

pfdietz 2y ago

The power density of the reactor vessel of a conventional large PWR is close to 20 MW/m^3 (inverse of 0.05 m^3/MW); a BWR is around half that. The peak power density in a PWR's core is around 100 MW/m^3. NuScale integrates the steam generator in the "reactor" so the volume is larger, but this means using it is comparing apples and oranges. NuScale's design is also intended to use natural convection instead of forced circulation in accident conditions. This further reduces the power density allowed. NuScale isn't a scam, but it appears to be founded on faulty principles (that the thing holding back nuclear power was safety concerns, rather than cost) so its business case doesn't appear to be working.

huijzer 2y ago

> As for NuScale being a scam, it would be probably the most elaborate scam in the history of financial scams. They were founded in 2007 and went public in 2022. People don't spend 15 years to run a scam, especially if this involves not one by two government agencies (the NRC and the SEC). I wouldn’t call it a scam, but something that runs for 15 years with the involvement of 2 government agencies (read: large bureaucracies) is not unlikely to produce very little. For example, see NASA’s space program, the European space program, and Boeing.