3 ms·

Let's hope the plan incorporates cutting-edge advancements, like molten salt and liquid thorium designs.. https://www.livescience.com/technology/engineering/ch

Let's hope the plan incorporates cutting-edge advancements, like molten salt and liquid thorium designs.. https://www.livescience.com/technology/engineering/chinese-scientists-make-nuclear-power-breakthrough-using-abandoned-us-research https://www.livescience.com/technology/engineering/chinese-s... I'm also hopeful there's a resurgence of interest in Small Modular Reactors (SMRs).

PaulHoule 1y ago
People forget that we quit building coal burning power plants at the same time we quit building nukes... For the same reason. The capital cost of the steam turbine is atrocious. Molten salt, HTGR and LMFBR designs could all be coupled to a supercritical-CO2 powerset which would fit in the employee break room of the turbine hall of an LWR. The steam generators for a PWR are larger than the reactor vessel itself, but a higher temperature reactor could miniaturize them [1]. You still see old literature that claims the LMFBR has a higher capital cost than the LWR but a lot of that comes from the expensive powerset and heat exchangers which have to be doubled to prevent a water-sodium reaction in the primary loop. So yeah, 4th generation reactors could be a revolution but they are not a bird in the hand and it won't be a matter of "we'll write a check to build a 1 GW reactor" whether you are New York State or Google, it will be matter of "we'll build a test reactor" and it could be another 15 years at least before we get to the TRL 7 stage. [1] https://www.precisionmicro.com/understanding-printed-circuit-heat-exchangers-the-role-of-chemical-etching/ https://www.precisionmicro.com/understanding-printed-circuit...
throw0101c 1y ago
> Let's hope the plan incorporates cutting-edge advancements, like molten salt and liquid thorium designs.. Let's hope not. At least not for the first few new nuclear plants. There is a lot of operating experience with 'traditional' designs and lessons learned over the decade. There are also new lessons learned with the Vogtle AP1000s. Any new construction (in the US) should be AP1000s to take advantage of those lessons. Once people are familiar nuclear again then perhaps look at different designs. But you should learn to crawl and walk before trying to run. (A lot of nuclear construction is the civil works, and is the same for any type of design, and getting that down to cookie cutter output would help any different designs as well.)

PaulHoule 1y ago

People forget that we quit building coal burning power plants at the same time we quit building nukes... For the same reason. The capital cost of the steam turbine is atrocious. Molten salt, HTGR and LMFBR designs could all be coupled to a supercritical-CO2 powerset which would fit in the employee break room of the turbine hall of an LWR. The steam generators for a PWR are larger than the reactor vessel itself, but a higher temperature reactor could miniaturize them [1]. You still see old literature that claims the LMFBR has a higher capital cost than the LWR but a lot of that comes from the expensive powerset and heat exchangers which have to be doubled to prevent a water-sodium reaction in the primary loop. So yeah, 4th generation reactors could be a revolution but they are not a bird in the hand and it won't be a matter of "we'll write a check to build a 1 GW reactor" whether you are New York State or Google, it will be matter of "we'll build a test reactor" and it could be another 15 years at least before we get to the TRL 7 stage. [1] https://www.precisionmicro.com/understanding-printed-circuit-heat-exchangers-the-role-of-chemical-etching/ https://www.precisionmicro.com/understanding-printed-circuit...

throw0101c 1y ago

> Let's hope the plan incorporates cutting-edge advancements, like molten salt and liquid thorium designs.. Let's hope not. At least not for the first few new nuclear plants. There is a lot of operating experience with 'traditional' designs and lessons learned over the decade. There are also new lessons learned with the Vogtle AP1000s. Any new construction (in the US) should be AP1000s to take advantage of those lessons. Once people are familiar nuclear again then perhaps look at different designs. But you should learn to crawl and walk before trying to run. (A lot of nuclear construction is the civil works, and is the same for any type of design, and getting that down to cookie cutter output would help any different designs as well.)