4 ms·
TRISO fuel so.. pebble bed? Is there a reluctance to market on this? The Chinese were all-in. Great to see engineering deliver on time. I wonder if Rolls Royce
by ggm 4mo ago
TRISO fuel so.. pebble bed? Is there a reluctance to market on this? The Chinese were all-in.
Great to see engineering deliver on time. I wonder if Rolls Royce will also have a smooth ride. It's a PWR.
- chickenbig 4mo agoPrismatic (or cylindrical) TRISO also makes sense. There are lots of potential problems using pebble beds (circulation, grinding), whereas doing regular refuelling cycles avoids them, in exchange for down-time to refuel.
- pfdietz 4mo agoTRISO increases fuel cycle costs. It's harder to make, harder to dispose of, and (IIRC) uses higher enrichment.
- ggm 4mo agoThe positive schpiels say it gets higher utilisaton ("burn") of the fuel inside the micropellets, so it may be HEU, but there's more taken out so less made overall. I'm unsure where the H in HEU comes from, probably nasty sources, and probably nasty radiochemistry.
- boznz 4mo agoThe Rolls Royce modular reactor update page [1] leaves me scratching my head as to where they are, it seems they've passed some really hard UK regulation though, maybe the official source is not the best: [1] https://www.rolls-royce-smr.com/our-progress https://www.rolls-royce-smr.com/our-progress