In order to get the costs down enough to be competitive, the number of SMRs built will have to be in the thousands. That many will not be built in the next decade, and SMRs will be too expensive and unlikely to succeed. The companies building SMRs are now requiring expensive government subsidies just to
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There is one issue that all nuclear plants have and that Sabine didn’t address, and that’s the huge consumption of water that all thermal plants have. Building nuclear or any thermal plants near a source of coolant water is necessary, and that can become a major conflict when most populated areas are also near water.
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The article was disheartening – but understandably the reality is renewables plus storage is so much cheaper that SMRs can’t compete The utilities will not contract for a nuclear power plant when they can get solar, wind and battery storage for a fraction of the cost per MWh. What I saw no mention of so
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Adam Dorr of RethinkX 16.5 min. YouTube video. His book is Brighter Main reason: “”Cost – Nuclear power makes no economic sense. It really is that simple: it’s an open and shut case.”” “”We don’t need nuclear, or coal power or any other conventional power for base load. Research shows … Batteries make base load
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Small modular reactors produce 5 or more times the radioactive waste that full sized reactors produce. https://www.theenergymix.com/2022/06/03/small-modular-nukes-produce-more-radioactive-waste-than-traditional-ones-study-finds/ Quote: ” << Stanford University’s Lindsay Krall, who led the research, said information from the industry is “promotional”, echoing past criticisms that SMRs are still “PowerPoint reactors” with no detailed engineering to back up the concept. “SMR performed
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There are so many of us that have had hope that nuclear would remain about about 20 to 25% of the US generating capacity. But it looks like that is going to wither away. The existing nuclear power plants are aging and the utilities are planning to shut them down as their licenses expire. Perhaps
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This portable microreactor seems a bit unrealistic. The nuclear reaction – more than 3 million watts thermal – puts out a lot of radioactivity. A reactor can’t be placed in an inhabited area without shielding. I suppose they would put the reactor several meters underground where the ground would shield the radiation from living things.
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A quote from this IEEFA report: << The small modular reactor (SMR) that Oregon-based NuScale Power has been developing since the turn of the century is “too late, too expensive, too risky, and too uncertain,” according to an analysis conducted by an American think tank that recommends the project be abandoned. Best estimates are that
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