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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Sam the Electric Viking’s 12.5 min. YouTube video explains SMR and other nuclear power have had massive cost overruns. The costs of solar and wind are still falling. The cost of solar or wind is about doubled when battery storage is added. But it is still 3 to 5 times less than the costs of
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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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Nuscale SMR video from engineering with Rosie Rosie said, “The amount of land needed for nuclear is small compared to wind and solar…” This is a false and unfair assertion. In the US the nuclear power plants are surrounded by an exclusion zone where there cannot be any population, and this is a large area.
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SMRs Not! A very detailed assessment of the reasons why SMRs – small modular reactors – are not a feasible choice. Quote: << Small modular reactors won’t achieve economies of manufacturing scale, won’t be faster to construct, forego efficiency of vertical scaling, won’t be cheaper, aren’t suitable for remote or brownfield coal sites, still face
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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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My comments to Dave Borlace’s JHAT Plus a chart of levelized costs of energy for both conventional and renewable energy. << Thanks, Dave, for the informative video. Nuclear reactors are safe *per TWh* while in operation. The real issues are at the beginning and the end. The beginnings, as you stated, are the huge cost
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From YouTube replies @Aleksandrs Naumovs I forgot to mention PPAs. The utilities are entering into power purchase agreements with solar and wind contractors for per kWh rates that are lower than conventional thermal power plants. These often include short term 4 to 8 hour storage. Any new generation has to compete against renewables plus storage
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From NYP article https://nypost.com/2020/08/22/four-new-solutions-smarter-than-the-disastrous-green-new-deal/amp/ << For one thing, the sun doesn’t always shine and the wind doesn’t always blow. Therefore, the more wind and solar we add to the grid, the less cost-effective each new panel or turbine becomes. Doubling or tripling the number of turbines available doesn’t help much on days when the wind
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