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1041 points mpweiher | 5 comments | | HN request time: 1.262s | source
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reenorap ◴[] No.45225348[source]
We need to drive down the costs of implementing nuclear energy. Most of it are fake costs due to regulation. I understand that regulation is needed but we also need nuclear energy, we have to find a streamlined way to get more plants up and running as soon as possible. I think they should all be government projects so that private companies can't complain that they're losing money and keep have to ratchet up the prices, like PG&E in California. My rates have doubled in a few years to over $0.40/kWh and up over $0.50/kWh after I go up a tier depending on usage.
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mixdup ◴[] No.45225860[source]
A major reason nuclear plants are super expensive is because we do it so rarely

Every reactor and every plant is bespoke, even if they are based on a common "design" each instance is different enough that every project has to be managed from the ground up as a new thing, you get certified only on a single plant, operators can't move from plant to plant without recertification, etc

Part of that is because they are so big and massive, and take a long time to build. If we'd build smaller, modular reactors that are literally exactly the same every single time you would begin to get economies of scale, you'd be able to get by without having to build a complete replica for training every time, and by being smaller you'd get to value delivery much quicker reducing the finance costs, which would then let you plow the profits from Reactor A into Reactor B's construction

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nicce ◴[] No.45225899[source]
It isn't that rare in general - if the U.S. opens the secrets of nuclear submarines - we had had mini reactors for decades.
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fmajid ◴[] No.45226353[source]
And the technology is incredibly mature, submarine reactors were some of the first reactors, period.
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1. quotemstr ◴[] No.45226376[source]
Submarine reactors run on super high enriched fuel instantly one could instantly repurpose into a bomb. Lots of gen 4 and 5 reactor designs that combine low cost, compact footprint, and running on less expensive and carefully controlled fuel.
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2. nicce ◴[] No.45226550[source]
French have some LEU submarines. They seem to be pretty good on paper. Needs refueling every ten years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suffren-class_submarine

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3. quotemstr ◴[] No.45226891[source]
Cool! Thanks
4. pyrale ◴[] No.45227143[source]
France also built full-sized commercial plants rather than batteries of small reactors. That's because scale matters for efficient production.
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5. nicce ◴[] No.45228122{3}[source]
That is rapidly changing.

https://onu-vienne.delegfrance.org/Nuclear-power-and-SMR-are...

https://regulation-oversight.asnr.fr/oversight/small-modular...