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U.S. nuclear industry hopes to expand output with new reactors

6 Comments
By JENNIFER McDERMOTT

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When they do the costings, will they be honest with TCO - the full costs of safely storing nuclear waste for the entire time that it must be safely curated? Or will they just ignore all the inconvenient numbers like they usually do?

Still, good news on the pro-nuclear numbers, as these people will presumably be happy having these experimental plants sited, and the waste stored near them.

How small is 'small' for these reactors, because Russia's hypersonic missiles will improve in accuracy over time.

Maybe the reason governments are jacking up the cost of energy is to make nuclear look less expensive.

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I just read the US analyses of these technologies from past endeavors, and it does not look good: The cost savings from "modular" construction is turning out to be illusory. The smaller diameter cores mean lower burnup rates, and more complex and long-lasting nuclear waste. Using 3,000,000 F degree neutrons to boil water is nonsense. Boiling water to steam this way is not practical, with very high costs and dangers.

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I see the carbon certificates crowd just woke up...everytime someone mentions 'nuke' the kettle lights up.

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Maybe the reason governments are jacking up the cost of energy is to make nuclear look less expensive.

Oil companies are raising their prices, not governments. Oil markets are disrupted due to large rapid changes in demand driven by the Covid-19 pandemic followed by war in the Ukraine. The oil companies, not governments, determine their output and they did not anticipate the large rapid increase in demand that came as the pandemic seemed to taper off and do not have enough capacity or employees to ramp up to meet demand. That is driving prices up. Add in more supply disruptions driven by boycotts of Russian oil and their inability to use the global finance system and prices rise even more. Governments have basically no power nor do they have any authority to regulate the price of oil. The price of oil is set globally. The US is exporting refined petroleum products believe it or not because the price they can get abroad is higher than in the US.

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The nail in the coffin for reactors is all the waste they produce. The old type reactors produce lots of waste and there's no safe way to protect it or store it. Where is the innovation we've all been waiting for?

Instead of innovation, they have new mini nuclear reactors that produce even more waste per gigawatt, I've read double the waste.

I've also heard that the waste is just to be left on site after retiring the reactors. What a solution.

There will be more involvement in quitting nuclear because of the waste.

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 The old type reactors produce lots of waste and there's no safe way to protect it or store it. Where is the innovation we've all been waiting for?

Reprocessing nuclear fuel greatly reduces the amount of waste. We have a major part of the solution but are afraid to use it. By some accounts the amount of waste that has to be stored is reduced by 80%.

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