Small nuclear reactors emerge as energy option, but risks loom

There are better SMR’s, doing developed including one that burns the legacy waste. RR version is just a warmed up version of their legacy designs, doesn’t address the problems.

Lunacy! Let's just put a nuclear bomb in our local area....

Lunacy! Let's just put a nuclear bomb in our local area...

The fuel in commercial reactors is not enriched enough to explode.

“Any country acquiring nuclear reactors automatically enhances its capacity to make nuclear weapons," he said, adding that every SMR could produce “around 10 bombs worth of plutonium each year.”

Simply not true. The Pu-239 required for nuclear weapons only lasts about two weeks in a PWR reactor before it becomes a waste product called Pu-241. An operator would have to shut a PWR reactor down and refuel it about every month to extract Pu-239 before it ca become Pu-241, which is useless for making a nuclear weapon. Commercial PWR reactors are typically refueled at two year intervals, leaving very little if any Pu-239 in the spent fuel rods.

I think the technology is promising.

Knee-jerk reactions from the "eco-folk" crowd is of course, to be expected.

The nuclear industry here in Japan was severely damaged by the nuclear industry and the nuclear village so now the majority of people no longer trust them.

These are the way forward to a green planet. The objections are way overblown. Particles from fossil fuels kill many many more people annually than have ever died in nuclear accidents.

The article compares size and the cost and time of construction, but it doesn't compare how much electricity is generated. It would be helpful to know.

Collaboration between Israel and Chinain this field using tech stolen from the US submarine tech will bring down cost real fast.

“Any country acquiring nuclear reactors automatically enhances its capacity to make nuclear weapons," he said, adding that every SMR could produce “around 10 bombs worth of plutonium each year.”

Could enable many players to join the race, nice

Collaboration between Israel and Chinain this field using tech stolen from the US submarine tech will bring down cost real fast.

US and Royal Navy submarine reactors are completely different from commercial reactors. They are sealed and are never refueled for the life of the submarine. This is possible because they use highly enriched weapons grade uranium that is not available for civil uses.

Chinese and French nuclear submarines use low enriched uranium and require regular refueling like shore based commercial reactors. This requires a dry dock and cutting big holes in the hull to access the reactor.

Nobody has shown a way to store radioactive waste.

That's it. We tried it at WIPP in the US, but it caught fire.

Nobody has shown a way to store radioactive waste.

That's it. We tried it at WIPP in the US, but it caught fire.

Reprocessing spent reactor fuel reduces long term nuclear waste by 80%. Reprocessing should become mandatory for this reason.