Small Modular Nuclear Reactors are EXPERIMENTAL. That means for one there is no typical design, let alone good ones. And beyond the BS that Nuclear is clean, it isn’t, they could make regular reactors that take nuclear fuel that is spent and process it back up, the ones that the Canadian Governments have been talking about would be "Oh this module fails, so pull it out and put a brand new one in, which is made like current reactors and generate waste.
This means that every SMR that goes up is a TEST reactor and they have to figure out new best practices, not to mention the human factor of running the plants. There are reasons why Nuclear Scientists have been “No nuclear facilities in residential areas” and for “Best Practices in Plant Construction and Design” which they never are.
And as it is standard plants always have huge cost overruns and mid build redesigns.
Meanwhile although the cost of Solar and Wind is at a all time low, and the down sides of wind are a fraction of what we thought they were, we are still going to need Nuclear to bridge the gap to decarbonizing the economy and that means the best designs, whether they are SMR, Standard, or Thorium Based, and an affordable maintenance system with VASTLY better maintenance, and then deploy that, and not this "Oh we will throw the Uranium at the wall and see what sticks and that we can use to get soft power in other countries. That will come if you do your job right.
Traditionally, reactors were built as big as possible to generate as much power as possible. That’s the only way they ever made (some) economic sense. Now we’re getting smaller reactors pushed as a solution that will generate less power, and that power will be even more expensive than from a bigger nuclear plant.
Small Modular Nuclear Reactors are EXPERIMENTAL. That means for one there is no typical design, let alone good ones. And beyond the BS that Nuclear is clean, it isn’t, they could make regular reactors that take nuclear fuel that is spent and process it back up, the ones that the Canadian Governments have been talking about would be "Oh this module fails, so pull it out and put a brand new one in, which is made like current reactors and generate waste.
This means that every SMR that goes up is a TEST reactor and they have to figure out new best practices, not to mention the human factor of running the plants. There are reasons why Nuclear Scientists have been “No nuclear facilities in residential areas” and for “Best Practices in Plant Construction and Design” which they never are.
And as it is standard plants always have huge cost overruns and mid build redesigns.
Meanwhile although the cost of Solar and Wind is at a all time low, and the down sides of wind are a fraction of what we thought they were, we are still going to need Nuclear to bridge the gap to decarbonizing the economy and that means the best designs, whether they are SMR, Standard, or Thorium Based, and an affordable maintenance system with VASTLY better maintenance, and then deploy that, and not this "Oh we will throw the Uranium at the wall and see what sticks and that we can use to get soft power in other countries. That will come if you do your job right.
This government… I tell you…
Traditionally, reactors were built as big as possible to generate as much power as possible. That’s the only way they ever made (some) economic sense. Now we’re getting smaller reactors pushed as a solution that will generate less power, and that power will be even more expensive than from a bigger nuclear plant.
This just reeks of grift.