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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   2512 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for November 4, 2022

Be advised; this thread is not for serious in depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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I’ve recently become quite enamoured with the idea of offshore nuclear power, as laid out in this presentation.

The benefits seem quite numerous:

  • the possibility of mass producing standardised power stations at significantly reduced cost

  • export business model

  • reducing the risks posed by tsunamis and earthquakes

  • sidestepping the NIMBY problems that normally emerge with these kind of projects

Anyone here able to point out why this is likely to be a terribly stupid idea in practice?

"Built in a shipyard and transported to the site: reduced construction cost and time"

"Quick and cost-effective decommissioning in a centralized shipyard"

That has to be someone who has never in their career dealt with a US shipyard. I mean, an argument could be made that the US would have to develop a better industrial base and new shipyards for this, as an added perk, which I am 100% on board with (I unironically stan NS Savannah), but as-is? Yeah, those two statements aren't happening.

They don't specifically say "US shipyard." In theory you could quite easily order Westinghouse ap1000s from China; they're already building half a dozen of them, so all the nuclear paperwork bullshit has been taken care of.

Makes you think: maybe the question isn't "is a floating power plant more cost-effective than a land-based one," it's actually "could a floating power plant from a place that can actually build things be more cost-effective than a land-based powerplant that can't be built at all"?

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