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Notes -
As someone with a persistent but highly amateur interest in energy, I’ve long been a fan of nuclear energy but dismayed at its cost overruns and slow build times. But over the last year or so I’ve heard more buzz about SMRs, eg here and here.
On the face of it, SMRs seem to offer (relatively) cheap and rapidly produced fission power that can be scaled up or down easily. And they could even be installed in old coal plants as discussed above.
I assume there’s a catch here. How far out is the technology? Are there major unsolved hurdles? Are there big downsides? I want to indulge my excitement but I’m prepared for disappointment! Any info appreciated.
SMRs are attempting to solve the catch with big nuclear projects, namely the need to build infrastructure to make the things that go into a reactor.
Reactor casings for example are generally larger than anything we can cast today, so you end up having to build up a steel mill to cast them with the risk that there is a regression to mean and you build a sprawling facility to make it only to scrap it after one.
Many such cases.
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