Thread

NRC issues first U.S. construction permit for a BWRX-300 small modular reactor

151 points · 191 comments · papa-whisky

testing22321 · 1790741363 · focus · HN ↗
Place your bets now.
Time until first power generated, and actual final total cost.
I’ll go 15 years and $10 Billion.
1. jacquesm · 1790759454 · focus · HN ↗
  Profitable power or just power?
  If the former: it might never happen.
  1. mpweiher · 1790762135 · focus · HN ↗
    Nuclear reactors are highly profitable:
    <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbeJIwF1pVY" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbeJIwF1pVY
    Lowest LCOE by far is "nuclear LTO (Long Term Operation)".
    <a href="https://www.iea.org/reports/projected-costs-of-generating-electricity-2020" rel="nofollow">https://www.iea.org/reports/projected-costs-of-generating-el...
    Yes, the plants are big and expensive, but once built, they are cheap to run and last pretty much forever.
    SMRs lower the up-front cost, the time to build, the risk, and the financing costs, which are the biggest component of the construction costs.
    Initially at somewhat higher cost per kWh, but there is plenty of headroom there. And the various nuclear startups have cost projections that range from 2-3 cents to below 1 cent / kWh.
    jacquesm · 1790763680 · focus · HN ↗
    They are highly profitable when subsidized and you ignore decommissioning costs.
    1 cent / kWh cost is fantasy land.
    mpweiher · 1790786516 · focus · HN ↗
    This is incorrect.
    jacquesm · 1790845270 · focus · HN ↗
    You will need to do better than that. All of the public figures support my position, if you are unable or unwilling to document your assertions which you make with great conviction and which contradict the evidence you will need to bring some of your own. Nuclear power has its uses but it isn't cheap unless you start picking your figures very selectively. That's fine if you want to convince yourself that you are right but it doesn't really help: it makes you look like a rabid supporter of something without an eye towards the realities and in the long run that works against your cause, not for it.
    Finally, if there is one thing the war in Ukraine has shown it is that nuclear power plants in times of war are an immediate risk and that any future nuclear power installations should take this risk into account during the construction and operational phases.
    mpweiher · 1790849840 · focus · HN ↗
    That is incorrect.
    What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence. -- Hitchen's Razor, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitchens%27s_razor" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitchens%27s_razor
    You made a claim that you did not support with any evidence whatsoever. Twice, actually.
    So it is you has to "do better than that", not me.
    In fact, I actually did go to the trouble of disproving your first unproven claim with actual data, which was more than I had to do. A simple "wrong" would have sufficed there as well.
    You just wiped that away with another completely unsupported and also wrong assertion.
    And if "all of the public figures" support your position, it would be trivial to actually cite that evidence. [Narrator: it won't, because they don't].
    Nuclear power is cheap, as the IEA data clearly shows, in addition to all the real-world evidence.
    And your point on the Ukraine war is also the exact opposite of the truth: if you actually look at the evidence, or ask the Ukrainians, you will find that nuclear power is what is keeping the country afloat, energy-wise.
    Which is why Ukraine has started construction of at least two more nuclear reactors during this war:
    <a href="https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/articles/work-under-way-for-first-westinghouse-ap1000-in-uk" rel="nofollow">https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/articles/work-under-way-f...
    And has ordered a total of nine AP-1000s
    <a href="https://en.interfax.com.ua/news/interview/1169371.html" rel="nofollow">https://en.interfax.com.ua/news/interview/1169371.html
    But hey, what do the Ukrainians know about nuclear power in Ukraine?

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