Re:U.S. Nuclear Power Plants Weren’t Built for Climate Change
by acidburnNSA on Tuesday April 23, 2019 @10:26AM
(#19728901)
Most reactors are big and complicated. People are trying to change that. Very small reactors like the truck-mountable ML-1 have worked in the past, albeit not very well. Perhaps with new materials and new power cycles, we can do better.
Meanwhile nuclear plants go on saving millions of lives by displacing air pollution deaths. China is building high-power district heater reactors to reduce coal deaths in Winter [1].
You're absolutely right that rapid improvement requires high volume. That's probably the fundamental challenge of nuclear right now. MIT is working on shipyard constructed nuclear stuff that has these characteristics for this precise reason [2]. UltraSafe nuclear's microreactors are attempting the same dynamic [3].
Human progress depends wholly on people taking bets like this.
[1] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-nuclear-heating/chi...
[2] http://news.mit.edu/2015/new-look-floating-nuclear-power-062...
I think nuclear energy optimism is largely based on wishful thinking.