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Re:Rolls-Royce Touts Nuclear Reactors as Key to Clean Jet Fuel by credit_guy on Saturday December 07, 2019 @10:00AM (#21730578)
As many nuclear skeptics are keen to point out, the main counterargument to nuclear is construction costs. In the tens of billions. As Elon Musk has demonstrated though, there is nothing set in stone when it comes to manufacturing costs, the lower bound is only the cost of raw materials. If manufacturing costs go to zero, a new nuclear power plant could cost of the order of $10 MM rather than $20 BN. Elon has shown us that you can reduce manufacturing costs of rockets by a factor of 10 to 100 in a mater of one to two decades, if you put your mind to it.

Small nuclear reactors are the only chance of the nuclear industry to reduce manufacturing costs, but once they get rolling, there is no reason to believe they can't reduce their costs by a factor of 10 at least. For example, this article mentions a cost of $2.4BN per small reactor. A comparable US Navy small reactor (used for submarines) costs around $100 MM [1]. For some reason the US Navy doesn't appear inclined to share its know-how with the civilians, but that should give us an idea of what's possible.

[1] https://www.quora.com/How-much-does-it-cost-to-build-the-rea...

Re:Rolls-Royce Touts Nuclear Reactors as Key to Clean Jet Fuel by close04 on Saturday December 07, 2019 @10:32AM (#21730757)
The problem is most regular people think "Chernobyl" or "Fukushima" when they hear "nuclear power". It's hard to create an environment that fosters and finances innovation in this field when the political support needed may be career suicide for whoever offers it.
Re:Rolls-Royce Touts Nuclear Reactors as Key to Clean Jet Fuel by baybal2 on Saturday December 07, 2019 @10:24AM (#21730707)
> Elon has shown us that you can reduce manufacturing costs of rockets by a factor of 10 to 100 in a mater of one to two decades, if you put your mind to it.

Well, it's better to say that he reduced the price of the launch, not the cost.

Re:Rolls-Royce Touts Nuclear Reactors as Key to Clean Jet Fuel by pugworthy on Saturday December 07, 2019 @11:18AM (#21731011)
> Well, it's better to say that he reduced the price of the launch, not the cost.

He improved the ROI by enabling reuse

Re:Rolls-Royce Touts Nuclear Reactors as Key to Clean Jet Fuel by nicoburns on Saturday December 07, 2019 @11:03AM (#21730931)
Musk blew up a few rockets in the process though. We can't afford to do that with nuclear reactors.
Re:Rolls-Royce Touts Nuclear Reactors as Key to Clean Jet Fuel by Scoundreller on Saturday December 07, 2019 @11:35AM (#21731102)
We’ll probably blow up some non-radioactive test units first. Even deliberately just to find their weakest points.

Expect several weeks of “nuclear reactor test explosion” news when we do that due diligence.

Re:Rolls-Royce Touts Nuclear Reactors as Key to Clean Jet Fuel by ShorsHammer on Saturday December 07, 2019 @10:41AM (#21730799)
Vast majority of the cost is regulation. As Uber/Airbnb demonstrated all you need is a convenient way around that with enough of the voting public on your side until regulations sway in your favour. Am a big fan of small modular reactors, likely they will fit in a rocket bound for Mars one day.

https://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/nuclear-fu...

Re:Rolls-Royce Touts Nuclear Reactors as Key to Clean Jet Fuel by seganddr on Saturday December 07, 2019 @10:33AM (#21730763)
Bill Gates has plans for this type of project already but Trump spiked it.... https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/energy/amp25728221/...
Re:Rolls-Royce Touts Nuclear Reactors as Key to Clean Jet Fuel by corrund on Saturday December 07, 2019 @11:06AM (#21730943)
So, Iran, NK, and many other countries will be able to produce nuclear energy on cheap? It's good news for them.
Re:Rolls-Royce Touts Nuclear Reactors as Key to Clean Jet Fuel by jacobush on Sunday December 08, 2019 @09:59AM (#21736157)
The main counterargument is the uncertainty about what to do about the waste.