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A comment on Small nuclear reactors: tiny NuScale reactor gets safety approval. Parent comment

Re:Small nuclear reactors: tiny NuScale reactor gets safety ... by jessaustin on Thursday September 03, 2020 @04:51PM (#24368749)
Sure, it's safer for reactors to tolerate flooding, if indeed these reactors actually do tolerate flooding. Definitely that would be a better design in flood/tsunami-prone areas. No design (from history, especially no reactor design) is perfect. A set of smaller reactors that were not co-located would be more tolerant of site-specific vulnerabilities in their design.
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Re:Small nuclear reactors: tiny NuScale reactor gets safety ... by MurMan on Thursday September 03, 2020 @05:16PM (#24368986)
> ... if indeed these reactors actually do tolerate flooding

The reactor modules are partially immersed in a pond, the ultimate heat sink. Cooling is passive, i.e., no cooling pumps, and does not require electrical power.

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Re:Small nuclear reactors: tiny NuScale reactor gets safety ... by s1artibartfast on Thursday September 03, 2020 @07:22PM (#24369969)
>A set of smaller reactors that were not co-located would be more tolerant of site-specific vulnerabilities in their design

That depends on what risks you are trying to mitigate. IF you are talking about site specific natural disasters and freak occurrences damaging a site. Then spreading them out increases risk of failure.

If you are worried about power loss after a site destroys a site, then colocation is worse. Of the two, damage to a site is the more pressing concern.

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Re:Small nuclear reactors: tiny NuScale reactor gets safety ... by hinkley on Thursday September 03, 2020 @05:23PM (#24369047)
I think you're screwed either way.

The odds that a concentrated site has an event are much higher with colocation. But the changes of having an event at multiple locations are higher if they're spread out.

Some things that I believe would matter for colocation would be:

- chance of cascading failures

- economies of scale/safety in numbers (1 large team vs many small)

- plant-to-home efficiency (n fewer reactors due to smaller transmission losses)

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