Re:Germany to Rethink Nuclear Shutdown as Energy Crisis Deepens
by ch4s3 on Tuesday July 19, 2022 @12:44PM
(#32154393)
I’m not sure they all have to be the same, but settling on a few standard designs would help a lot. SMRs might be good in some cases whereas in other situations a larger plant would make sense. I think privately constructed and run plants would be fine if the regulations were clear and didn’t change so frequently.
1 - all powerplants should be identical, so you can work out problems on reactor 1 and have no probpems by the time you are building reactor 55. The US model of private companies building random shit doesnt fit well. Thats how wind and solar work - they build thousands of identical solar panels and wind turbines
2 - you cant start and stop construction - if you stopped building for 10 years, your engineers have left, retired or died. Now you build a new reactor, and you are goong to have inexperienced people making the same mistakes. you have to have an institution that is building non-stop for 20 years, like china does.
thats also why wind and solar works - the same teams of people were installing and servicing turbined for decades
3 - factory made - manufacturing of wind and solar is automated to a large degree. Automation in construction is ~0%. Whether you are building a house or a reactor, they are expensive manual labour. Some of this might be solved with prefab buildings, some might be solved with Small Moduper reactors, but approached require large investment and long-term commitment