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A comment on The First Small Modular Nuclear Reactor Was Just Approved by US Regulators. Parent comment

Re:The First Small Modular Nuclear Reactor Was Just Approved... by AtlasBarfed on Saturday August 06, 2022 @11:17AM (#32368839)
I believe modern heat --> electric conversion systems use the turbine and several other additional heat --> electricity recapture systems to approach 50-60% efficiency at large scales so they can beat the Carnot Limit of just the turbine engine.

https://www.powermag.com/efficiency-improvements-mark-advanc...

That claims 64% for a gas turbine.

LFTR presentations said they could use the brayton cycle I think due to high temps, I'd imagine a fusion would also have the temps to enable brayton cycle and several other tricks to achieve good efficiency.

Remember, what matters at scale is cost cost cost. Turbines might not be sexy, but if they are cheap, then that is what you use.

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Re:The First Small Modular Nuclear Reactor Was Just Approved... by bryanlarsen on Saturday August 06, 2022 @11:29AM (#32368948)
> Remember, what matters at scale is cost cost cost. Turbines might not be sexy, but if they are cheap, then that is what you use.

Exactly. Turbines (along with the accompanying water treatment, condensers, generators, power transformation) aren't cheap. A 600MW coal plant costs $2B.

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Re:The First Small Modular Nuclear Reactor Was Just Approved... by aordano on Saturday August 06, 2022 @11:25AM (#32368920)
For anyone curious, check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rankine_cycle
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