The First Small Modular Nuclear Reactor Was Just Approved by US Regulators

Re:The First Small Modular Nuclear Reactor Was Just Approved... by TaylorAlexander on Saturday August 06, 2022 @12:54PM (#32369668)

My understanding with the Vogtle nuclear power plant in Georgia is that you could buy solar and batteries for cheaper and deploy sooner. You could throw in a subsidy for electric cars too which can feed back to the grid in an emergency. That said the small reactors of this article will hopefully have lower costs and faster deployment times.

Another advantage of wind and battery is that they aren’t national security targets in the way nuclear is.

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Re:The First Small Modular Nuclear Reactor Was Just Approved... by kbenson on Saturday August 06, 2022 @01:32PM (#32369975)

I'd hate to be relying on cars feeding back into the grid when a natural disaster happens which encourages people to evacuate, or prepare to evacuate such that they want to ensure their batteries are charged.

I would hate to weather another large and close wildfire where in addition to the normal grid instability and power issues it's exacerbated by lack of expected car feedback resources because people have evacuated or are standing by to.

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Re:The First Small Modular Nuclear Reactor Was Just Approved... by geysersam on Saturday August 06, 2022 @04:39PM (#32371399)

On the other hand. Nuclear is not immune to natural conditions either. Look at France, currently turning off reactors because of lack of cooling water due to the drought.

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Re:The First Small Modular Nuclear Reactor Was Just Approved... by belorn on Saturday August 06, 2022 @05:44PM (#32371835)

Right now the European grid is operational and demand is being met. When winter arrive it is expected that multiple countries will have to start to shut down part of society in order to save the grid.

Thankfully the cooling issue won't hopefully exist during winter, and given how much political outcry will occur if the grid do collapse, France might actually step up and fix their reactors given enough political pressure.

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Re:The First Small Modular Nuclear Reactor Was Just Approved... by geysersam on Saturday August 06, 2022 @06:52PM (#32372313)

I'm glad the issues in France won't have too bad of an impact. But that's somewhat besides the point. The cause of the electricity shortage is the enormous overreliance on Russian gas and oil. It's not about renewables vs. Nuclear.

The comment I responded to argued nuclear is superior in a situation of crisis, and selects as an example a natural disaster. Wanted to point out that this seems to depend rather sensitively on the kind of crisis.

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Re:The First Small Modular Nuclear Reactor Was Just Approved... by kbenson on Sunday August 07, 2022 @01:11PM (#32377955)

No, I didn't argue nuclear anything. I merely noted that I would be worried about relying on a resource which we might expect to get scarce during a time when energy instability is already high.

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Re:The First Small Modular Nuclear Reactor Was Just Approved... by adrianN on Sunday August 07, 2022 @02:45AM (#32374420)

As long as the natural disaster isn't affecting a large part of the continent, the electric grid should be able to handle it.

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