First new U.S. nuclear reactor since 2016 is now in operation

Re:First new U.S. nuclear reactor since 2016 is now in opera... by Retric on Wednesday December 27, 2023 @03:56PM (#38786652)

Nuclear is extremely dependent on long distance power transmission. Nobody wants a reactor in the middle of a city, and 1-5 GW of power needs to be sent long distances before it’s used.

Solar on the other hand scales down to 50MW instillations just fine so you can put it near substations etc. Huge solar parks make sense in locations with lots of sunlight and cheap land, but they aren’t the only option just a trade off in terms of transmission costs vs generation costs.

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Re:First new U.S. nuclear reactor since 2016 is now in opera... by HDThoreaun on Wednesday December 27, 2023 @04:39PM (#38787081)

Chicago is mostly on nuclear and the reactor is quite close to the city, just over the Indiana border.

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Re:First new U.S. nuclear reactor since 2016 is now in opera... by Retric on Wednesday December 27, 2023 @05:28PM (#38787597)

Closest is Braidwood which is ~60 miles from downtown.

NYC has large power plants in Manhattan (East River 1, 2, 6, and 7), Queens (650MW Astoria Energy II power station), and Brooklyn (Narrows 1–1 to 2-8) plus a few more.

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Re:First new U.S. nuclear reactor since 2016 is now in opera... by dexwiz on Thursday December 28, 2023 @01:02PM (#38796326)

There are no active nuclear power plants in Indiana. It had two planned plants that were cancelled in the 80s. Purdue has a very small power plant for research.

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