Small modular reactors: Still too expensive, too slow, and too risky [pdf]

Re:Small modular reactors: Still too expensive, too slow, an... by gravitywave on Friday May 31, 2024 @04:42PM (#40540019)

It's worth keeping in mind that 'low cost' PV comes from China (which makes 80% of the global supply of PV cells) which is run predominantly on coal (60% of their electrical energy) and China continues to build a GW coal plant approximately weekly, and incidentally, a new GW nuclear plant about monthly.

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Re:Small modular reactors: Still too expensive, too slow, an... by bryanlarsen on Friday May 31, 2024 @05:09PM (#40540282)

The coal plants China are building are peaker plants run at a fairly low duty cycle, most of their new power comes from solar. IOW they're building solar+coal instead of solar+batteries.

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Re:Small modular reactors: Still too expensive, too slow, an... by mnau on Friday May 31, 2024 @05:15PM (#40540334)

Number of coal plants is irrelevant. It's a misinformation.

What matters is how much coal they do burn. Their coal plants have capacity factor under 50%. Chinese consumption of coal is roughly as ~10 years ago (82EJ vs 88EJ). That is what matters.

Coal plants are going to balance the grid, just like in Germany.

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