#small modular reactors

[jellysshitpoems]

What’s your opinion on small nuclear reactors/SMRs? I’ve heard a lot about them recently (including some advertisements actually) but I’m not sure how applicable they would be outside of their current uses, like powering naval ships/icebreakers and research stations. I’ve read that they could be used to power off-grid native communities; is that something that gets discussed a lot in Canada?

As always, I hope you’re doing alright!

You just managed to touch on two things rarely talked about in Canada, Indigenous communities that are in need of help, and SMRs 😅

Small modular reactors aren’t something Im particularly well versed in, I wasn’t even aware they were used on/considering using them on large ships, but it makes sense! I heard that they could be used to power things like natural disaster clean up, due to their portability and what not, but using them to power remote communities (Indigenous or not) Is a great idea!

Unfortunately though, Canada doesn’t exactly have the greatest history with helping said communities. In fact theres a lot (and I mean a fucking LOT, over 600) of reserves that don’t have access to even just clean drinking water. Hell I did a whole project on a community that has had mercury poisoning for decades! And their levels are still so high it can affect fetal development! So I doubt any reservations or towns are getting billion dollar SMRs- Thanks Canadian government!!!

I feel like I always find a way to derail these asks. Oops.

Anywaysss, from what Ive heard SMRs are super cool, I just dont know a lot! My brain has bigger fish to fry when it comes to my hyper fixation if that makes sense lmao, I like big reactors and huge facilities. Organization and protocols and precautions kick my adhd into gear, yayy systems 😁😁

[man-and-atom]

Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station undoubtedly has many useful lessons for any lunar or planetary outpost. But we have to take a moment to stand aghast at the energy supply.

“Hundreds of thousands of gallons” of a super-expensive specialty grade of jet fuel, brought in either by air, or by driving tractors and sleds for “several weeks” across the ice cap?

A nuclear power unit for an electrical load of about 1 MW (and a corresponding heat load of about 3 MW) would be very costly. No doubt about it. But could it be that costly? Equally to the point, with a refuelling interval of not less than three years, worries about laying up enough fuel in before winter closes in would be a thing of the past, even considering the needs for aircraft refuelling and backup fuel in case of a reactor problem. Simply endangering fewer lives on hazardous supply flights and traverses would justify the cost.

The unsatisfactory performance of PM-3A at McMurdo has given atomic power an undeserved bad reputation in the polar regions. Yes, we say undeserved — certainly, leaks from the primary circuit resulted in contamination, with the result that a large volume of gravel from around the plant was dug up and shipped back to the USA as “nuclear waste”. But contamination by petroleum fuel is far more common, far more extensive, and far more difficult to detect with cheap hand-held instruments.

[probablyasocialecologist]

Wind and solar have plummeted in costs and grids with higher penetration of renewables are actually more reliable than coal, gas or nuclear heavy grids using industry standard metrics for outages per customer per year. Germany and Denmark, for example, see half or more of their annual electrical generation from renewables and have outages averaging around 13 minutes per customer per year, compared to over an hour for neighboring, nuclear-dominant France, two hours for the US and Canada, and four hours for coal-heavy Poland.

That’s not because renewables are magic, by the way, it’s just that forward thinking grid strategists and managers tend to favor renewables and also build reliable grids and markets that make them work well.

[...]

Small modular reactors won’t achieve economies of manufacturing scale, won’t be faster to construct, forego efficiency of vertical scaling, won’t be cheaper, aren’t suitable for remote or brownfield coal sites, still face very large security costs, will still be costly and slow to decommission, and still require liability insurance caps. They don’t solve any of the problems that they purport to while intentionally choosing to be less efficient than they could be. They’ve existed since the 1950s and they aren’t any better now than they were then.

[...]

SMRs are intentionally going back to the smaller scales of the 1950s and 1960s, scales that were tried and abandoned because they weren’t economical at that scale even with standardized reactors from subs and carriers, without any safety regulation to speak of, with no Fukushimas or Chernobyls in the rearview mirror, and with a national strategy that focused on nuclear energy, aligned with the US’ nuclear weapons program.

And note that SMRs don’t do a thing for the absolute worst case of projects in Flyvbjerg’s data set — nuclear waste storage facilities.

[irradiate-space]

Shower thoughts on power generation

Starting assumptions:

The current generation of Small Modular Reactors has never been small enough to containerize, but there are small thermoelectric containerizable power plants without proliferation concerns: see the Mars rovers

Gigascale nuclear is still cheaper per MWh than SMR

But solar and wind are cheaper than gigascale nuclear

But solar and wind aren't 100% availability

Batteries are somewhat expensive

Flywheels are already containerized (see Kodiak, Alaska)

Terraform Industries would be stupid if their plants weren't containerized, and they don't seem stupid. Their rollout starts in 2024.

Carbon-neutral and carbon-negative don't mean "no carbon-based fuels"; just "no fossil fuels".

How do I see the near future playing out, say by 2050?

Containerized nuclear thermoelectric batteries are used for low-load low-sunlight high-impact postings, as a form of set-and-forget critical infrastructure. This is the most-wishful item on my list.

Maybe there's some geothermal in the mix, but it remains high cost to site and construct relative to other forms of power, and has limited geographic availability.

Gigascale nuclear gets built when your consumption density is higher than available solar/wind generation density, so long as it remains infeasible to build new long-distance power transmission lines.

Solar/wind fields power containerized electricity-to-CH4 plants as a source of carbon for carboniferous fuels. This fuels non-electrified mobile sources and, directly fuels demand-responsive gas turbines for The Grid when the sun don't shine/the wind don't blow. Your renewables overproduce electricity, beyond what The Grid needs? Make CH4. Don't want to deal with permitting for a thousand-mile-long transmission pipeline? Don't. Colocate CH4 generation with CH4 use.

Need a microgrid for a Burning Man, a FEMA camp, or Palestine? Unload a containerized 1MWh solar/flywheel/battery/CH4 setup, with 5 acres' worth of containerized solar panels to back it up. Knock out the temporary panels on the containers and convert them to modular buildings. Need more MWh? More containers, more acres. Or just truck in a couple tankers of methane and a generator.

Applications requiring high energy density switch to CH4, or use the cheapest solar/wind electricity to turn CH4 to propane/kerosene/gasoline as needed. Aircraft and many ground vehicles will still emit CO2, but it's CO2 that was sucked from the sky: Net Zero is achieved.

Net CO2 reduction comes from diverting air-sourced carbon to fixation: plastics, paints, asphalt, concrete, diamonds.

The Haber-Bosch process uses air-sourced hydrogen or desalination-sourced hydrogen instead of fossil hydrogen to make ammonia.

[bitcoinversus]

Amazon Invests $500M in Nuclear Power for 5000 Megawatts of AI Energy

Amazon is making a significant investment in nuclear energy by committing $500 million to build small modular reactors (SMRs), aiming to provide up to 5,000 megawatts of power for its AI data centers. This unprecedented move highlights Amazon’s efforts to meet the rising electricity demands driven by artificial intelligence while maintaining its commitment to achieving carbon neutrality by…

[nicolae]

Amazon is investing in the nuclear industry in small modular reactors for clean energy

Amazon has announced a bold step towards sustainability with a major investment in small modular reactors (SMRs) to use clean nuclear power globally. The initiative marks a significant shift in the company’s energy strategy as it aims to reduce its carbon footprint and move closer to its goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2040. The investment, part of Amazon’s Climate Pledge, involves a…

[researchinenergyandpower]

The global small modular reactor market size is estimated to be USD 5.8 billion in 2023 and is projected to reach USD 6.8 billion by 2030, at a CAGR of 2.3% during the forecast period. Factors such as the versatile nature of nuclear power and the relative advantages of SMRs such as modularization and factory construction are enabling the growth of the market.

[thoughtlessarse]

The nuclear industry has been offering so-called Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) as an alternative to large reactors as a possible solution to climate change. SMRs are defined as nuclear reactors with a power output of less than 300 megawatts of electricity, compared to the typically 1000 to 1,500 megawatts power capacity of larger reactors. Proponents assert that SMRs would cost less to build and thus be more affordable. However, when evaluated on the basis of cost per unit of power capacity, SMRs will actually be more expensive than large reactors. This ‘diseconomy of scale’ was demonstrated by the now-terminated proposal to build six NuScale Power SMRs (77 megawatts each) in Idaho in the United States. The final cost estimate of the project per megawatt was around 250 percent more than the initial per megawatt cost for the 2,200 megawatts Vogtle nuclear power plant being built in Georgia, US. Previous small reactors built in various parts of America also shut down because they were uneconomical. The high cost of constructing SMRs on a per megawatt basis translates into high electricity production costs. According to the 2023 GenCost report from the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and the Australian Energy Market Operator, the estimated cost of generating each megawatt-hour of electricity from an SMR is around AUD$400 to AUD$600. In comparison, the cost of each megawatt-hour of electricity from wind and solar photovoltaic plants is around AUD$100, even after accounting for the cost involved in balancing the variability of output from solar and wind plants. Building SMRs has also been subject to delays. Russia’s KLT-40 took 13 years from when construction started to when it started generating electricity, instead of the expected three years. Small reactors also raise all of the usual concerns associated with nuclear power, including the risk of severe accidents, the linkage to nuclear weapons proliferation, and the production of radioactive waste that has no demonstrated solution because of technical and social challenges. One 2022 study calculated that various radioactive waste streams from SMRs would be larger than the corresponding waste streams from existing light water reactors.

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So, they turn out to be more expensive and have all the risks of conventional nuclear power stations and then some.

The one risk not mentioned for SMRs is design faults. If one reactor has a fault, all the others of the same design will have that fault as well.

[wayti-blog]

"MUMBAI: State-run Indian Oil Corporation Ltd is in preliminary talks with atomic power monopoly to build small nuclear units [Small modular reactors (SMRs)], an early-stage technology seen as a cost-effective alternative to larger plants.

The refiner and fuel retailer is exploring a partnership with state-controlled Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd to use small modular reactors, or SMRs, in its refineries for clean power, Alok Sharma, Indian Oil's director for R&D, said at a conference in New Delhi Wednesday.

As several bigger projects face delays, policymakers are promoting small-scale nuclear technology with a capacity of up to 300 MW, which is quicker to build and easier to adjust to the requirements of the grid. To boost the nascent sector, the government is considering allowing private firms to manage and operate reactors."

article here

[darnellafrica]

Ghana 🇬🇭 Nuclear Deal: Small Modular Reactors From Five Potential Suitors

Ghana 🇬🇭 has been experiencing energy growing pains as of late, & the nation is actively seeking out nuclear power as a long-term option.

Fortunately, the nation known for its gold has a golden opportunity to have a nuclear power plant built within its borders & is actively being courted by five nuclear-powered nations.

“Choosing the US industry offers advantages you can’t get from anyone else,” said Maria Korsnick, president of the US Nuclear Energy Institute. “The US industry will not seek to weaponise energy production or trap partners in a cycle of debts. We want real partnerships that lead to��real energy independence and security.” […]

Ahead of the summit, the US government committed $1.7m to the development of a Small Modular Reactors (SMR) simulator in Ghana to serve the region, matching up similar efforts by Russia’s state-run Rosatom that only recently sealed a nuclear power plant deal with neighbouring Burkina Faso.

Since 2021, when it put out a request for a vendor country, the West African country has received proposals from the US, Russia, China, France and South Korea.

Although the government of Ghana 🇬🇭 still has friendly relations with France 🇫🇷 & Russia 🇷🇺, it would be surprising for them to pick either of those countries due to the growing anti-France sentiment in Africa & global sanctions on Russia 🇷🇺 (over their invasion of Ukraine 🇺🇦), respectively.

China 🇨🇳, South Korea 🇰🇷 & the United States 🇺🇸 are probably the leading contenders for a reactor, with the latter being the most welcoming due to availability of capital.

Hopefully, more African nations will be courted with nuclear energy deals in the future, as Ghana’s 🇬🇭 bigger brother Nigeria 🇳🇬 is also in desperate need of a nuclear power plant.

[newsepick]

Google backs new nuclear plants to power AI

Google is partnering with nuclear startup Kairos Power to construct seven small nuclear reactors in the U.S., a groundbreaking deal aimed at supporting the company's growing energy needs for AI and promoting a nuclear revival. The agreement, which includes a commitment to purchase 500 megawatts of power, marks the first commercial initiative for small modular reactors in the U.S. Kairos plans to deliver the reactors between 2030 and 2035, using molten fluoride salt instead of water as a coolant. This partnership addresses the demand for stable, carbon-free energy in the tech industry.

[townpostin]

Tata Power to Invest ₹20,000 Crore Capex in FY25

Focus on Renewable Energy, Small Modular Nuclear Reactors, and Discom Expansion Tata Power, one of India’s leading integrated power companies, announced a capex investment of ₹20,000 crore for FY25 at its 105th Annual General Meeting (AGM). MUMBAI – Tata Power, one of India’s leading integrated power companies, held its 105th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of shareholders for the Financial Year…

[nicolae]

Sam Altman, ChatGPT and Small Modular Reactors

(A light water small modular nuclear reactor. Credit: U.S. Government Accountability Office/Wikimedia Commons) Sam Altman is an entrepreneur, investor, and former president of Y Combinator, a startup accelerator that has funded companies like Airbnb, Dropbox, and Stripe. He is also the CEO of OpenAI, which developed ChatGPT, a research organization that aims to create artificial intelligence that…

[123567-9qaaq9]

Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) represent a modern approach to nuclear power generation, offering a compact and versatile solution to meet diverse energy needs.

The global Small Modular Reactor Market for data centers is anticipated to be valued at $38.26 million in 2028 and is expected to reach $278.35 million by 2033, exhibiting a robust CAGR of 48.72% during the forecast period 2028-2033.

One of the key drivers of the small modular reactor market for data centers is the rising environmental concerns, and the push for carbon neutrality is driving the adoption of SMRs in the data center industry. 

[1-2-3-4-4498-0]

Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) are reshaping nuclear energy with various types like Heavy Water, Light Water, and Fast Neutron Reactors. Designed for applications such as power generation, desalination, and process heat, SMRs offer scalable, cost-effective solutions.

[empresa-journal]

Are Small Modular Reactors unprofitable?

Small modular nuclear reactors could be unprofitable. NuScale halted construction on a Small Modular Reactor (SMR) after a partner pulled out. NuScale (NYSE: SMR) and the Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS) terminated an agreement to build an SMR in Idaho, on 8 November 2023, a press release announces. The termination ends the Carbon Free Power Project (CFPP) which was building a 77…