We need a one-design modular reactor designed by the military. I’m thinking about something that could be contained in an average-sized home. The design could be open-sourced and built by any organization able to do so. These would be a great source of redundant and distributed power generation. If I had my way, the government would create a new department, the Civilian Nuclear Corps, which would provide training and jobs to people running these reactors. The whole thing is kind of like a public works program. I think it would pay off mightily.
Well, you’re in luck, that’s one of the biggest things the DOE is working on right now. SMRs look great.
The reactors would still be run by the DOE no doubt, or by contractors thereof, but I like the idea of stepping away from contractors for hiring on more DOE employees directly to maintain them.
That’s awesome. I didn’t know that. It also seems they’re considering molten salt reactors, which I’m very excited about. Look up Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors if you’re curious.
Very cool! I need to do some reading on how reactors work in general I think to understand them and how they are distinct a bit better, but this is very interesting thanks for sharing :)
It’s also like 5 years late and an obscene amount of money over budget, but better late than never I suppose. ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Sounds like normal construction projects to me lmao.
Still unfortunate, but exciting overall. Looking forward to minireactors the most.
Gosh, that “nuclear skeptic” person was just dogpiling on this without offering any alternatives.It has been like this for nearly 50 years, and here we are, still having the ‘no nuclear’ people not facing reality. Ya, sure, I want renewables, too, but we would be much better off rn if we hadn’t stuck with dinosaur the last few decades. NIMBYs
edited in hadnt
Fuck
The current pace for proposal, design, and construction means it’s got little chance of scaling up fast enough to make a big difference. Maybe SMR can break nuclear out of that paradigm, but currently my money is on increasingly dirt cheap renewables being complimented with storage following a similar but late to the game price/performance curve.
