[ExI] Are mini nuclear power stations the way forward?

Eugen Leitl eugen at leitl.org
Wed Mar 16 13:24:44 UTC 2011


On Wed, Mar 16, 2011 at 12:03:41PM +0000, BillK wrote:
> The Economist did a review of mini-nukes.

Sorry, decentral nuclear power is an even worse
idea than centralized nuclear power. You mentioned
10 MW. This means instead if building thousands of
big 5 GW reactors you want to build millions of
10 MW plants, littering the landscape like little
tombs.

You've just turned a challenging security and
monitoring situation into a full-blown nighmare.
Instead of managing one hazardous site you now
have to manage 500. Are you and the Economist gone
starkly, raving mad?

Again, what is the strange fascination that people
have with belief systems around dead steampunk tech?
What next, are we going to abandon EVs *again*
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lohner-Porsche_Mixte_Hybrid
and propose this new technology, propelling us with
destilled remains of dead dinos?

Remember, transhumanism is all about technology.
We're futurists, not retro, nor conservatives.

> <http://www.economist.com/node/17647651>
> 
> Mini nuclear reactors
> Nuclear power: Combining several small reactors based on simple,
> proven designs could be a better approach than building big ones
> Dec 9th 2010
> 
> The idea is that they need little maintenance. Just bury them in the
> ground for 20 years, then send them back to the factory. If they fail,
> they just sit there with no dangerous leaks.
> 
> 
> Another new article:
> <http://www.cringely.com/2011/03/is-anything-nuclear-ever-really-super-safe-small-and-simple/>
> Quote:
> Japan needs increased generating capacity fast. They would like to
> replace nuclear with nuclear. But the new plants also have to show
> they can survive an 8.9 earthquake and reduce the number of critical
> failure points. Toshiba’s 4S reactors, which have been around for
> several years now, though not yet commercially successful, do all that
> quite easily.
> 
> 4S reactor cores are like nuclear building blocks, built on a factory
> production line and transported by truck to be installed 30 meters
> under the ground. Each 4S puts out 10 megawatts of electricity or
> enough for 2000 Japanese homes. Following this path means the lost
> 1000 megawatt reactors will need 100 4S’s each to replace them or a
> total of 1200 4S reactors. 4S’s are fueled at the factory, put in
> place to run for 20 years then returned to the factory for refueling.
> They are sodium-cooled and pretty darned impossible to melt down. If
> the cooling system is compromised they automatically shut down and
> just sit there in a block of sodium.
> ----------------
> 
> <http://nextbigfuture.com/> also has articles on mini nuclear power stations.
> 
> 
> BillK
> 
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Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org
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