<
https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https://medium.com/the-future-is-electric/small-modular-reactors-arent-silver-bullet-for-nuclear-energy-challenges-392ce0752ec6>
"One of the topics in my recent discussion with Bent Flyvbjerg, probably the
leading global academic in megaproject failures and successes, someone who has
consulted to over 100 projects costing more than a billion USD, was the
optimization of modularity in scaling. The discussion point was about small
modular nuclear reactors vs wind and solar energy."
[...]
"Small modular reactors are the nuclear industry’s next big hope, because no
government can gain a mandate to build dozens of GW-scale reactors any more.
They keep looking at examples like Hinkley, Flamanville, and other EPR sites,
the close to a trillion USD impacts to Japan’s economy due to Fukushima, and
the mounting price tags and durations of nuclear decommissioning, and then look
at wind and solar’s proven reliability and low prices and having trouble, even
in the most nuclear-committed countries, gaining sufficient political support
for what works. And so the occasional reactor that gets green lit is inevitably
a failed and troubled project, resulting in very high wholesale cost
electricity.
The promise of SMRs is that they will be standardized, smaller reactors that
can be manufactured in central locations, shipped to sites, and assembled on
site. No bespoke engineering. This has some merit, but as noted, it was mostly
the promise of the AP1000 as well. The only actually different idea is that
they’ll be much smaller per reactor than the AP1000, from 50–300 MW instead of
1000 MW.
I’m on record with my opinion on SMRs, and my assessment has gained surprising
global attention. The original article in
CleanTechnica has been updated in
Illuminem, published in a (minor, low-impact factor) peer-reviewed journal,
included in a German clean technology engineering textbook series, and been the
basis of a debate for a couple of hundred global institutional investors with
an SMR advocate and analyst, Kirsty Gogan Alexander. What have I concluded
about SMRs?"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
