Microreactors, Macro Problems

[@CrownBoron]

It's dope to see a channel showcasing different parts of nuclear advocacy and the community in an easily digestible format. This is what converted me to a pro nuclear advocate/minor activist, but I do have one suggestion. A clips channel or an increased focus on shorts would really help with sharing the channel with normies

[@ABa-os6wm]

Nuclear electricity is highly uneconomical today, more than in the 70s. But SMRs are just economic suicide, for the sake of getting subventions.

[@statebased]

Nice! I studied nuclear energy 40+ years ago (BSc level) and I am impressed A) how packed with relevant info this discussion has been B) while much has changed, much has not changed!

[@Atomicjedi]

Shielding! The showstopper for the Atomic Car, and the showstopper for micro-reactors. You just need too much of it!

[@ravener96]

But not for nuclear container ships. I have a dream

[@Atomicjedi]

@@ravener96 I have doubts ;)

[@CatFish107]

​@@ravener96 Having had experience working in the engine room of commercial ships, I promise you do not want these shady businesses to have access to spicy rocks. They cut every corner they can get away with and shave costs to the bone. Common saying that the chief engineer has short arms, can't reach his pockets to pay for spares, or proper maintenance, or proper disposal of oily waste.

[@ryccoh]

Maybe we can just genetically engineer ourselves to withstand higher radiation so we can finally live the atomic dream

[@stanleytolle416]

@@Atomicjedifor a back yard reactor like the kilo space reactor simply buried in 8 feet of compacted earth would be sufficient to protect from radiation. Heat could be brought up for use using heat pipes. Additional shielding could be provided by a concrete shed around the generator assembly. I think an Oklo reactor would be about the same.

[@adelsaleh938]

35:21 Please more content like this! I never knew about resonance energy before! Techincal content is important for accurate understanding of nuclear, so please don't shy away from it :)

[@sfincher123]

Great video. Very informative. Thanks

[@ryccoh]

This is probably my favorite guest

[@stanleytolle416]

Here's something for you guys. Sound electrical generators. I just heard about it recently. Heat produces sound and sound is converted to electrical power. I saw a 40% conversion rate and scalable. This would get rid of all the mechanical and maintenance. My suggestion is to heads up this idea.

[@GreezyWorks]

Thermoacoustic generators still have mechanical parts, but it's a sound idea. Seen online some being developed for small scale solar thermal.

[@kowalityjesus]

My day is so much better listening to you awesome people.

[@GreezyWorks]

Factorio players: Heatpipes!

[@maxmn5821]

Extra thanks for diverting and explaining dose units. If I may suggest a masterclass episode: protection and decontamination in practice.

[@michaelmclean5823]

Nick is the GOAT. What a treasure.

[@Volkan-z2v]

Nick keeps mentioning the cost of fuel, but as you mentioned if there is scale the cost will surely decrease the same way CPUs, batteries and solar panels have? Would be great to work out the price of fuel from raw materials and first principles instead.

[@GreezyWorks]

Seems like Copenhagen Atomics is aiming to have a 25MW micro breeder with 2% neutron loss, which is pretty ambitions, but they aim to build them out in groups of 20.

[@petrisz]

35:40 fascinating and also 36:02 giving a peak into your work.

[@GreezyWorks]

Need a children's book about two cats named MEU and SWU. 😊

[@aliendroneservices6621]

40:06 40:14 41:15

[@SubvertTheState]

Highly enriched Uranium should be renamed MEUTWO

[@ConversionCenters]

Thank you for the video! Well done! A polite, positive, very well informed caution to the small reactor surge we've been witnessing in startup company markets. Shielding made a lot of sense relative to incorporating it into investor materials as it addresses safety and is very expensive. Fueling costs and availability do not seem to be fully addressed by some of these startups as it can make the approach a non starter of sorts. I remain with these two professionals that the industry needs to keep working at it, but respecting the United States Navy's extensive background in nuke doesn't make much sense. It seems agreement is reached on very useful niches for the approach, but, electric generation for data centers or the like is far away. One thing that seems noticeable is the speed of tech advancement in all sectors and the ongoing decline in solar panels/systems and batteries. Stationary storage prices have dropped about 35% in the last 18 months or so for many reasons, but, in ten years if a solar panel and a battery will have declined still more? The declining cost of electricity will not wait for an advanced technology that is expensive. You have to compete on price.

[@CatFish107]

Maybe no shielding, but an exclusion zone? Energy falls off exponentially with distance, right? Can I get a mathmagician to work out a safe radius?

[@daveintaroom]

Thank you , very informative!

[@jimgraham6722]

There a lots of reactors around in the 10-20MW class, including marine propulsion. We just need to find a way of making them more straight forward to set up and operate.

[@jeffbenton6183]

25:10 As an American, I find it hilarious that he corrected himself saying fly-*in* rather than fly-*over* community.

[@nickwoolley733]

How much does the electricity form a nuclear submarine reactor cost per KWh? How are nuclear sub reactors shielded?

[@thejfactor1]

Insanely expensive

[@joewiddup9753]

The 24MWe General Electric LM2500 is pretty common mid size generation setup. 25MW for a threshold of micro reactor would seem to make sense.

[@Nill757]

@1:07 truck rolls up and hauls away reactor plan. Military does this, w subs etc. in particular, they have major classified transport across the country w military security to make it happen. No such ability w commercial. No commercial reactor has ever been licensed to swap out reactors, and this NRC is not about to allow it now.

[@pin65371]

I really think the only place these might make sense will be in military applications. Especially in Canada where they not only need the power but they also need the heat. They need to heat all the buildings including if they were to build large hangars to store jets. If they are only looking at cost per kw its expensive but it never gets warm enough that they wouldnt be needing some sort of heating as well which these reactors can provide a lot of. There would be an issue with transport after though. Its not exactly safe be be transporting this stuff with ships. The government of Saskatchewan has put money into an evinci reactor though so we will get to see how this plays out.

[@GreezyWorks]

Also, for an arctic base, in addition to heat and power, can make in-situ pure water and synthetic jet fuel by cracking hydrogen from water and bubbling out CO2, then combining both to fuel. There is more CO2 dissolved in very cold water, same as refrigerated pop, so it's more efficient.

[@pin65371]

@@GreezyWorks yah I really hope they can make this work. The other thing is growing food could become much easier. Larger nuclear in the arctic just wont work due to the perma frost melting. They basically need something that can be brought in and stay "above ground". IMO Resolute would be the ideal place to start with. Build a large military base there and once they get that running properly then branch out. Especially with Canada so far behind on its NATO spending this would be an easy way to increase that spending.

[@CHP1996-pz6bd]

With respect to the "if reactors were free" remark, I had a professor in college make the comment that GE & Westinghouse would have made more money giving away the reactors and then making their money back on fuel and services.

[@tokbucks]

Talk about OD-300 BREST reactor

[@davidwilkie9551]

The reference to Nth Canadian outposts as Moonbase localities was the reason for accepting the moonshot project that JFK posited, otherwise it would be straight loonacy. Constructing the tech support for remote industries is also the reason why investment in lunatic sounding projects will turn out to be not a problem like continued use of corrupt and corrupting fossil fuel forever war strategy without any possibility of correction.

[@happyhome41]

“…and people enjoyed it.” YEEEEEESSSSSSS !!!

[@ArthurDentZaphodBeeb]

Great discussion. Shows how wildly idiotic and out to lunch most nuclear proponents truly are. The costs are staggering. Wind/solar are multiples less expensive and far less risky.

[@CatFish107]

Wow, sub 10MW is certainly tiny. That's getting down to large diesel engine territory.

[@TheRealSnakePlisken]

I see you still have the blinking problem. Strange.

[@maninthemiddleground2316]

The US Navy been using “Small” “Modular” “reactors” for 60+ years. Unfortunately their tech and processes are highly controlled and confidential so commercial companies can’t leverage it so it’s like reinventing the proverbial wheel.

[@acwojtkowiak]

RollsRoyce produced british nuclear submarines and trying out for modular reactors. RR has a good reputation.

[@CatFish107]

US Navy doesn't need to turn a profit from their power generation though. Efficiency is less of a concern than available power for that application.

[@ABa-os6wm]

It's highly uneconomical. Does not matter for military.

[@davidwilkie9551]

Thus far in debates-which-are-practically useless, the Engineering looks to be an optimization of the modules that can be assembled at the appropriate scale for the project, and the Candu crew have been right all along, and Reactors that complete the fuel cycles with Molten Salt "kidneys" instead of dumping should be costed into the national budget in common.

[@itsmatt2105]

All the tax payer money that's being fire hosed at the fantasy of MMNR really pisses me off. We've been only 5 years away from having MMNR's since the late 1940's and where are we now? Still only 5 years away from having MMNR's. I've tried asking the boosters of these things (the lead engineer of my local power utility who was all gung hoe about bringing one of the first micros into our grid) if they had done any pre-scoping of micros and if they understood the problems they are facing that are preventing them from being brought into reality. He just averred and said "we will have one of the first MMNR's, it'll be a real cost savings for our rate payers!" The board eventually concluded what I had been telling them all along, that they were "un-economic at this time." No fucking shit, Sherlock! You knew, or should have known that in the beginning because it's all there in easily accessible public information! What really happened is this small time utility engineer applied for and got a grant to "study" bringing in a micro and he got to spend 18+ months being a "playah," going to conferences and seminars, getting wined and dined by the companies wanting to build micros, flying here and there, getting private tours of the production facilities and he get's to put on his resume "lead engineer for MMNR scoping study." He was very personable but I'm glad that mindless fuck moved on from our utility, he spent most of his time applying for grants and about every 2-3 years he'd land one and then get go on junkets all over the country as part of the "fact finding process" regarding pie in the sky mega power plants. 3/4 of our power already comes from hydro, one project he got a grant to study was a 600 MW dam. For a max 13 MW utility that serves 8500-9000 people! Anyway, scores of billions of dollars are being pissed away on micros with no acknowledgment that they have extremely serious limitations and drawbacks that cripple the entire concept. If that money were spent on battery research, we'd likely have the utility size electricity storage that would make renewables like solar dominate world energy production.

[@stanleytolle416]

How much was Russia charging for medium enriched uranium? Would not this be the cost in the future.

[@miguelonsantisteban]

Hi, gentlemen, shielding is not a huge issue, small nuckear reactors are shielded, if any new design succesfully takes hold of several reliable green product,.energy intensive products line Green Steel and Red Hydrogen, you can be shure the permits will not allow anything not properly shielded, steel mills can give lots of steel and concrrte to do it.....this is not a big issue, please, understand.that lare industry can really use small nuclear reactos from 200 MW to 800 MW in benefit of society by dumping water vs CO2 into the atmosphere, and that is only two good aplications. Red hydrogen can be competitve in natipns like Japan if they solve well how to store and distribute a gas that can leak easily...... a new future will take place, little tiny reactors (5 MW to 50 MW), may never happen due to high shielding costs....

[@davidwilkie9551]

If the enemies of the people were clearly identified, what would they be? The old idea of "Know your Self" is elemental and so ridiculously simple as to be answered, "I know nothing", because it's the reciprocation-recirculation inside-outside nucleation envelope ,or Superposition-point Singularity, or wave-particle uncertainty in principles of thermodynamical conservation abstractions etc, etc. One cannot avoid the actual observation that ignorance is the bliss of death, and it shouldn't be a surprise that Deliberate Blindness is criminality in a deceitful camouflage of innocence. Nuclear Power Generation is complicated?, subject to managed radiation risks, but it's nothing compared with Agricultural complexity and accidental maiming, poisoning and deaths, before the political bullshit is talked about. It's a quandry I'm pleased the Military Defence establishment is dealing with every minute of every day.

[@kabaduck]

Sorry, obviously agenda driven

[@EricDMMiller]

The inefficiency of these systems is shocking.