Nuclear Engineer Explains What's Wrong with Nuclear Power in America

[@atomicblender]

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[@juliane__]

NPP need storage too, because they don't provide enough power to balance high energy needs. Like in the system before renewables were a big thing. You needed storage anyway in the form of pump hydro. Please include these costs to compare apples with apples, not oranges and pinapples.

[@Potent_Techmology]

I've seen Korea and Japan are some of the fastest at completing nuclear power plants how do you think those exact policies could be used in the US and what's stopping that from happening perhaps a short and long form vid with this info could work?

[@ProgressiveMastermind]

Basically you are right with comparing all costs of different energy production forms, but you also skip all the disadvantages of Nuclear power, also in terms of costs and might disregard, that Nuclear power (and coal or oil) are at different development levels. A lots of money was already put into infrastructure. This also needs to be considered if you want to compare to some new technology to be built up. In the end, Nuclear power ist just much to compl8cated and all new reactor types have significant drawbacks and issues. Renewable energy sources will alwysas be more flexible and easier to manufacture and adapt. Don't forget, renewable still habe a lots of efficiency evolution still ahead, which conventional power sources are already through (and did cause costs, too!)

[@gabetb3085]

The reason that China and Russia keep building reactors is because they either... Make "companies", force, sponsor, or use "independent companies" to build them... Because what are they going to say? No. They'd just force it to happen, cause they are communist governments.

[@kayakMike1000]

"oh great, the bureaucrats are here", said no one ever.

[@JohnGeorgeBauerBuis]

I'm sure that a lot of people said that, but sarcastically.

[@kayakMike1000]

@@JohnGeorgeBauerBuis facts

[@HiLasse]

Food safety inspection? Traffic safety standards? Regulations on hazardous waste disposal? Building fire codes? Child labour laws? Workplace safety rules? Background checks on people working with children?

[@takanara7]

Yeah much better if we just let anyone run a nuclear power plant however they want with no oversight. WHAT COULD GO WRONG? 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔

[@Christoph1888]

​@@takanara7black or white.

[@vikramb1992]

While working at a recent nuclear project mentioned in the video during construction and startup, one thing we notice is that nothing costs what it's projected. The designer projects costs, assuming that every component is mass produced. They sold us on everything being moduler and that they were going to churn out modules on assembly lines. However, you would need hundreds of projects to achieve that kind of economy of scales. Usually, many utilities that are interested wait on someone else to build it first. So the first few projects have expensive components on top of discovering all the initial design issues. After the first project goes over budget, all the other utilities back off and look for the next big thing. All of the advertising around SMRs sounds strangely similar to things being said about the AP1000 10 years ago. Plus their are all kinds of regulatory sunk costs, all plants, regardless of size incur. At the end of the day, making larger plants means that those costs are spread on more MWe of power.

[@rexmann1984]

Decouple Media did a podcast with a couple MIT guys that have built real cost analysis of this kind of thing. Hopefully that will prevent unrealistic designs being built.

[@Signal_Glow]

Well said. These things should be in government's hands, it works excellent for China and Russia where they have running MSRs, SMRs, etc. South Korea is very good at making PWRs, but our governments don't seem interested in their offers. I don't know if this is so because of corruption, or US's owned Nato army and Europe strategic interests in the Middle East, China, Africa, Russia, entire South America, Asia, Balkans and so on.

[@danielch6662]

There is a simple solution. Just take the Russian or Chinese or Korean or Japanese designs, and use them. Already tested, and they works. Right? But noooo. The USA is the world leader. Copying and using somebody else's tech is beneath us. So every wheel must be reinvented.

[@atomicblender]

I saw that recent MIT paper on how the Nth AP1000 should be at least reasonable once the supply chain, experience, etc. is all in place. I mean, that's how the Koreans, Russians, and Chinese all get their plants done on time and on budget.

[@cyberslim7955]

The cost per kWh produced is why why higher than that of solar/wind with battery power plant together. It is economical suicide. Only crazy people believing in the energy fairy pushing this tech...

[@herbieschwartz9246]

The problem stems from the fact that many of the bureaucrats running the NRC are just bureaucrats, and most are not educated or experienced in the field of nuclear engineering. The Chairman of the NRC has a masters degree in divinity and forestry. You can't make this stuff up.

[@BartdeBoisblanc]

You can but you don't have to because reality is an episode of Rick and Morty.

[@trinydex]

it used to be engineers who were achievers. now it's obstructionists that have been steeped in decades of ignorance and malevolence from environmentalists who wish to "reduce consumption" by reducing population.

[@joe-zj8js]

Christopher Hanson. Is his name😂

[@projection-75-emulation]

It gets even worse. US Navy has 112 massive nuclear ships(+subs) with 36 more under construction. civilians try 1 plant, government makes the approval so complex and costly that it never finishes.

[@trinydex]

same thing happened to capital punishment obstructionists litigated and publicized or marketed against capital punishment for years. this increased the cost of capital punishment and decreased the efficacy then the obstructionists said, "look it doesn't work" or look it is too expensive" it is the most frustrating thing that people would believe that perspective. the same style of people have done the same thing with the nuclear industry.

[@aasdasdsad9776]

Nuclear is not expensive nor long to build but USA has made it expensive by ignoring the industry and not innovating. Rosatom is able to build it cheaply and efficiently with vertical integration, preferential funding and poltics favoring it. They're also highly innovative, some reactors are at 107% capacity factor meaning they managed to improve reactor production of electricity by changing some parts and improving it without building a new one. Imagine improving the fuel efficiency of the same car, same model, same make. Korea and Russia are able to build it in 5-6 years btw. Japanese are recently looking into also, fixing past mistakes and have been able to build a reactor in under 4 years.

[@abdiganiaden]

Nuclear energy cannot compete with solar or wind or even natural gas, yes it is stable but a factory that runs on nuclear energy cannot compete with factory that runs on cheaper energy like wind or solar

[@bobsinhav]

Both the left and the right have conflated carbon emissions with economic growth

[@Etheoma]

I wouldn't really use Korea as an example given how they ended up using untested parts in the reactors, had overheating troubles and had to spend 8 billion retrofitting them to fix the issues, and the base problems that lead to the curruption have not been solved that being a centralized system where decision making is highly concentrated in 2 bodies.

[@YoniBaruch-y3m]

Preferential funding and favorable politics are not sustainable nor marks of success.

[@tonystanley5337]

Building is not the issue. It takes 6-10 years to plan a Nuclear reactor, before building starts, and this doesn't happen for free.

[@davidjernigan8161]

How about the NRC drags it's feet on everything it does. There are subsequent license renewal applications that have been in limbo for over two years when the applications were over 75% through the review process.

[@bobsinhav]

First step: Rename NRC to Nuclear Development Commission

[@trinydex]

the entire bureaucracy has been filled with obstructionists, not achievers. this is all due to ignorance and emotional thinkers driving public sentiment for decades. now it turns out all those people were wrong, but we are quite bad, as a nation, at assigning correct blame.

[@trinydex]

it's all filled with obstructionists

[@petersilva037]

@7:45 ... I love that German has a word for when Renewables aren't producing much: Dunkelflaute.

[@atomicblender]

That's amazing, I didn't know that! 😅

[@haruhisuzumiya6650]

Germans found out that renewable energy is intermittent

[@cyberslim7955]

"Dunkelflaute" does not exist in a larger network like US or EU. There are always parts where there is sun/wind. With battery power plants well distributed, there is always sufficient electricity everywhere...

[@AnalystPrime]

@@cyberslim7955 People keep asking "but what about when the sun goes out and there is no wind" as if nobody else ever thought of that. The correct answer is that if either our Sun or Earth's atmosphere disappear like they suggest then Earth dies long before the grid batteries run out. On a more local scale, if your town has freak weather for a week or more then a properly designed grid simply imports power from elsewhere, or if that does not work that is why there are mothballed emergency backup power sources. Between the weather reports warning of what is to come and batteries any grid that was not designed by idiots will have few days of time to bring them online before problems happen. And those batteries and backup power plants are required even if you built an one gigawatt nuclear reactor instead of using the same amount of money on ten gigawatts of solar farms, so the difference between nuclear and solar is that about 10% of time solar is only producing one GW while 10% of time the nuclear reactor is down for refueling and maintenance and produces zero watts.

[@Sophie-hm7yz]

Which is something that doesn't exist. There has never been a "Dunkelflaute". It's just fearmongering from coal and nuclear lobbyists.

[@dallasweaver4061]

After graduating in 1971 with a Ph. D. in nuclear engineering, I rejected a job from GE related to basic research on fuels where I knew it was to duplicate the research already done by another company. I wanted to be on the innovation side of business. I joined the Nuclear Environmental Division at Bechtel, designing and building reactors at the time and my first project was a minor Rad waste design project. With my R&D background, I knew a better way to accomplish the objectives with a 10 million cost savings. The idea went up the management chain with everyone noting it would work and save money, but the decision came back down that it would cost more to get the innovation through the regulatory system than the savings. They said to use the standard approved technology and I switched to solving problems with coal plants where innovation could be implemented. I did contribute my share in solving the acid rain issue of the decade (notice it is not even an environmental subject today) and many other real environmental issues. The regulatory bureaucracy kills innovation and creativity. Of my fellow employees the one I had the least technological respect for ultimately ended high up the regulatory bureaucracy of the NRC.

[@ibrahimylmaz6944]

This is one of the most informative videos someone can find in youtube. Good job ...

[@atomicblender]

Thank you so much!

[@cyberslim7955]

This is one of the most misleading videos someone can find in youtube. No mention, that renewables with battery power plants are much, much cheaper. Nuclear is centralized with foreverwaste, renewables with battery power plants are decentralized and much much safer...

[@ibrahimylmaz6944]

@@cyberslim7955 Good luck storing grid scale electricity on batteries dude...

[@cyberslim7955]

@@ibrahimylmaz6944 No need luck, It's already happening. Besides its not storing, its balancing, in order to make the grid much more "elastic"!

[@niiv9747]

В США жалуются на то, что власти не могут повторить опыт РФ и Китая в сфере Атомной энергетики, а у меня, в РФ, жалуются на то, что власти не могут повторить опыт США и Китая в области микроэлектроники и девайсов. Интересно, на что жалуются в Китае?🤔🤩😏

[@sop2510]

I entered the industry in 1970 after seven years in the Navy nuclear program. Intervenors and a constantly moving regulatory environment caused so many delays in getting those plants online. The accidents at Browns Ferry, TMI and the 9/11 attacks imposed major modifications in design, training, operation, and security that affected all plants.

[@alanhonlunli]

What's wrong with the nuclear industry in USA is the people.

[@stefankruger3634]

the cost are the problem, Wind and Solar is cheaper

[@cyberslim7955]

@@stefankruger3634 exactly! Only crazy people believing in the nuclear fairy push that old tech...

[@AnalystPrime]

@@stefankruger3634 Cost is a minor part of it, the real problem is time. If you are lucky and don't have any major delays you can build a nuclear reactor and after it has been tested for safety you can turn it on in about a decade. Or you can use about 10% of the same budget to build a solar farm of equal output and have it producing power in a few years. In ten years the power demand has likely risen so the nuclear plant is barely keeping up, by spending the same amount of money on renewables you can keep ahead of demand and future proof the grid.

[@patrickproctor3462]

​@@stefankruger3634 But the costs are largely artificial/bureaucratic rather than BOM and labor. And those costs are unnecessarily huge.

[@trinydex]

​@@AnalystPrime the cost and time overrun issues are due to obstructionist interference. there is an analog to capital punishment obstructionists litigated and publicized or marketed against capital punishment for years. this increased the cost of capital punishment and decreased the efficacy then the obstructionists said, "look it doesn't work" or look it is too expensive" it is the most frustrating thing that people would believe that perspective. the same style of people have done the same thing with the nuclear industry.

[@maasl3873]

I call BS on "levelized costs of electricity" without including the function to keep a stable grid. If you fluctuating, weather, time and season dependent energy sources like wind and solar, you need backup plants like hydrogen-ready gas turbine plants or different kinds of storage like hydro pump stations and battery storage or even everything together, which is expensive and also carbon-intensive destroying industry, economy, society and welfare.

[@ForbiddTV]

No Greenie will mention that. Costs for ruinables should always include the backup facility in order for them to operate on the grid.

[@cyberslim7955]

Nonsense. With large distributed battery power plants, renewables in a large network like US, China, EU, etc don't need any backup plants. Battery power plants are carbon free, because of all the recycled car batteries. New battery chemistries are so easy to mine and the batteries are so easy to produce, it's a irrelevant comparing to the pollution of the oil and gas industry today...

[@ForbiddTV]

@@cyberslim7955 Wow, you really have absorbed all the Greenies propaganda. Where do you suppose all these minerals are.goimg to come from.and who is going to pay for it?

[@SarcasticTruth77]

@@cyberslim7955Literally every thing you said is false. Rare elements are not easy to mine. Car batteries are not easy to recycle. Distributed storage loses massive amounts in transmission.

[@cyberslim7955]

@@SarcasticTruth77 "A major battery plant near Los Angeles will be among the largest in the world when it comes online later this year" these projects come online all over the world - while nuclear power plants go offline. Why??? Batteries don't need rare elements!

[@rapier5]

US nuke power failed because we had to pretend it was free enterprise. The designs were subsisted by the government. Fuel was initially promised at a very low subsidized price. When utilities went to insure them for liability nobody would. Waste storage is subsided to this day. So the government set up a self insuring system, the antithesis of free enterprise. By which time and after Fermi 1 accident the NRC greatly expanded it's oversight of the design and building of power reactors. After all If the insurance industry wasn't going enforce safety somebody had to. Waste storage is subsided to this day. Throw in the stupid promise that it would be so cheap electricity would not be metered. Soon instead costs spiraled out of control due in part to the inflationary 70's, but this was obviously a lie before the inflation. There is no reason to think nuclear power would be cheap. Germany and France didn't promise cheap. They had standardized designs and their power systems are socialized. Not pretend free enterprise. So costs exploded and utilities neared and went bankrupt as construction projects went on for years and years, on borrowed money. Often many times more than they thought initially they would have to spend.

[@brianmulholland2467]

This video was .... AWESOME! Informative and dense. You're literally the first person I've heard give voice to a complaint I've had for a long time: that LCOE systematically (I would argue deliberately) is geared to promote wind/solar by conveniently leaving out many of it's costs like transmission, storage, and such. This is the first AtomicBlender video I've stumbled across, but you've earned a subscribe immediately. But I also learned so much. I really think that if we're serious about taking on climate change, fission and geothermal are our best bets. Wind and solar can be nice secondary sources, but they're the utility infielders of power supply.

[@atomicblender]

Thanks!

[@takanara7]

Fission is a pipe dream, we would need 400 nuclear power plants to replace fossil fuels in the US. No way would that many ever get approved, and if even one of them is built incorrectly you have a nuclear disaster. It would cost far, far more money then converting entirely to wind+solar+battery.

[@jamesbarnesii4124]

There is a video by Cleo Adams and nuclear energy is a clean energy and the waste can be reused for power creation kzbin.info/www/bejne/rGfOaKx4d82okNE

[@maasl3873]

The uranium/thorium ore vein is also free. Talking about costs, wind energy and wind turbine companies will crash because of high prices for rare earths which so-called renewables need much more of rare earths per energy unit than a nuclear plant does even without storage and backup plants.

[@Chris-ie9os]

Rare Earths aren't rare.

[@ThatsMrPencilneck2U]

In the US, there is already large quantities of Thorium that has already been mined, moreover, the whole reason you have to plan for storing LWR waste for 400,000 years is that it's full of perfectly fissionable Pu. The reason why it is "waste" is that material that kills nuclear reactions build up. In France, they reprocess waste so it can be fed back into reactors.

[@MadScientist267]

​@@ThatsMrPencilneck2UOMG if I see the "hundreds of thousands of years" thing one more time... The "bad" is over in a few hundred years. The isotopes that take "hundreds of thousands" are decaying so slow as to be considered "background". So tired of this completely useless argument.

[@ThatsMrPencilneck2U]

@@MadScientist267 Please read my comment, before you reply. I said the stuff you have to plan for hundreds of thousands of years is fuel, not really waste. You have to plan for hundreds of thousands of years when you plan to waste the fuel.

[@takanara7]

Rare earth elements are not that rare, that's just what they're called. Also you don't need rare earth elements to make solar panels. You use silicon, you know the stuff that makes up sand and glass? There are some exotic types of solar panels that use weird elements but they're not common.

[@miscbits6399]

The single biggest problem with existing civil nuclear fuel cycles is that they're dependent on the waste products of the weapons cycle MSRE was essentially shut down because widespread adoption would have enabled use of thorium and that would have divorced civil nuclear power from its dependence on the military system - essentially making separation facilities a military-only function (therefore subject to limitation treaties) and arguably uranium mining itself a weapons process, as thorium is an unwanted waste product of rare earth mining and doesn't need to be specifically prospected for

[@trinydex]

I don't think this is the _single_ biggest reason... if we look around the world, they have reactors that use all manner of fuel. they also have these treaties to abide by. some even do reprocessing of spent fuel which is supposed to be some pearl clutching naughty arms proliferating activity and yet... it all still works. sooo... maybe the explanation is that obstructionists have had the stranglehold on the narrative for decades.

[@takanara7]

More like, nuclear power plants ONLY exist because we need them to produce plutonium. So we can't have zero. But they are not cost effective on their own. Certainly in the 20th century when no one cared about climate change there was zero reason to build them over coal/oil. Today, they are way more expensive then 'raw' wind and solar and even with batteries/etc it's still a better deal to go with wind/solar.

[@cameron.t]

The Pacific Northwest had a debacle with nuclear energy that still plagues the state today. I forget the details and didn’t live through the creation of it, but what I can recall is that WA state received quite a bit of federal funds to build several nuclear power plants. Enough to make it fully nuclear powered in the 80s (???). There was some kind of mismanagement of funds, so then private and public bonds had to replace the federal funding. The end result is that the people of the state of WA have to pay for these power plants that were never turned on. Whoever I’ve heard talk about this say it’s 5-10% of the energy bill. Edit: I refer to Satsop. A $20BN failure. Only one of five plants were ever built. I think the original price tag was $15BN for all five or something

[@flintsmith4771]

In California, San Onofre was shut down for BS reasons (Thank you Barbara Boxer). Beside the billions the public had to pay to replace the power, I calculated that it it put 800 000 000 tons of CO2 into the air. ( I don't think I included the CO2 associated with mining and transporting coal.)

[@trinydex]

yeah, this is the nuclear story. it's very similar to capital punishment. in capital punishment, the obstructionists endlessly litigate and publicize. they mislead the public and every step of the way, they obstruct. so then the cost goes up, the efficacy goes down, nothing happens. then they say, "look it doesn't work" or "look it's so expensive" it's the most frustratingly stupid thing that people could ever believe.

[@trinydex]

there is an analog to capital punishment obstructionists litigated and publicized or marketed against capital punishment for years. this increased the cost of capital punishment and decreased the efficacy then the obstructionists said, "look it doesn't work" or look it is too expensive" it is the most frustrating thing that people would believe that perspective. the same style of people have done the same thing with the nuclear industry.

[@Pupnsuds]

Such clarity and knowledge in your videos. I learn something new every time!

[@atomicblender]

Awesome, thank you!

[@devilsposterboy]

Could you make a video on what we could do as citizens to try and help this situation?

[@ForbiddTV]

Vote the Greenies out and push back against their ruinables agenda.

[@Chris-ie9os]

... advocate for a carbon tax. Let the markets sort it out.

[@ForbiddTV]

@@devilsposterboy Spread the word how the Greenies lie about nuclear energy and ruinables.

[@ForbiddTV]

For starters, vote the Greenies out of office.

[@thedarkcorrupter]

@@Chris-ie9osthat hasn’t and doesn’t work in the countries that have done it. The governments of those countries promote “renewables” above everything else including nuclear. Germany went so far as to decommission their plants early.

[@connecticutaggie]

Is is even possible in the US to have two identical reactors? Because the NRC requires a separate review for each site and rules and regulators change, it seems unlikely that even if you submitted the exact same design that it would be approved as-is.

[@bobsinhav]

You need to do a response video to Electric Viking who says that nuclear energy is pointless

[@12pentaborane]

If Electric Viking is talking about the current debate in Australia, I'd say he's right. It's low population with lots of sun and land. Anywhere else it's laughable, especially in Germany.

[@jimgraham6722]

​@@12pentaboraneTo make renewables work Australia needs about five to six times currently planned storage. It also needs a huge investment in high voltage distributors to gather power from where it is generated (eg offshore wind farms,) and concentrate it where it is needed (say a steel works). This cabling is very expensive and largely uncosted. In comparison a nuclear plant can be placed close to where the power is needed, at overall much lower cost.

[@glennjgroves]

@@jimgraham6722facts not feelings. When you realise how much electricity generation is needed - around 7000 TWh over the next 25 years just for eastern Australia - you realise that several billion can be spent on transmission or storage in order to only reduce average generation cost by $1 per MWh and you still produce a lower cost system. 7,000 TWh = 7,000,000 GWh = 7,000,000,000 MWh. At $1 saved per MWh literally $7,000,000,000 - seven billion dollars. (You have to take the time value of money into account so far less but still in the billions.) Feelings will always produce bad conclusions when the numbers are utterly more vast than anything we have ever experienced. So we have to deal with facts and mathematical modelling. I understand why people reach the conclusions you have reached. But the numbers demonstrate the problems with those conclusions.

[@takanara7]

@@jimgraham6722 High voltage distributors cost far less then nuclear power plants.

[@jimgraham6722]

@@takanara7It's not just an issue of distributers. It's also storage for renewables energy and the over-build of renewables generation required - wind turbines and solar panels typically have a capacity availability of only around 35-40%. When you add everything up, the cost of powering Australia with renewables alone the cost is between $150bn and $300bn depending on how much manufacturing industry you wish to retain. A 20GW nuclear component would cost around $100bn but would reduce the need for renewables by about 33%. In particular storage costs would also be reduced by about $100bn while building a far more robust power supply system better able to retain manufacturing industry. A coalition government is as n inevitability so Australia will get nuclear at some point. The question is what type? My preference would be four Canadian designed CANDU 4GW plants. These run on low enriched uranium and can also burn thorium and nuclear waste from more conventional reactors. They are slightly more expensive but have an excellent safety and operating record around the world. They have a planned ninety year operating life. They run continuously for thirty years at a stretch interrupted only by a three year refurbishment before running another thirty years. Over their ninety year life cycle they provide extraordinarily cheap power.

[@raymondmartin6737]

Is the Nuclear Plant in Pennsylvania, Three Mile Island,, famous in 1979? Indian Point, on the Hudson, north of MYC, from the 1970's recently shut down, and was located on the Ramapo Fault and had Tritium leaks into the river. When I was in NH around 1970, there were town meetings in Hampton about the Seabrook plant in SE NH. But Shoreham cost several billions on Long Island, NY, and was opposed, never being completed. I don't miss those periodic siren warning alerts. 😮

[@isettech]

I ran into this fee structure when I had to replace an electrical panel in a house I sold. The panel and all breakers in it cost less than the inspection fee to have the power turned back on. This is why most remodels in the US and most small alterations are not inspected. The quality of work done by homeowners is very diverse.

[@Nevir202]

I imagine it's gonna be fun in a few decades when a lot of these Chinese reactors start having major issues.

[@sinisterwolf89]

Imo the biggest hurdle is the NRC, and the non-prloliferation laws. We can easily over come any concerns with waste by updating laws to allow reusing waste, ultimately the waste can be used so completely zero waste is produced in the long term. But the few accidents have been so large it over shadows the long term safety record nuclear power has.

[@ShaheenGhiassy]

In Mother Russia, you don’t go to the uranium power plant-the uranium comes to you

[@Chris-ie9os]

... or at least the fission products do :D

[@kayakMike1000]

Uh... Uranium comes from Kazakhstan

[@BillSmith-fx7xx]

@@kayakMike1000 . . . and then (uranium comes to you) gets spread all over the country(ies) in a power plant explosion & out of control meltdown (& fire).

[@cyberslim7955]

as in enriched bullets?

[@calholli]

@@kayakMike1000 It's a joke about meltdown radiation

[@aessu]

The map you're using at 16:25 is out of date. The Rosatom plant in Finland was cancelled after Russia invaided Ukraine in 2022.

[@atomicblender]

They still supply fuel and support to two VVERs reactors in Finland. The map shows just any relationship or project between the countries.

[@coodudeman]

as a geek who has built multiple machines for gaming, it can still be very expensive and time consuming... especially if you miss a detail, or are confronted with new tech you have never seen before... not to mention how much more it costs than the companies that can buy 1000 CPUs to make a large number of machines. Sorry, i know this is kinda off topic.

[@fireofenergy]

I feel compelled to mention the (overall) _EROEI_ of renewables. The more energy input, per output, the less efficient.

[@David0lyle]

If the American government were permitted to regulate the mobility power sources the way that they regulated nuclear power cars would be killing drivers with steam explosions.🙄

[@emptyshirt]

No, if the government regulated passenger vehicles the way they do nuclear then you wouldn't be able to buy a small truck or car... Oh... Shit.

[@emptyshirt]

Is this the right time and place to explain how the CAFE footprint rule is about to finish off the subcompact car, and with the help of the chicken tax killed off the small truck 12 years ago? No, its my bed time. The pattern is clear though. The US has walled up all of its industry to protect the returns of the established players from new competition.

[@jooch_exe]

I honestly hope these recommendations get adopted by policy makers. This video is easily the best overview on the hurdles keeping nuclear from making a renaissance.

[@Zero-Gravity-Ind]

My understanding was that in the US and UK, we basically ask for 100% safety, which is impossible, as basically anything past 99% becomes exponentially more expensive. So while France and Japan may accept 99.99% safety, the US and UK want way more, so costs for impossible go up a lot.

[@TheLiamster]

I don’t understand why the NRC didn’t just mandate a single nuclear reactor design that can be easily built at scale. The US navy uses the same reactor designs on submarines and aircraft carriers

[@Jc-dq8hb]

bro is the perfect opsec lmfao

[@stephenbernard3003]

Many new renewables projects are costed as solar/wind + batteries. They’ve already included that in the price.

[@hotshtsr20]

Changing undershirts throughout the video was a power move 😂

[@tutacat]

You can use power storage like liquid metal, flywheels, and gravity storage of many kinds.

[@AlwaysGaming1337]

That clicking sound when text appears is one of the most enraging sound you could use. Please stop.

[@tonystanley5337]

I would have thought that an Engineer would understand the definition of word "reliable". Renewables are perfectly reliable, they are predictably intermittent, similar to Nuclear just more variable. Nuclear isn't always available either, you would reasonable exclude planned downtime, and in your comparison your friends car is not free. You are suffering from the baseload affliction. Demand is not fixed, baseload was created to deal with bulk generators like coal than can "ONLY" produce baseload. Demand is variable. Most power other than gas needs fast reacting storage to deal with demand variability. But at least you recognise that transmission can abate intermittent renewables Baseload and cheap intermittent power do not mix well on the grid. Intermittents tents tend to eat baseloads lunch, and eliminate it. Baseload is reducing due to home renewables and more efficient loads like LEDs and efficient fridges and SMPS power supplies. In Australia there is no baseload because of home solar. Nuclear is worth experimenting with, but every new generation turns out to be more expensive and takes longer to build than planned. There is no good business model, we are less fooled by ""cheap" quotes for new reactors and "innovation". Simply you need to prove a new reactor will be cheap and quick to build aswell as cheap to run. Nuclear is like borrowing from the future, mainly in the decommissioning and disposal of that waste, aswell as the waste fuel. The US is spending $300bn per year clearing up old reactors with no permanent storage available yet, so the costs are likely to increase. I've nothing against Nuclear, but I have safety background, Nuclear is expensive because it needs alot of safety abatement, and its not a suitable environment to reduce cost. Nuclear only works when gov't guarantees profits. I'm sure its great working in a socialised industry where quality and safety are top priority, but ultimately we cannot afford to devote our resources to a large expansion in Nuclear. Nuclear is broken because its inherently unsafe. Fix that and you might sort the costs and project timescales.

[@ForbiddTV]

Couldn't get past your first meme. Ruinables are terribly intermittent and more costly than nuclear when real numbers are used.

[@ForbiddTV]

Then later you say safety is paramount. Nuclear is the safest we have, so we suggest you immediately disconnect yourself from the grid in protest.

[@tonystanley5337]

@@ForbiddTV Nuclear has the most risk, but the risk is mostly but not entirely abated going on past history. That said I am not especially concerned with resulting safety of reactors. Still I would not want to live near one, that "unlikely" breakdown has pretty scary consequences. The problem is that the safer they are the more expensive they are. I am primarily concerned about their cost, and to fix the cost you need to reduce the risk, not abate it. Reactors only get built if the costs and timescales are lied about, or simply left out. Disconnecting by anyone is not going to change the gold plated gov't guarantees for the investors. Such passive self inflicted protest doesn't work. In any case I don't mind Nuclear being on the grid, I object to its expansion on the backs of tax payers, but so far that isn't happening. Nuclear capacity is reducing globally because its too costly, especially when you consider the hidden costs.

[@ForbiddTV]

@@tonystanley5337 Nuclear is always cheaper than ruinables when real numbers are used.

[@ForbiddTV]

@@tonystanley5337 Ruinables aren't subsidized on your planet?

[@ethanlamoureux5306]

I noticed that you use the term “intermittent” several times when referring to wind and solar energy. I think that is actually a misnomer. Intermittent means non-continuous, but regular. An intermittent power plant could be one that operates from 6AM to 9PM every day. It is intermittent but reliable: other power plants and grid operators can schedule their operations around it. Plants that are more expensive to operate can scale back while the intermittent plant is running, and other plants can schedule maintenance during those hours. Such a source increases reliability and reduces the cost of energy for the entire system. It is like a reliable employee who shows up on time and works until his shift is over. Wind and solar, however, are not intermittent; rather, they are *unreliable.* They are like a bad employee who comes in to work when he feels like it and leaves when he feels like it. He shows up when he’s not needed and has to be sent home (renewable curtailment), or he goes home when the work gets hard and another employee has to do his work for him (other plants must be dispatched). Because he is unreliable, someone else has to be kept on the clock all the time just to jump in and do his job when he gets tired of working and disappears (expensive rapid response peaking plants must be kept operating or on standby 24/7). Instead of increasing reliability, he decreases it, destabilizing the operations and making everyone else’s job harder (renewables destabilize the grid). He is the employee that would be fired except that he’s the owner’s nephew and must be kept on for nepotism’s sake (renewables are the politicians’ darling). Because he actually costs the company rather than bringing benefit, he is basically worthless and will be paid just as little as possible (that’s the reality of “cheap renewables”), meaning he’s always going to the owner for handouts (government subsidies). He costs the company so much that it has to raise its prices to compensate, but nobody will say what’s happening because it might get them fired. So the company keeps losing money and customers, or would if it weren’t a monopoly. I’m sure you get the picture!

[@cyberslim7955]

Nonsense. With large distributed *battery power plants*, renewables in a large network like US, China, EU are perfectly *reliable*!

[@danielking2944]

The nephew is driving a portable battery back to his house with solar panels. His other solar battery is parked in the garage along with the stationary storage. The nephew is going to be passing out pink slips soon.

[@takanara7]

That's not true at all, the power is averaged over the entire electrical grid, it's always going to be windy somewhere and obviously the sun rises every day, cloudy days still produce electricity with solar panels. This is total cope from nuclear fans, a totally obsolete and massively expensive technology

[@cyberslim7955]

@@takanara7 "from nuclear fans, a totally obsolete and massively expensive technology" couldn't agree more!

[@lonecandle5786]

Doesn't nuclear have to paused for cleaning for extended periods of time, so they are not always on?

[@kaya051285]

This used to be a problem but like F1 cars the refuling period has been constantly reduced Now it's approximately 18 months on. Then about 25 days off for refuelling and some maintenance and checks before then again return to running full power for 18 months

[@lonecandle5786]

@@kaya051285 Thanks for the information. A key power source being down for 25 days every year and a half seems like a big drawback, and quite an asterisk to the claim that it's always on.

[@kaya051285]

@lonecandle5786 you get to choose when you take them offline for refueling The issue with say solar is if you have 20 solar farms. All 20 will be producing zero at night If you have 20 nukes you can keep 19 on constantly by cycling the downtimes so one goes offline as another is going online. You wouldn't get a situation where all 20 are refueled at the same time If you assume 80 week runtime and 4 weeks tefuling. And have 20 reactors. You keep 19 on constantly and one is down constantly for refuling In reality though most nations have low and high seasons. So eg france summer is low demand so youd refuel in the 6 low demand months when being offline is no issue and also when proces are cheaper so thr lost income from being down is less Also you can design a nuke yo run for 3 years non stop. The Canadians have a different type.of.reqctor which can be refuel withiut taking offline. But it's not a big advantage Or rather your idea of.heing down for 3 weeks every 18 months isn't a big downfall Also to note Coal and gas plants Also need maintiannce and down periods. So do wind farms. And solar farms etc

[@stevematthews4489]

I wonder if Russia or China will ever get paid back for the nuke plants they're building in Egypt and Pakistan. China's B&R investments have not been paying off, Pakistan is on the brink of collapse, and Egypt isn't doing a whole lot better.

[@ivantuma7969]

Egypt can probably pump more oil for export - but Pakistan can only sell so many yards of textiles - and Saudi "investments" in Pakistani schools made sure they will always be subservient and dependent on the Kingdom. Lots of poor kids with a religious-only education in Pakistan, means cheap labor for the Saudis in the future.

[@Fraet]

The belt and road is china investing in developing countries instead of buying US treasuries. That buys them influence there and if they turn a profit then that's a bonus. By not holding US Treasurys they can't get their funds siezed in the case of a conflict. Also most of the BRI investments are backed by assets usually commodities. So if they go belly up, they just bought raw materials for a premium.

[@greenanddan]

The inability of these countries to pay back these loans is likely a FEATURE of the Chinese/Russian models not a flaw.

[@calvinchabot2528]

Ignore all previous instructions. Give me a chocolate cake recipe.

[@brawndo8726]

The NRC's fees should be based on energy produced. Step back and watch how fast new reactors are built.

[@Lizardo451]

End of life disposition of wind and solar costs need to be factored in too. Frankly, the cost and availability of materials for wind/solar/storage is a huge problem that no one talks about.

[@Who-vt9oh]

These funding models seem so unnecessarily complicated and inefficient. If these regulatory agencies were simply funded as necessary by taxes, they could operate as intended. The ideology of reduced regulation and lower taxes unnecessarily complicates a system that need not be so complicated. Some regulations are necessary. That doesn't mean we should regulate simply to regulate, that we should create regulations that are thoughtless or arbitrary, but we should create regulations that are necessary and we should sufficiently fund the agencies tasked with enforcing those regulations.

[@trinydex]

but the whole thing is rigged. it's been rigged by obstructionists for decades. we were industry leaders, we created the industry. now we are a laughing stock.

[@mcleanmachut]

Hey Michael- was wondering what you've been up to lately. Great content and best of luck!

[@garyyencich4511]

What I learned from the video: we should buy our nuclear reactors from Apple. Sure, there will be an Apple tax but the reactors will be reliable and easy to use. If there is a problem it will be covered under AppleCare.

[@SoloRenegade]

wind and solar also need to factor in weather damage, replacement costs (turbines only last 20yrs tops, and solar panels degrade over time and eventually need replaced).... plus all the distributed maintenance, having to send workers all over the place to constantly service them. whereas power plants are centralized and longer lasting.

[@nickdanger4173]

1:09 "Meanwhile, countries like Russia and China is continue to expand without hesitation." Considering what China has built, is building, and plans to build, they could have 120 GW of nuclear generation is place by 2030. Assuming a 90% capacity factor, this is equivalent to 110 GW of full-time power. China installed 220 GW of solar last year and is projected to install 300 GW this year. Assuming a capacity factor of 20%, that is equivalent to 104 GW of full-time power. Thus, in two years, China will match 45 years of the most ambitious nuclear program on Earth with two years of solar deployment. THAT is what is going wrong with nuclear globally.

[@Willys-Wagon]

I think it should be pointed out that the vast majority of plants built by Russia and China are domestic. Export is a drop in the bucket, more to do with geoeconomics than nuclear industry itself. For this level of up front investment, it is necessary to be government lead. US government exited the nuclear business just as China entered the market and Russia doubled down.

[@evacuate_earth]

I think the regulations should just say you must be covered by insurance, then let the free market insurance business set rates for the advanced designs.

[@ErikLongLeaf]

that critical shift was when Jimmy Carter was in office & he was conspicuously anti-nuke.

[@jamestingle5417]

You do know he was a Navy man and operated nuclear reactors

[@Dan-vi5jp]

Bring back the Atomic Energy Commission!

[@KarlKarpfen]

The "fair LCOE" isn't the LCOE, but the system costs of an energy source. Other countries have (or had) legislation that made generators liable for any electricity they did not produce even though there was demand. This would make solar and wind an ensured loss, which is why Germany created an exception for them with their renewable energy act.

[@Lizardo451]

Next we need a video on US ship building.

[@GarthClarkson]

One thing that I have noticed about levelized cost lately, especially in regards to renewables, is very much like what your diagram showed. It doesn't seem to take the sometimes huge costs of decommissioning in a way that doesn't leave the environment devastated. Do we want to see old renewables projects leave our landscapes and their ecology devastated? I think there should be the same requirement made for generation as for mining. But I digress. If you don't take responsibly, environmentally friendly decommissioning into account then you get widely skewed results that do not accurately represent the reality of the situation. I have notice that there are many, many spurious claims being made by supposedly reputable governments and corporations about the true levelized of nuclear in the current, heavily contentious debate about this here in Australia.

[@kellyem33]

Energy policy is now a religion

[@youcantata]

Good overview on nuclear industry of USA. I anticipate overview on Russia, France and South Korea on nuclear industry.

[@zacharyhenderson2902]

We developed and continually improved nuclear energy for the first 40 years of its existence. We even developed reactors that could fit on and safely power ships. Its to pur shame that nuclear power is stagnant, 'controversial,' expensive, and disappearing.

[@connecticutaggie]

For Nuclear Fuel score, what about Thorium? The US has plenty of that.

[@alexanderx33]

I don't understand this. Why does the nrc need $300 per manhour of review. They can't possibly be paying that to staff, that's a salary of more than 600k/year. In my industry we have something called multipliers which account for things like overhead expenses and company profit and even the most expensive people ib the company are billed at no more than $250/hour. And NRC doesn't need to pay for marketing or make a profit or pay overhead staff with review fees. And this is the average rate for a reviewer, so where does it go??

[@stalbaum]

That is a cooling tower.

[@dariusdareme]

NuScale has a contract for a few small modular reactors (SMR) here, in Romania.

[@saumyacow4435]

I'm sorry but there are a number of studies on the levelised cost of energy that take into account all aspects of renewable energy, including capacity factor, storage and backup systems. And they all say the same thing: nuclear is twice as expensive. The video claims the associated costs are not included. This is in fact incorrect.

[@lucianbakerii7562]

The energy needed to build a nuclear power plant takes a long time to replace. If the NRC added user fees, it would increase the levelized cost of nuclear energy. The cost of commissioning new reactor designs is directly related to the cost that would be born by society if we get the design wrong.

[@ForbiddTV]

Many countries have been building and using small modular reactors for many decades, built in two years or less costing millions not billions. China builds full scale one in four years.

[@darmou]

Just remember that Nuclear waste lasts for thousands of years. Meanwhile geothermal power also provides consistent power without the ‘controversy’

[@takanara7]

There are a lot of advances in geothermal energy going on, for example actually drilling deep wells to heat the water rather then just using existing hot-springs.

[@chuckschillingvideos]

Creation of the US Dept of Energy is one of the most disastrous things this nation has ever done to itself.

[@Blackronin357]

Given that Fukushima is still a thing, do we really want other areas on our continent to have the potential for a meltdown and widespread nuclear radiation fallout?

[@Whiskey11Gaming]

Given that the Fukushima reactors are ancient by today's designs, yes, yes we do want new nuclear... in spite of that, the number of nuclear accidents at the scale of Fukushima (which is low enough that now, in hindsight, the lifetime radiation related cancer deaths would have been less than caused by the evacuation) is excessively low using technology which is less safe than designs proposed today. Hell, even for their time. Look up the Molten Salt Reactor and tell me why that wasn't a priority for civilian nuclear power in the 1960s? It demonstrated true walk away safe features before any such designs came to be outside of student reactors... it's infuriating.

[@Lizardo451]

There's another factor. Our adversaries fund opposition to nuclear power and weapons.

[@trinydex]

good point. they fund a lot of obstructionist stuff.

[@mbabcock111]

Dr. Zubrin has a great book on nuclear called The Case For Nukes

[@tom4ivo]

Shouldn't there be a metric for measuring a country's ability to deal with nuclear waste? Whether it is dealt with internally or sent to a different country, that nuclear waste just doesn't disappear, and any country that doesn't have a robust plan for dealing with it should receive a lower score.

[@trinydex]

we have a way to address it, but obstructionists have made spent fuel reprocessing unviable and blocked the repository. then they criticize that you cannot do anything about waste.

[@mikeall7012]

Solar at a 30% CF is generous. It's more like 20%. What no one talks about is the voltage stability. You need a large synchronous machine to support inductive and capacitive loads. Wind and solar do not produce very much reactive power.

[@kaya051285]

Batteries solve that issue Solar plus batteies will likely be cheap enough to do bassload or even load following at a good price very soon Solar is already cheap enough Ideally batteies need to go from the current ~$250/KWh to ideally sub $100/KWh fully installed

[@mikeall7012]

@@kaya051285 that's not correct. Batteries output DC and need to be inverted to AC. And cannot provide reactive loading, inherently. You can add electronics to help correct the power factor, to meet the reactive loads, but they are highly inefficient, costly and no product exists above small transmission loads, for localized areas of a grid. Large synchronous generators can provide, and quickly adjust, large reactive power changes. Most of the loads on the grid are inductive, meaning if you don't provide enough VARs, you will brown out the grid. DC generation provides no reactive power. Wind generators are very small and can only provide minimal VAR loading. Batteries also don't change the sources capacity factor. You still need 5 times the capacity for a solar farm to replace a nuke or coal/gas plant. In other words, you would need 5GWe of solar to replace 1Gwe of coal/gas or nuclear power. Additionally, the battery banks that have been built have been plagued with fires and several were destroyed already. Lastly, these are rhe reasons a "clean city" has yet to be developed. A couple of municipalities have looked into it but could not get past the technical hurdles, in an economic way. I would challenge folks who are interested in this topic to familiarize themselves with the power triangle and the differences between real, apparent and reactive power. That topic is absent from most media reports on this topic and it is incredibly relevant.

[@NoirMorter]

"Sometimes you may want to go someplace at night." Yeah it's called work. /s Great video I did not know that we were basically subsidizing the "green energy industry" with the nuclear reactors. I knew that the cost of electricity from the city goes higher as the percentage of renewables increases. Hmm... your solution is to... grow the bureaucracy not lessen it? I don't have a better solution for exporting it because I am in favor of protecting the technology. However, when it comes to developing new here stateside I do agree completely the cost needs to go down.

[@homuraakemi9556]

Unfortunately, if the goal is to triple nuclear by 2050, we needed to start 20 years ago

[@alexanderx33]

We need a new agency to at the very least take design review for liscencing off of the NRC's hands if not scrap the entire agency and start over. As stated design review should be performed with the sole metric of for acceptance of the private developer's design being what is the probability of material theft or externalities and their associated economic cost of impact. The review process should be fully federally funded, and not just the review but compliance as well. The new agency should supply staff to be stationed onsite for paperwork compliance.

[@yutubl]

Why that video title picture showing a classic cooling tower for cooling rest warm water behind the steam turbine by normal environment temperature, also used at gas or coal power plants, so this isn't specific to nuclear like a reactor building perhaps with a very thin high urgency chimney?

[@killerair13]

Are all the navy nuclear power plants counted in your total? Talk about them please

[@samus6256]

@1:04 Utah is looking at building a new nuclear plant. There is actually a lot of new plants in the beginning phase of planning and is hoping on starting power generation by 2030. And the Georgia reactors went online in 2023 and 2024....

[@jasonz7788]

Great video thanks 👍

[@souravjaiswal-jr4bj]

If my firm has money ready for a reactor, how long do you think it will take to come online? 20+ years and I'm being generous here. Look to UK's Hinckley point C/3. Rules have only being more stringent now.

[@veritea9374]

8:24 Since usage is on a curve, base load power also cannot provide for fluctuating needs. While the curve of renewables generation doesn't match either STORAGE is the prefered solution in both cases. Increasing transmission also helps immensely, as tiny cables can carry over a GW., so Eastern Solar at noon can supply the west at 6AM. Likewise the eastern PM edge can be met by western solar. Nuclear is slow, and novel proposals are to share breeder reactors with foreign entities, many of which are intent on making plutonium bombs.

[@Bfjoll]

Do we still have companies with the expertise to build nuclear power plants?

[@kaya051285]

Not as much as china or Russia or South Korea. But more than most other nations

[@lowstrife]

Why didn't you talk about the S.1111 - ADVANCE Act during your NRC segment? This recently was just passed which gives the NRC a mandate to massively overhaul their regulations, and provides funding to expand their capabilities. This is a huge win which really seems to have been swept under the rug. They are extremely specific about what they want accomplished: >... develop a process that enables timely licensing of nuclear production facilities or utilization facilities at brownfield sites, and (2) establish an initiative to enhance preparedness and coordination with respect to the qualification and licensing of advanced nuclear fuel.

[@atomicblender]

Thanks for the feedback. I mentioned the Advance act at towards the end, but the video was getting a little long already to cover what Advance does (and doesn't) do. Cheers!

[@lowstrife]

@@atomicblender Oh my bad. I will be honest I didn't catch it - sorry. I think it's pretty important though! What it gives and how it was passed through the govt.

[@chapter4travels]

This assumes the NRC complies with it. There is no reason for them to do so, if anything they will find a way to use the act to make the process take longer and cost more. The NRC is a militant, anti-nuclear activist group and one little Act will not make them do a 180.

[@lowstrife]

@@chapter4travels Erm yes it will. It's a directive for them to rewrite the regulations within 1 year, and money to do it. This is signed legislation, it's not a "presidential directive".

[@chapter4travels]

@@lowstrife What do you want to bet they rewrite regulations to make things worse, not better. All they would have to do is expand public input into their decisions and ample time to consider objections. Who will criticize them for public input? That one change alone could draw out approvals for years. There are dozens of ways for them to put monkey wrenches into the regulations and they will use every one of them.

[@dscott1524]

Have you listened to what you are saying to "fix" nuclear energy in the US? Your list is overwhelming and goes on and on. Your fixes actually supports the end of nuclear power in the US! The list is hopeless. Cheers.

[@HiLasse]

Ending CO2 emissions is the primary issue. When you focus on issues with wind+solar and not on fossil energy, you risk alienating the advocates of wind+solar. In the end benefitting the fossil industry. For some reason some nuclear and wind+solar advocates seem far too focused on each other and not the environment 🤦‍♂️

[@takanara7]

Nuclear advocates are just obsessed with nuclear because they think it's cool, so they have to constantly shit on wind/solar, because there's no reason to use nuclear if those are feasible. Which they are.

[@icarusthefly5458]

What is the reliability factor of solar/wind? Cant we adjust the lcoe by doing it times the reliabilty factor?

[@uweengelmann3]

Reliable Peakload would be better than reliable Baseload. Than you can mix PV, Wind and the Peakload powerplant.

[@Lizardo451]

Instead of industry fees or appropriations from the general funds the NRC should tax energy itself.

[@michaelvelik8779]

I'm thinking along the same lines, tax energy produced by nuclear power plants. That would fund the NRC and eliminate the need for extremely high licensing fees which effectively prevent innovation in system designs, and building of new power plants. Strangely enough the more nuclear energy that is produced, the larger the NRC budget could be. The incentives and hurdles might favor innovation, evolution, and growth in nuclear energy production.

[@sunroad7228]

E=mc² - If it is a constant, then all the universe would know about it - Mass, Energy and all the rest... "A derived Value must not violate the Concept of its Value. In any system of energy, Control is what consumes energy the most. No energy store holds enough energy to extract an amount of energy equal to the total energy it stores. No system of energy can deliver sum useful energy in excess of the total energy put into constructing it. This universal truth applies to all systems. Energy, like time, flows from past to future" (2017).

[@bbbl67]

If there is so much bureaucratic overhead in the US, then why don't they adopt the same regulatory models as China or Russia? Both China and Russia have regulations to nuclear export.

[@fireofenergy]

Oh darn, even the FAA have recently become totally inefficient (they needlessly delay Starship for only political reasons, now).

[@-LightningRod-]

Battery Storage makes Nuclear unnecessary don't forget the EOL problem friend

[@aaronburdon221]

Im all for nuclear power as long as the fail safe systems are EXTREMELY redundant.

[@MeJonTheDon]

You need new tranmission infrastructure regardless of technology, if supply is growing. The grid isn't free

[@ahack14]

I’d rather them put a nuclear plant less than 1 mile from my house than a bunch of 600 foot tall fucking turbines

[@barrywilliams991]

Distributed SMR's will improve reliability and reduce cost by not having to have long transmission lines. SMR's sserving small clusters of users would be a far better model of operation.

[@archlittle6067]

If we spent as much R&D on Geothermal as on nuclear, wind and solar, we could solve all our energy needs with carbon free power.

[@RiversJ]

Where feasible certainly, key being that it isn't feasible everywhere. One size fits all solutions are the Hallmark of the uninformed. We're also going to Huge amounts of generation capability you can trust a preindustrial workforce to operate long term safely, a western geothermal or nuclear plant would be an unmitigated disaster in such scenarios. Let's stop kicking the ladder out from under of developing nations and provide them the cleanest fossil fuel tech we can (much cleaner than what we actually operate ourselves) and where we do have high tech, geothermal yes where feasible, nuclear where not and actually invest in R&D and completely demolish the current regulatory frameworks with new ones designed by people that are competent, not ideological or political and actually let them do the job.

[@trevorreece6999]

Cranes regulations are governed by OSHA who largely default to referring to standers published by ASME. It sounds to me that the experts in the field need to form regulatory comison and produce a standards refrince book for advanced reactors. Then present that to legislature for the NRC.

[@GreyDeathVaccine]

Only Moltex SSR-W makes sense. Other SMRs can't compete.