Nuclear Regulatory Commission certifies NuScale small modular reactor design

[ripcord]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission just granted final approval for NuScale's small modular reactor design.

U.S. Approves First Small Modular Nuclear Reactor Design

The historic move is a step on the long path ahead for nuclear power.

gizmodo.com

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[MolaKule]

That is good news.

 

[dnewton3]

Awesome! We need small reactor systems spread all across the nation.
- Smaller reactors makes any "event" smaller in scale, should the worst occur.
- Smaller reactors would mean if one has to go off-line for repairs, there's less effect to the grid.
- Controll them locally (not tied directly to a network); there's no "hacking" risk if they aren't directly tied to the 'net.

Nuke Power !!! That's the true future of green energy.

 

[bbhero]

Those people... Don't want it to be the future.... And that's a massive, massive, massive problem.

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

Awesome! We need small reactor systems spread all across the nation.
- Smaller reactors makes any "event" smaller in scale, should the worst occur.
- Smaller reactors would mean if one has to go off-line for repairs, there's less effect to the grid.
- Controll them locally (not tied directly to a network); there's no "hacking" risk if they aren't directly tied to the 'net.

Nuke Power !!! That's the true future of green energy.

Something to think about.

The US currently has 92 reactors and it accounts for approx 20 percent of total power generation. (SOURCE)

So if we wanted to raise that to say 80 percent we would need to build an additional 300 nuclear reactors which can produce the same capacity as our existing fleet. That's just to match current demand. This is on top of maintaining the current fleet of 92.

What are the chances of that happening?

 

[PandaBear]

Awesome! We need small reactor systems spread all across the nation.
- Smaller reactors makes any "event" smaller in scale, should the worst occur.
- Smaller reactors would mean if one has to go off-line for repairs, there's less effect to the grid.
- Controll them locally (not tied directly to a network); there's no "hacking" risk if they aren't directly tied to the 'net.

Nuke Power !!! That's the true future of green energy.

That's not how safety and security works. Decentralization can actually means you have to reduce your scale compare to a large centralized site, and if the goal is to take just 1 offline (attack), it would actually be easier.

 

[ripcord]

More small reactors mean more surface area to stack, to use an information technology security term.