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this post was submitted on 08 Aug 2023
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The technology of modern reactors ,like the one in the article, is a greater advancement from early reactors that the 1900th century electric car to a modern one.
The materials, manufacturing techniques, fuels, controls, and components are only achievable due to modern advancements.
The latest reactors will be cheaper, more efficient, and safer. They are a necessary stopgap to overcome the transient nature of renewable energy in the UK and an important piece in ensuring energy availability and detachment from from fossil fuels.
Oh come on. Cheaper? Nuclear reactors frequently go way over budget and take longer than promised to build.
We don't need nuclear as a stopgap, in fact, it's not helpful to have base load at all with renewables - nuclear has to run at as close to 100% uptime as possible to make any financial sense. What do you do on windy, sunny days when renewables are generating more power than is required? You can't switch off a nuclear plant very quickly.
Nuclear makes no sense any more. We need to save the cash and invest in more renewables and storage, and an upgraded power grid.
We know historic nuclear is expensive. Cost is the entire point of SMRs. Let's not use reductionist logic to make a complex problem seem simple. It is complicated and whether SMRs succeed is still to be determined but there is good logic in the aims they have set out and I hope they succeed.
As for renewable, it would be wonderful if we could store energy to overcome the ebs and flows of power they currently produce, but I am not aware of any technology currently allowing this to sufficient costs and practicalities. This is where nuclear may be required
It doesn't matter if you produce 400% the required energy in a year with renewables if we have to go without even a fraction of the time.
If cost is the entire point of SMRs, prepare to be very disappointed.
Of course we can store energy, we've been doing it for thousands of years. Pumped hydro, flywheels, various battery chemistries, compressed air, molten salt, green hydrogen, and so on are all viable and should be used where appropriate. For instance pumped hydro is excellent if you have the terrain.
Yeah we'll just install ... checks notes ... Flywheels for our entire energy consumption.
That seems not only smart but cheap and safe too!! Lol
If it is that easy, show me one example where any of those technologies have been deployed at a scale required for even a day usage of an entire nation?
Truth is, its hard to do. We will get there, but not sufficiently fast for where we need, hence the continuing need for nuclear.
Iceland, Paraguay, Costa Rica, Norway.
We're ahead of where you think we are, no need for nuclear.
https://www.resilience.org/stories/2018-05-24/a-100-renewable-grid-isnt-just-feasible-its-already-happening/#:~:text=According%20to%20data%20compiled%20by,%2C%20and%20Denmark%20(69.4).
Not a single one is an example of what I asked.
Maybe the solution for the UK is to create mountainous rivers or move the country to techtonically active parts of the planet.
I gave you what you asked. I assume you've heard of Dinorwig? That's in Wales. Plenty of elevation changes there and in Scotland.