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NPR:
Nuclear power plants are so big, complicated and expensive to build that more are shutting down than opening up. An Oregon company, NuScale Power, wants to change that trend by building nuclear plants that are the opposite of existing ones: smaller, simpler and cheaper.
The company says its plant design using small modular reactors also could work well with renewable energy, such as wind and solar, by providing backup electricity when the wind isn't blowing and the sun isn't shining.
...
NuScale's design doesn't depend on pumps or generators that could fail in an emergency because it uses passive cooling. The reactors would be in a containment vessel, underground and in a huge pool of water that can absorb heat.
Presumably the biggest risk of a NuScale reactor failing is radioactive gophers?
(Score: 2) by PinkyGigglebrain on Thursday May 09 2019, @02:48AM
How much is "enough water"? How high is "high enough" for a wall to stop a tsunami?
Just to clarify; I'm just advocating that these SMRs need be designed and built in the safest way possible. The problem with solid fuel reactors is that they require active intervention to control/stop the chain reaction in the core. Light water reactors use solid fuel rods. Molten Salt Rectors don't.
As long as the core has a self sustaining reaction it is going to generate heat, and unless the core is bellow the low tide line in the ocean or in a really big lake it will eventually evaporate the water in the cooling pond.
The core need to be designed so that it shuts down on it's own. If you can get a practical solid fuel reactor to that great, I don't have a problem with it. And for the record there is a solid fuel core design that will passively shutdown but it is prohibitively expensive and not as efficient as current solid fuel reactors.
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