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Mass-produced floating nuclear reactors use super-safe molten salt fuel
Copenhagen startup Seaborg Technologies has raised an eight-figure sum of Euros to start building a fascinating new type of cheap, portable, flexible and super-safe nuclear reactor. The size of a shipping container, these Compact Molten Salt Reactors will be rapidly mass-manufactured in their thousands, then placed on floating barges to be deployed worldwide – on timelines that will smash paradigms in the energy industry.
[...] [Perhaps] the most impactful change to the business model is Seaborg's proposal to install these reactors on barges, and float them offshore rather than buying up land to develop nuclear power plants. There are several advantages here. For starters, you can manufacture them in bulk at a single facility. Seaborg is looking at Korean shipyards, which are already closely and efficiently connected to supply chains with enormous production capacity.
"If you want us to build not one reactor to start with, but a thousand, we could start by building a thousand," Schönefeldt told Radio Spectrum. "That will take, like, three or four years on these shipyards. So it's basically unroofed in how fast you can scale it."
These barges can be moved just about anywhere on the planet, either moored offshore or on large or small rivers, depending on how big a reactor it is. There's virtually no site preparation required; it's fully self-contained and very easy to connect to a power grid. Seaborg estimates it can service 95 percent of the world's population this way, putting basically no land requirements on a baseload or load-following power station up to a healthy 600 MW, which could supply nearly 100,000 homes.
Some imagineering required.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Monday June 21 2021, @01:11PM (8 children)
I'm not at all sure about operating these things on small rivers. I expect they use the water for cooling, and that could raise the temperature of the river substantially.
OTOH, these are a lot smaller than current plants, so maybe it would be ok.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 21 2021, @01:26PM (1 child)
So you're saying they should try it and see if it breaks anything? How millennial!
(Score: 2) by MIRV888 on Thursday June 24 2021, @06:04AM
Drop the science.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday June 21 2021, @01:54PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 3, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Monday June 21 2021, @02:55PM (1 child)
Not sure what you mean by "small rivers". As sort of a starting point, let's remember that these things are on barges, put into place by tugboats. So, you're restricted to "navigable waters". We might expect to find one in Little Rock, because the Arkansas River is regularly navigated. We won't expect to find any in Texarkana, because the Red River isn't navigable. (The Red River probably could be made navigable at great expense, not likely to happen.)
https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/33/329.4 [cornell.edu]
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by HiThere on Monday June 21 2021, @07:45PM
"Small river" is relative to rate of water flow and sensitivity to temperature change. So "navigable" probably isn't sufficient if the water flow is slow, but might well be if it's faster.
It's my expectation that this design uses the water that it floats in as a replacement for the "cooling ponds" that some other designs use. It might be better to scoop out a "man made lake", which could get a lot hotter without causing problems.
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(Score: 4, Informative) by turgid on Monday June 21 2021, @06:46PM (2 children)
A long time ago I worked at a nuclear power station. It was about 25% thermally efficient (25% of the heat generated went out as electricity). It was on a river estuary. It raised the temperature of the water by 9C. It was very popular with fish and shellfish.
The station could generate an extra 2MW electrical in winter when the sea water was colder. Cooling water temperature makes a big difference. In summer, electrical output was down since the cooling water was much warmer.
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(Score: 3, Funny) by PiMuNu on Monday June 21 2021, @06:54PM
The sealife follows the warm water. The fishermen follow the sealife. Plays havoc with your safety case...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by HiThere on Monday June 21 2021, @07:48PM
Try "it was popular with SOME fish and shellfish". Warmer waters hold less oxygen, and some species don't like that at all. Others don't have much problem until it gets considerably warmer...how much warmer depends on the species.
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