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Comment by Factorium | Hacker News Reader

The UK should build dozens of Rolls Royce SMRs each year, and setup a factory line for them with multiple in simultaneous construction. If we value our civilization, we would be building hundreds of units a year for use across the Western world.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/oct/15/uk-poised-t...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_modular_reactor

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_small_modular_reactor_...

https://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/

470MW per unit, 2 years to build, 2 years to install. 1.8 billion pounds each. With just 64 units, combined with some renewables and storage (ideally allowing EVs to smart charge/discharge based on grid conditions), the UK would be completely energy secure for 115billion pounds.

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I’m really keen to see how that plays out.

As someone pointed out before on HN, various NATO countries, US especially, churn out small reactors for their navies, apparently with great success. These reactors are built on time, roughly in budget, work, and aren’t failing all over the place.

That’s a fair few data points showing that SMRs ought to be very viable. Just... not here yet :)

The navies also use fuel enriched up to the level of a nuclear weapon, supposedly about 97% for the US navy [0] making more energy dense designs possible. Weapons-grade are usually said to be above 90%. Wouldn't want those reactors placed in unstable regions.

[0]: https://web.archive.org/web/20070209223424/http://www.nti.or...

Does the higher enrichment make them somehow easier to build, or safer?

If not, my point stands, I’m not suggesting to copy the designs, rather that mass produced reactors can be viable.

It supports designs that are very safe, but most reactors for commercial power don't need to be able to safely collide with underwater mountains.

Interesting, are there any articles you could point an amateur nuclear enthusiast at?

The Wikipedia article is worth a read for some considerations [0]. If you haven't read section 3 of the Navy's Applied Engineering Principles manual [1], that's a good place to start thinking about what highly enriched uranium buys you in your core design. To my knowledge, you can't really read about the many safety systems attached to and around the Navy reactors.

0.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_naval_reactors

1. (https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.navsea.navy.mil/Por...)

It seems more and more likely they'll do this as part of the same announcement

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/oct/15/uk-poised-t...

_If_ this works, it would be great. How many of them have been built so far?

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