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Comment by Octoth0rpe | Hacker News Reader

> A dual Natrium reactor site can provide 690 MW of reliable 24/7 365 power

Given that they haven’t actually built one, asserting the performance seems inappropriate, _especially_ the uptime which IIRC is far, far higher than is typical for proven designs, let alone a new one.

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Well operated, mature nuclear power plants can easily achieve 90%+ uptime. I don’t think this is a huge issue.

Is 90% equal to 24x7, 365?

Yes. The refueling takes the most time but that is planned years in advance. A one-year planned outage every decade can still be 24/7/365 in the other nine years.

Natrium is expected to spend around 1 month refueling every 24 months.

So that is say 5% downtime. Add in time for upgrades and refurbishments, and refueling periods alone are bang on the 10% downtime number.

Ah yes, the ol' GitHub method of reporting. "When we're up, we have lots of nines!"

Which is why people who run websites shouldnt be allowed anywhere near powerplants.

Unless they hire Homer Simpson.....

In fact, the uptime of US nuclear power plants was above 90% for the last decade.

And even if a reactor goes offline, a power plant usually operates 2 to 4 reactors, so the entire plant continues operating.

This is a brand new type, there's no way that equivalent operation to a decades old design with centuries of operational experience can be assumed. Presumably its been designed for high uptime but it would not be unusual for new technology like this to require some refinement.

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