this post was submitted on 08 Aug 2023
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186
Bill Gates-backed nuclear contender Terra Power aims to build dozens of UK reactors (www.cityam.com)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Bill Gates-backed nuclear contender Terra Power aims to build dozens of UK reactors::A Bill Gates-backed clean energy player is hoping to build dozens of nuclear reactors in the UK and will compete with global rivals.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I'm not suggesting that a SMR can't be built, I'm saying that they're a massive waste of money, unless you hold RR stock.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

SMRs are great for decentralization of the power grid.

Which makes the viability of renewables like wind and solar much more viable, as you can have the reactor for each mini grid throttle down based on current renewable yield, and throttle back up when the sun goes down or the wind stops.

It also means that issues like Texas had in the winter of 2021 would be a lot smaller in magnitude, as having one SMR and renewables go offline would only cause a local power outage, instead of entire cities suddenly being without heat or power.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I can't find any sources that support SMRs being used as peaker plants, conventional nuclear certainly can't behave this way. Do you have any links?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You can do this but it makes them even more expensive, because you’ve built an expensive plant for operational capacity that you don’t use.

We should be load following with storage, not nukes.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Do you have a source on that? I can't find anything supporting SMRs for peak use. How quickly can they come online? How much notice to take offline? How long to reach peak generation?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Why would you get a small unit when you can get big one.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Well, this Tera Power project is also for SMRs...