[FRIAM] Small Nuclear

[thompnickson2 at gmail.com]

Hi, Anybody, 

 

I stumbled on this letter in research gate, which seemed to suggest that we
are on the edge of a bustling "small nuclear" economy.  The idea seems to be
that we retrofit all our power plants with lowish temperature reactors  and
there's your carbon problem solved, bang!  I gather that these reactors also
produce hydrogen which could then be used as a fuel for vehicles?  Did I
read that right?

 

The earlier answer on the entropy of renewables answered the question;
especially when allied with a simple calculation on energy density for solar
and wind. I strongly recommend https://www.withouthotair.com/
<https://www.researchgate.net/deref/https%3A%2F%2Fwww.withouthotair.com%2F>
by either buying the book or it is available to download for free. The
author sadly died in his prime but his most important legacy has global
implications and is factual. It proves that the energy balance cannot be met
with natural, non-depleting sources. Please be careful with what you read,
many exponents of renewables equate electricity with energy. In advanced
countries electricity is only about 20% of the primary energy supply. Heat
and transport dominate by far worldwide.

 

As for nuclear, the IVth Generation of high temperature fission reactors is
the near term future. Light water moderated reactors have been deployed
almost universally in all countries except India, UK and Canada who have
each chosen different routes. The reason for the light water reactor's
dominance despite escalating safety costs is well documented in the military
history of the last century. UK amongst some others developed and deployed
the high temperature gas cooled 'dry' route which has many advantages as are
now recognised.

The Generation IV small modular reactors are inherently safe (see Ref Kletz,
Trevor for a definition) as has been physically demonstrated in Japan and
China on real plants. These countries have looked carefully and
dispassionately at the options and developed devices which are inherently
safe, factory reproducible, provide high enough temperatures for industrial
and domestic heat, also high enough to produce thermo-chemical hydrogen for
synthetic transport fuels and provide distributed energy sourcing since it
is not feasible to transmit the total energy quantities demanded
electrically in mature economies. Growing economies can move directly to
distributed low-carbon nuclear elegantly avoiding electricity or gas or
liquid fuel transmission infrastructure. 

 

The most advanced demonstration plant in the world is the HTR-PM, presently
in commissioning at 2 x 100 MWe in China following the proving of its
smaller prototype and serious worldwide development effort over decades. The
worldwide body of knowledge on high temperature small nuclear is at a point
where deployment at scale is practical before 2030. Most advanced countries
have small modular reactor programmes with designs at advanced stages. The
high temperature small modular reactor preparations in China, Japan, USA,
UK, France and many others produce heat at a temperature matched to repower
large coal stations carbon-free by re-using all except the boilers.
Deployment studies for such repowering have been completed in China and USA.
You will appreciate the massive impact this will have upon global emissions.

 

The fuel is of course radioactive but is non-proliferating for weapons use
because it is contained in ceramic which is harder to break down than newly
mined materials so is unattractive and this also makes it safer to store as
waste. Waste storage volumes are smaller than from light water reactors due
to the higher utilisation of the fuel in the lower energy density core and
the conversion efficiency of the downstream processes plus other helpful
factors. These high temperature small modular reactors can operate on other
fuels such as thorium but can also consume legacy 'hot' residues from
pressurised water reactors and the military. 

In practical terms, it is physically impossible to build traditional large
nuclear power stations at a rate relevant to the latest Paris imperatives.
The only way to achieve a high pace of transition, even without global
energy growth, is by factory manufacture of small distributable energy
plants on a numerical scale similar to other volume manufactures such as
aircraft. The Boeing 737 now has delivered 10,000 units manufactured at
licensed factories worldwide and is still growing. This aircraft has a
similar investment profile to small modular reactors in factory set up and
economies of repetition. Volume manufacturing techniques from other
industries are especially relevant to small modular nuclear but have not yet
been widely applied in nuclear.

 

As has been said by others in this post, the energy subject is large but
that should not prevent thinking fundamentally about the underlying
thermodynamic realities as MacKay has done, applying the immutable laws of
physics in this debate as few have done and unemotionally analysing the
problem and reaching conclusions as many enlightened nations have already
but perhaps too quietly done so that democracies can be offered rational
choices. 

 

Perhaps the final arbiter is cost in all these things. The UK Government
Techno Economic Assessment has shown that small nuclear is attractive from a
socio economic perspective and was followed up by a formative expert finance
working group to make ready the market and the commercial context. Most
recently a study, which can be extrapolated internationally laid out a
pathway.
https://d2umxnkyjne36n.cloudfront.net/insightReports/Preparing-for-deploymen
t-of-a-UK-SMR-by-2030-UPDATED.pdf?mtime=20161011145322
<https://www.researchgate.net/deref/https%3A%2F%2Fd2umxnkyjne36n.cloudfront.
net%2FinsightReports%2FPreparing-for-deployment-of-a-UK-SMR-by-2030-UPDATED.
pdf%3Fmtime%3D20161011145322>  

So the answer to Dariusz's question is in my view, YES, supported by massive
programmes of excellent work invested in small modular high temperature
reactors which is largely unseen by the general population and decision
makers to who sadly have so far only been offered rather poor, expensive and
regressive energy choices for all our children.

Please read widely and draw your own conclusions

 

The source is:
https://www.researchgate.net/post/Does_nuclear_power_have_a_future_or_will_n
ew_technologies_of_renewable_energy_be_developed_in_the_energy_sector#view=5
fa3fc12212f30468621d416

 

I apologize for once again out-sourcing my thinking.  I promise that in
return I am ever ready to answer your urgent  inquiries concerning the alarm
calls of Corvus brachyrynchos.       

 

Nick 

Nicholas Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Ethology and Psychology

Clark University

ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com <mailto:ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com> 

https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/

 

 

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