These Mini Nuclear Reactors Can be Built Anywhere

Good things come in small packages.

Narrator - Fred Mills
Producer - Adam Savage
Video Editing - Kurt Fernandes and James Durkin
Executive Producers - Fred Mills and Graham MacAree

Additional footage and imagery courtesy of NuScale Power, Moltex Energy, Radiant Nuclear, TerraPower, Terrestrial Energy, Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation, Rolls-Royce, Comisión Nacional de Energia Atómica, Duke Energy Corporation, EDF, 11Alive, GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, Greg Webb/IAEA, Mariadelmar28/CC BY-SA 4.0, Steve Jurvetson/CC BY 2.0, Tapani Karjanlahti, TVO and X-energy.

#construction​ #architecture​ #nuclear

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© 2022 The B1M Limited

[Cmbgo]

Ooo I actually have a story about these, my dad was an engineer on one of these projects with one of the larger nuclear companies in the US. He was working on their new modular next-gen reactors before the project was axed. They actually had an almost functioning (no-fuel) prototype built for testing about a decade ago now. The idea was they could build it underground or stack them to save space. They also were planned to be fast-breeder reactors or could be transitioned to Thorium to save on fuel costs. Overall the project was super cool, but Fukushima absolutely destroyed it and the one that was sold and planned to be built in Tennessee was cancelled due to public outcry and the company completely pulled out of the nuclear industry and recently went bankrupt. :/

[yavbswehwehsaw]

The fact that these SMR was easy to scale up for an fast source of clean energy, as it already been used for naval use for over 50 years that had the tech already.

[trespire]

Steel founderies and Aluminium smelters are high on the list for a small dedicated nuclear power plant. The need to run 24/7 and require copiouse ammounts of electricity. They are the foundation blocks of all engineering and thus of modern sociaty. Also, metals such as steel and aluminium are highly recyclable materials, saves on mining.

[SuperCuriousFox]

6:08 I work a lot with silicon carbide (thin film deposition for nanotechnology applications) and I can confirm that SiC is a very stable material. Melting point of >1300C, high hardness (approaching diamond), very good thermal conductivity, but most importantly it’s very etch resistant (wet or dry) and even stable within biological environments. I’ve read papers that mentioned the influence of irradiating SiC with neutrons, might be related to this application. Cheers!

[decombobulated]

It's always great watching a tomorrow's build video while having lunch.

[dannypope]

Nuclear energy has never been MORE critically important than it is now!

Countries need to start on these projects immediately!

[michaelpfister]

The US has been building "small" reactors for naval deployment for literally decades. I find it far more shocking that this experience has NOT been incorporated into small, modular power plants for domestic use than any news that it might finally be happening. About time.

[kaitlyn__L]

Thought this was a pretty good 10 minute summary overall, though I think it could’ve stood to have also had A) a mention that Chernobyl’s reactor type was considered dangerous and outdated even in the 80s; and that B) Fukushima was caused by a regulatory failure about its backup coolant power, and other power plant closer to the tsunami without that same failure actually avoided catastrophe.

It’s true that SMRs can be passively safe which is even better, but the implication in this script is that the RBMK design was typical and that Fukushima was operating within design bounds, and neither are true.

I also think it would’ve been worth mentioning at least the theory that mass-producing these reactors will bring the cost down at the end, although the guy you interviewed is correct that their per-kWh cost is even larger than large plant to begin with. But the idea was never to stay at that price point, it was to try to leverage a different economy of scale — large plant go for the scale of 1-4 large reactors and large turbines, while these hope to gain the scale of manufacturing thousands or millions instead of just dozens. Whether that pans-out is another matter and up for debate, but mentioning the theory would’ve been nice.

But like I said, overall I think this is a good 10-minute summarisation of a complex topic.

[iloveplayingpr]

Always keen on optional power sources we can use.

[Wapakalypze]

Big fan of what Nuscale is developing.

[brianjonker]

All those coal fired power plants being closed in the US should be replaced with one or two of these. The existing power lines and transformers would be used and thus make it much cheaper and quicker to alter our power mix.

[diybotic]

You guys should do a video on the MCR project here in Canada. It’s a $13B refurbishment. Largest clean energy project in North America. Some pretty neat automation/robots are being used in the construction.

[cinemaipswich]

SNR's are seen in submarines and aircraft carriers. They have a long history including "no fault" usage. Having fast burn helps reduce waste as more fuel is consumed. No pressure vessel needed.

[Cooo_oooper]

I'm all for the Atompunk/Nuclearpunk Future, minus the nukes and possible fallout of course

[oldmandoinghighkicksonlyin]

When they can make reactors compact enough and safe enough to put into an RV, I'll be impressed.

[leafnut]

There’s one being built in Chalk River, Ontario, Canada, supposed to come online in the next few years.. Fun fact, Chalk River is the site of the worlds first nuclear reactor incident when it partially melted down back in 1952.

[Rahhhhhnman]

I could listen to Fred Mills all day, the man was made to narrate.

[mrkokolore]

8:35 Wind and solar are only theoretically cheaper than nuclear because one is not considering the cost of energy storage or backup power plants.

[ForbiddTV]

What most people never consider is many countries have been building and using small modular reactors successfully for many decades on ships and boats.

[Fenthule]

There are currently 2 SMR's being built in Canada that I know of. One in Ontario and one east in New Brunswick, although I'm not 100% sure if they broke ground on the later yet. Regardless, I'm soo happy that the nuclear boogeyman is finally starting to get squashed. The amount of complete nonsense I see from people regarding nuclear sometimes is mind boggling. People actually think spent nuclear fuel is glowing green goo.. it's unreal.