Why Nuclear Power is Making a Comeback

America is building nuclear power again, but it's been a long time coming.

Narrator - Fred Mills
Producer - Adam Savage
Video Editing and Graphics - Thomas Canton
Executive Producers - Fred Mills, Jaden Urbi and James Durkin
Production Management - Victoria Gunn
Content Partnership - Liam Marsh

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#construction #architecture #nuclear

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© 2022 The B1M Limited

[ulrichspencer]

I'm detecting a consistent theme with certain kinds of large, publicly-funded infrastructure projects: when we stop building them, we lose the supply chains and institutional knowledge on how to build them and have to redevelop them from scratch. The US is also like this with high-speed rail. Turns out if you keep on churning out new rail or new nuclear or new whatever, you build up a lot of supply chains and institutional knowledge for how to build them on-time and on-budget. The solution to these issues is to just keep building them so we don't keep on having to learn from scratch how to build these things.

[Joshua-xfev]

I don't know why the advocate for nuclear energy dresses like a super villain

[WangChung]

We've actually built plenty of nuclear reactors in the U.S. - every submarine and aircraft carrier we've sent out for the last 30 years. If we approached our national grid the same way we approach our national defense then we'd have plenty of capacity with the best safety record in the world.

[dimetimec]

Three mile island is a very good example of how safe nuclear power is. Almost everything was done wrong and operators basically tried to blow it up. They bypassed and disabled numerous safety systems and it still didn't fail catastrophically.

[shellderp]

Here in Ontario, the grid is over 50% nuclear. Very stable and cheap electricity

[PB-Trinity]

All these megaprojects are amazing. But we all know that Fred's biceps are the most impressive megaproject of them all...

[hughmungusbungusfungus]

Calling Three Mile Island one of the worst nuclear accidents in history is like a quadriplegic coming in third in a foot race: it happened because there were only three contestants

[vordark]

Freddie Mercury as Nuclear Engineer very impressive

[Droidman]

Great video as always. As a Georgia resident and a big nuclear advocate I've been split on this project as I've had to pay a lot for the overruns (in terms of extra fees added to my power bill) but also happy that we are leading nation in a new age of nuclear

[duncanmcauley]

Hey thanks for the shout out to Watts Bar! I only worked there for a few months in 2015-16 for construction of the haul path and spent fuel pad, but I remember Unit 2 was finally getting finished at that time. It had started construction way back in the ‘70s but stopped for a long time and was essentially being used for spare parts for the in-service Unit 1. If there’s anything I learned at the nuclear plant is that it is an extremely regulated and safety-oriented industry with virtually no tolerance for the slightest error. Heck, I remember seeing a plant-wide email about a safety incident where someone had been injured, but it was literally a cut to a finger.

Another thing I learned is just how serious they take security of these power plants. Just to be able to enter the protected area required a background check with multiple references, a safety course, a palm vein scan, and a 500+ question psychology test, among other things. If anyone was ever dumb enough to try to jump the fences into the protected area (not even able to get to a reactor, as that is even further guarded inside), instead of entering through a (heavily guarded) portal, lethal force would be authorized. And hearing the frequent gunshots coming from the nearby on-site shooting range was a constant reminder that the guards in the lookout towers were well-trained and ready for anything. I wouldn’t lose a wink of sleep over cyber security of a US nuclear plant having seen all this in just 4 months time.

[KhaosEntertainment]

Love these docuseries on construction with the B1M. Narration with Fred is the best 👌

[Ruhrpottpatriot]

I find it a bit sad that this channel can't even correct the common misconception about the Texas Blackout: It wasn't because of renewables are unreliable, or NPPs can deliver. Even with more NPPs the same would've happened, because the problem wasn't energy production, it was the grid.

Back in 2011, Texas experienced something similar and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation made suggestions to better prepare the infrastructure to be better suited for cold weather, these recommendations were ignored by ERCOT (as they were in 1989 when this also happened).
Furthermore: The Texas grid doesn't have a safety margin beyond expected draw and the grid isn't even able to meet peak summer demand when needed.
The Texas government then cancelled a contract with the Texas Reliability Entity and disbanded the Oversight and Enforcement Division, reducing oversight further and dropping cases that aimed to improve reliability.

Another thing, that's very peculiar to Texas apparently: Normally you'd expect, that an underperforming company should lose money, right? Well if you're a natural gas supplier, you make money from underperforming.


So basically the grid operator didn't bother to spend the money to keep their equipment from freezing, the politics let them do as they pleased.

[asdfjklol]

3:32 People need to STOP saying 3 mile island was one of the worst nuclear accidents in history. It does not even compare to Chernobyl, Kysthtym, and Fukushima. No one was killed or even seriously injured. The amount of radiation released was miniscule. Key safety systems worked as intended.
The harm from abandoning nuclear power in the US is out of all proportion to the TMI accident.

[Game_Hero]

Jim Carrey's Robotnik is now a nuclear engineer.

[KrimsonStorm]

Loved the video. I live in Georgia and I cannot be happier that my state is the first to make substantial clean energy progress. I hope many follow GA in this. Glow blue to go green, I say!

[DanskeCrimeRiderTV]

Delay and overbudget doesn't really matter. I'm a nuclear expert, and they tend to pay back after 3-5 years. The Olkiluoto plant in Finland was very behind schedule and overbudget, however, it has been a great success and will be paid back in just 3 years, and then there will be tremendous profits.

[StarFleet_Tech]

I live in Georgia and am looking forward to Vogtle's completion. I feel like a shareholder because Southern Company/Georgia Power have hiked up my power bill to help pay for the new additions. Bring on the POWER!!!

[aronc]

As an American who’s not a fan of carbon emissions, I’m very pro nuclear and I hope we see more!

[Heworldwide]

It’s surreal to here you mention the reactor being built in wanyesboro. I moved up there for senior year of high school and to see the impact and growth it has on that community is quite amazing. I’m not saying it doesn’t have negative impacts on other variables but just so crazy I stumbled upon this video and happened to hear it being mentioned

[wirekat]

Having worked at Hanford #2 in the 80's, there are few more issues with building nukes. I'm all for it, but nobody has addressed the endless paperwork required. Of course this was before smart phones and such but I had to complete a one foot stack of paperwork (yes, 12" high) before grouting back a (non-critical) pipe penetration. That times the thousands of non-critical tasks and it's a mountain of forms. How can we build a 777 or a SpaceX rocket and yet a nuke is beyond our capabilities?