As a big supporter of nuclear (and renewable) power i am glad to hear this. Just for safety alone, the SMRs are worth it to replace our old gen 2 PWRs.
Not only that. We can use them in existing fossil fuel plants.
I do hope that the SMR study Does include thermoconvection. Thus allowing the plant to keep cooling the reactors without need for external power. (Chernobyl happened because of a test regarding power loss and fukushima couldnt cool its reactor because the backup diesel gens were flooded). Several SMR designs are going for that.
Kinda hoping that thorium will be considered for its safety, waste and non-nuclear weapons application instead of uranium..But we will see..its still way way to early to tell.
by theta0123
3 comments
A bit late… they should have done this +10 years ago.
[“Belgium, Italy, Romania and U.S. form consortium to develop small nuclear reactors”](https://www.reuters.com/article/europe-nuclear-idUSL8N3C94JQ) Reuters
Well not im not surprised other nations want our help/to work with us on SMR’s. We have one of the best nuclear research centers in the world. If only the public and politicians could stop with all the ‘short term thinking’