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Billionaire to invest £35bn in small modular nuclear reactors roll out across UK (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 4 months ago by to c/uk_politics@feddit.uk
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[–] 5 points 4 months ago* (3 children)

Where in the world (outside of a lab) is there a functioning small modular nuclear reactor providing energy for a real town?

Linglong One (ACP100) in Hainan, China.

Akademik Lomonosov in Pevek Russia, since 2020.

Darlington, Ontario online by 2030.

Guess what, people do not invest billions without due diligence.

When did nuclear waste become “clean”?

When the alternatives produce CO2 and other pollutants.

Where will this “clean” nuclear waste be dumped?

Nuclear waste is not dumped, it is stored. All the high level waste is a cube of 21m.

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  • [–] 4 points 4 months ago

    Nuclear waste is not dumped, it is stored. All the high level waste is a cube of 21m.

    People need only to look at the excellent state of our water companies and how they handle toxic waste along with the punishing government regulations to enforce it to know that this is a solved problem.

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  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago

    I've just checked your reply:

    • The Linglong One reactor is not in commercial operation and is only being tested.
    • Akademik Lomonosov in Pevek Russia is not an SMR (if you are refering to the KLT-40S). It IS a nuclear reactor though. (It's a floating reactor on a barge using an existing design. For testing.)
    • Darlington, Ontario online by 2030. Yes, the BWRX-300 is not functioning yet.

    I can add one more to your underwhelming list: the HTR-PM in Shangdon Province, China which is an SMR and does - from time to time - provide power to a local area. But still has teething troubles and hasn't left testing phase. Any more? It's a technology that's being hyped beyond current capabilities.

    So where is this waste to be dumped (sorry) stored? Is it going to be dumped (sorry) stored underground in mines in the UK? At the bottom of the sea? "Recycled" in some foreign country that the UK will pay?

    Bearing in mind that the waste is utterly lethal for at least 10,000 years and more likely about 10,000 years. And also bearing in mind that some of these so-called SMRs have waste removed daily. Plus the cannisters that hold the waste have an expected lifespan of 50 years! And bearing in mind that current UK nuclear waste is dumped (sorry) stored only in TEMPORARY storage at Sellafield...

    As for "due diligence": the UK government is committed to spending £3.19 billion on the SMR project in the immediate future. This means that a great deal of public money is being handed over to a lot of private companies (already £900 million handed out) on a technology that isn't successfully up-and-running anywhere in the world. In contrast, there are many non-nuclear and genuinely clean technologies that are up-and-running.

    --

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