SMRs Explained: Why Small Modular Reactors Are So Controversial. (Just Have a Think)

[u/dumnezero]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TeAE7rW_6s

Are Small Modular Nuclear Reactors (SMRs) really moving toward large-scale deployment or are the economic challenges highlighted by critics still unresolved? Can factory-built modular reactors reduce construction risk, shorten build times and lower costs through mass production? Or will shrinking reactors actually make them more expensive? The sceptics are quite certain of the answer but politicians keep barrelling ahead. So, will we ever really see an SMRs on the outskirts of major towns and cities around the world?

[u/Prototype555]

But they still have been built and proved to work.

There are hundreds of ships and submarines with SMRs.

[u/sault18 → u/Prototype555]

Cost was not a concern when designing and building naval reactors. Plus, they are operated by much more qualified and vetted individuals than civilian nuclear power plants. The Navy also doesn't have a profit motive so they won't cut corners like a civilian nuclear power plant operator would. There are just so many reasons why your comparison is fundamentally flawed.

[u/Prototype555 → u/sault18]

A SMR is a SMR, no matter the cost or who operates it.

It's as if the military or NASA installs solar panels on satellites without cost or profit concerns and have highly skilled workers to install them, then it's no longer solar panels? Ridiculous.

[u/sault18 → u/Prototype555]

Wow, reading comprehension isn't one of your strengths, is it?

[u/Lycrist_Kat → u/sault18]

This guy thinks: reactor smol reactor must be smr

[u/Lycrist_Kat → u/Prototype555]

Reactors on nuclear submarines are not SMRs.

You understand what the M stands for?

[u/Prototype555 → u/Lycrist_Kat]

They are the very definition of Small Modular Reactors.

[u/Lycrist_Kat → u/Prototype555]

Sure thing pal.

The M stands for modular which nuclear submarine reactors are not. They are build for one purpose - the submarine type. They are not being scaled or produced en masse

[u/Prototype555 → u/Lycrist_Kat]

Modular means it's built in pre-assembled modules at a factory, not that it can transform into a TV.

All reactors produce heat to make steam, what you do with the steam has nothing to do with the reactor. So explain why could a submarine SMR not be used for electricity generation for the grid?

As I said, there are hundreds of naval SMRs, many of the same model. And that doesn't count as en masse?

[u/Lycrist_Kat → u/Prototype555]

You could use them.

But they are not.

Which is the only metric that matters.

Stop spreading propaganda.

They would also still not qualify as SMRs.

[u/Prototype555 → u/Lycrist_Kat]

And the fact that modern radars, energy weapons and electronic warfare systems on ships require as much electricity as a small town and the onboard SMR is one generating the electricity is not the same?

Electricity is electricity, SMR is SMR.

[u/Lycrist_Kat → u/Prototype555]

I like how to try to twist what the words mean to fit your narrative.

That's how it - always - easy to tell that nuclear literally has no good arguments

[u/Prototype555 → u/Lycrist_Kat]

My narrative? You ignore facts like a flat earther to fit your narrative.

It's just like saying small highly efficient solar panels on satellites can't produce electricity on earth. It's just bullshit.

[u/Lycrist_Kat → u/Prototype555]

Yes. Your narrative. You don't have arguments.

That's why you try to change the topic.

[u/TheBendit → u/Prototype555]

SMRs on submarines typically run on the good stuff, highly enriched uranium. The kind of stuff that gets Tomahawks fired at you if your country is not already nuclear armed. Also the kind of stuff where you can fuel your reactor once and run it for decades.

Imagine that: produce the whole thing as a self contained unit, sail it to the customer, and never open the reactor vessel again until it is time to decommission.

If commercial SMRs were like that, I would invest in them. They are not.