NuScale’s small reactor project in Popular Mechanics

ByRod Adams

I have mentioned NuScale’s small light water reactor project several times in the past few months.

Growing buzz about small reactors that can be built in series production schemes

Cookie cutter plants may reduce initial costs of new nuclear power

Endurance and resilience – key attributes of an atomic power system

Now, the company is getting some real attention from the mainstream media and the blogosphere because of an article in the August 2008 issue of Popular Mechanics titled Mini Reactors Show Promise for Clean Nuclear Power’s Future:
If new portable reactors get the green light this month, nuclear energy could be rolled out in the furthest reaches of the United States.

Even my friends at NEI are starting to “get” the message that has been a part of the Atomic Insights vision since its introductory issue in April 1995 – small is beautiful when it comes to nuclear power.

Each 45-megawatt electrical unit would generate enough power for about 45,000 homes. By comparison, plants operated today generate 1000 to 1700 megawatts, according to NRC spokesman Scott Burnell. “You can’t take an AP1000, a large base-load reactor, and put it down where there’s no grid to support it. A smaller design could be useful in a remote setting.”

NuScale, Hyperion and others (grin) are showing the way.

Rod Adams
Rod Adams

Rod Adams is Managing Partner of Nucleation Capital, a venture fund that invests in advanced nuclear, which provides affordable access to this clean energy sector to pronuclear and impact investors. Rod, a former submarine Engineer Officer and founder of Adams Atomic Engines, Inc., which was one of the earliest advanced nuclear ventures, is an atomic energy expert with small nuclear plant operating and design experience. He has engaged in technical, strategic, political, historic and financial analysis of the nuclear industry, its technology, regulation, and policies for several decades through Atomic Insights, both as its primary blogger and as host of The Atomic Show Podcast. Please click here to subscribe to the Atomic Show RSS feed. To join Rod's pronuclear network and receive his occasional newsletter, click here.

Similar Posts

  • Response to Joseph Romm's Salon article titled "Nuclear Bomb"

    ByRod Adams

    Joseph Romm recently published an article at Salon.com titled Nuclear Bomb that attempted to prove that nuclear fission power plants were too expensive to consider building without massive government subsidies. He has apparently failed to understand or acknowledge what is happening in the electrical power industry and in the energy industry in general. He also…

  • More "Little Guys" Rallying The Troops for Natural Gas

    ByRod Adams

    A couple of days ago, I blogged about the interesting way that National Public Radio (NPR) produced a three part feature piece on natural gas that portrayed the extraction businesses involved in natural gas as powerless “little guys”. That blog post, like all Atomic Insights blog posts, was republished at The Energy Collective, where it…

  • Am I really a "crackpot"?

    ByRod Adams

    During a recent vanity search through Technorati to find out who is linking to Atomic Insights and what they are saying about it, I came across a comment dated March 23, 2008 on Capitol Valley titled (crackpot) Reader Feedback! and realized that I was the “crackpot” in the subject line. Rod Adams, of the Atomic…

  • Some Kilowatt-Hours , Like Some "Seat-hours", Are More Valuable Than Others

    ByRod Adams

    One of the debate challenges that pro-nuclear advocates face is that the forces opposed to using nuclear energy have some glib spokesmen who have been able to insert so much chaff into the argument that casual observers get completely befuddled. One of the more difficult rhetorical tools to overcome is the idea that nuclear power…