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  1. Really neat idea but the cost is prohibitive. The information from the website links to a paper written in 2011. The cost estimate in 2011 was $99.7 million for 2 10MWth units or $122.5 million for a single 20MWth unit. As we can see from the the VCS and Vogtle units, you can probably double the cost estimate since 2011 for the micro-units too. Now we are looking at the realistic price range of about $200 million for 8MWe output. $200 million can buy one heck of a diesel generator and a lot of fuel for a small community. It all comes down to cost.

    1. Any design that requires a gas-gas heat exchanger and on site fuel handling will always have significant costs, but I don’t think that you need to double the price based on recent experience in the US. The cost estimates were based on other first of a kind reactors, and the technology involved is much easier to manufacture than the giant components needed for a big LWR. It’s quite possible that with a friendly regulatory environment, good project managers and high volume manufacturing that this could be cheaper than diesel in remote communities, and if you get volumes large enough then clusters of a few dozen reactors derived from this technology might even find a place on conventional grids.

      That being said, I think that this particular design will always be expensive compared to simpler designs, but the extremely high safety factors and small size do make it interesting. If anyone is interested the 2011 paper is available at https://www.u-battery.com/_/uploads/AExecSummary.pdf and some additional technical details are available at https://www.u-battery.com/media.

  2. I wish them well.
    The thought of a helium primary and nitrogen secondary is very intriguing.
    I wonder if it could pair an Ultra High Temperature Reactor with an Adams Engine . . .

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