/sci/ - Science & Math

>>14682155
>but as shown it quickly hit a wall
It's really quite interesting that the laws of physics are different in the US compared to other countries.

>>14573026
Just have the French build it. Or the Chinese (who are building French reactors). Americans cannot build them on budget for some reason.

>>14527846
Some of this, but also because the West has largely screwed up regulations as a knee-jerk reaction to Chernobyl (which had a completely different reactor design) and Three Mile Island (which resulted in 0 deaths and to be fair also did result some shortcomings). In addition, powerful political factions see it as an existential threat (oil & gas) while others are useful idiots for the above (greenies). Here's a good article on the subject:
https://rootsofprogress.org/devanney-on-the-nuclear-flop

>>14512969
>althought that's true you can't run the entire grid off of just nuclear. you need some natl gas in your energy mix to deal with momentary fluctuations in demand.
Energy storage and batteries are, ironically, a good fit for this short-duration (<8 hour) variations. They give the plants enough time to spin up/down and you don't need the gargantuan amount of backup power wind/solar need because it's firm generation. For example if you need between X and 2X power generation over a day, you can have the plant provide 1.5X continuously and store the surplus for when it is needed.
>>14512962
>>14512887
Prior to the laws of physics changing (but only within the borders of the US) after the 1970's, nuclear was actually quite cheap Pic very much related.