How it Works - the Micro Modular Nuclear Reactor
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- čas přidán 2. 12. 2022
- MMR is an advanced nuclear reactor made by Ultra Safe Nuclear to produce reliable energy anywhere. MMR uses TRISO particle Uranium fuel in our proprietary FCM Fuel pellets.
Learn more at www.usnc.com/mmr/
That is one of the most impressive and least advertised technologies i have ever seen in my 72 years on this planet. Bravo!!
We won`t see shit if it does not benefit governments directly :(
Jai Hinduja. The governments must really go down to the Shidao Bay nuclear plant in Shidaowan, China to get the most updated data on the benefits of running 4th generation triso pebble reactors.
@@TheBBoyPainJai Hinduja. South Africa will be trying to put up their design by the end of the decade.
This is 1960’s tech. Look up HTGR. Peach Bottom unit 1, Ft St. Vrain, Dragon, and AVR
IS A LIE Give Nuclear Your Money & Your Life For 24k Years No Nuclear Melt Down HAS EVER STOPPED @ 41 CPM
I'll be honest- It would be pretty cool to have a nuclear reactor underneath a substation and have localized nuclear energy.
@@00Tenrai00 not how that works, at all.
@@00Tenrai00 Did you watch the video? You can't have a meltdown with this design. It's 2024 and not 1954. We are more than capable of designing reactors that won't have a meltdown issue.
@@zombieshoot4318 you also have no idea what you're on about. Only types of gas cooled reactors, generally known as high-temperature gas-cooled reactors, such as the Japanese High Temperature Test Reactor and the United States' Very High Temperature Reactor, are inherently safe. Meaning that meltdowns and/or other types of core damage are physically impossible.
Also whose "we"? Lol you ain't designing fuel rods.
@@shadydealz
I’m sure he just meant humans in general and engineers to be specific.
I think Nuclear power is safe and efficient enough to use anywhere.
Even the earth made its own nuclear reactor billions of years ago in Oklo in Africa.
How micro can you go? I’d like one in my backyard for upcoming events.
@@shadydealz A google search does not make you an expert in anything.
I saw this in a paper years ago. It was developed by a German university years ago but then nothing heard about it until now! They had developed a micro nuclear reactor that theoretically could be placed in an individuals home or scaled up to produce power for a factory. The ceramic coating of the fuel allows it to be self regulating preventing it from entering a runaway reaction.
poor germans.
with but one big drawback: you could be INDEPENDENT !
@@bruceg1845 need self-reliance.
Western utilities companies will not allow SMRs to develop and installed commercially. But the fact of the matter is China, Russia and India see a potential market and opportunity to make problems for the West. Upcoming players will be Iran, North Korea, Pakistan and Turkey will thrown in the scenario. I predict whomever comes up a micro nuclear reactor or battery technology first will be driver's seat for modernization for years if not decades to come!!! Hahahaha
Sounds like something straight out of Fallout!
It seems almost too good to be true. Excellent sales pitch. I'd buy one.
Indeed. So how many have they made? (not sold, but actually constructed) We have loads of theoretical designs. Even scores of research reactors. But none have made it to the point of actual - legal - viability. NuScale apparently got there, and then went bankrupt or something.
@@jfbeam Don’t you think that the power that be have blocked most or all of these? ijs
@@jfbeam Yes the idea of financing the cost of not only a SMR but actually a factory to build SMR"s, and then start building SMR's means there is something like a 15-30 year pay back period, where in most finance things it is like 5-10 years. Sadly, I would love more people willing to fund the idea, to get it going. I think once they can turn one out per month, they will have a very efficient and inexpensive system.
Otherwise I would love to suggest that perhaps the Saudi Family Fund could pay for it to be built, but I don't know if that would fly because of the NRC might not like the fact that it is a non-domestic funding source.
@@jfbeam 0 made. 2 projects to break ground soon. this stuff takes time, alignment, and partnerships. Hope you wish us well!
@@eriklondon2946 you're right. it's quite the valley of death. we are undeterred. keep up the support! We've been to UAE for fundraising and projects. Incredible ambition and success with their 4 new reactors. They are cautious on new tech.
I want one the size of a microwave oven powering my house and electric vehicles.
Every small town needs one of these babies
Yes! I have been waiting for these things so that my soup thermos always has steamy delicious chicken noodle soup on those chilly autumn days.
Gonna try this in my backyard, thank you!
Done here
a guy did it once the EPA got pissed they'll fine you like $10,000,000 for clean-up
These are the kind of nuclear power units we were "sold" back in the 1950s and 60s when I was a kid. We thought everything, including cars and aircraft would be nuclear back then. But all the implementation mistakes in the ensuing decades almost screwed it out of existence. Maybe this will get nuclear back into the game. It would be PERFECT for a Lunar or Mars base!
Those original plants were conflicted and corrupted by corporate greed. The bigger they made them the more government kickback money got involved and the harder it was to trace. Not to mention huge amounts of electricity to profit on. Every risk and responsibility was subsidized by not being regulated safely if regulated at all. Those people involved have squandered our futures, have squandered the great promises of nuclear energy. They’re criminals against humanity of the highest order and deserve prosecution.
we hope so. our ceramic fuels resolve many of the accident consequence issues and our micro reactors unlock factory fabrication and safety. This is for all mankind!
@@ultrasafenuclear I think municipalities can be convinced to vote in tax levies for generators in which the citizens receive the electricity back as return on their investment. A kind of socialized energy.
Or the North Pole...... like a Canadian military base up there maybe?
Silicon Carbide is really neat stuff used in many advanced applications in other industries. I’ve worked with it, and while it was more costly than the alternatives it was a beautiful fit for a lot of applications.
Silicon Carbine, otherwise known as sandpaper, grinding wheels, etc. It isn't a new material nor is it special.
@@rgbcolor6450
Which invalidates nothing I said. The material is a good fit for many advanced applications, like diesel particulate filters, and other types of advanced filtration.
@@waynesworldofsci-tech I wasn't trying to invalidate your statement.. just pointing out that silicon carbide is a common material, not some special nuclear invention.
@@rgbcolor6450
Agreed. It’s old, but oh man are the new applications exciting!
@@rgbcolor6450 Which is even better! Since we don't have to allocate additional funds to invent some new wonder material.
This sounds very promising. I wish you success with the development.
These types of reactors is the future and can be installed closer to the end user thus minimizing adverse impacts on the various grids and other consumers of this power of heat and electricity
Yea. We want to get rid of the large scale grid long term. it's ugly and expensive, tacking on almost 50% of the cost delivered power.
I've been watching SMR presentations for years.
Until this point, I'd only seen one viable candidate, Moltex Energy.
Now I've seen two, congratulations.
Although one big question is use of nuclear approved materials, is there existing approval for all the materials?
Nuclear steels, etc.
What about the silicon carbide fuel matrix, will it need approval before it can be used?
That's often a death trap for new nuclear.
@@MostlyPennyCat Great points. The TRISO specification we are using has been approved, and used in multiple reactors, even some operating today.
The steels, graphite, etc are all conventional nuclear materials used in reactors today.
@@ultrasafenuclear
I know TRISO pebbles has been approved, but the TRISO & Silicon Carbide matrix is also approved for nuclear use?
That's excellent.
All but one of the Molten Salt Reactor Designs have pumped molten nuclear fuel. They require new nuclear steels.
Only Moltex Energy uses Approved Nuclear Steels, they get around this by having static molten salt fuel tubes.
They're currently building one in Canada.
To my eyes, only yourselves and Moltex have a dog in this race.
Best of Luck, you've got some serious competition in Moltex!
I used to work at a nuclear power plant that used helium as a coolant, thorium rods, and graphite blocks to contain the rods. It was closed years ago and was turned into a natural gas powered plant. Was an expensive experiment that did not pan out due to the technology was beyond the machinery capabilities.
Sounds like they have fixed the jamming problem that a pebble bed reactor reactor had by instead making the pebbles tinier and encasing them in fixed graphite fuel elements. It has key good features of the pebble bed reactor like thermal safety, but only lacks the ability to refuel while running. That was neat, but eliminating it made the reactor safer. Making the waste be self storing is also great. Seems to me they should be able to harvest the waste heat of waste fuel on a lower power level to power the reactor station. Why didn't Fukashima do that?
Isn't that just normal fuel rods?
Optimized for a specific temp range I imagine. Once the fuel is delivering heat below a threshold it can't meet power demands so your reactor is just taking up space and not being used to its potential. More codt effective to replace the fuel than to have many reactors running at 1/4 capacity.
We don't use pebbles. We use sesame sized TRISO particles embedded in pellets inside of big hexagonal blocks of graphite. The control rods just slide in and out.
Have to remember that Fukashima was designed and built in the 1960's and start working in 1971. The whole philosophy of design and building nuclear plants was different to today.
@@ultrasafenuclearСам реактор предполагает обслуживание?
Или после выработки топлива весь реактор утилизируется как контейнер с отходами?
This is what we need. I have a strong feeling oil companies will do whatever they can to stop it though.
honestly this tech has potental. I hope to see a physically reactor going online soon
We need all the support we can get. Everyone can help by talking about it, going to their local utility meetings, even just sending emails to your elected officials or the utility folks.
if this works then great job and I cant wait to see it in use.
If it works as well as you say it does, then job well done.
finally, people who are trying to make an actual difference.
LFG
The Philippines and usnc just signed a deal after the 123 agreement
Killing EARTH
@@FixItStupid its safe and is actually going to save earth
@@Beeman2892false
Miniaturizing it even further to power a small city block or just a few houses with a fully self-sustained system within a couple dozen square feet built two or three levels underground could be quite interesting. Main challenge is ofc the cost of installation and the issue with the fuel itself being mishandled or sabotaged by third parties, and to counter that one might need a sort of monitoring system with an oversight. Like imagine a sort of lock on the container similar to ankle locks that felons have to wear during house arrest etc.
I chuckled at the point about dissipating heat by glowing, because that's quite literally a thing: all objects lose heat via electromagnetic radiation. Fun fact: this is also how the James Webb space telescope is able to keep cool in deep space, even without anything else to conduct heat away.
It's called radiation, not "glowing." Pretty funny how they avoided the correct term because "glowing" sounds safer than "radiation."
Makes me wonder what else they may have misrepresented.
@@Based_transition_Clocker "Glowing" implies light, usually visible light, but in this case infrared. Infrared radiation is harmless as long as it gets absorbed by something which can be heated without damage, i.e. concrete in this case.
Even the radiation from (thermo)nuclear weapon detonations is mostly thermal. Radiation is a very general term and can refer to the entire electromagnetic spectrum. Look up ionizing vs non-ionizing radiation. The latter does not cause DNA damage, only heating at most.
@@jlp1528 nothing you wrote addresses the point I made.
@@Based_transition_Clocker What is confusing about my reply? In any case, all radiation from nuclear reactors is shielded with thick steel and concrete. Whether you're talking about the ionizing radiation, non-ionizing radiation, or neutrons, all of it is extensively monitored and none of it escapes the containment building.
@@jlp1528 Nothing about your reply is confusing. Aside from containing several errors, it simply doesn't address the point I raised in my post in any way. In other words it is you who is confused.
How do you reprocess Triso fuel? Can Triso fuel be manufactured with Thorium? Are designs 100 percent complete and ready to be built? Is the Ultrasafe Reactor licensed in any nation? Good graphics in the video.
Hopefully you will see this reply. I will attempt to answer your questions.
Anything can be reprocessed if we want to do so. Just because TRISO fuel can never break down in a reactor does not mean we will never be able to retrieve it and break it down in a reprocessing facility. That said, Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) and microreactors are meant to run with fuel of higher enrichment levels for greater lengths of time. This reduces the need for reprocessing in the first place, and greater ease of disposal also helps. Google "HALEU" (High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium) for more information.
As far as I know, thorium-based TRISO fuel does not exist yet, but nothing says it never will. After all, this isn't the only upcoming reactor that will use some form of TRISO fuel. Check out the Xe-100 by X-energy for another example. It seems TRISO users also love helium as a coolant. Given the impressive, practically perfect safety of both, I'm not surprised.
I would not say this or any new reactor design is "100% complete and ready to be built" until at least one has actually been built and tested. In the nuclear industry, designs get passed back and forth between companies, regulators, and other organizations, usually many times, before final approval and construction. I have included an example of this in the answer to your final question. Even after construction and activation, lessons are often learned and applied to future designs. I don't expect this to change, even as we see some reactors being mass produced in factories.
Currently, the only new reactor design licenced by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission of the United States is a 50 MWe SMR by NuScale. NuScale has since improved the design to increase power output to 77 MWe, but the revisions themselves will need approval. I'm not very good at keeping up with the regulatory agencies of other nations, but work is proceeding on many fronts to get numerous SMRs and microreactors licensed, tested, built, and operating around the world.
Will we see SMRs and microreactors bringing commercial power to the masses by 2030? Time will tell, but I'm cautiously optimistic. There is already at least one SMR facility under construction in China. New Memorandums of Understanding, environmental assessments, and funding agreements are making headlines every month on every continent except Antarctica. The future of nuclear power is safer, more reliable, more efficient, more flexible, and more powerful than ever before.
@@jlp1528NuScale turned out to be a scam. Now they're being sued by their investors for fraud.
For Thorium, They produce U-233 which could be used as a Nuclear fuel too
That is impressive, i feel like nuclear is the only option we really have to keep are civilization growing. Hope you get all the funding you need.
the problem is that this is very inefficient as the heat exchange using helium is not good at dissipating heat
Safety over efficiency
The energy density of nuclear fuel (especially HALEU fuel) is so high that the efficiency of the cooling system is of little consequence to the efficiency of the reactor as a whole. Regardless, safety is the number one priority here, as it should be. While stringent regulations do cause various problems in the nuclear industry, it's worth it to keep people and the environment safe. I'd rather have a hundred safe small reactors than one big Chernobyl. That's an exaggeration of course; comparing modern and future nuclear reactors to Chernobyl is like comparing modern airliners to the Hindenburg.
I mean it's almost at the level of refusing to buy coffee to save coffee money despite being richer than elon musk. The inefficiencies via helium can simply be minimized by the fact that Uranium is so energy dense.
We could use the heat to heat homes or we could put the reactor in a large water body. Would that work?
dam we need these in the usa wish your company lots of success
Nice overview. I'd love to dig in deeper. You've got my interest peaked.
I graduated with my engineering degree 50 years ago. At that time nuclear was the bright future, but for a lot of reasons it has never fully achieved the potential we predicted. Just think about 70 years ago they were putting nuclear power plants safely into submarines. This type of development seemed right around the corner at that time.
Sadly the anti-nuclear groups pressurised governments, who switched spending to other things, plus the media still open any discussion on nuclear power with a mushroom cloud, reinforcing deep seated fears. However, with alternatives energies now proving how difficult it is to build reliable 24/7/365 grid with intermittent power input, nuclear is now the obvious choice.
From what I've understood of naval reactors, they operate differently from power reactors. For the most part I think they are fast reactors.
@@s.a.3882 The reactors on submarines use weapons grade fuel - enriched to 20%. The US civilian nuclear industry uses fuel with a lower enrichment to avoid the risk of creating tons of high grade fuel that is outside the control of the military. Enriching fuel to 20% is 90% of the enrichment process, so it would be a much more tempting target for someone who wants steal themselves a nuclear bomb. And one of the byproducts of civilian nuc plants is plutonium and that became the feedstock for our weapons programs.
Another reason the navy uses high grade fuel is because it's not prone to xenon poisoning. Radioactive xenon builds up in a reactor as it runs. During normal operation it's just burned up as part of the normal process. But when you shut down a civilian plant that xenon is not burned up as power drops. The left over xenon prevents the reactor from being restarted until it falls below a certain threshold. A military vessel can't afford to shut down a reactor and then have to just wait around before starting it back up again. Someone might be shooting at them.
How large is the package? Power output? Lifespan? Maintenance? How is it handled at end of life?
Is this the same as Small Modular Reactor(SMR)?
Check out website for details: www.usnc.com/mmr/
That is so amazingly cool!
Love the idea
Thank you for developing such promising technology🎉
The name "Ultra Safe" is tempting fate.
do you have some ideas for a better name?
@@ultrasafenuclear Right off the top of my head?
I think "Eligius" sounds cool, and he's the patron saint of power. I'll think of more.
How about "Star Light Energy"?
I read a number of articles years ago about mini nuclear reactors some years back and have been fascinated by the concept ever since and I wish you all the success in the world.
@@Boppinabe that's more fusion related though. How about "Old Star Energy"
@@Boppinabe had never thought of that one. thanks
The micro nuclear reactor is the future of nuclear power, these miniature systems could power an entire city block by block. The efficiency of these is several magnitudes better than the older systems, and they are so very much betterthan the older systems as well, three of these would power the whole town i live in, and be able to supply not just power but heat as well. This is also the exact type if system thatbydenis completely opposed to at every turn.
Thanks. Keep up the support. Need every bit we can get.
@ultrasafenuclear I have read quite a bit about these miniature systems, and for the power out put of one of these, you get a lot of power. From what I understand they can also utilize fuel rods that are partially spent. The rods just need to be recast.
There is also Molten Salt Reactors, which can be used in replacement of the Helium in this situation. I personally would love to see a Small Modular Reactor (where you could have up to say 10 of them) next to each other all using a Molten Salt Reactor, so they could build up energy for large power draws from 2pm-9pm, especially during summer heat. I think it is the best and most efficient way.
If i have the money to get this i will schedule site inspection for installation immediately
why is this not famous already this is from a year ago
no idea. but we're the underdogs. fossil fuel companies dislike us. the nuclear industry dislikes us. the government dislikes us. etc.
I have been thinking of this for quite some time. Congratulations. Would appreciate a touch-base so I can learn more.
Wonder how feasible this is to be used on an industrial application, like factories or steel mills. Heard about this kind of reactor when Meralco, here in the Philippines stated they're planning to have one sometime in the future (2027-28)
The feasibility study is nearly finished. The real test will be deriving reactors and operating them for many decades.
What is the cost per KWH for manufacturing and maintenance? what is the lifespan?
We are designing the power plant for 40-year project lifetime, but fully expect that the civil works and much of the power plant will last 60-80 years and beyond. A gift for the future.
the $/kWh are acceptable for many users looking for zero carbon power on-demand.
This is suitable here in my island province with energy demand of around 20MW
It was so helpful
You need to sell this to the Australian government
we have team in Australia. Support needs to come from the bottom. Customers need to want it!
Seems very cool. Hope everything works out for you 👍
I'm so tired of waiting for my charcoal grill to heat up. I need this so it's always ready. Yes and I would also like to buy the huge lead oven mitts to replace the fuel.
I hope it's everything it's stated to be. Sounds promising!
safe nuclear energy for stability of the grid is inevitable
I'd love for this to become a reality!
How is this nuclear reactor not more common?
We need massive support from people like you to drive customers to make financial commitments.
Amazing but my only concern is the scarcity of helium. There was a massive shortage in 2021. Would any other alternatives work at safe levels?
Something like this is just been installed at an Air Force Base in Alaska.
I feel this should come with the rest of a Vault-Tec installation.
Hoping that this or similar becomes an acceptable way of providing all our power needs.
Simply Amazing stuff. What is that ticker symbol? :)
Neat idea, but I notice you did not mention one of these likely expensive reactors has the output of *3 wind turbines* (15 MW max).
I'm very pro-nuclear, but holy hell that is a really piss-poor fuel density, you'd practically be coating large portions of the landscape, or large areas of underground space, in these reactors. It'd be possible yeah, but it just seems unfeasible compared to constructing a single, centralized plant that produces gigawatts of power, and possibly for less money vs energy output.
Howdy folks! Come on down to Farmer Drew's Happy Hot Springs! Why worry about fickle geothermal heat and the potential for super caldera eruption? I've got a safe nuclear reactor under my land, it keeps the water toasty.
SO. i can have this in my basement right powering my home right? Its THAT SAFE right?
This look great !!! Definitely i will invest and buy share but is a privately held company 😮💨
Haw time this reactor will generate energy whit out replace or add new FCM fuel pellets ???
Excellent work, i need this in my basement
Miniaturize one for your house. Turn it on for a few minutes each week.
What they should do is design a spaceship with similar technology.
We are in fact designing Nuclear Thermal Propulsion engines. Nuclear fuel heat a hydrogen gas. Way more efficient than chemical rockets.
Not sure how I feel about graphite moderator with a helium coolant. But I love the design, it’s much like our pressurized water reactors, if the coolant goes away the reaction goes away, much different than the reactor at Chernobyl and others like the SL-1 reactor.
A great infomercial
This is what we are going to use in our project in Washington when designing off grid zero impact living. The future looks amazing.
Seems like a solid fuel like triso would create a lot of waste per MW/hr. It does seem safer that anything Westinghouse or GE came up with.
At first glance, it is understandable to get this impression. However, SMRs and microreactors are meant to operate without refuelling for many more years than current reactors. Instead of swapping out fuel elements every 2 or 3 years, you're looking at 5, 7, 20, and beyond. Some designs don't call for refuelling at all, they simply run until they can't run any more, at which point the core can be decommissioned and disposed of as a whole. Reprocessing options are also possible.
What about U-233?
This is the future
сколько построено работающих прототипов? сколько часот тоработано в тестах? картинки и презентации все могут рисовать.
HTTR Japan, very similar to MMR, operated many years and is being turned again now. Ft. St Vrain in Colorado operated for about a decade. HTR-PM in China is 2 pebble bed reactors with similar technology.
Our team and suppliers have all the power plant systems, fuel, and components needed to make this a reality.
Time to pack this into my backpack/spidertron
very interested in micro modular marine reactors that can generate 11 MW - 14 MW of power either collectively or singularly . . . really curious to know if extraction of usable electric power (for marine propulsion or otherwise) is possible without the need for gas turbines . . . if so what are the other options available . . . a combination of micro modular marine reactor & direct injection marine fuel turbines instead of the traditional marine gas turbine . . . such know how is priceless even for a layman or just for the sake of knowing . . .
where can I buy one
Bravo.
Where do I sign!?
Does it come in red? What's available power over cost of installement?
Cool
How do you maintain it?
Leak & Vent Cancer How They ALL Work See The Cancer Rate Down Wind & Water Up In To The Rain Fall OUT Cancer
Refueling. Constant monitoring and inspection. Swapping out components.
@@ultrasafenuclear Sounds great, thank you for your answer
AMAAAAAZIIIINGGGGG!!!!
or... CANDU... still perfectly safe as it always has been.
1:35 why does the fission reaction stop at higher temperature? If the reactor shuts down at high temperature, what stops it from starting again when it cools?
Astute. The higher temperature cause doppler broadening in the neutron cross section of U-238 particularly. This means more neutrons are absorbed, and the population of neutrons falls rapidly. You are quite right that as the power drops, and cooling is maintained, the temperature will go down again, and then the reactions will start up again. It will find an equilibrium, and the point is that this equilibrium temperature is much lower than the fuel temperature limits. This is true across a variety of extreme conditions that conventional reactors do not even entertain such as the total loss of coolant or the removal of all control rods. Thanks for the great question!
@@ultrasafenuclear How do the control rods go back in when the temperature rises to the fuel limit? Are they needed?
@@teemum.9023 they can be lowered. they are fault tolerant mechanisms, and gravity assisted to do so.
@@ultrasafenuclearDoes the lower equilibirium temperature happen when the rods are up so that the gravity assisted lowering is a second separate safety thing?
Sounds good, if they can actually make it work.
We are trying very hard. Our team is extremely motivated. Our partners are incredible. We need as much support as possible from users and customers!
Years ago in Canada they made a home hydronic whole house heating furnace that used spent waste the size of a pea said it could heat and cool a hose for ever. See we’re that went.
Cancer in a box?
eh, I wouldn't want that personally.
Does this qualify as one of those high temperature gas cooled reactors? I like the lack of water cooling, seems safer this way. But still, I'm much more interested in fluid fuel reactors. I hope your design is successful!
Precisely, and it's no secret why HTGRs are making a comeback: helium is almost everything you could want in a nuclear reactor coolant. It's already gas so it can't boil. It's physically, biologically, chemically, and radiologically inert. It's not hard to get. Even the lower efficiency can be mitigated by operating reactors at higher temperatures; the hotter something gets, the faster it can conduct and radiate heat away. Of course, helium is a very small atom, so it really likes to find leaks, but preventing leaks of anything is hardly a new or unusual challenge in the realm of nuclear power.
WEREIS MINE, I WANT ONE
go to your local utility meetings. ask them about using Micro Modular Reactors. It can be done.
I believe it when I see it.
What's that saying? "When something sounds too good to be true" I think that's it. lol
You need to make a proposal to teh president of Mexico, with our country reaching record high temperatures we need better and more reliable energy soltions with low risk.
You should make the proposal. Build a coalition, pitch it to your local utilities.
Yea, but will it charge my phone and laptop at the same time?
I don’t need it but I want it
Nah, I will just wait until MR Fusion is available at a big box store.
Well it sounds and looks great, but what are the numbers?
Your solutions can work for base load and demand generation like a natural gas plant, so that will be your main competition. According to news sources covering the new Cascade power plant in Alberta, a modern combined-cycle natural gas plant can produce 900 MW on about 128 acres of land, at a build cost of $1.2 Billion US. Your site states a land use of 5 acres to produce 3.5-15 MW of electricity. Optimistically, your solution can produce 42% of the power that a natural gas plant can with the same amount of land. That's not a dealbreaker per se, so it's all going to come down to cost.
So essentially the reactor containment vessel, is it's own vessel for when it is decommissioned and sent to bed for disposal in a radioactive repository?
no. we remove the graphite fuel blocks and stick them in dry cask storage. The vessel is reused for the next batch of fuel. It's pretty thick steel vessel (4-5cm thick) so good to keep using. like reusable rockets
They're making a lot of bold statements...
better bold than timid. it's an amazing technology. we have a lot to prove in the practical implementation.
@@ultrasafenuclearwhat happens when you experience a melt down. Lives lost, locale ruined! For hundreds and thousands of years!
@@00Tenrai00 Few decades at most, really. The area around chernobyl is almost back to normal background levels of radiation
Just curious, has anyone every advertised their reactor design as NOT safe? I feel like every reactor that has had a catastrophic event had some marketing materials just like this that preceded it.
TBF, of all failed power reactors, AFAIK, only RBMK was a "fly-by-wire" one, relying almost entirely on SKALA's PRISMA program to remain stable, due to positive void coefficient.
This one seems to lack such a dangerous peculiarity.
How many reactors have had a catastrophic event?
Clean energy of future
Where is this being used at this time?
Sounds too good to be true... but I never thought I would have a 5nm chip and now have a 3nm chip in my latest macbook.
great analogy. amazing things are possible. And this project is actually down to earth in the world of nuclear.
Are these akin to the "pebble" reactors used on nuclear powered ships and submarines? If so, they have a proven track record and should be implemented throughout the country.
Nice. I'll take two of those with fries and a coke to take out.
so I have questions: what is the expected power capability for one unit? put it in terms of kilowatt hours? The comparison to barrels of diesel for one "pellet" is not helpful. How many pellets in one MMR reactor, how much kilowatt hours of power is produced? I like the safe design...it's nice...but isn't it also true that the limiting the heat capability also works the other way? as in, there is ceiling of power that cannot be exceeded? What would be the use case for such a MMR reactor? Are we really talking about installing thousands and thousands of these across the entire continent? Or are we talking about thousands that are collocated in say 50 locations ? What would be the advantages apples to apples (kilowatt hours) to very large conventional nuclear reactors that have a much higher power rating? I'm trying to wrap my head around what this technology actually presents in terms of competitive advantage...is it just simply safety....because if it's simple safety as the metric...I could argue that conventional nuclear reactors are quite safe and with a few additional reconfigurations in the existing nuclear conventional reactors at least as safe and possibly more safe. So what is this new technology really going to do ? I am skeptical. I am skeptical because there are so many novel technologies we see that makes the news..but when you drill down there are some deep flaw and even misrepresentations ....what the US NEEDS is to stop the nonsense and start engineering that actually works and can be proven to work..and what i mean by work: please stop the nonsense with hydrogen powered fuel cell cars...the net power required to produce hydrogen exceed the power output. That has never made any economic sense. The more we look at some of these new technologies, the more they appear to be nothing more than money hauls to get grants and federal money and actually do nothing to solve "net zero" or green alternative....
about the best we have so far seems to be solar. But the problem with solar is SCALE....and there are obvious real world problems that cannot be overcome easily.
USNC's website lists power ratings of 3.5-15 MWe and 10-45 MWth per unit. Of course there will be a tradeoff between the two, and the exact configuration will depend on what the customer needs. Electricity isn't the only thing nuclear reactors can be used for. Heat can be used directly for industrial applications. District heating in particular does not require very high temperatures, only an effective and efficient system to absorb, transfer, and release heat from a great potential variety of sources.
I understand the economic concerns, but remember that renewables are only so far ahead of nuclear because they have been granted at least ten times more investment and attention for decades. The more we invest in SMRs and microreactors, the more affordable they will become. Also, remember that in 50 years a nuclear power plant is still a nuclear power plant, and it might even still be fully operational. In 50 years, heck, in 20 years, a field of solar panels is a field of toxic waste.
Very Interesting. Good Info, appreciate it. I was not even thinking about the heating application and how small scale could be used for very large manufacturing and assembly facilities. I am not opposed to nuclear energy. I think it's an optics problem with several high level mishaps, but those can be solved with better safety controls and location. Why build next to a earthquake zone or near a shoreline where tsunamis are non trivial. I do like the SMR design in this video due to the fail safes that are engineered into the design. Hopefully the US realizes that investments in this area is necessary and we don't put all our eggs in the basket of solar and wind and hydrogen, but that seems to be the current economic agenda. The renewal and safe energy paradigm must be capable of overcoming a 4 year political cycle. I worry that the US will take the german option and condemn nuclear and then wind back to square one with coal and NG gas energy facilities. It's a lack of long term strategic investment. Right now, it all seems to be a hurried short term cobbled plan that doesn't realize a determined goal. We have milestones to reach and these are stated in general terms, with few actual realistic investment strategies to achieve them. It seems the ordinary citizen believes that owning an EV car for example is going to make a difference and lacks the bigger picture that an entirely different paradigm shift must take place about HOW energy is produced. It's hard to imagine the world moving away from classic forms of energy in the current circumstances given there is no business advantages to make the transformation happen without a very long and very expensive investment to do so. SMR's can definitely play a role in this transition..@@jlp1528
@@tdmmcl1532 These things take time. Solar, wind, and other renewables definitely have their place, but even after all this time and money, they still only provide about 11% of electricity in the US. Compare that to nuclear energy, which provides about 8% despite decades of delays, billions of dollars in budget overruns, and not nearly the same attractive image as that of renewables. What we need is a good mix of energy sources and storage solutions on a case by case basis. There is no "one size fits all" energy mix; many factors need to be considered to determine the ideal energy mix for any given scenario. USNC themselves talk much more about potential applications and energy mix options in their most recent CZcams video. It's about twice as long as this one, but well worth watching.
Again, while it may sound counterintuitive, renewables are "cheap" and "attractive" only because we have invested so much in them in the first place. If we had instead invested in nuclear, we would be in a far better position, even taking all the disadvantages into account. Yet despite the relative lack of investment, the nuclear industry has solved incredible scientific and engineering challenges. Lack of public understanding and political will, on the other hand... I imagine these videos are made to help tackle such remaining issues, not just to sell new reactors.
I will copy and paste the last paragraph of another comment I made so you don't have to dig for it. It's very relevant to your concerns.
Will we see SMRs and microreactors bringing commercial power to the masses by 2030? Time will tell, but I'm cautiously optimistic. There is already at least one SMR facility under construction in China. New Memorandums of Understanding, environmental assessments, and funding agreements are making headlines every month on every continent except Antarctica. The future of nuclear power is safer, more reliable, more efficient, more flexible, and more powerful than ever before.
@@jlp1528 I appreciate your detailed and informed reply. I am rethinking a change in my profession from wide body commercial avionics tech to nuclear and possibly solar in the maintenance segment. I've pretty much hit my career potential in avionics and nuclear and solar seems to be a good next level step. So this is also a "selfish" interest in these two fields. Any advice on opportunities is of course 😁
@@tdmmcl1532 I am not an expert, I just learn as much as I can from experts and attempt to share it with others. I've been fascinated, perhaps even a little obsessed with radioactivity since middle school. I'm 29 now. Don't worry, I'm sure USNC, X-energy, NuScale, and more will have plenty of opportunities in the years to come. GE/Hitachi, Westinghouse, and other more established names will have to keep up too, as will governments, mines, enrichment facilities, fuel fabs, reprocessing plants, the list goes on. Like I said, the future is bright!
I’ll take a dozen. Thank you
How naive are you!?
Yes!