๐๐๐ ๐๐ต๐ฎ๐ ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ถ๐ ๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐ธ๐?
Aโ๏ธ462-wordโ๏ธ2.5-minuteโ๏ธread
Regular readers of my posts know I firmly believe we need to rejuvenate our nuclear effort if we are to achieve our climate goals. Small modular reactors or SMRs offer hope that nuclear can be built in a timely and cost-effective fashion.
However, as Iโm fond of saying, hope is not a strategy. The technology must prove itself in the market. For their part, climate advocates should stop viewing nuclear in historical terms, and support giving it a fair chance to succeed.
This is no longer your grandfathers nuclear. Most existing plants are 30 to 40 years old.
Think about that for a second.
What else in your daily life do you rely on thatโs 30-years old? A second should be all the time you need because the answer is nothing.
๐๐ฎ๐๐ฒ ๐ถ๐ป ๐ฝ๐ผ๐ถ๐ป๐ ๐ผ๐ป ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐ป๐ฒ๐ ๐๐๐ฎ๐๐ฒ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐ป๐๐ฐ๐น๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฟ:
A company called Deep Fission plans to install a nuclear reactor in Kansas.
What separates this reactor from your grandfatherโs reactors?
It will reside one mile deep in the ground.
Founded in 2023, Deep Fission is an advanced nuclear reactor company. Its goal is to place small reactors at the bottom of 30-inch mile-deep holes.
Sound crazy?
Maybe it is, but Iโd like to find out.
Another innovative aspect of the technology is that the radioactivity stays at the bottom of the hole. The only thing that rises to the surface is clean fresh water. The water is transformed into steam to run a turbine that generates electricity. Itโs then cooled and sent back into the borehole.
The approach combines two of what I consider the most promising clean technologies: nuclear and geothermal.
The Kansas project is one of 11 selected to participate in President Trumpโs nuclear pilot program. The goal of that program is to get at least three reactors operating at a state of steady fission before next July.
That probably isnโt going to happen, but I admire the stretch goal.
The Deep Fission design leverages the most common nuclear technology: pressurized water. The reactor will of course be small enough to fit in a 30-inch hole, and is expected to provide enough electricity to power 10,000 homes.
Hereโs another interesting feature of the design: itโs โdisposable.โ
The reactors are designed to operate for two to seven years, after which, it will either be sealed or a new reactor can be installed on top of the old one.
Will it work?
I donโt think anyone can definitely answer that question.
Still, I like the creative thinking that went into the design. Itโs the kind of thinking we need to achieve net-zero energy production, because intermittent solutions like wind and solar simply arenโt going to cut it in the long-term.
#nuclearenergy #nuclear #nuclearreactor #smr #advancednuclear