this post was submitted on 01 Jun 2024
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Small modular nuclear reactors get a reality check in new report (newatlas.com)
submitted 5 months ago by machinin@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
153 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

[T]he report's executive summary certainly gets to the heart of their findings.

"The rhetoric from small modular reactor (SMR) advocates is loud and persistent: This time will be different because the cost overruns and schedule delays that have plagued large reactor construction projects will not be repeated with the new designs," says the report. "But the few SMRs that have been built (or have been started) paint a different picture – one that looks startlingly similar to the past. Significant construction delays are still the norm and costs have continued to climb."

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[–] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 5 points 5 months ago (13 children)

So, essentially, nuclear power is like airships, except with worse disasters?

[–] arlaerion@lemmy.ml 6 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (12 children)

More people died in airship incidents than in civil nuclear power.

E: typo

[–] jabjoe@feddit.uk 4 points 5 months ago (9 children)

Mmmm. Looking at:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airship

Roughly I'd say it's at most 200-300 people. Airships just didn't carry many at once.

If you look at:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_nuclear_and_radiation_fatalities_by_country

You easily go past the airships estimate. One that surprised me was: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windscale_fire

"Estimated 100 to 240 cancer fatalities in the long term"

You can beat airships deaths will just one of big accidents.

https://ourworldindata.org/what-was-the-death-toll-from-chernobyl-and-fukushima

[–] arlaerion@lemmy.ml 2 points 5 months ago (2 children)

I explicitly wrote "civil nuclear power". I know there were big incidents, especially in early military nuclear sites. Windscale and Kyshtym are two of those.

[–] jabjoe@feddit.uk 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Kind of academic as your still go past the small number killed in airships.

[–] arlaerion@lemmy.ml 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airship_accidents

For the total number of airships, the loss of life (and airships) is quite high...

[–] jabjoe@feddit.uk 1 points 5 months ago

I get about 450 (as kids bounce on me). It's not nothing, about the same as Chernobyl alone (many got thyroid cancer but lived). Let alone adding 2314 for Fukushima.

[–] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 0 points 5 months ago (1 children)

So we agree, airships and nukes are both outmoded, old tech.

also, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_Daiichi_nuclear_disaster_casualties

[–] arlaerion@lemmy.ml 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

I never agreed that its outmoded or old tech.

At Fukushima Daichii died one worker of radiation poisoning and one in a crane incident. The evacuation killed 51 more. Scientific consense is, that the loss of life and cumulative lifetime would have been lower if there was no evacuation.

[–] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

"No evacuation." Have you ever actually talked to people?

You know that nuclear power plant up the road? They just had a big accident, we don't know exactly what's going on, and at least one person is already dead from radiation. But it's fine, and you shouldn't worry or leave the area.

[–] arlaerion@lemmy.ml 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

There was a massive tsunami in the area killing almost 20k people, the power plant was not their first concern.

The guy died 4 years after the accident from lung cancer, not very common in nuclear power.

[–] Dagwood222@lemm.ee 1 points 5 months ago

You know that nuclear power plant up the road? They just had a big accident, we don’t know exactly what’s going on, and at least one person is already dead from radiation. But it’s fine, and you shouldn’t worry or leave the area.

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