More importantly power generation on demand, with no dependence on sunshine or wind speed, and no need for massive, heavy metal batteries.
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To speed up the development of nuclear power, the orders grant the U.S. energy secretary authority to approve some advanced reactor designs and projects, taking authority away from the independent safety agency that has regulated the U.S. nuclear industry for five decades.
Nominated bureaucrats have no business elbowing in on Ph.Ds in matters of extreme artisan metallurgy. Reactor engineering is the wrong place to skimp on NRC diligence.
Youâre assuming that the âindependent safety agencyâ are PhDs.
What I see in the quoted text is one bureaucracy replacing another.
I agree with you that the real experts ought to be the authority.
Holtecâs repair plan is scheduled to start this summer following inspection and testing, spokesperson Nick Culp told CNBC. Holtec can go ahead with the tube repairs on its schedule, but the company does so at its own risk as the NRC will decide whether the repairs meet requirements in the end, Burnell said.
But during the Jan. 14 meeting, NRC branch chief Bloom pushed back on Holtecâs statements that the companyâs repair plan is following industry precedent.
âEven though youâre quote, unquote, following a precedent, itâs not exactly, because itâs a different material, different type of sleeving,â Bloom said at the January meeting. The sleeve design that Holtec is proposing for the repairs has not been installed in steam generators before, though it has been used in other heat exchangers at nuclear plants, according to a company filing.
The sleeves are made of an alloy that has not shown signs of cracking in U.S. or international plants, according to the filing. The component has a service life of no more than 10 years, the filing said. Culp said testing and analysis of the sleeves âsupport the expectation of longer-term performance.â
I think this is a good example of why the NRC should always have the final say on reactor engineering. This meticulous attention to detail is where the safety of nuclear power comes from.
I donât trust a political nominee know enough about heat exchangers, steam generators, or metallurgy to push back against Holtec in a situation like this. But, Steve Bloom at the NRC is smart enough about all three to recognize a deviant operating procedure.
It might be just as safe, but heâs not going to take their word for it. Thatâs the guy you want calling all the shots, rather than hand-picked political creatures.
anyone in the industry knows that the nrc is more hinderance than it is diligence. and dont think everyone at the nrc is a phd adding value
thereâs plenty of room to cut some red tape. yes it will prob mean jobs
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Not in reactor design. Every single bend in every pipe of a salt reactor is enough work to be a graduate project for all the engineering disciplines at once.
Itâs not a good idea to move those reviews from the desks of the NRC to a desk that Rick Perry once sat behind.
thatâs not going to happen. there will still be plenty of expertise to guarantee safety
less bureaucracy means getting more lmfrâs faster
Just let the experts supplying the expertise do the whole job then. All reactor design approvals should be left in the NRC.
There is no situation where an energy secretary can use their new approval power responsibly.
theyre not the only ones with the expertise.
part 21 will still be in effect. no one is going to start making unsafe nukes
This is another Executive agency set up outside of the Executive Branch. That is the problem here. It is another little independent executive kingdom, that doesnât want to officially answer to the elected chief executive.
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Is it really a problem? The American nuclear safety record speaks for itself. Wiser presidents didnât even try to elbow in on NRC design approvals.
I believe, with the recent policy change, the cautionary tale of Stockton Rush has become relevant to this thread.
Energy secretaries should remember their limitations be very careful about quickly approving iterations of cutting edge technology over the heads of cautious expertise. Sometimes you just canât cut and go fast when a mere hotspot or corroded weld has unacceptable consequences.
Nah bro I want Soviet levels of safety. Where itâs a vibe, not a policy.
Not when that so called oversight seems focused on shutting down US Nuclear power.
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Safety costs money. The NRC is doing what itâs supposed to doâgetting designs bulletproof, stupidproof, and overbuilt enough that every system can do its job twice over. They arenât the problem.
The left made nuclear power a boogieman a long time ago and has actively campaigned to shut it all down. And considering that Nuclear power is an all season, 24-7, on demand power source, with a much smaller physical footprint than solar farms and wind turbine fields, It clearly represents a financial threat to the so-called renewable sacred cows.
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You guys blame the left like you donât have your own neighborhoods, states, federal administrations and checkbooks to pay for whatever you want.
The real reason nuclear power declined is becase the 10 billion dollar per gigawatt price floor canât compete.
so does inefficiency
they can still do all this. just more efficiently
should it be this expensive?
you didnt mention how long it takes. ten years or so now
these things have to improve
Itâs only going to improve with a Chinese-style approach. Build them one trillion dollars at a time and get good at making them.
