8 thoughts on “Georgia Nuclear Plant Ready to Load Fuel”
Can’t possibly use the same repeated design, must be bespoke every time. Then you wonder why the costs are so high. It seems only the Navy can use cost effective, repeated, designs.
Bespoke is not safer, the Navy has a better safety history than power generators.
Aye, a read a white paper way back in the 1990s which described why the original French nuclear reactors, with shared, experienced management and single, figure-it-out-once funding could be cost-effective compared to the onesy-twosy American style, each with its unique local jurisdiction, locally-managed utilities, newly-contracted construction companies, etc., that worked through a new learning curve every time.
My sister (industrial process engineer), pointed out that working with new clients and/or construction contractors always required a “getting to know you” startup time, while working with a familiar client or partner meant you already had built up the “rolodex” of contacts whom you’d know would be able to answer certain questions or resolve particular problems. (You’d also know which official contacts were a complete waste of time.)
Ah contractors (Building). Had my arse kicked because I used a more expensive company. After they used the Dodgy Brothers a few times, I was allowed to use the original company, because despite being twice the rate they always ended up cheaper with good work and no dramas with the pricing. Vs always expensive, some really dodgy work and days of arguments over extras. The Dodgy Brothers put more effort into hiding bad work than it would have been to fix the problem.
The thought of them doing anything with nuclear power is the stuff of nightmares.
Of course, with the warming world, we can’t use the same cooling system that relies on natural water sources in places where they made sense before, so that’s one design change that should be standardized.
I do note that the clip of Mark Nelson, in his description of the 2021 Texas Freeze outage, omitted the part where a thermal nuclear power plant also failed due to freezing problems.
Grid reliability* is a separate and multi-factorial issue. Other factors are extreme weather problems (whether freezing or heat waves), interruption of transmission (wildfires and tropical cyclones), underfunded maintenance cycles and/or fundamentally incompetent management.
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*Texas’ ERCOT doesn’t even prioritize reliability, because The Market (PBUI) is our god.
Texas had one of its four gigawatt-plus reactors tripped off, the other three ran at full power, so 75% capacity factor. The difference is that preventing hundreds of wellheads, thousands of turbine blades, and acres of coal yards, from freezing in extreme conditions is not going to be simple. Stopping a couple of sensor pipes from freezing, on a plant which can emit 2.5 gigawatts of waste heat continuously, between refuellings, for 18 months straight, shouldn’t take too much ingenuity.
Can’t possibly use the same repeated design, must be bespoke every time. Then you wonder why the costs are so high. It seems only the Navy can use cost effective, repeated, designs.
Bespoke is not safer, the Navy has a better safety history than power generators.
Aye, a read a white paper way back in the 1990s which described why the original French nuclear reactors, with shared, experienced management and single, figure-it-out-once funding could be cost-effective compared to the onesy-twosy American style, each with its unique local jurisdiction, locally-managed utilities, newly-contracted construction companies, etc., that worked through a new learning curve every time.
My sister (industrial process engineer), pointed out that working with new clients and/or construction contractors always required a “getting to know you” startup time, while working with a familiar client or partner meant you already had built up the “rolodex” of contacts whom you’d know would be able to answer certain questions or resolve particular problems. (You’d also know which official contacts were a complete waste of time.)
Ah contractors (Building). Had my arse kicked because I used a more expensive company. After they used the Dodgy Brothers a few times, I was allowed to use the original company, because despite being twice the rate they always ended up cheaper with good work and no dramas with the pricing. Vs always expensive, some really dodgy work and days of arguments over extras. The Dodgy Brothers put more effort into hiding bad work than it would have been to fix the problem.
The thought of them doing anything with nuclear power is the stuff of nightmares.
So yes contacts is an important consideration.
My husband had a saying that was awkward but apt: You don’t always get what you pay for, but you never* get what you don’t pay for.
_______
*Well, harrrdly ever!
Of course, with the warming world, we can’t use the same cooling system that relies on natural water sources in places where they made sense before, so that’s one design change that should be standardized.
I do note that the clip of Mark Nelson, in his description of the 2021 Texas Freeze outage, omitted the part where a thermal nuclear power plant also failed due to freezing problems.
Grid reliability* is a separate and multi-factorial issue. Other factors are extreme weather problems (whether freezing or heat waves), interruption of transmission (wildfires and tropical cyclones), underfunded maintenance cycles and/or fundamentally incompetent management.
_______
*Texas’ ERCOT doesn’t even prioritize reliability, because The Market (PBUI) is our god.
Texas had one of its four gigawatt-plus reactors tripped off, the other three ran at full power, so 75% capacity factor. The difference is that preventing hundreds of wellheads, thousands of turbine blades, and acres of coal yards, from freezing in extreme conditions is not going to be simple. Stopping a couple of sensor pipes from freezing, on a plant which can emit 2.5 gigawatts of waste heat continuously, between refuellings, for 18 months straight, shouldn’t take too much ingenuity.
Those West Texas wind turbines weren’t the winterized kind. The right configuration of wind turbines works just fine.