Kanada skizziert die bevorstehende Kernenergiestrategie und sieht 40 Millionen US-Dollar für Verteidigungs-Mikroreaktoren vor
Canada outlines upcoming Nuclear Energy Strategy, includes $40M for defence Microreactors
Kanada skizziert die bevorstehende Kernenergiestrategie und sieht 40 Millionen US-Dollar für Verteidigungs-Mikroreaktoren vor
Canada outlines upcoming Nuclear Energy Strategy, includes $40M for defence Microreactors
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This nuclear strategy finally addresses the reality that intermittent energy isn’t enough for a country with our geography and industrial needs. Using the defense budget to pilot microreactors is a smart way to prove the tech in remote areas before a wider rollout, essentially using military necessity to subsidize the high costs of innovation. It prioritizes reliable, high-density baseload power over optics, but the real test will be whether the government can actually hit their milestones and keep procurement transparent. We need to see strict accountability and clear results to ensure this doesn’t just become another stalled federal project that never makes it past the R&D phase.
The US army and navy investigated tiny reactors for remote installations. The Soviets investigated it and even tried going into mass production. The Russians later repurposed one of their naval reactor designs to be a floating power reactor which they can just tether off-shore wherever they might need 70 megawatts of electricity.
70 MW. Reactors don’t really get much smaller than that.
70 MW is the average demand of a small city.
The heating load for McMurdo station in Antarctica in winter with ~250 people is like 2 megawatts.
Elmendorf Airforce Base in Alaska is one of the largest US installations with like ~40,000 people and the average thermal demand in winter appears to be about 20 MW.
Reactors are just too big for this application.
With that said — lot of promise in low intensity nuclear. It’s hard to overstate how much easier it is to build a reactor when it does not need to be pressurized and just has to heat water up to near boiling. Almost all safety concerns around a reactor involve steam explosions or loss of pressurized coolant. Reactors designed just to heat water have neither of these issues. There should probably be heating micro-reactors in every city and suburb large enough to warrant it.