US Approves Two New Nuclear Reactors 596
JoeRobe writes "For the first time in 30 years, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved licenses to build two new nuclear reactors in Georgia. These are the first licenses to be issued since the Three Mile Island incident in 1979. The pair of facilities will cost $14 billion and produce 2.2 GW of power (able to power ~1 million homes). They will be Westinghouse AP1000 designs, which are the newest reactors approved by the NRC. These models passively cool their fuel rods using condensation and gravity, rather than electricity, preventing the possibility of another Fukushima Daiichi-type meltdown due to loss of power to cooling water pumps." Adds Unknown Lamer: "Expected to begin operation in 2016 or 2017, the pair of new AP1000 reactors will produce around 2GW of power for the southeast. This is the first of the new combined construction and operating licenses ever issued by the NRC; hopefully this bodes well for the many other pending applications."
That's all well and good, but... (Score:3, Funny)
...as soon as someone forgets to pay the gravity bill, it's Fukushima all over again!
Re:Typical (Score:5, Funny)
Re:No More Nuclear Waste Siting Problem? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Liquid Floruide Thorium Reactors Please! (Score:4, Funny)
I submitted plans for a flow-through microcapillary array making use of liquefied and diluted fissile fuel to Battelle Memorial Institute while working there (2004-2005). Modern day reactor pebbles are rarely used to more than a quarter of their fissile capacity--primarily because there is so little fissile material in the bulk rock that, at that point, it fails to generate enough heat to be useful. By dissolving and diluting the material the fission reactions could be metered to near atomic identity (one for one, ensuring no unused fuel on the flow out end).
The primary design problem was operating close to absolute zero. Good luck pushing any liquid through an array of microcapillary tubes and through the fission chamber (filled with gamma radiation to creat the fission events) at that temperature.
The primary political problem was a ban on combining breeder reactors with actual production reactors. The design for the microcapillary flow-through chamber involved the generation of the liquid fuel (breeder) to be, more or less, on the lab bench adjacent to the electricity producing reaction chamber engine. Due to problems in the past, and concern over record-keeping and stolen fissile material, the generation of the fuel material must be in a seperate facility from the reactor which is attached to the electricity producing turbines.
All of that aside... nuclear reactors are really a method for human corpse disposal. The trees were much taller until you sinners began dropping out of that tower you were building, and those corposes have lots and lots of water in them. The Egyptians used to press the bodies into bricks--some bricks (eg. Methuseleh), would take hundreds of years to dry out and press together. Stonehenge and Woodhenge are the dregs and the froth from the tun when they began stewing the bodies together en masse. Nuclear reactors were developed in the attempt to dry and press the bodies without clogging up all of the world's real estate. A nuclear reactor is a crematorium array.
Better analogy (Score:5, Funny)
That amount of power is sufficient for approximately 1.81 time-travelling DeLoreans.
Re:Liquid Floruide Thorium Reactors Please! (Score:2, Funny)
There has been a cabal inside the Slashdot moderators who have been killing on me since the beginning of time. Similar to wheel of fortune... they have more money, I am more intelligent.
Fact: I did submit plans for a microcapillary flow-through nuclear fission reactor while working at Battelle Memorial Institute.
Fact: Human bodies do not burn very well due to all of the water encased in the amino acid sequences which make up every single protein and enzyme in the body.
Fact: Since the beginning of time, that is an enormous number of two hundred pound wet boogers to dry out.
Do the math.
Re:Typical (Score:5, Funny)
wow, i thought you were joking until I looked it up
http://blogs.oracle.com/templedf/entry/it_s_the_tachyon_signature [oracle.com]
Re:About time (Score:4, Funny)
I remember when I didn't have seven items in the same room needing an outlet - there was a TV, a lamp and maybe a small floor heater.
Okay, okay, I'm getting off your lawn now ..
Re:About time (Score:2, Funny)
We shouldn't have to use less energy. That defeats the entire point of progress. Using more energy is a good thing because its a sign you are capable of things that require that much power. But we do need to make sure we can provide for our power needs.
So if I plug a 10 ohm, 10,000 watt (1%, because I'm all about quality) resistor into my wall outlet and watch it glow, I'm progressing?
Fascinating.
Re:About time (Score:4, Funny)
Re:because we learned nothing from Fukushima (Score:4, Funny)