Gillette WY to start building nuclear power plants

[GSPHUNTER]

Building a nuclear power plant cost billions of $$$. Building a large reservoir to supply the water need for the large cooling towers would be a minor cost. Assuming there is a river somewhere not to far away to divert water to fill the reservoir and add as needed to make up for loss from evaporation. Large windmill and solar farm are joke IMHO. Aside from being flat ass ugly. People say build them, just not in our backyard, the farms, that is.

 

[RS_Non-Res]

In 2018, nuclear power supplied 71.67% of the electricity in France, the highest percentage in the world (wikipedia, fwiw). They are having repair and maintenance backups right now, but part of that is b/c they built so many in a short time frame and many of them are comming up for major renovations and equipment swapouts at the same time.

The power plants that are planned for construction in this venture are not the steriotypical gigawatt plants with huge cooling towers. These are ~20 MW "microreactors" (~1/10 the size of a typical submarine reactor).

https://inl.gov/trending-topics/microreactors/

The fuel isnt the only waste though. The containment vessel and heat trasfer fluids can get nasty too.

 

[Mojave]

I did Reactor safety for a few years. Maybe I can move home to Wyoming finally.

 

[Catchfish]

How much waste comes from these little reactors, we should just launch it into space it’s endless right.

 

[IDVortex]

If we want clean, reliable energy we'd do nuclear. Technology has came a long ways since Chernobly, Fukushima was avoidable if they thought the process through.

I'm all for nuclear power. It's the only eco friendly power we have right now.

 

[Dooms]

Sadly, it doesn't look like they are building a big reactor in Gillette. Instead, they are doing something we should have done decades ago. Decentralize the grid.

Project Pele

If every subdivision, hospital, and city block had a micro-grid powered by one of these, a lot of the ugly cyber vulnerabilities we are faced with would go away.

My sister-in-law did some of the design work on the Nevada disposal site. We should be using it. Instead, environmentalists are working ever so hard to ensure cheap energy goes away.

- Dooms

 

[CMF]

Build baby, build.

Agree!

I'll just put this here:
Fukushima, Three Mile Island, and Chernobyl familiar to anybody?

There are 430+ reactors operating around the world, 93 in the US most of which have been around quite a while(40 plus years). The nuclear industry operates a lot differently than other industries, they share information with other plants and mitigate any risk. After Fukushima, they all made additional safeguards for potential risk. I've worked in Manufacturing, Oil and Gas and Nuclear is by far the safest industry to work in. There were zero deaths at either Fuk or three mile from radiation.

Biggest issue will be the budget overruns that ultimately the citizens pay for.

Budget issues aren't unique to nuclear, just look at the Kemper Project.

Bad side of nuclear is the obvious, but the not so obvious is the loss of jobs.

That's like saying we shouldn't go to digital media because newspaper editors are losing their jobs. Nuclear employs a good bit of people to build and maintain, not to mention security and associated jobs.

Nuclear energy is the best! Only downside is where to safely dump the very small, but highly radioactive waste for thousands of years. I don’t think any has ever left any of the plants, because no one wants it. Nevada was considered decades ago.

None has left the plants. It takes up less than an acre. At the rate of advancing technology, I'm sure there will be a solution to the waste eventually.


I'll take a 100-acre nuclear plant footprint over 7000 acres of solar panels.

 

[Coveyleader]

about time
one more reason I like Gillette

You must be a current or ex truck driver!

 

[Wyo_hntr]

This one of the dumbest and reckless things I've heard of..

 

[HUNTNUT]

I'll just put this here:
Fukushima, Three Mile Island, and Chernobyl familiar to anybody?

They plan to use the reactors to power coal/methane facilities a

I'll just put this here:
Fukushima, Three Mile Island, and Chernobyl familiar to anybody?

They plan to use the reactors to power coal/methane facilities around the state.

More people died at Chappaquidick than Three Mile Island (favorite bumper sticker of all time).

 

[RockAndSage]

Agree!

There are 430+ reactors operating around the world, 93 in the US most of which have been around quite a while(40 plus years). The nuclear industry operates a lot differently than other industries, they share information with other plants and mitigate any risk. After Fukushima, they all made additional safeguards for potential risk. I've worked in Manufacturing, Oil and Gas and Nuclear is by far the safest industry to work in. There were zero deaths at either Fuk or three mile from radiation.

Budget issues aren't unique to nuclear, just look at the Kemper Project.


That's like saying we shouldn't go to digital media because newspaper editors are losing their jobs. Nuclear employs a good bit of people to build and maintain, not to mention security and associated jobs.

None has left the plants. It takes up less than an acre. At the rate of advancing technology, I'm sure there will be a solution to the waste eventually.


I'll take a 100-acre nuclear plant footprint over 7000 acres of solar panels.

There are a number of solutions to the nuclear waste problem, beyond just burying it and leaving it for 30,000 years' worth of human generations to have to deal with. This includes several ways to mix thorium with that waste to use it as recycled fuel to clean it up.

 

[MuleDeerMike]

Nuclear is the future, no question about it. I really wish they had built more nuclear plants instead of destroying the landscape aesthetics with the worthless windmills all over Washington.

 

[go_deep]

Read an article in the last year or two where they're experimenting with making AAA and AA batteries from nuclear waste. No side effects and looking at roughly a 20 year run time. Lots of uses for the waste

 

[mustelid_master]

I'll bite, new electrical engineer, but have spent college years in power generation, specifically hydro. Nuclear is the only way forward. Out of all the money I have invested in the energy sector, 0$ is wind and solar. Its all in Westinghouse, who is the real operator behind these small "start-up" SMR companies. Any community with a power plant nearby is heads and tails above the rest in terms of quality of life and jobs. I would advise support of any path forward to bring about a nuclear renaissance in the US.

 

[Mtns2hunt]

No issues with nuclear, although last time I drove past a plant my GPS went haywire. Had me driving in a field. Guess that is missile protection.

 

[tpicou]

I thought Bill Gates was going to build one north of Green River?

Interesting there is so much private money interested in it.

iirc the nuclear regulatory commission denied the reactor application (like they always do because they hate nuclear for some reason) and they were forced to build the pilot plant abroad (china maybe?)

 

[Slugz]

I'm pretty sure the Dave Johnson plant in Glennrock is also switching to Nuclear.

 

[mustelid_master]

I'm pretty sure the Dave Johnson plant in Glennrock is also switching to Nuclear.

Lots of rumblings about old coal plants switching to nuclear all across the country, but nothing is for certain yet. Coal-fired plants are the logical choice, already transmission infrastructure there and access to a highly-skilled workforce.

 

[CMF]

No issues with nuclear, although last time I drove past a plant my GPS went haywire. Had me driving in a field. Guess that is missile protection.

It's probably not related to the plant. Mine works fine on site and off(multiple plants), including "tracks" while hunting areas surrounding

 

[ozyclint]

Here in Australia we have a ban on nuclear energy. Our current govt is so far down the renewable rabbit hole it's crazy.
Yet we have so much uranium.

I'm sure China will pry it from our cold dead hands one day