Wind Turbines

[ajohn]

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy has been awarded £33.6 million to develop its small modular reactor for the UK market. GE Hitachi was awarded the funding from the Future Nuclear Enabling Fund towards the costs of the first two steps of the generic design assessment (GDA) for its BWRX-300 small modular reactor (SMR).26 Jan 2024

GE Hitachi SMR enters GDA - Nuclear AMRC

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy has been awarded £33.6 million to develop its small modular reactor for the UK market. GE Hitachi was awarded the funding from the Future Nuclear Enabling...

namrc.co.uk

The BWRX-300 is a design for a small modular nuclear reactor proposed by GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH). The BWRX-300 would feature passive safety, in that neither external power nor operator action would be required to maintain a safe state, even in extreme circumstances.

BWRX-300 - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

300MW

 

[IT Minion]

The first unit is forecast to cost $1 billion, which is pretty cheap for nuclear. Hinkley is going to be closer to $40 billion for 3200MWe, or four times the price.

 

[nwgs]

The first unit is forecast to cost $1 billion, which is pretty cheap for nuclear. Hinkley is going to be closer to $40 billion for 3200MWe, or four times the price.

40x ?

 

[ajohn]

The first unit is forecast to cost $1 billion, which is pretty cheap for nuclear. Hinkley is going to be closer to $40 billion for 3200MWe, or four times the price.

The idea is to make parts in "bulk" which brings the price down and also reduces the time taken for a loan based builds / installation to start showing profit. That is significant on projects like Hinkly where as much as possible is UK sourced and the jobs that go with it help.

10x1is less than 40

 

[IT Minion]

The idea is to make parts in "bulk" which brings the price down and also reduces the time taken for a loan based builds / installation to start showing profit. That is significant on projects like Hinkly where as much as possible is UK sourced and the jobs that go with it help.

10x1is less than 40

I'd assumed people thought about units. 300MW is roughly a tenth of 3200MW. So ten of these SMRs would be needed to match Hinkley at a price of $10 billion.

Of course I don't believe they'll be that cheap, but I'd be delighted to be wrong.

 

[ajohn]

Build time and inflation also figures in Hinckley. It needs significant money early on, It often figures in the reason for increasing project costs. Same as projects like HS2.

 

[JohnD]

Windpower is currently generating over 10GW.

More than Nukes, gas, hydro and bio put together.

More fossil fuel saved.

Earlier today it touched 15GW.