this post was submitted on 08 May 2025
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These are considered 'small' because of their footprint, not just their output. They are absolutely safe, since if they malfunction they just solidify, they do not go into melt down. It is the same technology that is used in the reactors in submarines and aircraft carriers, and believe me, those are SMALL. China is making them small enough to fit in shipping containers, to be shipped and assembled in remote communities. The one Canada is building is, however, on the larger scale of these SMR's. China is building them by the dozens.
It is actually the technology itself that makes them part of the SMR family - far removed from the technology used in conventional large scale nuclear reactors.
And the fact that they have been used in nuclear submarines for over 50 years does NOT make the technology 'new'. It is not just 'talk', it is proven, built, and tested over decades of continuous use, albeit top secret use.
It was even rumored by engineering students that there was one under the greenhouse of a Canadian university, operated in complete highest-level secrecy, been there since the '80's. Used in the development of the reactors used in the American submarines. But that was just an unfounded rumor.
As far as safety, deaths are laughably low from Nuclear. Hydro has had significantly more casualty, thousands of times more.
Counting long term emissions from coal or gas I'd assume you'd be higher as well.
Which is also why they might be snake oil. Similar problems to a full-size modern reactor, but without the savings of scale and not having to ship modules around.
But now it allows the same top-secret ultra-classified reactors that were once limited to military craft to be used on container ships and oil tankers. Pollution-free ocean shipping.
You can't use ship style because those use weapons-grade material. It's more compact but not something you can use for civilian designs. The design isn't complex, it just uses higher energy density material.
To be clear, the exact designs on military craft are secret for security reasons, but not the theory and general technology. Commercial nuclear boats have long existed, they're just niche for all the cost, safety and complexity reasons you'd expect.
This technology was so highly classified that any mention of it by those developing it would lead to their lifetime incarceration, stated clearly in the non-disclosure agreements they had to sign They could not even mention the theory and general technology behind it. The background tech only came to the public attention when Russia and China started commercializing it, and this forced the Americans to acknowledge it. It was a Russian ice breaker that was the first commercial vessel to use nuclear power, and even at that it was wrapped in military secrecy. But America refused to allow any development on a Western equivalent for 'military security' reasons.
https://interestingengineering.com/energy/commercial-nuclear-adoption-ship
But the most effective way for America to completely prevent any development of this nuclear technology was to make it essentially impossible for any commercial outfit to get insurance on these propulsion systems, making it impossible for them to enter any port.
There's plenty of insurers not in America...
A nuclear reactor isn't actually a very complicated machine, in a sense. Put enough nuclear fuel in one place and it gets hot. Then, drive a heat engine with it. Usually one based on steam, although closed-cycle gas turbines, sterling engines and airbreathing jet engines have all been experimented with.
It's just that you have to keep track of neutron moderation and cross sections, half lives of thousands of isotopes, thermal changes, non-constant demand and the possibility of point failures, all under the condition that you can't let anything escape. That makes it complicated, but then again each individual part on that list can be learned from open-source materials.
It's even known what general kinds of reactors are on various military nuclear submarines. For example, the earlier Soviet designs used a liquid lead-bismuth cooled fast neutron design, which is why the Russians have so much polonium, while the modern designs use a pressurised water coolant.
It is not insuring the reactor for replacement, it is insuring the entire nuclear powered ship so it can enter a port. Ships collide. Ships crash. Ships hit bridges. An oil spill is one thing, nuclear contamination of the entire port is another.
Yes, I'm aware. It's a sector pretty famously pioneered by the British, and Lloyd's of London still operates.
Everything on the military is classified. Basic ass radios from the 80s are top secret, classified just means they don't want enemies to know the exact specifications of their equipment.