Technology

59577 readers

4617 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

Follow the lemmy.world rules.
Only tech related content.
Be excellent to each another!
Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
Politics threads may be removed.
No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

1580

First U.S. nuclear reactor built from scratch in decades enters commercial operation in Georgia (www.nbcnews.com)

submitted 1 year ago by L4s@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

396 comments fedilink hide all child comments

First U.S. nuclear reactor built from scratch in decades enters commercial operation in Georgia::ATLANTA — A new reactor at a nuclear power plant in Georgia has entered commercial operation, becoming the first new American reactor built from scratch in decades.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] Rakonat@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Not sure the stigma will ever go away as long as we are using Uranium as the basis. If we could ever get Thorium based reactors to work and economical I think the public perception would sway considerably when weapon grade material is no longer a possibly byproduct and the worst case scenario drops from a quarantine zone several square miles to power plant just going into lockdown for a few weeks would be a huge step towards public acceptance.

[–] yaaaaayPancakes@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

I think the public perception would sway considerably when weapon grade material is no longer a possibly byproduct

This is unfortunately something that a layperson who's unfamiliar with the tech will always have a hard time understanding. I don't think any reactor built in the US for power generation could ever be used to make weapons grade plutonium. From what I've read we only build light water reactors here, which aren't good for such things. But how many regular folks take the time to learn about all the different types of reactors and how they work and what they're good for? I only did it because the history of nuclear tech intrigues me.

and the worst case scenario drops from a quarantine zone several square miles to power plant just going into lockdown for a few weeks

Similar to above. These new reactors coming online are Gen III reactors, and have passive cooling features, so Fukushima-like events shouldn't be able to happen anymore. But again, few people I think take the time to learn about this stuff at all.

It doesn't help either that regulatory capture has caused old Gen II designs without the passive cooling backups continue to get their licenses extended. Accidents will continue to be bad until we retire the ancient reactors, and start replacing the with new ones that have the benefit of half a century of operational experience and manufacturing advancements to inform their designs to be safer.