Nuclear Reactor Renaissance

djpbarry · 15-10-2010 12:41pm #1

I came across this article in IEEE Spectrum a couple of months back but forgot to post it at the time:

Nuclear Reactor Renaissance

More than half a century ago, the first commercial nuclear power reactors went critical in the United Kingdom and the United States. In the decades since, technology has brought us 3-billion-transistor chips, manned spaceflight, and violin-playing robots. Nevertheless, the basic design of commercial nuclear power reactors has changed not a whit.
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The new reactor designs fall into three categories. First, there are the new light-water reactors, which aren't radically different from what's out there right now but add better safety features. Then there are the small modular reactors that produce less than 300 megawatts but can be scaled up. Need more power? Just add more modules to your plant. Finally, there are the really-out-there designs, known in the industry as Generation IV.

http://spectrum.ieee.org/energy/nuclear/nuclear-reactor-renaissance

The article provides an overview of the various different designs, as well as a brief description of the advantages and disadvantages of each, together with the current status of the design’s implementation. Some of the designs, such as breeder reactors and nuclear “batteries”, have been discussed on this forum in the past. With the exception of the next-generation light water designs, which are essentially upgrades of conventional reactors, it seems most of these designs are still at least a decade away from realisation and probably two decades away from commercialisation. Nevertheless, some of the designs are quite clever and it makes for an interesting read (albeit a little technical in places).