The UK's Small Modular Reactor Competition

And more chances of a c*ck up. More sources of radio active material for terrorist dirty bomb.

I suggested this years ago, using designs originally intended for submarines and ships.

Wheels reinvented while you wait. Brian

Probably the Rolls Royce one is based on their sub reactor?

In the 1970s, the Soviet Union built a series of remote lighthouses along their northern coast, which ran off individual subcritical reactors.

Yes, but with enough juice for a light bulb ...

Talking of wheels reinvented, I came across this thing, 'invented' by two 'brilliant' Africans.

It just amazes me that people believe this is new.

(Brian; it's a video of a roll> I suggested this years ago, using designs originally intended for

It really makes a lot of sense. If you consired Chernobel and Five Mile Island they were both huge - experimental type facilities.

We need a "standard" that has been tested to the extreme. Were failure effects would be limited by its size. Standardisation would mean predictability.

Predictable? Ye'd then know where the moment of non-passive[1] failure was on the MTBF plot, and the day before that would be only one that the bean counters would let ye spend money on preventative maintenance.

Yeah - they reinvented the Aquaroll I was using on holiday in the 70's.

Same here, marketed at the parents to get the kids to fill the water ...

I did put the Aquaroll link in the comments, as someone really wouldn't believe me.

I put that link in the comments.

Your not implying there's a connection between the two are you ? ;-)

It wouldnl't suprise me that one group would claim there is to get their POV across :)

So that's the gay club sorted....

Is that because gay sex is dirty, but I can;t yet see a link to brexit.

These were used in desert regions where solar panels with back up batteries suffered from dust problems. I went to a lecture on them in the 60s. Also used in spacecraft for deep space long journeys where solar panels could not generate enough power.

Indeed, an interesting article, to my mind worth reading for the Rickover quote alone. It was a new quote to me, but it does rather sum up my opinion.

Not so many years ago, there was quite a lot of enthusiasm in the UK industry for the South African PBMR

but it seems to have sunk without trace.

If I were asked to bet on one, I would agree with the author's view on the Westinghouse one, except that it is probably really too large. But while every country has a regulatory system which seems to insist on analysing every design from first principles, and even "repeat orders" need a major reassessment, I can't see SMRs getting off the ground, at least in the west.

I know nothing about the regulation of the airliner industry, but we don't seem to see every country reassessing each new plane or modification and, Concord(e) apart, you don't seem to get countries blocking introduction of major "foreign" planes.

Isn't a light bulb basically all that a lighthouse needs?