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.

  • killa44@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    Fission and fusion reactors are really more like in-between renewable and non-renewable. Sure, it relies on materials that are finite, but there is way, way more of that material available in comparison to how much we need.

    Making this distinction is necessary to un-spook people who have gone along with the panic induced by bad media and lazy engineering of the past.

      • Ryumast3r@lemmy.world
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        2 years ago

        I’m spooked by the fact that you have no idea how the US enriches uranium, or the difference between a power pressurized water reactor and a fast “breeder” reactor (if you were thinking of plutonium) or a centrifuge.

        The US enriches uranium using a gas-centrifuge. The US also no longer recycles spent nuclear fuel, but France does.

    • schroedingershat@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      LWR fuel is incredibly limited without a massive fleet of breeders (and no breeder has ever run a full fuel cycle, nor has second generation MOX ever been used. First generation MOX is also incredibly polluting and expensive to produce).

      The industry is already on to tapping uranium ore sources that are less energy dense than coal, and this is to provide a few % of world energy for a handful of decades.