Particularly, a 1MW SMR nuclear reactor that fits in a single TEU container. It appears to be a pebble bed helium cooled gas reactor at first glance (TRISO?). Aiming at DoD customers (likely because DoD can bypass NRC regulations...)https://www.radiantnuclear.com/My google-fu is lacking, as I can't seem to find their two patent applications, one for fuel handling, the other for reactor core heat transport.
The downside is that these fuel configurations make a closed fuel cycle practically impossible. Whatever fissile or fertile material remains in the spent fuel, along with the graphite/carbonate moderating material, is high-level radioactive waste.
Quote from: Asteroza on 09/23/2020 11:36 pmParticularly, a 1MW SMR nuclear reactor that fits in a single TEU container. It appears to be a pebble bed helium cooled gas reactor at first glance (TRISO?). Aiming at DoD customers (likely because DoD can bypass NRC regulations...)https://www.radiantnuclear.com/My google-fu is lacking, as I can't seem to find their two patent applications, one for fuel handling, the other for reactor core heat transport.Where do you get the bit about the TEU container?So to be clear this is yet another compact sealed-for-life MW concept with TRISO fuel. A bit like U-Battery but starting several years behind and not being spun off from a company in the actual nuclear industry? I'll wish them well and see where they're at 5 years.
Helium turbines are a pain so they might be avoiding that.
Quote from: Asteroza on 09/24/2020 07:45 amHelium turbines are a pain so they might be avoiding that.Depending on maturity, Helium turbines may be a close to off-the-shelf part from Reaction Engines.
According to Radiant, the Kaleidos — shown in the video above — will output more than 1MW, which is enough to power about 1,000 homes for up to eight years. It uses TRISO fuels and helium coolant instead of water, both of which should make the microreactor safer than traditional nuclear reactors.Radiant recently announced it received $10 million in funding from the USV Climate Fund, a "thesis-driven venture capital firm" looking to invest in companies that aim to tackle climate change via rapid innovation. Bernauer spoke with IE on a video call about the next five years for Radiant and for the planet, as well as the role that space technology continues to have on his company.
That's maybe why you mentioned before that five years sounds like a short time span when it comes to microreactors. But it's not really, it can be done much faster. How fast did we make Chicago Pile-1, for example, the world's first [artificial] nuclear reactor? It was less than a year. Blue Origin's been around for 22 years, and it was only about five years ago it started flying. So that's the usual slow type of timeline we think about. But SpaceX was 4 years to rocket on [the] pad. So execution is everything.