While I agree there are some very positive aspects to floating nuclear power plants, I'm somewhat skeptic about some of these plans that use molten salt reactors. A thin-skinned reactor filled with a water-soluble fuel sounds like a potentially nasty accident scenario. At least with a traditional LWR the seawater (hopefully!) has to corrode through some pretty thick metal before it reaches the fuel elements, and even then the fuel is in a relatively inert state (oxide).
Fully agree. LWRs are perfect for floating. Going to some untested/underdeveloped reactor for especially the first one is really dumb. My favorite meme is the Anakin/Padme one where Anakin says he's going to build reactors on ships and Padme asks: "PWRs right?"
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While I agree there are some very positive aspects to floating nuclear power plants, I'm somewhat skeptic about some of these plans that use molten salt reactors. A thin-skinned reactor filled with a water-soluble fuel sounds like a potentially nasty accident scenario. At least with a traditional LWR the seawater (hopefully!) has to corrode through some pretty thick metal before it reaches the fuel elements, and even then the fuel is in a relatively inert state (oxide).
The reactors will be high temp gas cooled reactors, not molten salt, and use TRISO, which is much safer. [1]
[1] https://breakingdefense.com/2020/04/new-triso-nuclear-mini-r...
Fully agree. LWRs are perfect for floating. Going to some untested/underdeveloped reactor for especially the first one is really dumb. My favorite meme is the Anakin/Padme one where Anakin says he's going to build reactors on ships and Padme asks: "PWRs right?"