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We all know that nuclear power in the US has been stymied for decades, in a large part (IMO) due to the federal government’s onerous regulations.
But now, thanks to President Trump, it looks like the logjam is finally breaking and with new nuclear power plant designs, we may actually be able to keep up with the demand from AI data centers.
From this article, there are a couple of very cool takeaways on new advances:
One of the biggest focuses of nuclear innovation is the development of small modular reactors (SMRs) which will make nuclear power more scalable and streamlined, lowering up-front development costs. These smaller reactors can be mass-produced offsite in a factory setting and then assembled onsite, avoiding the extremely costly design and permitting process of traditional nuclear plants. Already, two SMR models have been approved for rollout in the United States, and many more are in the pipeline.
So Small Modular Reactors are actually taking a page from the modular housing processes. This would actually make quality control immensely easier.
The next is even more exciting:
Meanwhile, Oak Ridge National Laboratory is working on integrating cutting-edge technologies into nuclear plant design for more efficient and effective designs and processes, including 3-D printing and artificial intelligence. The Tennessee-based National Laboratory says it has “successfully developed and validated large-scale, 3D-printed polymer composite forms for casting complex, high-precision concrete structures that would be technically challenging and costly to produce using conventional methods.”
The use of these 3-D printed composite forms can considerably cut down on production times. Typically, the casting of “complex structural components with unique geometries” can take weeks, but with these molds, nuclear projects can cast the parts on-site in a matter of days and with greater precision. The design of the 3-D molds has been tested and validated as part of the construction process for the Hermes Low-Power Demonstration Reactor at Kairos Power’s Oak Ridge campus.
It is about time that nuclear power came to the forefront now that the wind and solar boondoggles have been shown to be the non-environmentally friendly options that they are. And with new technologies like 3-D printing being leveraged, it can bring this country (and others) where we should have been thirty years or more ago.
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