This morning, Rick says we’re 3-4 years away from new nuclear power in the U.S.
Suggestion: Like the Russians are doing, use nuclear submarine technology and place small reactors at strategic locations. We could do it TODAY taking decommissioned nuclear submarines reactors, set them say near Cleveland, Ohio and service around 500,000 homes using existing power distribution wiring. Safety you say… The first nuclear submarine was commissioned in 1957. Gosh, that is 52 years ago!!! We must have gotten better by now!
Here is more:
6/12/09 Here is some old news… It shows the Russians also have Nuclear Reactors on their subs and icebreakers. They also use them to provide power to remote locations. They call then NPPs (Nuclear Power Plants).
“3/27/2002: SOVETSKIY SOYUZ ICEBREAKER SUPPLIES ELECTRICITY TO SHORE On 27 March 2002, the Sovetskiy Soyuz icebreaker, moored in the Murmansk port, tested its ability to provide the shore with electricity produced by the ship’s power plant. The amount of electricity supplied was enough to provide power for the whole port infrastructure, including the port’s cranes. This is the first time that an icebreaker has supplied power to the shore.”
“In the past decade, Russia has at times used active-duty military vessels, such as nuclear-powered submarines, to provide heat and electricity to Russian coastal cities. The Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency has also been working on a more permanent solution to local energy crises: the construction of floating nuclear power plants. These power plants would consist of specially designed reactors mounted on barges for the express purpose of providing electricity and heat to remote communities. As of March 2007, plans called for initiating construction of a pilot floating nuclear plant in 2007.”
“FLOATING NPP PROJECT PASSES STATE INSPECTION On 10 November 2003, Russian Deputy Minister of Atomic Energy Vladimir Asmolov announced that a technical and economic feasibility study for the Severodvinsk floating nuclear power plant with KLT-40S reactors had passed the state inspection process at the end of October. He expects plants such as this one, which is slated for construction from 2006 to 2010, to improve the socioeconomic situation in the northern regions by making energy systems more reliable, reducing utility costs, and minimizing harmful environmental implications. Declarations of intent have already been signed for installing such plants at Vilyuchinsk in Kamchatka Oblast and Pevek in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. The Severodvinsk plant is intended to provide cheap electricity primarily for the Russian State Center for Atomic Shipbuilding (Sevmash and Zvezdochka). Rosenergoatom Deputy Director of Development Aleksandr Polushkin stated that Russia will not export any floating NPPs until the first operational unit in Severodvinsk proves its reliability.”
“Between 1967 and 1976 an ex-army US ship of about 12,000 tons, the General Sturgis (but renamed SS Green Port) functioned as a Floating Nuclear Power Plant, designation MH-1A,
moored on Gatun Lake, Panama Canal Zone. It had a 45 MWt/ 10 MWe (net) PWR which provided power to the Canal Zone.”
“A marine reactor was used to supply power (1.5 MWe) to a US Antarctic base for ten years to 1972, testing the feasibility of such air-portable units for remote locations.”
The nominal dimensions of a typical reactor is about 60 feet square and 50 feet high. The reactor itself weighs about 3,750 tons The reactor’ fuel could last up to 45 years.
Remember, these reactors were inside a submarine.
Some 150 ships are powered by more than 220 small nuclear reactors and more than 12,000 reactor years of marine operation has been accumulated.
A 550 Megawatt used nuclear reactor out of a nuclear submarine which has been decommissioned could provide power to 550,000 homes and businesses. The rule of thumb of 1 megawatt powers 1,000 homes.
The United States Navy currently operates 103 nuclear power plants including 73 submarines, 10 aircraft carriers (Enterprise has 8 reactors and all others have 2 each), and 4 training/research prototype plants?
So Rick… how long would it take to ship and install a used submarines nuclear reactor?
Can’t wait? Just park a nuclear sub next to Cleveland and hook it up! A few weeks maybe? Wait, Cleveland already has a submarine parked their! The USS Cod is now docked in Lake Erie at Cleveland, Ohio and is maintained and operated as a memorial to the more than 3900 submariners who lost their lives during the 100 year history of the United States Navy Submarine Force. Perhaps a nuclear submarine could share it berth!