John Rumm wrote:
The Natural Philosopher wrote:
Steve Firth wrote:
wrote:

Not likely. Electric is 3x 4x as expensive and that gap will not be
closed for the lifetime of any current type of gas/electric system.

And what effect do you think the introduction of Travelling Wave
Reactors (TWRs) will have on the costs of nuclear electricity
generation?

My Nuke (c) Microsoft ;-)

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/03...nd_terrapower/

Make it more expensive mainly.

Fuel costs are currently so low in a Uranium reactor as to be almost
irrelevant.

Build cots are everythung.

No one has ever built a TWR

True, but it sounds like maintenance and decommissioning costs ought to
be significantly cheaper. Its also a handy use of the DU from existing
reactors.

TWRs can be fuelled on depleted uranium with a single charge
lasting 60-100 years,

THERTEICALLY.

Theoretically a fusion reactor could use distlled seawater and be
even cheaper. Don't see any about though.

TWR sounds a little more doable with the technology we have now thought.


I agree. It's well worth putting a billion into to see what the issues
are. Along with pebble beds, and laser ignited reactors and the like.
Both inerently stable and cant run away..



BUT in the meantime, we have enough expertise to utilise PWRS or
whatever the latest stable technology is.