@Angelica makes an interesting observation: the BWRX is very big because it uses natural circulation as opposed to circulation pumps. This adds to costs and site-specific complexity.
I'll go on record replying that this is somewhat of a doomer take. The reason GE-Hitachi choose this approach is because 'we' demand nuclear to be ultra safe. So, they made a design that's really a lot safer than it honestly needs to be, relying on physics instead of engineering for the cooling. We asked, they delivered. Safety has a cost.
But I feel it needs emphasizing that the BWRX still has, by far, the best cards in hand. It's based on decades of experience (it indeed being the tenth evolution of the boiling water reactor) and, more important, has a company and supply lines behind it that are living and existing with their first project underway building four reactors at Darlington in Canada.
The time for the perfect design is over. Now we open the order book and build.
#Nuclear #BWR
https://elementalenergy.substack.com/p/the-problem-with-dumping-the-pump