this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2023
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What is the benefit of smaller reactors? It seems like they would be worse in just about every way? Wouldn't smaller reactors be less efficient as you need more sites/material/personnel to generate the same power? Wouldn't needing more sites also make logistics and regulatory approval more difficult?
Economies of scale in construction and disposal. Ease of transportation. Modularity. Manufacturers can have better oversight of them, and design flaws can be found and fixed easier when you have, say, 1000 production articles as opposed to 4 articles.
Plus, if you put six of them together in a 2x3 configuration, you get a massive power output multiplier (source: Factorio)
Great call on the source - solar just doesn't scale like nuclear does!