Small nuclear reactors don’t add up as a viable energy source. Really!

Food for thought! In this article, there is certainly some apples and bananas comparison involved! It is a propaganda piece for so called renewable energy!

Wind and solar energy is unreliable, intermittent, land consuming and requires backup energy supply unlike nuclear power!

This article also completely ignores midsize nuclear power plants!

"The nuclear industry has been offering so-called Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) as an alternative to large reactors as a possible solution to climate change.

SMRs are defined as nuclear reactors with a power output of less than 300 megawatts of electricity, compared to the typically 1000 to 1,500 megawatts power capacity of larger reactors.

Proponents assert that SMRs would cost less to build and thus be more affordable. 

However, when evaluated on the basis of cost per unit of power capacity, SMRs will actually be more expensive than large reactors. 

This ‘diseconomy of scale’ was demonstrated by the now-terminated proposal to build six NuScale Power SMRs (77 megawatts each) in Idaho in the United States. ...
Previous small reactors built in various parts of America also shut down because they were uneconomical. ...

According to the 2023 GenCost report from the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and the Australian Energy Market Operator, the estimated cost of generating each megawatt-hour of electricity from an SMR is around AUD$400 to AUD$600. 

In comparison, the cost of each megawatt-hour of electricity from wind and solar photovoltaic plants is around AUD$100, even after accounting for the cost involved in balancing the variability of output from solar and wind plants. ..."

Small reactors don’t add up as a viable energy source

The core module of China's Linglong One, the world's first commercial small modular reactor (SMR), installed on August 10, 2023 in Hainan Province.