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0 pointsWorkaccount210mo ago0 comments

It's likely because the NRC is the most insanely regulatory body of the US government. Ostensibly, this is a good thing, nuclear power, meltdowns, radioactive waste, etc.

But really I cannot emphasize enough how strict and overbearing they are.

"Oh that 12V backup battery pack needs to be replaced? Better get the same one from the same manufacturer"

"They aren't in business anymore but we have this 12V battery the fits perfectly, same specs"

"Nope, not certified with that system. You can start recertification that will cost ~$40M if you like"

"...."

There is so much ass covering and not wanting to take responsibility that the market is basically in paralysis.

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epistasis10mo ago

I don't think that's an accurate depiction of NRC for builds like at Georgia's Vogtle. Even in California, entire reactors have been installed backwards and the regulatory problems were not the big problem.

Given that France's builds in both Finland and France itself have been similarly disastrous as the US builds, I don't think the NRC seems to be the likely cause. And France is much better at building big things than the US is, their infrastructure costs are a fraction of US costs. IMHO there's something deeper to the lack of success of nuclear as a technology. It's a mainframe trying to compete in the cloud era.

natmaka10mo ago

There is an official report detailing why the project in France (the Flamanville-3 EPR) failed, published at (French ahead!) https://www.economie.gouv.fr/rapport-epr-flamanville , and regulations aren't a major cause (translating the summary offers a good overview).

nolist_policy10mo ago

Do you have a source?

Workaccount2OP10mo ago

I work for a company that provides electronics that end up in nuclear reactors. We don't do batteries, the story is just an example of the kind of headache it is.

varjag10mo ago

Maybe it's true for the actual reactor control system I dunno. Our industrial phones ended up at a nuclear plant once (that we know of) and we only learned about it because the engineer called us for firmware reset procedure. The product doesn't have any nuclear energy certifications (although it is tested for rail and maritime use).

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