
Rolls Royce: Mini nuclear reactor vision backed by government and industry - ericdanielski
https://web.archive.org/web/20191107054039/https://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/3083488/mini-nuclear-reactor-vision-backed-by-government-and-industry
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PaulHoule
Looking at the pictures, this seems to be a "small" LWR.

LWRs have been dogged by construction difficulties, but even if the cost
explosion could be contained, it's hard for the LWR to compete with gas
turbine power plants because the power density of the steam turbine is so low.
That's one reason why coal burning power plants are no longer economical: even
with free heat, the turbine can't pay for itself against competition today.

A truly small reactor would have to operate at higher temperatures and use a
gas such as helium, CO2 or nitrogen tetroxide as a working fluid. A reactor
like that has a chance of being economically competitive with fossil fuel gas
turbines, but tied to a steam turbine I can't see a nuclear reactor ever being
competitive.

