this post was submitted on 02 May 2024
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I searched and I can't find any cases of such a reactor being deployed anywhere in the US.
"Microreactors for civilian use are currently in the earliest stages of development, with individual designs ranging in various stages of maturity."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_microreactor
The reactor you're referring to doesn't even have a Wikipedia page.
Weird.
I first learned about it with this project in Butte, Montana, which is in development. They also have a page describing a deployment in Saskatchewan. I don't know if this was completed yet but it's been in progress for years. There's also a lot of other planned deployments I'm finding.
I thought I saw some active deployment on the east coast last time I looked into this but haven't been able to immediately find an example. Either way, it's at least in progress, has regulatory backing, and is not just imaginary.
I'd say it's imaginary if they don't exist. Your claim that, "They’re currently being deployed in industrial settings around the US." isn't really accurate, is it?
Edit: some context I was able to find:
"The US has approved a single design for a small, modular nuclear reactor developed by the company NuScale Power. The government's Idaho National Lab was working to help construct the first NuScale installation, the Carbon Free Power Project. Under the plan, the national lab would maintain a few of the first reactors at the site, and a number of nearby utilities would purchase power from the remaining ones.
With the price of renewables dropping precipitously, however, the project's economics have worsened. Some of the initial backers started pulling out of the project earlier in the decade, although the numbers continued to fluctuate in the ensuing years.
The final straw came on Wednesday, when NuScale and the primary utility partner, Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems, announced that the Carbon Free Power Project did not have enough utility partners at a planned checkpoint and, given that uncertainty, would be shut down. In a statement, the pair accepted that "it appears unlikely that the project will have enough subscription to continue toward deployment.""
https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/11/first-planned-small-nuclear-reactor-plant-in-the-us-has-been-canceled/
I'd consider signed agreements as part of the "being deployed" process but yeah, I haven't been able to find evidence of any currently active deployments. I wouldn't call it a "moonshot" though when there's so many in the works is all.
Not really sure how NuScale is relevant as that's (or at least the project in the article is) utility-level power and not really the same thing.
They're both SMRs, right?