Bill Gates-Backed 345 Mwe Advanced Nuclear Reactor Secures Crucial Us Approval
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TerraPower's advanced nuclear reactor secures US approval, marking a significant milestone for the Bill Gates-backed company, with the community showing interest and support for the development.
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But I also would have thought a battery stack would perform exactly the same function as the salt tank: long duration storage of energy, available to supplement the nuclear power when required.
I believe there's some other reason this specific coupling of a reactor and a heat store makes sense which I didn't get from this article: Maybe it provides resiliency for thermal systems management overall?
The boiling / pressure water reactors all have requirements on active cooling being maintained in emergencies - I’m not familiar with this design nor to what extent the salt is intended to fulfill such a function, but it’s plausible that it could buffer things for idk 1h-3d maybe?
The holy grail is the “walk away safe” reactor, I would hope / presume all the novel / modern ones fulfill that?