Comment Re:What could possibly go right? (Score 5, Interesting) 90
They won't be doing it themselves. They'll have to contract out. Most nuclear plants use Bechtel, Sargent and Lundy and like a dozen other NRC certified contractors. People work their asses off to get into those programs, but you can easily get stuck in a situation where you're moving every 2~4 years to a new nuclear plant. People who want families often try to get FTE positions.
The big danger is draining people from TVA or other power providers. Data center electricians are pulling in $200k/year right now! A loan like this could draw out people from other plants for that big payout. But in reality, unless they plant to build new plants and use this to train up new nuclear workers, they're just going to hurt the existing energy industry.
But that's the big issue: no one can build a new reactor today. And no, not because of NRC regulations. America literally has no steel plants large enough to create a nuclear pressure vessel. These things are massive, and historically had to be transported by river or have specialized roads put in to move them. The last steel plant that could make these closed decades ago. The smaller reactors people are talking about are totally non-viable. Nuclear works because of the scale. Each pressure vessel and reactor core can provide 1Gw ~ 1.5Gw of power. All three TVA nuclear plants (max of 7 reactors between SQN, WBN and BFN plants .. I think only 6 are operational) produce between 6Gw ~ 7Gw of power. Keep that in mind when you hear about data centers needing like 20Gw. That's a fucking insane amount of energy!
The big danger is draining people from TVA or other power providers. Data center electricians are pulling in $200k/year right now! A loan like this could draw out people from other plants for that big payout. But in reality, unless they plant to build new plants and use this to train up new nuclear workers, they're just going to hurt the existing energy industry.
But that's the big issue: no one can build a new reactor today. And no, not because of NRC regulations. America literally has no steel plants large enough to create a nuclear pressure vessel. These things are massive, and historically had to be transported by river or have specialized roads put in to move them. The last steel plant that could make these closed decades ago. The smaller reactors people are talking about are totally non-viable. Nuclear works because of the scale. Each pressure vessel and reactor core can provide 1Gw ~ 1.5Gw of power. All three TVA nuclear plants (max of 7 reactors between SQN, WBN and BFN plants