Matt Loszak Profile picture
Nov 30, 2023 10 tweets 4 min read Read on X
For every ten likes, I’ll make this person increasingly realize how incredible nuclear power is Image
Here they are, reading that nuclear is statistically just as safe as solar or wind Image
They've just learned that nuclear waste is safe and easy to manage, and that there's a tiny amount of it:
All the nuclear waste (ie spent fuel) ever produced could fit on a single football field stacked only 10 yards high Image
Next they've discovered breeder reactors, which can create more fuel than they consume Image
They've now realized this means that we have enough nuclear fuel on earth to power humanity’s growth for 4 billion years

whatisnuclear.com/nuclear-sustai…
Image
Here they are, visualizing how 1 BARREL of uranium has the same energy content as 2 MILLION BARRELS OF OIL Image
Hearing that France and Ontario essentially FULLY decarbonized their grids by building nuclear power plants in just about 10 years Image
Realizing that not only is nuclear incredibly safe, but it also SAVES MILLIONS OF LIVES PER YEAR BY PRODUCING MEDICAL ISOTOPES FOR HOSPITALS ALL OVER THE WORLD Image
Here they are deciding to drop everything and devote their lives to helping nuclear energy succeed in a world that has totally mischaracterized it as dangerous, slow, and expensive, when in reality it is incredibly clean & safe, quick to build, and economical, when done right. Image
The end! Image

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More from @MattLoszak

Nov 11, 2024
What would it take to create the SpaceX of Nuclear, cutting costs by 10x?

For rockets, the answer was obvious: Make them re-usable.

What is the equivalent insight for reactors? 🧵 Image
One possible answer: Factory mass manufacturing.

Let’s dive into exactly how this would lower costs, and by how much. Image
A major problem with nuclear is: Every plant that’s ever been built was bespoke.

This chart shows different designs (colors) and versions (shades) in the US.

Nobody has built the same reactor more than a few times. Image
Read 23 tweets
Jul 17, 2024
How much nuclear waste has the US ever created?

You may have heard it would fit on a football field...

But stacked how high? And stored how?

@whatisnuclear wrote a great post on this... 🧵(1/8) Image
All the nuclear waste in the history of US Nuclear Power would fit in 8516 dry casks, shown above.

See below for a size comparison with the field goal posts.

This pile would be 135 m tall, about as tall as a 40 story building. Image
But those casks contain a lot of concrete for shielding, and other structural metals.

How much nuclear waste is really stored within the casks?
Read 8 tweets
Jun 7, 2024
Excitement about the “nuclear renaissance” is high,

But we’ve been here before in 2007 and that renaissance failed.

What went wrong, and why will this time be different?

🧵(1/n) Image
➡️ The obvious answer is Fukushima, which hit in 2011.

This was a major setback, but the headwinds had already been mounting... Image
➡️ Fracking & cheap natural gas overshadowed nuclear excitement, as carbon emissions faced limited pushback.

Eg. Shale nat gas grew from 2% of total U.S. production in 2000, to 23% in 2010.

By 2016 nat gas surpassed coal as the largest US source of electricity. Image
Read 13 tweets
Apr 16, 2024
If you think the energy transition is going well, look at this:

Not only is clean energy barely even visible on a graph of energy use globally,

But oil and gas is still growing.

What’s going on here? (🧵)Image
The grid (electricity) is only a small part of all energy used by humans:

Electricity: 25,000 TWh
All energy: 160,000 TWh

30% of the grid is clean, but that means only 6% of total energy is clean.

The rest (94%) is oil and gas.Image
What is all that oil and gas being used for??

Mostly:

1️⃣ Moving things
2️⃣ Heating things

These two applications consume ~80% of all humanity’s energy. Image
Read 23 tweets
Mar 7, 2024
An under-appreciated fact:

60-80% of nuclear's LCOE comes from paying off interest. That is insane.

Factory-made small reactors could solve this:

Instead of 1 large reactor that takes 7 yrs to build,
install 10 small reactors (2 per yr), minimizing debt.
👇🧵Image
One potential challenge: When you have 10-20 reactors on site to maintain, how do you prevent op-ex from getting too high?

This is an engineering challenge that can be resolved through design and automation.
But what's the optimal size (economy of scale) still suitable for factory fab?

For @AaloAtomics reactors we think it'll be 100 MWe (Aalo-2).

That's small enough to ship the Reactor + BOP in multiple shipping containers on roads, & requires minimal on-site civil work.
Read 9 tweets
Jul 6, 2023
Unpopular view 👇

Solar + storage should NOT be used on the grid.

And yet, solar could still play the largest role in the energy transition.

How so?… 🧵 https://t.co/ihrsLF6oiItwitter.com/i/web/status/1…
➡️ Solar + storage is fundamentally weather-dependent.

As a result, as solar increases its share of the grid, its cost (capex) scales rapidly.

Meanwhile, for firm power (like nuclear, hydro, etc), capex scales only linearly with grid share.

Why does solar get more expensive?
Each year can bring unexpected weather events, with a few too many consecutive days of clouds, storms, snow, or smoke.

Firm power sources can handle these events,

But solar output decreases by 80-90%. So, you'd need A LOT of extra solar + storage to make up the difference.

Read 21 tweets

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