I'm not anti-nuclear but I don't like the idea of proliferation of nuclear reactors on every corner because I don't believe that there are enough smart and trustworthy people to handle that many reactors. I'm all on for huge ones but they have obvious issues.

Have you been to a failed state? Bulgaria was in a state of disrepair when it comes to its industry, as kids we wandered to abandoned factories and I'm %100 sure that I don't wish a nuclear reactor to end up in a place like that. As 12-14 y/o kids we were going in, tear apart stuff the get interesting objects out like bearings, flat plastics etc. that we can use for games or making machines and if small reactors were a thing back then I'm certain that many disasters would have happened. AFAIK in Russia there are many lost RTGs, somehow nothing really bad happened but there are many instances of people getting exposed to radiation when working with recycling.

Nuclear reactors are very cool, they all have its place but please don't make it available to an average bozo that lucked on crypto or some greedy maniac in a failed state.

I'm sure in America it must feel inconceivable that states fail and things end up in wrong hands but where I grew up you can find remains of a few ancient empires + 1 quite recent ones with machinery and electronics unaccounted for.

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myrmidon 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

> AFAIK in Russia there are many lost RTGs, somehow nothing really bad happened but there are many instances of people getting exposed to radiation when working with recycling.

People did actually die because of abandoned RTGs, see e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lia_radiological_accident

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jacquesm 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> I'm sure in America it must feel inconceivable that states fail

Anybody that still feels like that right now in America is not paying attention.

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piokoch 3 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

If only you knew how deadly is average chemical factory that you probably do not know is just a few miles from your home, you would not worry about SMR-s that much :)

	▲	mrtksn 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		I know how deadly it can be. The thing about the chemical stuff is that it smells bad, it look dirty etc. Once we wandered in an old building that had a huge pool like thing filled with something that smells like freshly roasted nuts. A pleasant smell but its out of place, therefore run away. Playing with lead, you notice that it lives traces on your hands, it looks wrong so you try not to play with the lead anymore. A lightbulb with a shiny liquid in it? Don't break it or break it in open air at safe distance. Even if you touch the liquid make sure you wipe it out clean as it looks unnatural. You easily develop instincts to detect what's dangerous with machines and chemicals, with nuclear you can't do that. Ans as for the active ones, I hope they are taking good care of them. Bhophal 2.0 is indeed possible.

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looofooo0 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Seriously, you are concerned small nuclear reactors left behind? The main idea is, that you will be able to load them onto a truck and ship them back to the factory. So the chance of anything left behind is very small.

	▲	mrtksn 3 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Why would the risk be small? I've seen pretty expensive machinery been left behind. I destroyed such machinery to take out the copper wires from its transformars to make a net. What makes you think that this can't happen? It can happen in so many ways, i.e. the owner is criminal and runs away or fucks up and loses everything and the court takes years to decide who gets what from the factories, the new owners put it on sale it takes another 10 years to sell because the repair costs incurred are massive and equipment is getting obsolete therefore you can't find a buyer. People get old, move on and all that decays for 50 years until the land becomes valuable enough for someone to buy it with all that obsolete garbage. It happens all the time.
	▲	jacquesm 3 days ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		You are not going to load a reactor at the end of its lifetime on a truck to ship it back to the factory.
	▲	fuzzy2 3 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		I think you underestimate the amount of mismanagement and human error that happens every day. May I remind you of the Goiânia accident? Additionally, Wikipedia has a seriously long list of “orphan source incidents”.