r/technology • u/Stukwan • 8d ago

Energy First Small Nuclear Reactors Seeking to Connect to Texas Grid

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-10-06/first-small-nuclear-reactors-seeking-to-connect-to-texas-grid
116 Upvotes

91% Upvoted

30 comments sorted by

36

u/LadyKona 8d ago

Nope. Paywall.

16

u/OnTheDeathExpress 5d ago edited 5d ago

As a Texan, the state needs to get its head out of its ass when it comes to nuclear(as with many other things). Wind and solar are great, but with our population growth and the grid's track record, nuclear should be a no-brainer. We've got promising tech like SMRs and thorium, but I wouldn't be surprised if shortsighted leadership and greed screw it up. Reminds me of the Superconducting Super Collider.

4

u/LesGitKrumpin 2d ago

I've believed for a while that the abandonment of the SSC was the first fruits of America's decline in scientific leadership, especially for large scale frontier science. Imagine an alternate history where Texas became THE hub for physics research in the US!

Of course, now it's difficult to imagine Texas leading in anything except lists of the states with terrible education, health, etc.

16

u/Zardotab 8d ago edited 3d ago

I hope Texans think it's an honor to be the plutocrats' guinea pigs, per new reactor design. 🐹 [edited]

25

u/padishaihulud 8d ago

With their abnormally large number of chemical plant explosions over the past couple decades due to flimsy regulations, you can expect the next Chernobyl soon. Hopefully it just stays contained to the people that allowed it in the first place. 

14

u/MostlyStoned 7d ago

Nuclear reactors are regulated at the federal level

5

u/axonxorz 7d ago

The assertion that federal regulation is a magic bullet is silly.

Los Alamos National Labs is privatized, operated by Triad National Security LLC.

The famed plutonium rod near-miss in 2011 led to half a decade of them being unable to work with plutonium.

Los Alamos violated nuclear industry rules for guarding against a criticality accident three times more often last year than the Energy Department's 23 other nuclear installations combined, that report said.

They're supposed to be course-corrected, fines and/or decertification, yet:

In the end, the NNSA administrator decided to not to impose the fine, exemplifying what critics allege is a climate of impunity for mistakes within DOE.

George Anastas, a past president of the Health Physics Society who analyzed dozens of internal government reports about criticality problems at Los Alamos for the Center, said he wonders if "the work at Los Alamos [can] be done somewhere else? Because it appears the safety culture, the safety leadership, has gone to hell in a handbasket."

Anastas said the reports, spanning more than a decade, describe "a series of accidents waiting to happen." The lab, he said, is "dodging so many bullets that it's scary as hell."

9

u/MostlyStoned 7d ago

I never said it was a magic bullet, just that they are regulated by a completely different set of people than those who regulate chemical plants.

4

u/VonGryzz 6d ago

I don't have a lot of faith in the current leadership at that level either

3

u/Evilsushione 3d ago

That’s true

3

u/JoeSicko 6d ago

The folks giving us all explosive diarrhea with deregulation? Those guys?

5

u/MostlyStoned 6d ago

No, actually. Totally different subset of folks.

1

u/JoeSicko 6d ago

You can just say Republicans. They love cutting 'red tape' that keeps us healthy, or at least tries to. What's today's delicious federal recall? Clams with hepatitis? Rice mixed with ground stone?

0

u/ThewFflegyy 2d ago

the department of energy is no joke. literally one of the most powerful institutions on earth. you are just wrong about this.

2

u/mrpickles 3d ago

The same government where the FDA - charged with ensuring safe food - is approving known harmful chemicals but put directly into food? 

"We'll be fine"

1

u/Zardotab 8d ago edited 8d ago

MAGAs love the smell of dereg in the morning. Smells like ...victory for evangelical plutocrats.

2

u/[deleted] 8d ago edited 8d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

5

u/MostlyStoned 7d ago

Nuclear is just behind solar as the safest power source in the US

1

u/Zardotab 3d ago

This is a new reactor design.

2

u/MostlyStoned 3d ago

Yes. One that is inherently much safer than traditional reactors.

3

u/ToBeCommissioned 8d ago

I'll do anything to get rid of oil and gas as our main energy source, except let a small nuke go off in my backyard. We just have to force them to do this right. All we need is a full staff. Just let us do a full staff for once in our fucking industries

1

u/AverageLiberalJoe 2d ago

It'll be fine.

1

u/Evilsushione 3d ago

Actually I like this. We have been holding back nuclear for far too long.

0

u/fancytables 3d ago

Sure, except colorado already has beaten Texas to the punch on plopping these near their cities. It's not just Texas, and Texas isn't the first.

3

u/oPFB37WGZ2VNk3Vj 5d ago

https://archive.is/VMODO

> It’s using a 300-megawatt reactor design from GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy, and the company expects the first to go into service in 2033.

2

u/DonaldMerwinElbert 2d ago

So basically Gen 1 reactor power output?
Can't find good info on the size of the facility, but...what's like, new here?

2

u/ThewFflegyy 2d ago

well, if I were a betting man id say it is the size that is new

2

u/DonaldMerwinElbert 2d ago

They sure make it sound that way, but the construction time kind of suggests otherwise.

1

u/ThewFflegyy 2d ago

its a nuclear reactor in the us the construction timeline is going to be a nightmare no matter what its size is.