HPR4628: Nuclear Power Technology Follow Up

HPR4628: Nuclear Power Technology Follow Up

From Hacker Public Radio by Hacker Public Radio

April 29, 2026

About this episode

This episode is a follow-up to a series on nuclear power, addressing listener questions about reactor costs and safety.

This show has been flagged as Clean by the host. -------------------- 01 Introduction This is a follow up to my 8 part series on nuclear power. In this episode I will answer questions posed by listeners in the comments to the series. I would like to start by thanking these people for taking the time to submit interesting questions. -------------------- Costs of Small Versus Large Reactors 02 brian-in-ohio asked two questions The first was for a cost comparison between large and small reactors. The second was for nuclear plant safety compared to conventional power plants. 03 Answer I think that any answer to the second question is going to be perceived by some people as politically controversial, so it's probably not a good topic for HPR to address. 04 The first question though about cost of small versus large reactors is an interesting one, although not one that is easy to give an answer to. I will restrict the answer to just grid scale electric power production and ignore use cases such as industrial process heat or power for remote mines and communities. 05 This question comes down to economies of scale versus economies of replication. Economies of scale centre around increased…

People in this episode

Host: Hacker Public Radio

Topics covered

  • nuclear power
  • technology
  • safety
  • cost comparison
  • energy production

Keywords

  • nuclear power
  • reactors
  • cost comparison
  • safety
  • energy

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