Do we have any experienced nuclear engineers capable of designing the equipment and plant? It’s been 31 years since the last license was issued for a nuclear generating unit was issued in the U.S. A whole generation of design engineering skills and experience has been lost. Starting over again from scratch generally doesn’t produce optimal outcomes.
Actually, Mitsubishi has designs for a modular plant (1750MWe) that are much more reliable than the current designs. Also, we’ve learned a lot from Naval plants, as well as reasearch done at EG&G Idaho and Los Alamos.
Westinghouse is building four plants in China. We are going through lots of growing pains, but we have a good handle on things. The cafeteria looks like a high school lunchroom with all the new hires, however these are very bright kids. They are being lead by a core of much older engineers who were around when the last plants were built and were involved in the latest design.
Yes. Just because reactors haven't been built in the US doesn't mean that US companies haven't been building reactors in the rest of the world. And the Navy still builds, installs, and runs a LOT of nukes. The expertise is there. All that is needed is to get the eco-idiots and their litany of lawsuits out of the way.