Reply To: Focus fusion and transportation

[Aeronaut]

Rematog wrote: Brian,

I’d be glad to know from someone (Dr. Lerner?) what the expected maintenance cycle is, but in my posts from May, 08, no one challanged this. In that post (for a central station repowering, I also used 10 shifts for duration of annual overhaul. In that analysis, I assume day & night shifts. In this case, I assumed only day, as having night shifts in a remote location might even yield negative productivity. Note the costs above are for well paid ($25-$40/hr) skill craftsman. These costs also include money for estimated parts and materials. My judgements on the costs, wage rates, durations, are based on >25 years in heavy industrial maintenace and engineering experience. Yes, I know, “appeal to authority”….. but jeez, I have been doing this work since Reagan’s first term…

Cost. The 300K to 500K figure put out by the FF developers, is for a module, FOB the factory dock. It does not include foundations, cooling, controls, fences, etc. So I’ve consistantly used $1,000K. This is dirt cheap. FF at $200/kw capital and no fuel cost, vs new coal plant at about $1,600/kw to $1,800/kw, with large fuel cost. Fission now has construction cost of $2,358/kw, as estimated by the Congressional Budget Office in May 2008. My personal belief is that that is low and would be more in the range of $3,000 to $5,000/kw. So, $1,000,000 for 5 MW ($200/kw) is cheap!

Rematog, the only numbers I’d whittle away at are how long (and the assumed where) of the annual overhaul. I’d like to think that 9 hours or more after taking the reactor off-line the crew could do a core swap in only a few hours on-site. That would be a function of how the shielding, core, and access are designed into the reactors, along with task-specific jigs, dollies, etc. The core would be rebuilt on a properly instrumented rebuild bench and very likely verified on a burn-in rig, similar to aerospace procedures. This goes almost without saying that the utility provides these services in their overall service contract. Who else can all parties trust?