Energy Networking

nuclear energy - why cant it be put into small grids?

Ok, a technical question. I am told that Western Australia can not adopt Nuclear Energy as its grid size (~3300MW peak, 1000MW base load) is too small. I am told that the minimum economical size of a nuclear power plant is 1000MW (our entire base load) and minimum reactor size is 500MW - which if it trips off line will cause the system to become very unstable. I have a feeling these constraints have something to do with the critical mass of uranium, but am not sure. How big does a network have to be before Nuclear energy is economically feasible. Thanks!

Although the smallest commercial nuclear reactors in the US are currently 470 MW, there are some designs for nuclear reactors which are much smaller than that. It is unclear how safe and cost-efficient these designs would be.

http://www.primidi.com/2005/02/06.html

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