NRC issues first U.S. construction permit for a BWRX-300 small modular reactor

This is a 10th Generation Boiling Water Reactor. Here's some relevant links: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BWRX-300 https://www.gevernova.com/nuclear/carbon-free-power/bwrx-300... Interesting point: no pumps; convection flow for 100% of the operational envelope.

A nuclear power plant is essentially a coal power plant with free fuel. Today, if you literally built a coal power plant with free fuel it would not be cheaper than solar. My question: If you built a small modular coal power plant, would that be cheaper than solar? It necessarily has to be cheaper than nuclear.

Hell yes!

The BWRX-300 footprint is so large they might as well just build large nuclear power units again and get 3-4x the power

Place your bets now. Time until first power generated, and actual final total cost. I’ll go 15 years and $10 Billion.