Talk of The Villages Florida - View Single Post - Nuclear Power Microreactor.
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Old 08-13-2025, 08:17 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill14564 View Post
Very rough back of the envelope calculation:
$80M for 50MWe continuous for 10 years produces 6 times enough electricity to pay itself off at $0.11/kwh.

Or another way:
If you could sell all 50MWe it produces for every hour of every day for 10 years at $0.11/kwh then you would take in $480M.

Or one more:
If you could utilize 50% on average of its total capacity then you could sell electricity at $0.04/kwh to make $80M in 10 years

Reality:
- It may or may not cost $80M by the time it's actually ready for sale
- There will be a cost to add it to the electrical grid
- It is very unlikely that you could utilize its entire capacity 24 hours/day
The 50 MWe (megawatts electrical) rating of a reactor refers to its continuous power output, typically measured as the rate of electrical energy it can produce per second.

The average U.S. household consumes about 10,791 kWh per year (2023 data), which translates to roughly 1.23 kW (kilowatts) on average when spread over time (10,791 kWh ÷ 8,760 hours/year ≈ 1.23 kW).

A 50 MWe reactor can power approximately 34,000 homes in the U.S., assuming typical household consumption and accounting for transmission losses and a 90% capacity factor.

So three of those reactors could power most of the homes in the Villages.