What do I know about Nuclear Power

This is my first post!

So a bit about my non-IT engineering background — I’m not one! I just have a keen interest in finding out how things work and how they impact the world.

Being in the data world, we create logs of this information. So it helps that I genuinely enjoy digging into how these things work. If you’re going to use data to predict the likelihood of an event, then data is important. It’s important that data teams at least understand the basic importance of that data. Gold standard? That they understand the full application of the data.

For example, we collect the data you request from a source. But actually, there is often more there. If you don’t have a view of that — and the data team doesn’t know it’s helpful — perhaps it’s lost.

Like I said, not essential! Don’t slow your deliverables waiting on the Golden Goose Data Engineer. But certainly an advantage!

To that end, I’m going to write about what I’ve learned about the energy industry at my level of knowledge, and add my opinion. My opinion isn’t static, and I’ve not spent 500 days studying metal tolerances!

So feel free to expand my knowledge on anything I talk about.

So First off my opinion

Nuclear carries a lot of public baggage.

Its first application in the Second World War was as a weapon. Then came the Cold War — something I’m just old enough to remember the tail end of, although largely shielded from the worry by my parents.

Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, Fukushima — all created worldwide concern about the logic of producing power in this manner. I remember the news stories after Fukushima, particularly around European nations stepping away from nuclear generation.

While writing this, I realised how many other incidents I didn’t know about. A quick look at Wikipedia shows a far longer list than most people probably assume.

Now, with countries increasingly concerned about energy security — especially exposure to fuel dependencies on partners whose priorities may not align — nuclear is back on the table.

I also remember reading years ago that some US nuclear plants were running on fuel derived from decommissioned warheads under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. There’s something quietly interesting about turning weapons material into electricity.

So what is my opinion Nuclear?

As you can probably guess, it’s conflicted.

I suspect other industries feel the same.

Would you invest resources into a generation method that carries this much baggage in the human psyche? Where any accident, geopolitical shift, or general loss of trust could undo years of effort?

That’s where my head is at the moment.

So I started with, what type of Nuclear Power Plants are there?

Nuclear Power Plant Types

There isn’t just “nuclear power.”

There are multiple reactor families, multiple design philosophies, and several generations of engineering evolution.

Below is a simple structured overview.

By Reactor Technology (What’s Inside the Plant)

Water-Cooled Reactors (Most Common Globally)

• PWR – Pressurized Water Reactor
• BWR – Boiling Water Reactor
• ABWR – Advanced Boiling Water Reactor
• EPR – European Pressurized Reactor (advanced PWR)
• AP1000 – Advanced passive PWR
• APR1400 – Korean advanced PWR
• VVER – Russian PWR variant

Gas-Cooled Reactors

• AGR – Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor (UK)
• Magnox – Early UK gas-cooled design
• HTGR – High-Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor

Heavy Water Reactors

• CANDU – Canadian Deuterium Uranium reactor
• PHWR – Pressurized Heavy Water Reactor

Fast Reactors (No Water Moderator)

• SFR – Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor
• LFR – Lead-cooled Fast Reactor
• GFR – Gas-cooled Fast Reactor
• Fast Breeder Reactor (FBR)

Molten Salt Reactors

• MSR – Molten Salt Reactor
• LFTR – Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor

Modular / Scaled Designs

• SMR – Small Modular Reactor (usually small PWR/BWR variants)
• Microreactor – Very small (5–20 MW class)

Reactor Generations

Reactor “generations” describe the era and safety philosophy of the design — not the fuel type.

Where We Are Today

• Most operating reactors globally are Generation II PWR and BWR designs.
• Most new large builds are Generation III+ advanced PWR variants.
• Most innovation focus is on SMRs and Generation IV systems.

Nuclear is not a single technology — it is a broad engineering family that has evolved across multiple safety eras and design philosophies.

We can get a bit closer to what each once is together in other blogs!

Gareth Winterman