First small modular nuclear reactor design certified for use in U.S.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has certified the design for what will be the United States’ first small modular nuclear reactor
The rule that certifies the design was published Thursday in the Federal Register.
It means that companies seeking to build and operate a nuclear power plant can pick the design for a 50-megawatt, advanced light-water small modular nuclear reactor by Oregon-based NuScale Power and apply to the NRC for a license.
It’s the final determination that the design is acceptable for use so it can’t be legally challenged during the licensing process when someone applies to build and operate a nuclear power plant, NRC spokesperson Scott Burnell said Friday. The rule becomes effective in late February.
It’s the seventh nuclear reactor design cleared for use in the United States. The rest are for traditional, large, light-water reactors.
Diane Hughes, NuScale’s vice president of marketing and communications, said the design certification is a historic step forward toward a clean energy future and makes the company’s VOYGR power plant a near-term deployable solution for customers. The first small modular reactor design application package included over 2 million pages of supporting materials, Hughes added.
However, David Schlissel at the Ohio-based Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis expressed concerns about the costs. Schlissel, who has studied the history of the nuclear power industry and the finances of the NuScale project, expects they will continue to go up, which could limit how many NuScale reactors are built. He said he thinks they’re not competitive in price with renewables and battery storage.
Hughes said from wind and solar to hydrogen and nuclear, energy projects have seen cost increases due to changing financial market dynamics, interest rate hikes and inflationary pressures on the sector’s supply chain that have not been seen in decades. NuScale’s VOYGR power plant remains a cost competitive source of reliable, affordable and carbon-free energy, she added.
For many, nuclear power is emerging as an answer as states and countries transition away from coal, oil and natural gas to reduce ‘greenhouse gas’ emissions.
Roughly 40 serious concepts are in development for the next generation of advanced nuclear reactors worldwide. China was the first to connect a next-generation reactor to its grid to produce about 200 megawatts of electricity. A high-temperature, gas-cooled reactor began operating in 2021.
The U.S. Energy Department said it provided more than $600 million since 2014 to support the design, licensing and siting of NuScale’s VOYGR small modular reactor power plant and other domestic small reactor concepts. The department is working with Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems to demonstrate a six-module NuScale VOYGR plant at the Idaho National Laboratory. The first module is expected to be operational by 2029.
NuScale has signed 19 agreements in the U.S. and internationally to deploy its small reactor technology. Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Kathryn Huff said small modular reactors are no longer an abstract concept.
“They are real and they are ready for deployment thanks to the hard work of NuScale, the university community, our national labs, industry partners, and the NRC,” Huff said in a statement. “This is innovation at its finest and we are just getting started here in the U.S.”
NuScale has also applied to the NRC for approval of a larger design, at 77 megawatts per module and the agency is checking the application for completeness before starting a full review, Burnell said.
See more here cbsnews.com
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Dale Horst
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We need to put laws in place now that demand the disassembly and removal of wind farms as they become inoperable and obsolete.
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Jerry Krause
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Hi Dale,
While in Hawaii, Big Island, we rented a car and found an abandoned wind farm with much smaller wind turbines that had obviously failed. So the present problems are not anything new.
Have a good day, Jerry.
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Jerry Krause
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Hi PSI Editors,
Both Dale and I considered we were making comments about wind turbines; not small nuclear reactors. Given my age problem I do get confused easily, but two of us???
Have a good day, Jerry
Reply
Dale Horst
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I wasn’t confused at all. As nuclear energy overtakes renewables and wind turbines fade to irrelevance, the landscape needs cleared of these monstrosities by the same people who put them there in the first place.
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Jerry Krause
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Hi Dale,
Thank you for clarifying that I was the only one who was confused. I agree totally with your opinion.
Have a good day, Jerry
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Jerry Krause
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Hi PSI Readers,
I had come to make a comment about “The first small modular reactor design application package included over 2 million pages of supporting materials, Hughes added.” Which is: Get real.
Have a good day, Jerry
Reply
Allan Shelton
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Why is this so amazing?
There have been small nuclear reactors in submarines and aircraft carriers for years.
No???
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Jerry Krause
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Hi Allan,
Great OBSERVATION! And even Russia has nuclear powered submarines. However, maybe they stole the USA (Rickover’s) plans.
Have a good day, Jerry
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Citizen Quasar
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Tom Bearden’s over unity M.E.G. can be built at home for just a few hundred dollars.
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Eric the Red
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“However, David Schlissel at the Ohio-based Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis expressed concerns about the costs.”
Articles that prattle on about the cost of alternative energy are worthless trash, usually amounting to little more than propaganda. When comparing energy sources, cost is an absurd metric, because it is always artificially manipulated at different inflection points of production and use, especially by the government. The only reliable metric is thermodynamic efficiency measured from inception of the value chain through customer use and then to shutdown of the energy delivery system, including especially energy density, lifecycle, and total intended mass usage.
As but one example, it’s easy to ignore the thermodynamics of mining and refining rare earths, manufacturing complex batteries, their poor energy density, their recharging properties, their short lifecycles, their tendencies to burst into flame, and the total amount of new electricity that must be generated by power plants to service a complete changeover of cars from gasoline to electric. Thermodynamics states that no amount of advanced technology will ever change the limits of the associated theoretical efficiencies, so even little green men visiting earth will not help. The entire population has been dumbed down, and most will never use math, but a thermodynamic explanation can be simplified so even the least common denominator sheeple start to understand. Until such articles are written, everything else is a waste of time.
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