Small Modular Reactors are Nuclear's Future (James Conca)

Link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2017/02/16/smr-smart-smallmodular-reactors-are-the-wave-of-nuclears-future/#3a49823b131a Please see link above for original text, embedded hotlinks and all comments.

SMR Smart: Small Modular Reactors Are Nuclear's Future James Conca, Contributor February 16, 2017 I have been a scientist in the field of the earth and environmental sciences for 33 years, specializing in geologic disposal of nuclear waste, energy-related research, planetary surface processes, radiobiology and shielding for space colonies, subsurface transport and environmental clean-up of heavy metals. I am a Trustee of the Herbert M. Parker Foundation and consult on strategic planning for the DOE, EPA/State environmental agencies, and industry including companies that own nuclear, hydro, wind farms, large solar arrays, coal and gas plants. I also consult for EPA/State environmental agencies and industry on clean-up of heavy metals from soil and water. For over 25 years I have been a member of Sierra Club, Greenpeace, the NRDC, the Environmental Defense Fund and many others, as well as professional societies including the America Nuclear Society, the American Chemical Society, the Geological Society of America and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.

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SMR Start is a new organization of potential customers and vendors investing in the development of advanced modular reactors. SMRs can be emplaced singly or in sets like this plant. Modules can be added later. This provides flexibility and planning not possible for larger plants, and also allows complete buffering, or load-following, of intermittent sources like wind and solar. Source: NuScale SMR Start is a new organization of potential customers and vendors investing in the development of advanced modular nuclear reactors (SMRs). It was formed to get SMRs over the initial market humps that plague all new technologies by using proven publicprivate partnerships that have succeeded with other technologies like renewables.

Because of their small size, 300 MW or less, SMRs are economic, factory built and shippable, flexible enough to desalinate, refine oil, load-follow wind, produce hydrogen and provide something we’ve all been waiting for – a reactor that cannot meltdown.

SMR Start’s goal is to ensure that SMRs are a cost-competitive option in the future, with the first units operating by the mid-2020s.

SMR Start advocates for public-private partnerships – similar to those that provide support for the introduction of other new energy technologies such as solar and wind – to help ensure the successful commercialization of SMRs. Public-private partnerships stimulate the private investments required to ensure that the technology continues to advance and is capable of competing in domestic and overseas markets without additional direct support once the technology matures.

Today’s energy markets are characterized by low natural gas prices, heavily subsidized renewable generation and low growth in electricity demand. American vendors also compete in the international markets for the deployment of SMRs and other advanced Page 2

nuclear reactor designs. Unfortunately, most countries like Russia and China directly subsidize their nation’s nuclear technologies in order to penetrate global markets.

The new wave of SMR designs has been supported in many recent inside-the-Beltway initiatives: - Executive Order 13693 recognizes SMRs as a source of clean energy.

- The second installment of DOE’s Quadrennial Energy Review recommends that the nuclear PTC be extended, allowing SMRs to qualify, plus allowing federal agencies to negotiate 20-year power purchase agreements for clean energy, which would include SMR power.

- The Advanced Nuclear Technology Act of 2017 passed in January by the U.S. House of Representatives to ‘foster civilian research and development of advanced nuclear energy technologies and enhance the licensing and commercial deployment of such technologies.’

- DOE’s Energy Innovation Portfolio Plan FY2018 to 2022 recommends (page 29) a new $750M cost sharing program to develop and deploy SMR technologies (SMR Enterprise Innovation Program).

A final SMR design is necessary for the first power plant to begin construction and to take advantage of factory fabrication. But even after an SMR design certification application has been submitted to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, there is still significant cost and uncertainty involved in the design certification approval process, as well as work to finalize the design. A cost-sharing program for design finalization activities would help reduce the risk for first reactor design companies and would increase the probability that a final SMR design is produced for factory fabrication.

The low price of natural gas poses a challenge to low-carbon technology deployment, and a production tax credit (PTC) would help to value the carbon-free benefits of SMRs and close this price gap as it has for renewables. Power purchase agreements would help to create demand for new, low-carbon technologies in an era of slower electrical demand growth.

PPAs between SMR operators and federal facilities would align with the directive to support low-carbon technologies codified in Executive Order 13693, as well as promote national security.

Investments in advanced manufacturing will reduce cost and construction time for SMRs, and create manufacturing jobs for components that currently have to be made outside the United States for the large traditional nuclear reactors.

New reactor designs are pretty advanced and ready to be rolled out. In January, NuScale Power out of Oregon announced their submission to the Nuclear Regulatory Page 3

Commission of the first design certification application for any SMR in the United States. It is expected to be built in the early 2020s.

The first 12-reactor Control Room Simulator in the world at NuScale’s Integral System Test facility. Multiple reactor control rooms are key to SMRs future and to the flexibility needed in our new energy world. Source: NuScale Terrestrial Energy, another innovative small modular reactor company, has notified the Nuclear Regulatory Commission of its intentions to license their Integral Molten Salt Reactor, or IMSR. They have plans to submit its licensing application in 2019.

But what really matters to the public is safety. The small size and large surface area-tovolume ratio of SMRs, like NuScale Power, that sits below ground in a super seismicresistant heat sink, allows natural processes to cool it indefinitely in the case of a complete power blackout, with no humans needed to intervene, no AC or DC power, no pumps, and no additional water for cooling.

Translation – no meltdowns!

SMR Start is being highlighted at a nuclear summit next week on February 21st at the Third Way Nuclear Summit in Washington, D.C. in the Newseum at 555 Pennsylvania Avenue NW. If you’re in the area, it would be a great meeting to attend.

Dr. James Conca is a geochemist, an energy expert, an authority on dirty bombs, a planetary geologist and professional speaker. Follow him on Twitter @jimconca and see his book at Amazon.com

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SELECT COMMENTS

Mike Keller Well … maybe. Difficult to see how an SMR could compete with gas in the US, so seems of questionable value to license such plants in the US. No real market. Overseas, there is simply no way to compete with China, Russia and probably Korea. Those countries heavily subsidize their nuclear technologies, do not create massive regulatory burdens, and are willing to invest in development of advanced nuclear technologies. Pretty much the exact opposite of the US.

jsbiff Those other nations you mention are ALSO working on developing small modular reactors. I do think it’s probably the case that the US is doing too little too late and will end up just buying nuclear technology from one or more of those other nations over the next 100 years or so.

I wish the US were playing a leadership role, but, I have become convinced that simply because of it’s intrinsic long-term technical and eventually economic advantages, nuclear energy is going to dominate humanity’s future energy mix.

Mike Keller a day ago I think as long as the government (specifically the Department of Energy) is directing the development of advanced reactors, there is not a snow-balls-chance-in-hell of the US ever regaining a leadership role in nuclear energy. The bureaucrats have no business deciding the winner/losers in the market. The solution is pretty easy. (1) let investment firms write-off longterm development help to advanced nuclear (2) direct the NRC to primarily concentrate on the most important safety aspects of the technology. Because the advanced reactors are inherently passively safe, the later recommendation is logical.

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