Released April 14, 2014 | SUGAR LAND
en
Written by John Egan for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--In awarding a large grant to develop small modular nuclear reactors (SMR), the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) (Washington, D.C.) decided to go really small: It awarded a five-year cost-sharing grant totaling up to $226 million to a consortium that wants to build SMRs that are 45 megawatts (MW) in size.
In winning the second SMR grant, the team led by NuScale Power LLC (Portland, Oregon) beat a team headed by Westinghouse. Earlier, a team headed by the Babcock & Wilcox Company (NYSE:BWC) (B&W) (Charlotte, North Carolina) won the first SMR grant from DoE, totaling $225 million. For more on the B&W award, see January 14, 2013, article - Babcock & Wilcox Team Wins DoE Grant to Develop Small Modular Reactor.
The NuScale team includes: Fluor Corporation (NYSE:FLR) (Irving, Texas), which owns the majority of NuScale; Rolls-Royce plc (London, England); Energy Northwest (Columbia, Washington); and Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (Salt Lake City, Utah). The $226 million grant to NuScale, announced December 12, supports the design, engineering, certification and commercialization of its SMR technology. The NuScale team must put up at least $226 million in matching funds. NuScale prefers to develop and construct its SMRs at the Idaho National Laboratory (Idaho Falls, Idaho), though a location has not been finalized. The DoE wants to see the NuScale SMR commercialized by about 2025.
For more on the potential benefits of SMRs, see December 28, 2010, article - POWER-GEN: Small Modular Nuclear Reactors Could Create U.S. Jobs, Cut Global Carbon Emissions, and July 5, 2011, article - Are Small Modular Reactors the Future of Nuclear Power?
"Small modular reactors represent a new generation of safe, reliable, low-carbon nuclear energy technology and provide a strong opportunity for America to lead this emerging global industry," DoE Secretary Ernest Moniz said in announcing the grant. "The Energy Department is committed to strengthening nuclear energy's continuing, important role in America's low-carbon future. New technologies like small modular reactors will help ensure our continued leadership in the safe, secure and efficient use of nuclear power worldwide."
John Hopkins, NuScale Power's chairman and chief executive officer, said: "We are very pleased with the DOE's decision to award funding to NuScale Power and the company's revolutionary technology for nuclear energy safety. We are grateful to all those stakeholders who have voiced their support for NuScale throughout the DOE selection process."
SMRs differ from existing nuclear generators in several ways. They are far smaller than the 600-MW to 1,200-MW reactors operating or under construction. SMR designs also have built-in passive safety systems that use the natural circulation of air, water and steam to maintain the right conditions for operation. Existing nuclear power plants, by contrast, use an elaborate network of mechanical equipment to cool the generator. And unlike current reactors, which are designed and assembled at the plant site, SMRs could be manufactured in factories and transported to sites where they would be ready for installation upon arrival. It is thought that SMRs could pose a cost-effective alternative to traditional, full-sized nuclear reactors both domestically and overseas.
The NuScale SMR will include as many as 12 modules of 45 MW each, making its total generating capacity up to 540 MW, the company said. The NuScale design was initially developed in 2000 and has been demonstrated in testing programs since 2003 in a fully-instrumented, one-third scale, electrically heated test facility in Corvallis, Oregon. In addition, NuScale commissioned a full-scale multi-module control-room simulator in May 2012. Both facilities were firsts in the U.S. SMR industry.
NuScale said its SMRs are "cooled by the natural circulation of water and can be shut down safely with no operator action, no AC or DC power, and no external water." The company added its SMRs are scalable, so additional modules can be added as customer demand for electricity increases. NuScale said its technology also was ideally suited to supply energy for district heating, desalination and other applications.
In announcing the availability of cost-sharing grants for SMRs, DoE said it was looking for technologies with unique features that maximize resistance to hazards presented by severe weather, seismic events and other natural phenomena. NuScale said its design can help manage the consequences of severe accidents similar to the meltdown of the Fukushima Dai'ichi nuclear reactors in March 2011.
The NuScale team includes Energy Northwest, a not-for-profit joint operating agency comprising locally owned utilities in Washington State that operates the Columbia nuclear power plant in Richland, Washington, as well as hydro, wind and solar generators. On learning of the DoE grant, Energy Northwest Chief Executive Officer Mark Reddemann thanked the energy agency and said, "We recognize the importance of developing, safely operating and demonstrating NuScale SMR technology in the Northwest region as an eventual pathway to an SMR providing affordable and environmentally responsible power to Washington State ratepayers."
Reddemann added Energy Northwest and a group of locally owned and shareholder-owned utilities conducted a two-year assessment of all SMR technologies and concluded that the NuScale technology is the right technology to best meet the needs of Northwest consumers over the long term. "This award further validates that analysis," he said.
The NuScale team beat a team led by Westinghouse Electric Company (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), which provides equipment and services to nearly half the world's nuclear power plants. Westinghouse is a unit of Toshiba Corporation. That team also included electric utility Ameren Corporation (NYSE:AEE) (St. Louis, Missouri).
In a statement after the DoE decision, Warren Wood, Ameren Missouri's vice president of legislation and regulatory affairs, said the utility and other electric service providers in Missouri were disappointed by the government's decision. "As a result of the DoE's decision, we are stepping back and considering our alternatives as we continue to focus on maintaining all generation options for a cleaner energy portfolio to meet Missouri's energy needs in the future," Wood said. "Ameren Missouri still considers the development, manufacturing and construction of SMRs to be an important initiative to help create a cleaner energy portfolio for our state and our country."
Commenting on the DoE grant to NuScale, Brock Ramey, Industrial Info's manager of North American Power research, said: "These two teams will largely carry the fate of commercial nuclear power in the U.S., as delays and cost overruns have plagued construction of new, more traditionally sized nuclear generators in Georgia and South Carolina. The NuScale and B&W teams are scheduled to deliver commercialized SMRs in about a decade, at a time when some U.S. nuclear generators will be turning 60 years old. SMR technology has many fans, but some skeptics as well. Only time will tell if SMRs succeed."
Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, three offices in North America and nine international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.
In winning the second SMR grant, the team led by NuScale Power LLC (Portland, Oregon) beat a team headed by Westinghouse. Earlier, a team headed by the Babcock & Wilcox Company (NYSE:BWC) (B&W) (Charlotte, North Carolina) won the first SMR grant from DoE, totaling $225 million. For more on the B&W award, see January 14, 2013, article - Babcock & Wilcox Team Wins DoE Grant to Develop Small Modular Reactor.
The NuScale team includes: Fluor Corporation (NYSE:FLR) (Irving, Texas), which owns the majority of NuScale; Rolls-Royce plc (London, England); Energy Northwest (Columbia, Washington); and Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (Salt Lake City, Utah). The $226 million grant to NuScale, announced December 12, supports the design, engineering, certification and commercialization of its SMR technology. The NuScale team must put up at least $226 million in matching funds. NuScale prefers to develop and construct its SMRs at the Idaho National Laboratory (Idaho Falls, Idaho), though a location has not been finalized. The DoE wants to see the NuScale SMR commercialized by about 2025.
For more on the potential benefits of SMRs, see December 28, 2010, article - POWER-GEN: Small Modular Nuclear Reactors Could Create U.S. Jobs, Cut Global Carbon Emissions, and July 5, 2011, article - Are Small Modular Reactors the Future of Nuclear Power?
"Small modular reactors represent a new generation of safe, reliable, low-carbon nuclear energy technology and provide a strong opportunity for America to lead this emerging global industry," DoE Secretary Ernest Moniz said in announcing the grant. "The Energy Department is committed to strengthening nuclear energy's continuing, important role in America's low-carbon future. New technologies like small modular reactors will help ensure our continued leadership in the safe, secure and efficient use of nuclear power worldwide."
John Hopkins, NuScale Power's chairman and chief executive officer, said: "We are very pleased with the DOE's decision to award funding to NuScale Power and the company's revolutionary technology for nuclear energy safety. We are grateful to all those stakeholders who have voiced their support for NuScale throughout the DOE selection process."
SMRs differ from existing nuclear generators in several ways. They are far smaller than the 600-MW to 1,200-MW reactors operating or under construction. SMR designs also have built-in passive safety systems that use the natural circulation of air, water and steam to maintain the right conditions for operation. Existing nuclear power plants, by contrast, use an elaborate network of mechanical equipment to cool the generator. And unlike current reactors, which are designed and assembled at the plant site, SMRs could be manufactured in factories and transported to sites where they would be ready for installation upon arrival. It is thought that SMRs could pose a cost-effective alternative to traditional, full-sized nuclear reactors both domestically and overseas.
The NuScale SMR will include as many as 12 modules of 45 MW each, making its total generating capacity up to 540 MW, the company said. The NuScale design was initially developed in 2000 and has been demonstrated in testing programs since 2003 in a fully-instrumented, one-third scale, electrically heated test facility in Corvallis, Oregon. In addition, NuScale commissioned a full-scale multi-module control-room simulator in May 2012. Both facilities were firsts in the U.S. SMR industry.
NuScale said its SMRs are "cooled by the natural circulation of water and can be shut down safely with no operator action, no AC or DC power, and no external water." The company added its SMRs are scalable, so additional modules can be added as customer demand for electricity increases. NuScale said its technology also was ideally suited to supply energy for district heating, desalination and other applications.
In announcing the availability of cost-sharing grants for SMRs, DoE said it was looking for technologies with unique features that maximize resistance to hazards presented by severe weather, seismic events and other natural phenomena. NuScale said its design can help manage the consequences of severe accidents similar to the meltdown of the Fukushima Dai'ichi nuclear reactors in March 2011.
The NuScale team includes Energy Northwest, a not-for-profit joint operating agency comprising locally owned utilities in Washington State that operates the Columbia nuclear power plant in Richland, Washington, as well as hydro, wind and solar generators. On learning of the DoE grant, Energy Northwest Chief Executive Officer Mark Reddemann thanked the energy agency and said, "We recognize the importance of developing, safely operating and demonstrating NuScale SMR technology in the Northwest region as an eventual pathway to an SMR providing affordable and environmentally responsible power to Washington State ratepayers."
Reddemann added Energy Northwest and a group of locally owned and shareholder-owned utilities conducted a two-year assessment of all SMR technologies and concluded that the NuScale technology is the right technology to best meet the needs of Northwest consumers over the long term. "This award further validates that analysis," he said.
The NuScale team beat a team led by Westinghouse Electric Company (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), which provides equipment and services to nearly half the world's nuclear power plants. Westinghouse is a unit of Toshiba Corporation. That team also included electric utility Ameren Corporation (NYSE:AEE) (St. Louis, Missouri).
In a statement after the DoE decision, Warren Wood, Ameren Missouri's vice president of legislation and regulatory affairs, said the utility and other electric service providers in Missouri were disappointed by the government's decision. "As a result of the DoE's decision, we are stepping back and considering our alternatives as we continue to focus on maintaining all generation options for a cleaner energy portfolio to meet Missouri's energy needs in the future," Wood said. "Ameren Missouri still considers the development, manufacturing and construction of SMRs to be an important initiative to help create a cleaner energy portfolio for our state and our country."
Commenting on the DoE grant to NuScale, Brock Ramey, Industrial Info's manager of North American Power research, said: "These two teams will largely carry the fate of commercial nuclear power in the U.S., as delays and cost overruns have plagued construction of new, more traditionally sized nuclear generators in Georgia and South Carolina. The NuScale and B&W teams are scheduled to deliver commercialized SMRs in about a decade, at a time when some U.S. nuclear generators will be turning 60 years old. SMR technology has many fans, but some skeptics as well. Only time will tell if SMRs succeed."
Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, three offices in North America and nine international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.
