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Released January 28, 2016 | GALWAY, IRELAND
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Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--The U.K. could have its first Small Modular Reactor (SMR) nuclear power plant by 2025, according to NuScale Power LLC (Portland, Oregon).
Speaking to news media in London, Tom Mundy, executive vice-president for program development at NuScale, said: "Assuming the Generic Design Assessment (GDA) is submitted and takes four years, we'd be looking at approval in 2021. There's then a 36-month construction time, so it's plausible to expect that if all things line up, we could have a U.K. plant built by 2025."
NuScale, which is majority owned by Fluor Corporation (NYSE:FLR) (Irving, Texas), is aiming to submit its 50-megawatt (MW) reactor design for approval by the US nuclear authorities before the end of this year and for the U.K.'s GDA process next year. The company maintains that SMR technology will result in plants that will be significantly cheaper to build, can be scaled quickly according to demand and produce electricity for less than traditional nuclear power plants. Mundy claimed that its first project will be able to generate power for around £70 ($99) per megawatt-hour (MWh). This compares favourably to the £92.50 ($131) per MWh that Electricite de France (EPA:EDF) (Paris) has agreed with the U.K. government for its proposed 3,300-MW Hinkley Point C nuclear power station in Somerset.
NuScale has already been awarded a five-year cost-sharing grant totalling up to $226 million from the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE). For additional information, see April 14, 2014, article - Large DoE Grant Supports Development of Very Small Nuclear Reactors.
The U.K. government is fully behind a new nuclear power revolution in the country as most of its current fleet are due for closure before 2030. It is also willing to financially back SMR technology. Last November, the Treasury announced £250 million ($355 million) for SMR and wider nuclear research.
U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said: "We are funding an ambitious nuclear research and development programme that will revive the U.K.'s nuclear expertise and position the U.K. as a global leader in innovative nuclear technologies. This will include a competition to identify the best value small modular reactor design for the U.K.. This will pave the way towards building one of the world's first small modular reactors in the U.K. in the 2020s. Detailed plans for the competition will be brought forward early next year [2016]."
Mundy added: "Nuclear power has a long legacy in this country, and our reactors are based on tried-and-tested light-water technology. I'm optimistic that with what the Chancellor said and the indications from the Department of Energy and Climate change (DECC) we're going to continue to move forward. There are U.K. companies that can build everything we need. We can offer British companies great opportunities to build the stuff. We want to make our program as beneficial to the U.K. as possible. It's the only international market where we're really expending resources."
The NuScale Power Module is self-contained, operating independently of the other modules in a multi-module configuration. Up to 12 can be linked together and each module measures 65 feet tall x 9 feet wide, and weighs in at 700 tons.
Earlier this month, the company said that the NuScale module could be fuelled by plutonium, which would help the U.K. get rid of its stockpiles of mixed uranium-plutonium oxide (MOX) fuel. Scenarios run by the U.K. National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) showed that MOX could be used in the NuScale core with "minimal effect on the reactor's design and operation." The company said that a 12-module NuScale plant with 100% MOX cores could consume 100 metric tonnes of discharged plutonium in roughly 40 years. The U.K will have around 140 tonnes of plutonium by 2018.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, five offices in North America and 10 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Our European headquarters are located in Galway, Ireland. Follow IIR Europe on: Facebook - Twitter - LinkedIn For more information on our European coverage send inquiries to europe@industrialinfo.eu or visit us online at Industrial Info Europe.
Speaking to news media in London, Tom Mundy, executive vice-president for program development at NuScale, said: "Assuming the Generic Design Assessment (GDA) is submitted and takes four years, we'd be looking at approval in 2021. There's then a 36-month construction time, so it's plausible to expect that if all things line up, we could have a U.K. plant built by 2025."
NuScale, which is majority owned by Fluor Corporation (NYSE:FLR) (Irving, Texas), is aiming to submit its 50-megawatt (MW) reactor design for approval by the US nuclear authorities before the end of this year and for the U.K.'s GDA process next year. The company maintains that SMR technology will result in plants that will be significantly cheaper to build, can be scaled quickly according to demand and produce electricity for less than traditional nuclear power plants. Mundy claimed that its first project will be able to generate power for around £70 ($99) per megawatt-hour (MWh). This compares favourably to the £92.50 ($131) per MWh that Electricite de France (EPA:EDF) (Paris) has agreed with the U.K. government for its proposed 3,300-MW Hinkley Point C nuclear power station in Somerset.
NuScale has already been awarded a five-year cost-sharing grant totalling up to $226 million from the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE). For additional information, see April 14, 2014, article - Large DoE Grant Supports Development of Very Small Nuclear Reactors.
The U.K. government is fully behind a new nuclear power revolution in the country as most of its current fleet are due for closure before 2030. It is also willing to financially back SMR technology. Last November, the Treasury announced £250 million ($355 million) for SMR and wider nuclear research.
U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said: "We are funding an ambitious nuclear research and development programme that will revive the U.K.'s nuclear expertise and position the U.K. as a global leader in innovative nuclear technologies. This will include a competition to identify the best value small modular reactor design for the U.K.. This will pave the way towards building one of the world's first small modular reactors in the U.K. in the 2020s. Detailed plans for the competition will be brought forward early next year [2016]."
Mundy added: "Nuclear power has a long legacy in this country, and our reactors are based on tried-and-tested light-water technology. I'm optimistic that with what the Chancellor said and the indications from the Department of Energy and Climate change (DECC) we're going to continue to move forward. There are U.K. companies that can build everything we need. We can offer British companies great opportunities to build the stuff. We want to make our program as beneficial to the U.K. as possible. It's the only international market where we're really expending resources."
The NuScale Power Module is self-contained, operating independently of the other modules in a multi-module configuration. Up to 12 can be linked together and each module measures 65 feet tall x 9 feet wide, and weighs in at 700 tons.
Earlier this month, the company said that the NuScale module could be fuelled by plutonium, which would help the U.K. get rid of its stockpiles of mixed uranium-plutonium oxide (MOX) fuel. Scenarios run by the U.K. National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) showed that MOX could be used in the NuScale core with "minimal effect on the reactor's design and operation." The company said that a 12-module NuScale plant with 100% MOX cores could consume 100 metric tonnes of discharged plutonium in roughly 40 years. The U.K will have around 140 tonnes of plutonium by 2018.
Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, five offices in North America and 10 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Our European headquarters are located in Galway, Ireland. Follow IIR Europe on: Facebook - Twitter - LinkedIn For more information on our European coverage send inquiries to europe@industrialinfo.eu or visit us online at Industrial Info Europe.
