GE Hitachi Proposes Small Modular Nuclear Fast Reactor for U.K. Plutonium Stockpile

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources Europe (Galway, Ireland)--GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) (Wilmington, North Carolina) has submitted a proposal to the U.K. government to utilize the legacy plutonium stockpile for a new Power Reactor Innovative Small Module (PRISM) nuclear power station at the Sellafield site in Cumbria.

Earlier this year, the U.K.'s Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) launched a public consultation, asking for recommendations on ways to deal with the 87 metric tons of legacy plutonium, which are stored at the Sellafield site. Some of the plutonium was used by the mixed oxide nuclear fuel (MOX) manufacturing plant, which also is at Sellafield; however, the Sellafield MOX fuel plant was forced to shut down after losing orders from several Japanese utilities following the Fukushima nuclear incident. For additional information, see August 11, 2011 article - England's Sellafield MOX Nuclear Fuel Plant to Close.

In its statement on nuclear energy matters, the DECC outlined a preliminary policy to pursue the reuse of plutonium as MOX fuel in civil nuclear reactors; however, the DECC also stated that the U.K. government remained open to alternative proposals for plutonium management that offered a "better value to the taxpayer."

GEH's proposal is centred on their PRISM reactor, which has a simplified modular design providing improved safety, reduced costs and operational flexibility that increases plant availability. The reactor has been developed as a prototype; if accepted, GEH has recommended that a full-scale, 622-megawatt (MW) version be used at the new plant.

Danny Roderick, the nuclear plant project vice president at GEH, said that the reactor is a better option to burn plutonium than to turn it into a mixed oxide fuel (MOX), which could be used in conventional reactors. "The advantage we have is that we take something people are trying to get rid of and turn it into something people can use," he said. "It's going to be an investment of several billion dollars, but our analysis shows that if you add the total cost of using MOX fuel, this is much more economical." Roderick said that the reactor requires five years for construction and can be operated for 60 years, during which time 100 metric tons of plutonium would be required.

The GEH proposal is in addition to the Iberdrola-GDF Suez joint venture's (NuGeneration) pitch to build a 3,200-MW European pressurized water reactor plant at the Sellafield site.

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