Vattenfall Picks Mini Nuclear Designs for Ringhals Plant

Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Vattenfall (Stockholm) has advanced plans to build two small modular reactor (SMR) plants its existing Ringhals nuclear power plant in Sweden by shortlisting designs by the U.K.'s Rolls-Royce (London, England) and the U.S. firm GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy International (Wilmington, North Carolina).

The company is looking to spend up to $6 billion to construct two 300-megawatt (MW) SMR plants. The designs from Rolls-Royce and GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy were chosen from a list of six contenders. The next phase will involve detailed analysis of the proposals made by the two shortlisted contenders before jointly producing a timetable for the proposed projects. In parallel, Vattenfall is continuing to investigate the conditions for building large-scale reactors on the site.

Desirée Comstedt, the head of new nuclear power at Vattenfall, said: "Shortlisting two potential suppliers of small modular reactors is one of several steps in our continued work towards new nuclear power on the Värö Peninsula at Ringhals. It is also a prerequisite for us to be able to continue to move forward at speed with the extensive work involved, which requires us - among other things - to submit applications for new nuclear reactors for examination by the responsible Swedish authorities."

Sweden's government is pushing for more nuclear power. Towards the end of last year, Industrial Info reported that the country's coalition government had announced plans to build up to 10 new nuclear reactors over the next two decades. This would more than double the number of the country's existing reactors, which are already more than 40 years old and supply about 30% of the country's power.

Rolls-Royce SMR Chief Executive Officer Chris Cholerton said: "We are delighted to be one of the two SMR technologies selected by Vattenfall for further evaluation in Sweden. Success in reaching the final two, in such a fiercely competitive process, reflects the benefits of our integrated power station design, our approach to modularisation and our use of proven nuclear technology."

In related news, Vattenfall and partners announced plans to extend the operating lifetime of the Forsmark and Ringhals nuclear power plants from 60 to 80 years. Extending the operating life of the five reactors at Forsmark and Ringhals by 20 years could provide a total of more than 800 terawatt-hours (TWh) of fossil-free electricity--the equivalent of Sweden's power consumption for six years. Forsmark has three reactors with an annual production capacity of approximately 25 TWh, while Ringhals has two reactors with an annual production capacity of almost 17 TWh. The costs for the planned life extensions are estimated at US$3.8 billion to US$4.7 billion.

"Nuclear power will play an important role in Swedish fossil-free electricity production for many decades and it is therefore of the utmost importance to invest not only in new nuclear power, but also in our existing reactors," explained Torbjörn Wahlborg, senior executive vice president for Generation in the Nordic region at Vattenfall. "After the extensive modernisations that have been carried out in the past, we see good prospects for extending the operating life up to 20 years."

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