에너지
NuScale (SMR) Spotlight: Standardized Serial-Built Nuclear Reactors
From Large to Small Modular Reactors
Nuclear power plants tend to be massive projects. Output is in the gigawatts, investments are required in the tens of billions, and construction times are in years if not decades. This causes a few problems:
- It is difficult to find money out of government funding due to the massive time lag between the start of the project and the date of the first power production.
- It is not a good match for small countries or remote areas, and requires to some extent the entire power grid to be adapted to the nuclear power plant.
- When something goes wrong, instead of a localized incident, it can become a continent-wide disaster.
- Each massive project is a custom experimental design, blocking the industry from developing any sort of standardization in its production process.
Overall, it could be said that the traditional approach to nuclear power suffers from 2 weaknesses: too high costs, and too high risks.
Some of this could be solved by 4th generation nuclear power plants, which use new and safer designs. But another approach called SMR (Small Modular Reactors) is looking at a new way to split atoms to generate power and solve both problems at once.
Source: IAEA
The demand for more nuclear power is now exploding, driven by a mix of energy-hungry AI data centers and the realization that renewable intermittent production is an issue until we scale up battery systems sufficiently, which might take decades.
Why Using SMRs
The central idea of SMRs is that instead of white elephant giant & custom projects, nuclear reactors should be built in the same way we built planes and ships:
- A standardized template allows the reuse of the same design countless times, spreading out the R&D costs.
- This also means the interchangeability of spare parts and less training costs over time.
- Manufactured and assembled in series, in a dedicated factory, allowing for experience to build up and economy of scales.
- Moved to sites where they are needed from the factory.
In theory, this should provide radical economies of scale, as every extra reactor produced reuses previous skilled labor, machinery, standard setup, etc. For example, an SMR reactor should take around three years to be built instead of the usual 5-10 years (sometimes 15-20 years in the worst cases, like the Vogtle plant in Georgia).
Another factor is that smaller reactors simply produce less energy on a per-unit basis. This means that out-of-control chain reactions leading to catastrophes like Chernobyl are inherently less likely.
When combined with 4th generation nuclear tech improvement, this can make SMRs several orders of magnitude safer than the older designs.
Lastly, because SMRs are made of several sub-units, it allows for great flexibility in the final power output, without having to perform a complete redesign each time.
The lower output also opens new applications, like on-site energy production for industrial sites or military bases, which could help decarbonize operations that are almost impossible to power with renewable alone.
“With SMRs, we have opened up a whole spectrum of customers.”
As a final bonus, the smaller size of SMRs allows for them to be installed on the site of “normal” fossil-fuel power plants, like decommissioned coal plants, making them reuse the already existing grid infrastructure as well as reducing the land demand for the project. At least, as long you got approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for the nuclear power plant Emergency Planning Zone, as the company NuScale did after a grueling 7-year process to get the approval.
Source: NuScale
NuScale
(SMR )
NuScale’s Competitive Position
NuScale is one of the leading contenders in the race to mass-produce SMRs in Western countries, with only Russian and Chinese state companies ahead.
Notably, NuScale is the sole SMR technology certified by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
Founded in 2007, the company was very early in betting on SMRs, at a time when nuclear energy in general looked like it was on a trajectory of permanent decline, especially after the 2011 Fukushima incident. So far, it has invested $2B in its technology and production process.
With 6 reactors currently in production, the company is heading towards its first commercial delivery, which is expected to be achieved around 2030.
A Modular, But Known Design
NuScale’s reactors VOYGR can be carried from the factory to power plant sites on the back of a very large truck. They each produce a 77 MWe (Mega Watts equivalents) or electrical capacity, with up to 12 modules possible by plant (924 MWe)
Source: NuScale
These reactors are expected to have a 60+ years lifespan.
The technology behind it is the tried-and-tested light-water nuclear (LWR) reactor. While it may be less innovative than other designs using thorium, high pressure, etc., this has helped secure regulators’ approval and de-risk the development process.
It also leverages the existing nuclear power supply chain, from sensors to uranium fuel assemblies, reactor cranes, and control systems.
Source: NuScale
These SMRs are also “walk-away safe”, meaning that they stay safe even with no human intervention, cooling down naturally if not maintained.
