New Paradigms Emerge for Innovation and Investment in Advanced Nuclear Energy Reactor Designs

Uranium (Nuclear Minerals) / Nuclear Power - Economics, Design, & Industry

Date posted: 05/03/16

Dan Yurman blogs that in the U.S. and Canada more than three dozen firms, representing about $1.3 billion in investor money, are currently pursuing technological innovations in nuclear energy. These firms include large, big-name projects, with deep pockets, like TerraPower, and small startups like Terrestrial Energy with Series A funding. All of them are placing their chips on an increase in nuclear energy driven by the need to decarbonize the generation of electricity needed to power the global economy. While large, light water reactors will continue to be significant players in the mix, the bet is that there will also be market opportunities for reactors based on new, simple technologies, and sooner rather than later. Development of road maps by independent developers to achieve commercial success of advanced nuclear reactors are the primary objectives as compared to the past where R and D milestones met by scientists inside government-funded national labs were what counted. SMRs are generally 300 MWe equivalent or less and are expected to be built using modular factory fabrication techniques. This approach to SMRs is expected to result in economies of scale in terms of production and offer significantly shorter construction times than the larger (gigawatt scale) established nuclear technologies. Hess emphasizes that SMRs also have an advantage in that they introduce a greater degree of flexibility into nuclear technology. He lists their advantages as being transportable by rail or even mountable on a ship. This means the SMR can be delivered to operate in places where the large units are not feasible or practical. SMRs should present lower barriers to entry nuclear for developing or emerging countries. The small size of SMRs also makes them suitable for use in smaller networks or places where demand is flat or growing slowly. They could also be used for the incremental replacement of smaller fossil units. But read through the subtle negative spin ...