The Tennessee Valley Authority has taken the first concrete step toward installing modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) at its Clinch River site near Oak Ridge. TVA filed an Early Site Permit application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which will evaluate the 1,200-acre site safety, environmental issues and emergency preparedness requirements for construction of a modular reactor complex. This submittal is a key milestone for our company and the nuclear industry, TVA Chief Nuclear Officer Joe Grimes said in a statement. TVA is the first in the industry to submit any type of application related to SMRs to the NRC. Moving forward with the project is a welcome development. The nation needs to shift away from fossil fuels (especially coal), which pollute the air and contribute to climate change, because nuclear power is the most practical alternative by producing more energy on a larger scale than wind or solar installations.
Traditional site-built nuclear power plants are huge and expensive. A small modular reactor is factory-built rather than constructed on site, and is transported to its location. Several small modular reactors can be linked together at one location to create a complex that approaches the generation capacity of traditional plants. The self-contained small modular reactors do not need much of the piping and other infrastructure of site-built reactors. The concept of using factory-built reactors in power plants is based on the U.S. Navy nuclear submarine reactors, which have excellent safety records, and allows for the standardization of components and maintenance. Several designs are under development by different companies, and TVA plans to develop the Clinch River site in a way that it can be used for whatever design is available first. The pressurized water reactor modules are much smaller than site-built reactors, some designs would produce only 125 megawatts, compared to 1,170 megawatts at Watts Bar Unit I.
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