NuScale's Small Modular Nuclear Reactor Passes Biggest Hurdle Yet

[sue4e3]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2018/05/15/nuscales-small-modular-nuclear-reactor-passes-biggest-hurdle-yet/#69bb3aed5bb5 NuScale Power is on track to build the first small modular nuclear reactor in America faster than expected.

Two weeks ago, NuScale’s small modular nuclear reactor design completed the Phase 1 review of its design certification application (DCA) by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. That’s a huge deal because Phase 1 is the most intensive phase of the review, taking more hours and effort than the remaining five phases combined.

The NRC’s review of NuScale’s DCA only began in March 2017 and the NRC’s final report approving the design is expected to be complete by September 2020. NuScale is the first and only SMR to ever undergo an NRC review. After sailing through Phase 1 so quickly, the company really is on track to build the first SMR in America within the next few years.

The first customer is certainly ready. Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS) will own the first NuScale plant, a 12-module SMR, and place it at the Idaho National Laboratory. It will be operated by the experienced nuclear operator Energy Northwest. This first application will take advantage of the SMR’s specific ability to completely load-follow UAMPS wind farms.

But the real power of SMRs are the fact that they can’t melt down. This is a big deal. It means the reactor just won’t melt down or otherwise cause any of the nightmares people think about when imagining the worse for nuclear power. It just shuts down and cools off.

[NNadir]

1. I love breed and burn reactors.

There are others, including Bill Gates' version, the Terrapower reactor.

These reactors are designed to run for decades without refueling by breeding and burning plutonium in situ.

I've been dreaming about a novel approach to one of these in considering some rather obscure materials science considerations I've been reading about over the last several years.

My idea is to run a breed and burn reactor in the liquid phase, a perfect in situ fission product separation device, exploiting some interesting stuff that played a role at Chernobyl and Fukushima.

I rather planned to write about this weekend, and may yet do so.

[sue4e3]

2. sounds interesting, you should post some of it