Sizing Up Small Nukes
December 15, 2014 12:38 PM
Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems may decide in 2015 whether to proceed with development of small modular reactors. UAMPS is teaming with developer NuScale Power of Corvallis, Ore., and Energy Northwest of Washington State. Promoters see SMRs as more affordable and scalable applications of nuclear power. The project was announced in 2013 as the Western Initiative for Nuclear. Image: NuScale.
Small modular nuclear reactors would be manufactured in a series and transported to the plant site, reducing construction costs and allowing the plant operator to expand as needed, proponents say. Image: NuScale.
The NuScale design was initially developed in 2000 at Oregon State University and has been in testing since 2003 in a one-third scale electrically-heated test facility in Corvallis, Ore. Image: NuScale.
Former Oregon State University professor Jose N. Reyes co-founded NuScale Power based on the research he conducted in a project with the Idaho National Laboratory. NuScales design would require no human intervention to shut down the reactor and would require no additional water or outside power, Reyes said. Image: EnergyNow.
NuScale commissioned a full-scale multi-module control-room simulator in May of 2012 at its home in Corvallis, Ore. The NuScale reactor is designed to produce 45 megawatts, enough energy for about 45,000 homes. Image: EnergyNow.
The Idaho National Laboratory is the preferred site for an array of small nuclear reactors under the Western Initiative for Nuclear led by Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems. Image: INL.
UAMPS general manager Doug Hunter sees small modular reactors as a possible base power alternative to coal and natural gas for UAMPS 46 members. The cooperative expects to make a decision whether to proceed with the SMR project in April. We havent excluded any type of financing, Hunter said. Image: UAMPS.
With 30 years of experience managing the Columbia Generating Station nuclear power plant, Northwest Energy would operate an assembly of small modular reactors at the Idaho National Laboratory under current plans with UAMPS. Image: Energy Northwest.
The nuclear power industry continues to seek a solution to the storage of spent fuel rods. This dry cask storage system surrounds spent fuel rods in inert gas inside leak-proof steel cylinders encased in concrete. Some spent fuel is currently stored in dry cask systems at the Idaho National Laboratory near Idaho Falls, Idaho. Image: NRC.
At reactor sites across the country, spent fuel rods are stored in pools for years after their useful life. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission estimates that many of the nuclear reactors in the U.S. will reach the limits of their spent fuel pools next year. Image: Wikipedia.
The Hunter Project coal plant, jointly owned by PacifiCorp, Deseret Generation & Transmission Co-operative and UAMPS, has operated since June 1980. UAMPS sees the cost of its coal-fired plants rising sharply with increased regulation. UAMPs is considering small modular reactors as carbon-free providers of base-load power.
