Industry observers have created a lot of hype surrounding the development and promise of small modular reactors. However, not a single company has built a commercial SMR unit in the U.S. and it may be several years before they even break ground.
The company making the most headway in the design and development of SMR technology is NuScale Power. The company’s SMR design, the first to be reviewed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), recently completed the first and most intensive phase of the NRC’s application review.
The NRC is expected to certify NuScale’s design, and the company’s first customer, Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS), is planning a 12-module SMR plant in Idaho slated for operation by the mid-2020s based on the certified design.
NuScale Chairman and CEO John Hopkins said the design is “positioned to revitalize the domestic nuclear industry.”
In May, Bloomberg New Energy Finance issued a report concluding more than a quarter of U.S. nuclear plants don’t make enough money to cover their operating costs. Nicholas Steckler, an analyst with Bloomberg, said 24 of the nation’s 66 nuclear plants won’t be profitable through 2021 or are already scheduled to be shut down. The decline stems from a glut of cheap gas-fired generation, flat demand for power, and power prices too low to cover basic operating costs. In short, the business of nuclear power is collapsing because the market cannot support the nation’s available capacity.
Russell Ray – Power Engineering – June 13, 2018.
Want More Investigative Content?
