EU Energy Policy Blog

Mention nuclear power and most people think big, a 1,000 to 1,400 MW reactor, or a cluster of reactors, on a gigantic site quietly humming and feeding juice through massive transmission towers to the grid. This has been the traditional business model to capture the full economies of scale of nuclear power. Since it takes massive amounts of investment and many years to build them, why not build them big and make them last? Over the years, nuclear reactors have grown bigger, more expensive and more complex.

One can still make a compelling case for nuclear power on such a basis, and governments in the US, France, the UK, South Korea, Japan, China, India and a few other places are doing all they can to stimulate the growth of the dormant industry. Finland just voted to build 2 additional large reactors.

But many within and outside the industry believe that small is beautiful even when it comes to nuclear power. Smaller units will require less up-front investment – a huge hurdle for private investors – and if they can be made of pre-fabricated modular components, which could be shipped and assembled on site, the construction period can be shortened, another major advantage. Making them more automated and simpler could reduce operating costs. Making them run longer in between refueling could make them more profitable. Small reactors can be buried underground, making them less of a target to terrorists and safer.

Adding up these and a few more features, and small, modular, prefabricated nuclear reactors looks like a winner. Moreover, smaller units would appeal to smaller and medium-sized utilities – who would otherwise not even dream of building a 1,400 MW unit single-handedly. Finally, smaller units could be added as the load grows – avoiding the need for a lumpy investment.

The idea got a boost in July 2010 when Bechtel Corp. a global engineering and construction giant announced that it was joining forces with Babcock & Wilcox Co, a nuclear power vendor, to develop, license and market a 125 MW modular reactor named mPower – we surmise the “m” stands for modular and the lower case signifies its small size. The two companies envision that the B&W reactor can be manufactured in a factory, shipped to site by rail, barge or possibly truck and assembled as a gigantic Lego set. The reactor will be buried in the ground for added security, is projected to need refueling as infrequently as every 4 years and require fewer skilled people to build and operate it – a major issue given the current shortages of nuclear engineers and operators.

Neither company could say how much an mPower reactor will cost – one has not been built yet – nor does it have an operating license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The companies expect to file an application to NRC in 2013 and hope to begin construction in 2017.

For anyone questioning the sanity of the idea, it must be said the B&W has decades of experience building small, modular nuclear reactors for US navy submarines and air craft carriers, not to mention designing large civilian reactors in the past. Bechtel, for its part, has built and/or been a participant in 64 of the existing 104 operating reactors in the US and knows a thing or two about the power industry.

When asked if the 2 companies were serious about the modular nuclear concept, Christofer Mowrey, the president of B&W Nuclear Energy half jokingly replied, “Bechtel doesn’t get involved in science projects.” We take that to mean that the partners are serious indeed.

F.P. Shioshansi

This post is extracted from EEnergy Informer, August 2010 issue.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 4th, 2010 at 11:38 am and is filed under Nuclear Power. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.