Part 3 of 3 Parts (Please read Parts 1 and 2 first)
Westinghouse is bullish enough on the SMR technology that it has announced plans to build a series of SMRs called AP300s. According to Reuters, the company “has had informal talks with parties in neighboring states Ohio and West Virginia about the potential building of AP300s at former coal plants.”
Romania intends to be the first nation in Europe to deploy an SMR. NuScale has now opened a simulator there in preparation.
This is not a comprehensive list of every SMR proposal in the world. It is just a partial list to illustrate the current state of SMR development. SMR support is increasingly bipartisan. Senator Mark Warner, D-Virginia, is the chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and Senator Marco Rubio, R-Florida, is the vice chairman. They recently held a roundtable discussion on SMRs. It is interesting to note that this discussion was triggered by national security concerns and not purely energy concerns. In a joint statement, the two Senators said, “China and Russia have recognized the potential of nuclear power and are investing heavily in their advanced reactors, while attempting to secure nuclear contracts all over the world. The United States must not let our adversaries monopolize the growing civil nuclear industry, set the safety standards around nuclear power, dominate the supply chains for such a critical source of energy, and/or attempt to use advanced reactor contracts to exert undue geopolitical and economic leverage.”
Not everyone is enthusiastic about SMRs. In Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party government has helped fund the construction of the SMR that is underway in Ontario. However, he has also been criticized by those in his party for his support of nuclear power. The Toronto Star recently reported on some of the critic’s comments. Elizabeth May is the Green Party leader and a member of Parliament. She said, “It’s not based on evidence.” “Steven Guilbeault is the Canadian Environment Minister and a former environmental activist. He acknowledged that “he was opposed to nuclear energy but now believes it is needed to keep global warming to as close as possible to 1.5 C above pre-industrial temperatures.”
The debates in Canada are more advanced than such debates in the U.S. but mirror what will probably take place in the U.S. soon. One side says that the country needs more electricity and that nuclear power is the only way to produce it while the country is trying to reduce carbon emissions. They say that SMRs will be cheaper than conventional nuclear power plants. The other side says that nuclear power is far to expensive and far to dangerous. They add that SMRs in a commercial setting are unproven technology.
In Canada, the political momentum for SMRs is driven by a left-of-center government at the national level and right of center governments in some provinces. Alberta recently began formal explorations into SMRs and Saskatchewan has already selected two potential sites for an SMR. It may make a formal decision on one of them by the end of this year.