Nuclear Reactors 768 - Fermi Energia Working On Deploying A Small Modular Reactor To Power Baltic States - Part 2 of 2 Parts

Part 2 of 2 Parts (Please read Part 1 first)
    Anicet Toure is the nuclear product manager for Tractebel. Philippe Monnette is the new build department manager for Tractebel. They told the January conference that they had coauthored a feasibility study for the Estonian SMR project in which they had examined fifty advanced reactor designs.
      Toure said that they managed to reduce the list early in their research by applying two criteria. The design capacity for the Baltic SMR had to generate over twenty-five megawatts. The design had to be deployable by 2035. Fermi Energia wants the first Baltic SMR deployed by that year.
     Kallemet said that Fermi Energia would have liked to deploy its first SMR by 2030. However, they will not apply for a construction license in Estonia until a first-of-a-kind SMR had been licensed, constructed and started commercial power generation in North America.  Kallemets said that it was expected that the first N.A. SMR would be operational between 2026 and 2028. That would mean that the earliest that the Estonian SMR would begin construction would be in 2029.
    Toure said that four SMR designs had scored well on their selection criterion:
1. Moltex Energy’s SSR-W sodium-cooled SMR being developed in the U.K.
2. NuScale Power’s modular pressurized water reactor being developed in the U.S. Twelve NuScale 60 megawatt units can be combined, for a total capacity of 720 megawatts, with generation costs of $40-90/megawatt hour
3. Terrestrial Energy’s 200 megawatt molten salt reactor being developed in the U.S. Generation costs are expected in the range of $30-60/megawatt hour
4. GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy’s 300 megawatt BWRX, a boiling water reactor design from the U.S.
    Monnette said that in order to successfully construct a nuclear power plant, there had to be “appetite to invest in new nuclear, including small reactors and creation of trust in nuclear safety.” He emphasized that SMRs had a potential role to play in nuclear waste management. “SMRs answer all of these challenges and provide industrial heat [and] thermal storage, in addition to generating electricity.”
    Sandor Liive is the Chairman of Fermi Energia. He told the conference  “Estonia had relied on shale oil for its domestic oil supply for more than 100 years, but that is no longer possible due to the rapidly rising price of carbon fuels and increasingly stringent European Union clean energy requirements, specifically the target that each EU member state achieve carbon neutrality by 2050”. Liive also said that the nuclear industry needs more standardization, collaborative licensing and regulation.
     Juri Ratas is the prime minister of Estonia. He said that mitigating climate change and meeting the EU 2050 goal for carbon neutrality are very important issues for Estonia. He mentioned that a public-private partnership was a way to achieve the reduction of carbon emissions. The Estonia government had chosen to work with Fermi Energia on a Baltic SMR explicitly to fight climate change. With respect to funding the Estonian SMR, Kallemets said that Fermi Energia is “looking carefully at the Finnish Mankala model, so that shareholders either consume or off-take the power generated from the power plant.”
    Kallemets said that the question of the government taking a share of the ownership of the Estonian SMR had not been definitively answered. In the Finland Mankala collective, the ownership model gave benefits of power production on a not-for-profit basis with any profits being returned to the company.
    Liive said that it was critical that Estonia develop a “contemporary, small power plant that will [also] guarantee security of supply.” Currently Poland, Finland and Germany all import power from Russia. The Baltic states are connected to the Russian grid through Poland which will disconnect from Russia in 2025.