Almost all of my posts about nuclear reactors have been about nuclear power reactors that convert heat to electricity for industrial, municipal and home use as baseload supply for large electrical grids. There are other uses for nuclear power reactors. NuScale is working on small modular reactors with output levels of less than three hundred megawatts. They recently talked about other possible uses they envision for their reactors. They say that their design have some “unique features” that will contribute to other uses.
NuScale has recently completed five collaborative studies that examine possible alternative uses for the NuScale Power Module (NPM). The first study was conducted in collaboration with Fluor, the owner of NuScale. They proposed using an array of ten NPMs connected to a quarter of a million barrels a day oil refinery. This application would eliminate the emission of almost two hundred tons of CO2 per hour from the operation of the refinery.
NuScale partnered with the Idaho National Laboratory on a study of hydrogen production from super-heated steam generated by NPMs. They evaluated technical issues concerning high-temperature steam electrolysis and ways to recycling waste heat. A six NPM system could produce almost two hundred tons of hydrogen and fifteen hundred tons of oxygen a day.
NuScale worked with Aquatech International on the use of NPMs to desalinate water for human consumption. This study reviewed each of the three main desalination systems including reverse osmosis desalination, multi-stage flash desalination and effects desalination. The study compared the efficiency of water production and the costs associated with each type of desalination. With reverse osmosis desalination, a single NPM could produce as much as three hundred and forty cubic meters of drinkable water a day. One NPM could also produce about thirty thousand cubic meters of drinkable water from multi-stage flash desalination when used with steam extraction. In addition it would also produce about thirty megawatts of electricity. For the effects desalination, one NPM could produce fifty thousand cubic meters of drinkable water a day plus thirty megawatts of electricity when utilized with steam extraction.
Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS), Energy Northwest and NuScale cooperated in a study of NPMs ability to follow changing electrical load requirements related to changing demand and changing power production from renewable sources. One NPM was considered for balancing the output from the fifty eight megawatt wind farm at the UAMPS Horse Butte site in Idaho. There are three ways to change the output from a NuScale power plant. The first way would be to remove one module of a multi-module installation when its output was not needed for an extended period. It is also possible to adjust reactor power output over an intermediate time period. The third way can alter power output on a short time scale by rerouting the steam from the reactor to bypass the turbine and go directly back to the condenser.
The VP of Regulatory Affairs told the World Nuclear Association's Symposium last week that "There are certain parts of the country or industries that need very reliable power - they can't afford to go without power. We call that critical infrastructure and we did a study showing what kind of reliability you can achieve with NuScale depending on your power needs." He went on to explain that NPMs could be connected to a micro-grid and assure one hundred megawatts of net power with 99.99 % reliability for a sixty year operating life. He added that the NuScale design has some features that made these alternative uses more effective. For one thing, it houses the reactor core, pressurizer and steam generator inside a single container. It also relies on convection to circulate water in the primary circuit as opposed to pumps.
At the end of last year, NuScale submitted the first small modular reactor certification application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The application was accepted on March 15th. The first commercial NuScale power plant will be constructed on the site of the Idaho National Laboratory for the UAMPS. It will be operated by Energy Northwest.
