The idea of putting a nuclear reactor on a ship to provide power for remote locations off the grid has been floating around for some time. (pun intended) I have written about the Russian construction of a floating nuclear power plant. They have finished one and it is on its way to the Artic to support oil exploration efforts. China recently announced that it was working on a floating nuclear power plant. These floating power plants are based on conventional nuclear power reactor designs, Now, there is interest in developing such floating power plants with new reactor designs that are smaller, cheaper and safer than conventional reactors.
In 1977, Gary Bergson founded Acadian Asset Management LLC which is a global quantitative investment firm with ninety-five billion dollars under management. He stepped down as chairman in 2011. He is now the lead investor in ThorCon International Pte. ThorCon is a Singapore-based company that is dedicated to supplying relatively inexpensive electricity to countries in the developing world. Bergstrom said, “Our major commercial focus is not on the U.S. or other developed economies. We’re focused on emerging markets where there are huge power needs.”
ThorCon is also the name of a small thorium molten salt nuclear fission power reactor designed by Bergman. He wants to mass produce ThorCon reactors at a shipyard in South Korea and then deliver them to customer via ship. ThorCon is in negotiation with Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. in South Korea to build the ThorCon reactors. ThorCon wants to manufacture their reactors on a shipyard assembly line to keep the costs down.
ThorCon estimates that a demonstration model of the ThorCon reactor may cost as little as one billion dollars. This is substantially less than the twenty billion dollars that can be the price tag for construction of a conventional nuclear fission power reactor. ThorCon hopes that its new reactor may be able to ultimately produce electricity for about three cents per kilowatt hour. This is much cheaper than the average price of electricity in the U.S. which is around twelve cents per kilowatt hour.
ThorCon has an immediate goal of raising ten million dollars to start construction of a non-fission test system within twelve months. They estimate that ThorCon could deliver a fully functional five hundred megawatt plant in four years if everything works out. ThorCon has a preliminary agreement with Indonesia to deliver the first unit.
ThorCon Chief Executive Officer David Devanney says that his company is facing a common problem for innovative startups. Investors are cautious and would like someone else to fund the prototype of the ThorCon reactor because the ThorCon reactor is a new unproven design. Some potential customers have said that they would prefer to be ThorCon’s second customer. Devanney said that the technology development was much easier for ThorCon than fining funding.
There are a number of current projects involving new designs for small modular reactors which could also be used to provide electricity for remote locations far from the grid. If they can be made cheaply enough, they will be stiff competition for the ThorCon.