Part 1 of 3 Parts
NuScale has designed the first small modular nuclear reactor (SMR) to receive approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. They intend to build the first SMR in the U.S. by 2030. They mention recent federal safety approvals and a cost-sharing arrangement with their first prospective public utility customers as supporting that goal.
However, the NuScale SMR design faces important safety questions that were not completely resolved by the afore mentioned NRC review of their design that was completed last August. These unresolved issues include potential problems involving the system that automatically shuts down its reactors in case of emergency. These questions cast doubt on some key safety claims from NuScale according to critics. The NRC review leaves the resolution of these key safety issues to be worked out later this decade.
This could pose a problem for NuScale’s first project which is the Twelve Reactor Carbon Free Power Project (CFPP) in Idaho Falls, Idaho. During the past two years, the estimation of the ultimate cost of the project has risen from three billion dollars to six billion dollars. Its probable completion date has been moved back from 2026 to 2030. This has put increasing pressure on Fluor Corporation which is the parent company to prevent further cost increases and to secure financial backers for the project.
The design changes and safety reviews that NuScale will complete later this decades will be the responsibility of the Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS). This organization is NuScale’s first customer. They have agreed to purchase two hundred and thirteen megawatts of the projected seven hundred and twenty megawatts that will be produced by the CFPP. This arrangement is governed by a combined construction and operating license process. Unfortunately, this arrangement could make the CFPP vulnerable to technical and legal challenges after significant investment has already been made, according to critics.
UAMPS is a division of the Utah state government that provides wholesale electric services to communities across the Intermountain West. In the past three months, they have seen three different cities vote to leave the thirty-three city consortium that is planning to commit to buy power form the CFPP. UAMPS is facing an October 31st deadline to commit to its participation in the project.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) has provided one billion three hundred and sixty billion dollars and a ten-year cost share promise to UAMPS. However, that funding will require future congressional appropriations in order to become a reality.
NuScale’s situation illustrates some of the challenges that face SMR companies in their work to develop a new generation of nuclear power plants. SMRs could provide low-carbon electricity for U.S. utilities seeking to lower the carbon emissions from their generation fleets while avoiding the multibillion dollar cost, construction delays and budget overrun problems that have doomed most of the big conventional reactor projects recently planned for the U.S. These problems continue to plague the only remaining such project now underway in the U.S.
Other U.S. SMR developers include TerraPower and X-Energy which have recently received financial support from DoE. Their goal is to complete their first working units withing the next seven years. Hyperion Power Generation and Terrestrial Energy are two other SMR companies.
Please read Part 2 next