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The demise of the Small Modular Nuclear reactor (SMR) dream

Small-modular-reactor-dudmPower Pullback Stalls Small Nuclear, Forbes, 28 April 14 Richard Martin Nuclear technology supplier Babcock & Wilcox (B&W) has slashed funding for its Generation mPower program, an effort to develop a small modular reactor (SMR) for power generation and other applications.  The pullback represents a major blow to the development of SMRs, which have been hailed as the next step forward for the nuclear power industry.

B&W, which had a cost-sharing agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and a reactor construction contract with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), has cut funding for the program from $60 million to $80 million per year to less than $15 million, let go the head of the mPower unit, and will lay off up to 200 employees who worked in Tennessee and Virginia on the project.  The TVA mPower reactors were to be built at the Clinch River site in northern Tennessee, once slated to be the home of the similarly ill-fated Clinch River Breeder Reactor, which itself was terminated in the 1980s after around $8 billion in investment.  Clinch River has become the place where nuclear power innovation goes to die……..

Dead End

All told, B&W, the DOE, and partners have spent around $400 million on the mPower program.  Another $600 million was needed just to get the technology ready for application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for licensing…..B&W said last year it would seek a majority investor in the project but was unable to secure a buyer. ..

April 29, 2014 - Posted by | business and costs, technology

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