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Small Modular Nuclear Reactor development hampered in USA

TVA’s plan for small nuclear reactor on Clinch River running into barriers, Knoxville News Sentinel Tyler Whetstone , USA TODAY NETWORK – Tennessee, 2 May 17, TVA’s plan to put a small modular nuclear reactor on its Clinch River site near Oak Ridge, which has been on the priority list for the energy giant, has experienced setbacks in the last year and is still a long way from getting started, members of TVA’s Regional Energy Resource Council learned Tuesday.

Joe Hoagland, TVA’s vice president of stakeholder relations, said the project still has three significant barriers that must be crossed before the project can begin.

TVA officials said in May they had filed an Early Site Permit application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for evaluating that site for the development of the reactor. TVA had announced in April it would take this step, as it considered the possibility of building and operating one of the modular reactors at the 1,200-acre Clinch River site. The NRC uses the application to look at the site in terms of safety, environmental issues and emergency preparedness requirements for construction of a reactor.

Hoagland, at the Energy Council workshop Tuesday morning, said one of the first issues is that TVA doesn’t need the extra energy and the marketplace isn’t clamoring for it in today’s environment. Eventually, TVA will have to decommission its current nuclear plants and the hope is that the Clinch River site will be ready by then, he said.

Secondly, the dollars and cents for such a project do not yet add up, he said. Operational costs would be too high.

 “We’ve talked here in the past that for the SMRs (small modular reactors) to be really viable they’ve got to be cost-competitive with other technologies for the size and dollars per megawatt and they are not there yet,” Hoagland said.

Lastly, the technology for the small nuclear reactor is not yet there. Companies have submitted designs for the facility, but Hoagland said the process to review the designs can take up to five years.

“That’s why it is really in a lot of ways still a research effort on our part because we’re trying to understand, but there’s no commitment to actually build a plant.”

— Joe Hoagland,  TVA’s vice president of stakeholder relations……..

Members of the NRC’s environmental review team will hold a meeting in Oak Ridge on May 15 to get public comment on environmental issues the agency should consider. http://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/local/2017/05/02/tvas-plan-small-nuclear-reactor-clinch-river-running-into-barriers/101195984/

May 3, 2017 - Posted by | technology, USA

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