Nuclear Power Likely to Grow by Getting Smaller

In the midst of growing demand for low-carbon base-load electricity, nuclear power is increasingly regarded as a clean, reliable option; but multi-year regulatory approval processes, a dearth of capital, and chronic cost overruns when constructing new plants have made utilities reluctant to build.

For many in the nuclear power industry, one way to address these issues is to become smaller.

Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) are nuclear reactors assembled from pre-manufactured components, which are generally 300 megawatts or less in size. They are designed to be cheaper and more flexible than larger-scale nuclear power plants, with enhanced safety features such as automatic shut-down technology.

By contrast to most existing nuclear reactors, which are uniquely designed for each site, SMRs offer the potential to expedite regulatory approvals and construction time, bringing costs down substantially.

"They bring more regulatory certainty and an ability to get through that process much more quickly," Todd Abrajano, CEO of the U.S. Nuclear Industry Council, an industry advocacy group, told The Epoch Times.

"The fact that these designs can be modular," Abrajano said, "that most of the construction can be done in-house, in a factory, and then assembled at the site, requires much less work and much less bespoke design."

According to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), due to the smaller size of SMRs, they require less capital to build and can be sited in locations that are not possible for larger nuclear plants.

Increasingly, tech companies are signing contracts to ensure a steady, reliable supply of electricity, and they are often choosing nuclear energy as that source.

This reactor will provide power exclusively to Microsoft for the next 20 years. And while Three Mile Island uses standard-size reactors, other tech companies are looking to SMRs to power their data centers, including Amazon and Google.

SMRs are the ideal choice for companies that want a smaller, dedicated power source on-site versus being dependent on the electric grid. However, these companies typically lack the expertise to operate plants, nor do they want to take responsibility for waste disposal or assume the liability that comes with owning a nuclear reactor.

"The one thing I'm consistently hearing from industrial application end users is that they don't want to own and operate a nuclear plant," Abrajano said. "So there's going to have to be a utility that's running these, or there are a number of other companies that are now starting to pop up which are pure-play development companies that are looking to find sites and find customers, and then they will either own and operate those reactors and do long-term power purchase agreements or figure out another way to bring these things online going through a utility."

The military is another market for SMRs.

While SMRs can be used to provide uninterrupted power to large military bases, microreactors can power forward operating bases. Microreactors are currently in use for submarines and aircraft carriers, and can be transported in an 18-wheel truck.

"When you think in terms of the size of a nuclear reactor, most people don't think, as they're driving down the highway, that they could be driving past a reactor that could be operational, but certainly that's the case," Abrajano said.

The portability of SMRs and microreactors means that they could be transported to natural disaster sites that have lost power. While the grid is being restored, smaller reactors can power essential facilities like hospitals and grocery stores.

Regarding regulatory approvals, the nuclear power industry anticipates a faster process due to a new bipartisan consensus, in which the left regards nuclear as a low-carbon energy source and conservatives see it as a means of providing continuous base-load power to meet the escalating demand for electricity.

According to Abrajano, the average time for the NRC to approve new nuclear plants has been about five years, but he estimates that, with the passage of the ADVANCE Act, regulatory approvals could be completed within 18 to 24 months. New, modular designs are already getting fast-tracked approvals.

By contrast, China has been aggressively moving forward in building out its nuclear fleet.

"We still have a lot of manufacturing as it relates to work done at SpaceX, and I would say we still produce a lot in terms of engine manufacturing," Juliann Edwards, chief development officer of The Nuclear Company, told The Epoch Times. "And you see an increase of grant money coming out of the Department of Energy to serve universities as they invest more into nuclear engineering and the surrounding engineering functional areas, like materials and chemical and mechanical."

"We have a foundation, but we're behind right now and we've got to onshore a lot of the capabilities that we've lost," Edwards said.