Six nuclear designs will advance to the subsequent part of the UK’s Small Modular Reactor (SMR) competitors, a fast-track measure that might lead to a authorities contract throughout the subsequent 10 months as a part of a technique to ship operational SMRs by the mid-2030s.
EDF, GE-Hitachi Nuclear Vitality (GEH), Holtec Britain, NuScale Energy, Rolls Royce SMR, and Westinghouse Electrical Firm UK will vie for the subsequent stage of the aggressive course of. The businesses might be invited to bid for presidency contracts later this yr with profitable firms introduced in spring subsequent yr and contracts awarded in summer season,” the UK authorities stated on Oct. 2.
The design alternatives had been unveiled by the UK authorities and Nice British Nuclear (GBN), a government-backed entity launched as a part of the UK’s March 2023 Powering Up Britain coverage. Whereas GBN operates underneath the federal government’s repurposed nuclear power and fuels agency British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL), the UK has tasked the entity with driving supply of latest nuclear tasks in step with the nation’s ambitions to ramp up its nuclear capability to as much as 24 GW by 2050.
The World’s ‘Quickest’ SMR Competitors
To maintain with the authorities’s motion plan, GBN launched into its first precedence, kickstarting a contest to pick out the “finest” SMRs from all over the world on July 18. As a part of that course of, it says it wrapped up “market intelligence gathering” in June 2023. Its expertise “preliminary down choice” concluded on Monday.
The subsequent part, which is slated to launch “as quickly as potential,” will entail selecting profitable applied sciences that may very well be able to allow a ultimate funding resolution (FID) by 2029. The chosen nuclear designs are “essentially the most capable of ship operational SMRs by the mid-2030s,” the federal government famous. A contract may “entail funding to assist expertise improvement and site-specific design; a detailed partnership with GBN, which might be prepared and capable of present developer functionality; and assist in accessing websites,” the federal government has stated.
The UK expects to announce which of the six firms it can assist in spring 2024, and it anticipates awarding contracts by summer season 2024. “This timetable goals to make this competitors the quickest of its type on this planet,” it famous.
UK SMR Competitors: Who’s Within the Operating?
Westinghouse Electrical’s AP300. Westinghouse informed POWER stated its choice on Monday is for its AP300, a “downsized” model of the corporate’s flagship AP1000 Era III+ pressurized water reactor (PWR) expertise that it unveiled in Could 2023. Westinghouse is concentrating on design certification for the AP300 SMR by 2027 and for development to start by 2030.
“Westinghouse’s AP300 SMR makes use of the AP1000 engineering, parts, and provide chain, enabling streamlined licensing and leveraging accessible technical abilities. Collectively, these elements present confidence that the primary working unit might be accessible within the early 2030s,” the corporate famous. “The advantageous economics of the AP300 SMR are primarily based on sturdy evaluation and present undertaking prices from AP1000 reactors already in operation or improvement on three continents.” The AP300 SMR is already “into account by clients within the U.Ok., Europe, and North America,” together with by Ukrainian state-owned nuclear utility Energoatom and Slovak state-owned nuclear firm JAVYS.
Rolls-Royce SMR’s 470-MWe PWR. Rolls-Royce SMR stated its choice is for its “home-grown” 470-MWe design, which contains a “factory-built” plant. Rolls-Royce SMR, notably, in April 2023 progressed to Step 2 of the Generic Design Evaluation (GDA), a non-mandatory course of that permits the Workplace of Nuclear Regulation (ONR) to start assessing the security, safety, safeguards, and environmental features of latest reactor designs earlier than site-specific proposals are introduced ahead. The method serves as a primary step to cut back undertaking danger, offering confidence {that a} proposed design may be constructed, operated, and decommissioned within the UK underneath present requirements. To this point, ONR has accomplished GDAs for the EDF and AREVA UK EPR, the Westinghouse AP1000, the Hitachi-GE UK ABWR, and the CGN/EDF/GNI UK HPR1000 designs in 2012, 2017, 2017, and 2022 respectively.
“The Rolls-Royce SMR is a British answer to the worldwide power safety and decarbonization problem,” famous Chris Cholerton, Rolls-Royce SMR CEO. “We’ve the one SMR expertise in a European regulatory approval course of, placing us virtually two years forward of any of our rivals. Securing a home contract is vitally vital to unlock the big world export potential of our clear power expertise.”
GEH’s BWRX-300 BWR. GEH introduced on X its choice is for the BWRX-300, a 300-MWe boiling water reactor (BWR). GEH has submitted a GDA entry software to UK authorities, although it’s unclear if the evaluate course of has begun. “The BWRX-300 is a perfect answer for the UK’s power safety and decarbonization targets and we look ahead to persevering with our work with [GBN],” it stated.
GEH is already fielding a number of tasks or prospects all over the world. Ontario Energy Era (OPG) in December 2021 number of the BWRX-300 for its first SMR deployment on the Darlington Nuclear Facility in Ontario, which may very well be accomplished as early as 2028 (with an anticipated business begin date in 2029). On July 7, the Ontario authorities introduced it could work with OPG to start planning and licensing for 3 further SMRs for a complete of 4 SMRs on the Darlington new nuclear website. OPG is notably partnering with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and Polish agency Synthos Inexperienced Vitality (SGE) to form an ordinary design.
TVA, notably, is exploring a deployment on the Clinch River website in Tennessee, whereas SGE and companions wish to construct a fleet of 79 BWRX-300 SMRs by 2038. Saskatchewan provincial utility SaskPower intends to make a resolution to construct a possible BWRX-300 undertaking in 2029. Fermi Energia has thus far already chosen BWRX-300 for deployment in Estonia, and agreements are in place within the Czech Republic and Sweden to assist BWRX-300 deployment. GEH additionally says “lively discussions” are going down within the Center East, Africa, Asia, Australia, and Latin America.
Holtec’s SMR-160 PWR. Holtec Britain has additionally submitted an software to enter the GDA course of for its SMR-160. The corporate notes it has been a “distinguished provider of products and companies to UK’s Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) program for over 25 years, has assembled a gaggle of certified home British firms with complementary core competencies together with Crew Holtec’s world alliance companions, Mitsubishi Electrical (Kobe, Japan) and Hyundai Engineering and Building Co. (Seoul, Korea).” Holtec says it has recognized three potential UK websites with present nuclear energy stations appropriate for internet hosting the primary wave of Holtec SMR-160s: Trawsfynydd in Wales and Heysham and Oldbury in England.
EDF’s 340-MWe NUWARD PWR. EDF’s choice is for NUWARD, a 340-MWe PWR expertise that will characteristic two reactors of 170 MWe every. Whereas NUWARD was unveiled in 2019, EDF in March established its improvement underneath a devoted subsidiary. The expertise is bolstered by assist from France’s Various Energies and Atomic Vitality Fee (CEA), French protection contractor Naval Group, and TechnicAtome, a designer of naval propulsion nuclear reactors and an operator of nuclear protection amenities, Belgian engineering agency Tractabel, French nuclear tools big Framatome, and Italy’s Ansaldo Nucleare. In June 2023, the French authorities allotted the SMR a primary tranche of €300 million ($315 million) for its fundamental design part, and in July, EDF kicked off an early regulatory course of for the primary NUWARD plant in France with the French Nuclear Security Authority (ASN), concentrating on development in 2030. NUWARD, notably, can also be serving as a case examine for a European Early Joint Regulatory Overview (JER).
EDF, in the meantime, is constructing two EPRs on the 3.2-GWe Hinkley Level C in Somerset, England, the UK’s first nuclear plant to enter development for over a era. EDF is additionally trying to prolong the lifetime of Sizewell B—at present the UK’s solely pressurized water reactor (PWR)—on the Suffolk coast by 20 years. On the identical time, it’s creating the three.2-GWe Sizewell C, which can replicate the design and operation of Hinkley Level C to cut back danger and value. The UK authorities in November 2022 moved to bolster EDF’s proposal to construct Sizewell C with a £679 million ($815 million) funding, turning into a 50% undertaking companion alongside EDF, an organization owned by the French state. Nonetheless, on Sept. 20, the federal government launched a proper course of to lift personal funding for the Sizewell C, financing that might leverage the UK’s October 2021 launched Regulated Asset Base mannequin.
NuScale’s VOYGR PWR. NuScale, the one SMR that’s licensed by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Fee (NRC), gives a 77-MW module that may be scaled up to a 4-, 6- or 12-module nuclear energy plant. Plans to construct the primary NuScale energy plant are underway on the 462-MWe Carbon-Free Energy Challenge (CFPP) proposed at an Idaho Nationwide Laboratory (INL) website, and licensing endeavors for that undertaking are making headway.
—Sonal Patel is a POWER senior affiliate editor (@sonalcpatel, @POWERmagazine).
Editor’s notice: This can be a creating story. Please test again for extra particulars.
