Small Nuclear Power Plants

  • New York’s next nuclear plant is likely to be a four unit BWRX-300 installation

    ByRod Adams

    On June 23, New York’s Governor Hochul announced that she had directed the New York Power Authority to build a new nuclear energy facility with at least 1 GWe of capacity. During the announcement speech, she provided several bits of information leading to an informed prediction that the facility will initially include 4 BWRX-300’s on…

  • Atomic Show #331 – Caleb Brooks, Kronos MMR Project lead for University of Illinois

    ByRod Adams

    The University of Illinois-Urbana Champagne (UIUC) is planning to build a uniquely capable micro reactor project on its campus. For decades, the university hosted a traditional research reactor that supported important research projects and provided operating experience. But, like the majority of university research reactors, it did not produce any useful heat or electricity. Kronos…

  • Atomic Show #306 – Dr. Rita Baranwal, Westinghouse AP300

    ByRod Adams

    Westinghouse, one of the world’s first nuclear power plant vendors, recently announced a new small modular reactor (SMR) design called the AP300. It is described as a simplified version of the AP1000, four of which are currently operating in China and two of which are in the final stages of operational testing in Georgia, United…

  • Atomic Show #303 – Bret Kugelmass, CEO Last Energy

    ByRod Adams

    Last Energy is an innovative new company governed by a philosophy of avoiding the invention of anything that has not been done before. They have created a business that is laser focused on building, owning and operating small (20 MWe), modular pressurized water reactors and selling the electricity they produce under long term power purchase…

  • Why are smaller reactors attracting so much interest?

    ByRod Adams

    Small modular reactors (SMRs) are gaining increased attention as a major opportunity in clean power production. They are a welcome tool in the necessary transition from an energy system dominated by hydrocarbon combustion to one that produces more power for more people with dramatically reduced greenhouse gas emissions. As a partner in Nucleation Capital, a…

  • What makes smaller nuclear power systems so exciting?

    ByRod Adams

    Let me start by dispelling the notion that I think smaller, modular, manufactured nuclear power systems – often called SMRs or micro reactors – are the be all and end all solution to anything, including climate change or energy security. Though not THE solution, they have the potential to be a crucial, uniquely capable part…

  • Economy of Scale?: Is Bigger Better?

    ByRod Adams

    It is possible for engineers to make incredibly complex calculations without a single math error that still come up with a wrong answer if they use a model based on incorrect assumptions. (Originally published May 1996) Pick up almost any book about nuclear energy and you will find that the prevailing wisdom is that nuclear…

  • Atomic Show #278 – Micro-Modular Reactor (MMR) project partners USNC, GFP and OPG

    ByRod Adams

    Global First Power (GFP), Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation (USNC) and Ontario Power Generation (OPG) recently announced that they had formed a joint venture called Global First Power Limited Partnership. That venture will build, own and operate an installation called the Micro Modular Reactor (MMR™) at the Chalk River Laboratories site. Mark Mitchell and Eric MGoey…