"Micro Nuclear Power", by Donn Dears

 Source:

https://ddears.com/2021/08/17/micro-nuclear-power/

"Will the next step in nuclear power be micro-nuclear power plants?

These are to be rated 1.5 MW, which compares with today’s operating nuclear power plants rated around 1,025 MW.

It had been thought that modular reactors, rated around 300 MW, or less, would be the type of reactor to replace the large reactors now in service.

Micro-reactors could, therefore, provide an additional alternative to the future of nuclear power.

A report in 2019, by the Nuclear Energy Institute, Cost Competitiveness of Micro-Reactors for Remote Markets, outlined the advantages of micro reactors.

The report defined micro-reactors as being rated between 1 and 10 MW.

There are several companies reportedly involved with micro-reactors, including, Elysium Industries, General Atomics, HolosGen, NuGen and X-energy.

Most recently, Oklo Power LLC, a small start up, received considerable media attention with its announcement

that the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) had selected Oklo to demonstrate the first-of-its-kind use of recycled high-assay, low-enriched uranium (HALEU) fuel.

By itself, the use of HALEU fuel is noteworthy, because it will take highly enriched uranium and reduce its concentration to 20%.

This compares with the 3% to 5% concentration used by existing nuclear power plants.

All of this is very preliminary, but opens the door to building the physical plant to produce HALEU in larger quantities.

The HALEU process could resolve, to a great extent, what to do with highly reactive waste.

Oklo Power LLC is planning on using HALEU that was previously produced from the Experimental Breeder Reactor II (EBR-II).

Oklo Power LLC submitted an “Application for a custom combined license for a compact fast micro-reactor, to the Nuclear Regulatory Commissions (NRC), in March 2020, with the reactor to be constructed at the Idaho National Laboratory.

A final safety report (FSR) was issued by the NRC, which is the first, and very important step, in the process of developing this reactor.

Micro-reactors could become a reality, recognizing they are still in the early stages of development.

Meanwhile, modular reactors of several types are ready for construction, assuming NRC approval.

Examples include:

    Terra Power, 345 MW reactor, which was recently in the news with Bill Gates promoting its liquid sodium design.

    ThorCon, which uses thorium, is being developed in Indonesia.

    NuScale Power, based in Portland OR, is the first small scale modular reactor to ever receive approval of its design from the NRC.

While there are new advances in the development of nuclear power, the nuclear industry must still address, and resolve, two critical issues if nuclear power is to move forward in the United States.

    Fear of radiation

    Cost

The public’s fear of radiation can be traced to the movie China Syndrome, which mislead Americans as to what could happen if a nuclear reactor failed.

The movie told its audience that a reactor meltdown would allow the core to burrow into the ground, which, when reaching the water table,

would erupt into a cloud of radiation making the state of Pennsylvania uninhabitable.

This was a fabrication, and everyone involved should have known it was a lie.

This was the lie that compounded the fear generated by the Three Mile Island accident, and the Chernobyl, operator created, disaster.

Environmentalists have done a great disservice to the United States by perpetuating the fear of radiation, continuing do so with the Fukushima accident.

Nuclear power is safe.

We are all exposed to radiation every day, especially when we fly.

Think of the radiation exposure people will receive when they fly in space.

It will be greater than anyone ever received from the Three Mile Island accident.

The recent cost of building a nuclear reactor has ballooned to over $6,000 per KW, which compares with the $1,000 per KW cost of building a natural gas combined cycle power plant.

The first cost of a nuclear power plant should be under $3,000 per KW if it is to be an acceptable financial risk.

GE claims that its BWRX 300 small modular reactor can be built for $3,000 per KW, but until the unit is built, it is still only an estimate.

The nuclear power industry needs to focus on these two issues, the public’s fear of radiation and cost, if new nuclear power plants are to be successful in the United States."