America Is Betting Big on a New Generation of Small Nuclear Reactors
BLM Moves to Fast-Track Oil Permits in Alaska Petroleum Reserve AI-driven electricity demand is unleashing… Felicity Bradstock is a writer and journalist based in Mexico City.
She writes for energy websites and covers several other industries, as well as writing… Governments worldwide areracing to develop small modular reactors(SMRs) as part of their plans for a nuclear power renaissance, with significant progress being seen in recent years.
However, the United States appears to be leading the way in nuclear microreactor development, with significant investment in the technology recently announced by the U.S.
SMRs areadvanced nuclear reactorswith a power capacity of up to 300 MW(e) per unit, or around one-third of the generating capacity of a conventional nuclear reactor.
They are much smaller than conventional reactors and are modular in form, so they can be produced in factories and transported to the site.
Due to their smaller size, SMRs can be installed on sites not suitable for larger reactors.
They are also muchcheaper and faster to constructthan conventional nuclear reactors and can be developed incrementally to meet a site’s growing energy demand.
A microreactor is even smaller than an SMR, for which a range of designs arecurrently under developmentin the United States with the aim of launching the first versions within the next decade.
The compact nuclear reactors will be small enough to be transported by truck, boat, or plane and could help provide significant quantities of clean energy to a site.
This will be particularly useful for rural locations without connectivity to the main power grid.
Microreactors will be produced and assembled in factories for transport to a wide range of sites, reducing capital costs and accelerating production.
They are expected to have a simple, responsive design that allows them to self-adjust without requiring many specialised operators to make these changes, and will be developed with safety systems to prevent overheating or a reactor meltdown.
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