QuickTake
Can Small
Nuclear Reactors Really Help The Climate? QuickTake
By Jonathan
Tirone +Follow
November 26, 2021, 5:10 AM PST
1.
How small is small?
Of
the more than 70 such reactors that the International Atomic Energy
Agency lists as in some stage of design or development, the smallest
are less than 5 meters (16 feet) in diameter and 10 meters in height.
(The plant that would be built to operate the reactor would be bigger,
of course.) SMRs typically have less than 300 megawatts of generating
capacity, about a third of that of existing reactors. The “M” in SMR
-- modular -- means these reactors can largely be built in factories
and shipped in standardized parts for assembly on-site. That means
shorter construction times and greater flexibility to expand to meet
demand.
2.
Why aren’t traditional nuclear plants enough?
Since
the Fukushima Dai-ichi
meltdowns in Japan in 2011, there’s been a dearth of investor interest
in building expensive new plants, with China, Russia and India as
notable exceptions.
Instead, utilities have gravitated toward carbon-intensive coal and
gas plants to supplement less reliable solar and wind resources.
That’s led climate advocates such as James Hansen, one of the first
scientists to publicly warn about the danger of global warming, to
call for more nuclear energy.
3.
Do SMRs already exist?
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The
only ones currently in commercial operation are two 35-megawatt units
on a floating power plant deployed by Russia in the Arctic in 2020.
China expects to begin trials in 2026 on an SMR being built near an
existing power plant on Hainan island. The first commercial SMR
project in the U.S., planned for the site of the Idaho National
Laboratory, will consist of six reactors capable of producing a
combined 462 megawatts. It’s supposed to be operational by the end of
this decade.
4.
Are they safe?
Proponents say SMRs will be safer than earlier generations of nuclear
power plants. The basic idea remains the same -- splitting atoms to
release energy, a process known as nuclear fission, that heats water
to produce steam that spins turbines to make electricity. About half
of the SMR models under development use water as a coolant, as most
currently operating reactors do. Explosions at Fukushima and at Three
Mile Island in the U.S. in 1979 were caused by heat from exposed fuel
rods splitting the hydrogen from the steam used to cool the reactor.
Some SMR designs, by contrast, use molten salt and metals as coolants.
SMR designs also integrate new kinds of fuel and backup emergency
systems that should reduce the likelihood of meltdowns. On the other
hand, smaller reactors would ideally be located closer to population
centers, increasing the possible danger from an accident. And like
their larger brethren, SMRs produce radioactive waste that must be
stored safely for centuries.
5.
What are the economic challenges?
Cost competitiveness is
an uphill climb. U.S. manufacturer NuScale Power LLC, to cite one
example, is aiming for an SMR that can sell power for $55 per
megawatt-hour. Yet wind power in much of the world is now about $44 a
megawatt-hour, solar is $50, and in some regions, renewable energy
will be below $20 a megawatt-hour by the end of the decade, according
to BloombergNEF. A 2020 study by professors at the University of
British Columbia found that on a lifetime basis, the cost of
electricity produced by SMRs could be 10 times greater than the cost
of electricity produced by diesel fuel. The economics might be more
favorable when considering SMRs as alternatives to large-scale
batteries to serve as at-the-ready backups for solar and wind power
when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing.
6.
Who’s investing in SMRs?
Electricite de France, China National Nuclear, Japan’s Toshiba and
Russia’s Rosatom are pushing SMR designs, as is NuScale. Gates and
Buffett have teamed up to build and test a reactor at an abandoned
coal plant in Wyoming. Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc raised 455 million
pounds ($608 million) to fund the development of
SMRs, with almost half of the financing coming from the U.K.
government. The Canadian and U.S. governments have also offered
hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies to kick-start the SMR
industry.
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