Building small modular reactor.

[sloinker]

The utility I work for announced yesterday their intent to build a modular nuclear reactor powerplant in Wyoming at an existing plant site. I will be long retired when it is complete but I welcome the news. Looks like Warren Buffett and Bill gates realized they can't take it with them.

Rocky Mountain Power CEO Gary Hoogeveen discusses the new Wyoming nuclear power project

Rocky Mountain Power CEO Gary Hoogeveen discusses the new Natrium nuclear power project announced in Wyoming. The project will replace one of Wyoming's coal-fired plants, and is a partnership with

www.wyomingnews.com

 

[PandaBear]

The utility I work for announced yesterday their intent to build a modular nuclear reactor powerplant in Wyoming at an existing plant site. I will be long retired when it is complete but I welcome the news. Looks like Warren Buffett and Bill gates realized they can't take it with them.

Rocky Mountain Power CEO Gary Hoogeveen discusses the new Wyoming nuclear power project

Rocky Mountain Power CEO Gary Hoogeveen discusses the new Natrium nuclear power project announced in Wyoming. The project will replace one of Wyoming's coal-fired plants, and is a partnership with

www.wyomingnews.com

They realized that long ago, they are really just in it for their legacies.

Whether it works or when will it be cost effective is the key here, like how renewable energy is. Last I heard small modular reactor cost 7 something cents/kwh, which is way expensive.

 

[sloinker]

They realized that long ago, they are really just in it for their legacies.

Whether it works or when will it be cost effective is the key here, like how renewable energy is. Last I heard small modular reactor cost 7 something cents/kwh, which is way expensive.

7 cents a KWH is actually pretty good. Wind power a couple decades ago was a quarter a KWH and now is down to maybe a nickel with subsidies. Wholesale electric power across the grid goes all the way down to about two cents a KWH and the sky is the limit. I've seen 3 dollars a KWH wholesale when California has rolling blackouts. Yesterday it was 20 cents a KWH wholesale on the open market with the forecast of even higher due to the heat and drought. Remember the wholesale cost is to the utility buying it, the end cost is something higher to the customer. We produce thermal coal for about 12 dollars a MWH wholesale. My base KWH rate is 5.2 cents which is among the lowest in the country. My math may be off a little because extrapolation from MWH to KWH has many zeroes that need accounting for and power is sold by the MWH on the grid.

 

[PandaBear]

7 cents a KWH is actually pretty good. Wind power a couple decades ago was a quarter a KWH and now is down to maybe a nickel with subsidies. Wholesale electric power across the grid goes all the way down to about two cents a KWH and the sky is the limit. I've seen 3 dollars a KWH wholesale when California has rolling blackouts. Yesterday it was 20 cents a KWH wholesale on the open market with the forecast of even higher due to the heat and drought. Remember the wholesale cost is to the utility buying it, the end cost is something higher to the customer. We produce thermal coal for about 12 dollars a MWH wholesale. My base KWH rate is 5.2 cents which is among the lowest in the country. My math may be off a little because extrapolation from MWH to KWH has many zeroes that need accounting for and power is sold by the MWH on the grid.

True, but we also need to account for the typical nuclear going way over budget part of the equation. Assuming that it goes over budget like those other program, that 7c / kwh can easily turn into 10-12c. It is not like a natural gas plant that you can quickly bring up and way less nimby.

 

[sloinker]

True, but we also need to account for the typical nuclear going way over budget part of the equation. Assuming that it goes over budget like those other program, that 7c / kwh can easily turn into 10-12c. It is not like a natural gas plant that you can quickly bring up and way less nimby.

Part of the attraction to these small modular plants is they require far less in the way of containment costs as they are less volatile and fail safe. The site cost is just a fraction of traditional reactor sites. The fuel itself is not as dangerous as traditional rods or spent rods. There can be massive infrastructure cost savings going forward as designs are finalized from all competitors and economies of scale take over. Going to be an interesting couple decades ahead of us.

 

[OVERKILL]

The utility I work for announced yesterday their intent to build a modular nuclear reactor powerplant in Wyoming at an existing plant site. I will be long retired when it is complete but I welcome the news. Looks like Warren Buffett and Bill gates realized they can't take it with them.

Rocky Mountain Power CEO Gary Hoogeveen discusses the new Wyoming nuclear power project

Rocky Mountain Power CEO Gary Hoogeveen discusses the new Natrium nuclear power project announced in Wyoming. The project will replace one of Wyoming's coal-fired plants, and is a partnership with

www.wyomingnews.com

This is one of the key SMR "perks" that has been lauded but not acted upon until now. Being able to repurpose/re-power existing generating assets should not only keep the cost down but provides opportunity for existing workers to transition from one industry to the other. We expect to see similar in Alberta as oilfield workers are able to transition into the nuclear industry as it expands.

This is something China is keenly interested in and actively working on as well, with coal being their largest source of power by a massive margin, so being able to transition those assets to nuclear would be beneficial.

Transitioning an existing asset provides a number of benefits:
- Established workforce
- Existing generation and transmission infrastructure
- Existing supply infrastructure

However, there are also some challenges:
- Siting may not have sufficient setback/perimeter for a conventional nuclear license (there are revisions being made for this for SMR's)
- non-nuclear thermal plants run at a higher temperature than a conventional nuke, so special high temp SMR's are required for this function
- Significant re-training for operators/techs
- Community reluctance/opposition

I think we'll see less of that last point in the face of shutdown vs re-power.

 

[PandaBear]

- non-nuclear thermal plants run at a higher temperature than a conventional nuke, so special high temp SMR's are required for this function

Do high temp also come with high pressure usually? I would imagine it wouldn't be the PWR design but rather more of a gas cooled design or other fast reactor? exotic? would those plus small reactor leads to higher cost per kwh?

 

[OVERKILL]

Do high temp also come with high pressure usually? I would imagine it wouldn't be the PWR design but rather more of a gas cooled design or other fast reactor? exotic? would those plus small reactor leads to higher cost per kwh?

It'll be steam to be consistent with the current method of driving the turbines, at least on the secondary or even tertiary loop, depending on what loop is running the turbine to spin the generator.

Yes, it could be a gas cooled reactor where the HTG heats the secondary steam loop.

Yes, steam in a traditional plant would be higher pressure. Recall that nukes have always been designed with an abundance of caution, so lower temp turbines were just one of those things to keep overall system temperature lower.

 

[Yah-Tah-Hey]

If I remember right,(21 years retired) our GE turbines had a first stage inlet steam temp of 1005 F and 2500 psi. Very reliable turbine/generator sets.