US engineering firm Nuscale also plans to develop SMRs in Poland, under a contract with mining company KGHM. Canadian engineering firm BWXT Canada would manufacture components, with construction beginning in 2025, with commissioning due in 2028. Poland’s Synthos Green Energy would operate these SMRs, intended to help the country transition away from coal power. In the same month as the Canada deal, GE HNE announced a similar agreement to develop 10 new reactors in Poland, at currently undecided locations.
This gives the design a capacity cost approximately double that of modern solar, but with a more manageable supply of power. Developers will aim for an installation cost of $2,250/kW, after initial cost-efficiency savings, implying a total cost of $675m. Modular construction promises to keep costs down, though cost estimates for this reactor remain undisclosed. The original plant does not display the best of nuclear construction, with costs coming in at more than four times the original budget. On a greenfield site without these advantages, the benefits of SMRs will compete with the fact that there is no modular approach to nuclear infrastructure. The SMR would also make use of much the existing nuclear infrastructure at the site, minimising costs and construction time. However, the 300MW capacity of the BWRX-300 compares poorly to the 878MW capacity of any of the existing units. GE HNE says that the SMR has approximately “ 10% the size and complexity” of conventional nuclear, also reducing project risk. This design has an operational lifespan of 60 years, far exceeding Unit 2’s original 25-year license.
Under its December deal, the new BWRX-300 reactor would operate as the fifth unit of the Darlington Nuclear Generation Station from 2028.ĭarlington Nuclear Generating Station (DNGS) meets about 17% of Ontario’s electricity needs.Ĭonstruction of the new SMR will take two to three years, a fraction of the nine years required by the existing plant’s Unit 2. GE HNE already works at the Darlington Nuclear Generation Station, refurbishing the four existing, conventional reactors there.
#Ultra compact nuclear fission reactor install#
In December 2021, GE HNE announced an agreement with Ontario Power Generation to install Canada’s first SMR. Small modular nuclear reactors from the Americas It also did not sell the GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GE HNE) joint venture, which currently has several SMRs in early development. Under the deal, GE retains its nuclear services business that operates more than 100GW of nuclear plants across the Americas. While EDF did not mention SMRs in its statement accompanying the purchase, the purchase brings more of the technologies for nuclear energy into the EDF group, allowing it to better develop self-contained units. In the same month, EDF bought US company GE Steam Power, which has a nuclear turbine unit in France. The government hopes to see an SMR prototype by 2030, helping the country towards its goal of 25GW of new nuclear generation by 2050. In February 2022, the French Government announced that the Nuward SMR design will form part of its France 2030 plan, giving it access to $1.1bn (€1bn) of public funding. EDF developed the design alongside the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, French naval engineers NavalGroup, and nuclear developer TechnicAtome, with EDF turbine engineering subsidiary Framatome later joining the project. In 2019, an IAEA conference saw the first plans for the Nuward SMR project, which would generate 340MW from two reactors.
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