*[Enwl-eng] Obama Administration Bets Big On Small Nuclear Reactors

[ENWLine]

*Obama admin placing big bet on small reactors*

Hannah Northey, E&E reporter
Greenwire: Wednesday, March 13, 2013

The Obama administration is promoting a bold, long-range plan for
building dozens of small, factory-built reactors capable of replacing
coal-fired power plants that are expected to be retired in the coming
decades, a Department of Energy official said yesterday.

DOE's effort is aimed at establishing an industry that would manufacture
as many as 50 small modular reactors (SMRs) a year by 2040 or sooner,
said Rebecca Smith-Kevern, the director of light water reactor
technology at the department's Office of Nuclear Energy, which oversees
the licensing of tiny nuclear plants.

"We have a vision of having a whole fleet of [small modular reactors]
produced in factories," Smith-Kevern told a regulatory conference in
Bethesda, Md. "We envision the U.S. government to be the first users."

DOE this week announced a second wave of million-dollar cost-share
grants to help the industry design and license the modular reactors,
which the administration defines as factory-built plants of less than
300 megawatts that are shipped by truck, barge or rail to construction
sites for assembly.

The department awarded the first grants under its $452 million
cost-share program to veteran reactor designer Babcock & Wilcox, which
is building two small units at the Clinch River site in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
(Greenwire, Nov. 11, 2012).

Smith-Kevern said the agency hopes to complete the awards by the year's end.

The administration is pinning its hopes on the establishment of a
factory network to make the small plants. After supporting the licensing
and design process for the plants through grants and possibly loan
guarantees, the "first movers" would be built, Smith-Kevern said. A
network of U.S. manufacturing plants would then be established, and
vendors would begin filling orders, which she said could lower plant
costs and attract investors.

By 2030, the industry would produce about 20 small modular reactors a
year with the support of production tax credits and feed-in tariffs --
allowing for a mature industry to develop. By 2040, the United States
could produce up to 50 of the small plants annually with the potential
for an import and export market, she said.

"We recognize this is ... an ambitious vision," she said. "There would
be a role for new public policy to support [small modular reactors]."

Smith-Kevern said the administration is also hoping to enlist the
military and is looking at building modular nuclear plants on the
islands of Hawaii and Guam to lessen their oil dependence.

The plan has sparked debate about the costs of building small nuclear
plants and how regulators would ensure that such facilities are safe.

Smith-Kevern said modular construction of the reactors could reduce
costs for the industry hindered by price tags of $12 billion or so for
traditional nuclear power plants.

Smith-Kevern cited a 2011 paper by Robert Rosner of the Energy Policy
Institute at the University of Chicago and Stephen Goldberg of the
Argonne National Laboratory that found modular plants could cost $3
billion to $5 billion.

But Ed Lyman, a senior scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists,
said capital cost per kilowatt -- not the cost of building a reactor
itself -- is what matters.

"Small plants, of course, cost less than large plants, but they also
generate less electricity," Lyman said. "And with the economies of scale
factor, small plants will cost more per kilowatt than large plants
unless there is some major cost savings somewhere to offset this factor."

Lyman cited a 2007 report by Westinghouse when he told the Senate Energy
and Natural Resources Committee, "At best, the capital cost of four
335-megawatt reactors was slightly greater than that of one
1,340-megawatt reactor."

The Nuclear Energy Institute, on the other hand, has taken issue with
Lyman's use of the report and has said the Westinghouse numbers
constitute a preliminary evaluation that found the capital costs of
small and large plants are "practically equivalent."

Lake Barrett, a former DOE official and nuclear consultant, said groups
for and against small modular reactors are using dueling reports to
argue their cases, but cost estimates aren't firm and could change as
the plants are developed.

Factors that must be considered, he said, are fixed costs like security,
licensing and siting; whether the plants can be mass-produced; and
uncertainty about whether Congress will price heat-trapping carbon
emissions.

"How successful SMRs are going to be, we really don't know yet," he
said. "If the world is going to phase out older coal plants because of
carbon concerns, you have to replace them."



http://www.eenews.net/public/Greenwire/2013/03/13/1


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Sent: Tuesday, March 19, 2013 12:34 PM
Subject: News: Obama Administration Bets Big On Small Nuclear Reactors


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