Case 39 Fragman

[Michael]

Westinghousehas launched what it calls a "game-changer" AP300 small modular reactor, a scaled-down version of its AP1000 reactor, with a goal for the first one to deliver power to the grid within a decade.

The AP300 SMR, based on the licensed and operating AP1000 pressurised light water technology, is described as an "ultra-compact, modular constructed unit that leverages the innovation and operational knowledge of the global AP1000 fleet" and will use identical AP1000 technology including "major equipment, structural components, passive safety, proven fuel and I&C systems".

Westinghouse says it is the first SMR "based on an Nth-of-a-kind operating plant" and it hopes to benefit from the design utilising its Gen III+ technology which already has regulatory approval in the USA, UK and China as well as being in compliance with European Utility Requirements.

President and CEO of Westinghouse Patrick Fragman said: "The launch of the AP300 SMR rounds out the Westinghouse portfolio of reactor technology, allowing us to deliver on the full needs of our customers globally, with a clear line of sight on schedule of delivery, and economics."

"It is using the DNA of the AP1000 in terms of technology", he said, with its passive safety systems "which has unique advantages in terms of robustness of the safety case, simplicity of the design, with huge implications in terms of costs and time to construct and obviously an ease of deployment because, with the AP1000 being already deployed, the AP300 SMR will leverage the existing supply chain, the existing design, the existing licensing pedigree".

"It is no more and no less than an AP1000 with one loop instead of two loops - which means it's effectively reusing a majority of components, systems, equipment. The fuel is identical, the constructability lessons are identical," he said.

Westinghouse was bringing "certainty" to the SMR market in terms of a proven design, existing supply chains and economics, he said. Market soundings over recent months and discussions with potential customers had led the company to believe this was an "inflection point" for the market.

In a press conference following the announcement, Westinghouse also said the footprint of the AP300 would be about 25% of the area of a football (soccer) pitch, with a target cost per unit of USD1 billion.

Fragman said that the timeline was aiming to get licensing approval from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission by 2027 "given the existing maturity of the design and reuse of the building blocks of licensing", followed by three years to get site-specific permissions and a further three years for construction "which means that in 10 years from now the first AP300 SMR will effectively deliver its first power to the grid".

The company believes that the customer base for the SMR will be broader than existing utility customers, and will include uses such as hydrogen production, district heating, water desalination and providing power for data centres.

David Durham, President Energy Systems at Westinghouse, said that the initial licensing focus was on design certification from the NRC: "That's typically the kind of stamp of approval around the world - we will be pursuing, though, licensing in other countries over the coming next couple of years".

Westinghouse has named Rita Baranwal, currently Chief Technology Officer, to lead the team developing the AP300 SMR. Baranwal is a former Assistant Secretary of Nuclear Energy at the US Department of Energy, and a previous director of the Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear initiative at Idaho National Lab.

The AP300 SMR will sit between the AP1000 and the eVinci microreactor, a range of products which, the company said, together with other developments, meant Westinghouse was providing "the technology to create a sustainable future and enhance energy security around the globe and eventually in outer space".

There are upwards of 50 different SMRs at various stages of development, with predictions of huge demand to come around the world, with a number of different firms discussing or pencilling orders for them in countries ranging from Poland to the Philippines.

Movie trailers have now become popular on DVDs and Blu-ray discs, as well as on the Internet, livestreaming and mobile devices. Of some 10 billion videos watched online annually, film trailers rank third, after news and user-created video.[1][needs update]

The first trailer shown in an American film theater was in November 1913, when Nils Granlund, the advertising manager for the Marcus Loew theater chain, produced a short promotional film for the musical The Pleasure Seekers, opening at the Winter Garden Theatre on Broadway. As reported in a wire service story carried by the Lincoln, Nebraska Daily Star, the practice which Loew adopted was described as "an entirely new and unique stunt", and that "moving pictures of the rehearsals and other incidents connected with the production will be sent out in advance of the show, to be presented to the Loew's picture houses and will take the place of much of the bill board advertising".[2] Granlund was also first to introduce trailer material for an upcoming motion picture, using a slide technique to promote an upcoming film featuring Charlie Chaplin at Loew's Seventh Avenue Theatre in Harlem in 1914.[3]

Due to trailers initially being shown after, or "trailing", the feature film, the term "trailer" was used to describe the promotion; despite it coming before, or "previewing", the film it was promoting. This practice was found to be somewhat ineffective, often ignored by audiences who left immediately after the film.[4] Later, exhibitors changed their practice so that trailers were only one part of the film program, which included cartoon shorts, newsreels, and serial adventure episodes. Today, more elaborate trailers and commercial advertisements have largely replaced other forms of pre-feature entertainment, and in major multiplex chains, about the first 20 minutes after the posted showtime is devoted to trailers.[5][6][7]

Until the late 1950s, trailers were mostly created by National Screen Service[4][8] and consisted of various key scenes from the film being advertised, often augmented with large, descriptive text describing the story, and an underscore generally pulled from studio music libraries. Most trailers had some form of narration, and those that did featured stentorian voices,[9] a practice that would wane in the 2000s.[10]

Many home videos contain trailers for other movies produced by the same company scheduled to be available shortly after the legal release of the video, so as not to spend money advertising the videos on TV. Most VHS tapes would play them at the beginning of the tape, but some VHS tapes contained previews at the end of the film or at both ends of the tape. VHS tapes that contained trailers at the end usually reminded the viewer to "Stay tuned after the feature for more previews." With DVDs and Blu-rays, and live streaming and mobile devices, trailers can operate as a bonus feature instead of having to watch through the trailers before the film.[citation needed]

In summer 1993, the major movie studios started to make trailers available online with the Walt Disney Company providing promotions for Guilty as Sin, Life With Mikey and Super Mario Bros. available to Macintosh users via CompuServe and Columbia Pictures posting a trailer for In the Line of Fire available for download to AOL subscribers.[12]

Beginning in the mid-to-late 2010s, many trailers have begun to incorporate a short 5- to 10-second preview of the trailer, sometimes called a "micro-teaser", at the very beginning of the video for the trailer itself. This has been explained as being a way to grab the viewer's attention quickly, so that they do not choose to skip the full trailer on streaming sites.[13]

Trailers consist of a series of selected shots from the film being advertised. Since the purpose of the trailer is to attract an audience to the film, these excerpts are usually drawn from the most exciting, funny, or otherwise noteworthy parts of the film but in abbreviated form and usually without producing spoilers. For this purpose the scenes are not necessarily in the order in which they appear in the film. A trailer has to achieve that in less than 2 minutes and 30 seconds, the maximum length allowed by the MPA. Each studio or distributor is allowed to exceed this time limit once a year, if they feel it is necessary for a particular film.[14]

In January 2014, the movie theater trade group National Association of Theatre Owners issued an industry guideline asking that film distributors supply trailers that run no longer than two minutes, which is 30 seconds shorter than the prior norm.[15] The guideline is not mandatory, and also allows for limited exceptions of a select few movies having longer trailers. Film distributors reacted coolly to the announcement. There had been no visible disputes on trailer running time prior to the guideline, which surprised many.

Some trailers use "special shoot" footage, which is material that has been created specifically for advertising purposes and does not appear in the actual film. The most notable film to use this technique was Terminator 2: Judgment Day, whose trailer featured an elaborate special effect scene of a T-800 Terminator being assembled in a factory that was never intended to be in the film itself. Dimension Films also shot extra scenes for their 2006 horror remake, Black Christmas - these scenes were used in promotional footage for the film, but are similarly absent from the theatrical release. A trailer for the 2002 blockbuster Spider-Man had an entire action sequence especially constructed that involved escaping bank robbers in a helicopter getting caught in a giant web between the World Trade Center's two towers. However, after the September 11 attacks the studio pulled it from theaters.

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