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Expanding Nuclear Energy Beyond Base-load Electricity:
Challenges and Opportunities
Daniel Ingersoll
February 6, 2014
Frontiers in Sustainable Fuels and Chemicals:
What’s Beyond the Horizon?
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Why “all of the above”
Misc
Commercial
Residential
Transportation
Electricity
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
5000
6000
7000
2050 Goal
2005 U.S. CO2
Emissions (Tg)
For nuclear energy:
1. Reach more utility customers 2. Reach more non-electric energy
consumers
Industrial
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Nuclear Energy Development Timeline
Early Prototype
Reactors
Generation I
- Shippingport
- Dresden, Fermi I
- Magnox
Commercial Power
Reactors
Generation II
- LWR-PWR, BWR
- CANDU
- VVER/RBMK
1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 2030
Generation IV
- Highly Economical
- Enhanced Safety
- Minimal Waste
- Proliferation Resistant
- ABWR
- System 80+
- AP600
- EPR
Advanced
LWRs
Generation III
Gen I Gen II Gen III Gen III+ Gen IV
Generation III+
Evolutionary
Designs Offering
Improved
Economics
-AP1000
-ESBWR
You are here
1st Nuclear Era 2nd Nuclear Era ?
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1st Nuclear Era: large base-load electricity
U.S. plant construction
during the first nuclear era
Generation I
Generation II
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Moving beyond Gen II
• Demanding more stringent performance goals
– Safety
– Economics
– Sustainability
– Proliferation Risk
• Expanding nuclear energy to new applications
– High-temperature reactors for process heat
– Fast spectrum reactors for resource extension and waste management
– Small reactors for diverse and distributed customers
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Why high-temperature reactors?
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Why fast reactors?
• Spent nuclear fuel can be separated into useable and waste materials
• Residual waste will go to a geological repository
• Useable components can be recycled in thermal reactors, then in fast reactors
• Fast reactors can also breed new fuel and burn waste
ABR
Recycle
LWR
Recycle
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• Safety – Smaller decay heat – Easier to remove decay heat – Smaller radionuclide inventory – Lower overall risk
• Affordability – Smaller up-front cost – Lower debt profile & financing costs – Incremental capacity additions
• Flexibility – Better match to local power needs – Incremental capacity for regions
with low growth rate – Adaptable to non-electric applications – Match to retiring coal plants – Stabilize wind/solar variability
Plants >50 yr old have capacities Less than 300 MWe
U.S. Coal Plants
Why small modular reactors?
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Nonproprietary © 2013 NuScale Power, LLC
SMR example: NuScale
Building on vast LWR experience
– Innovations in design and engineering
Incorporating integral system design with natural circulation cooling
– Eliminates several major accident scenarios
– Design simplicity also simplifies emergency response
– Eliminates the need for post-accident power or operator response
Operating under water and under ground
– Assured access to ultimate heat sink for long term cooling
– Enhanced protection and security
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Nonproprietary © 2013 NuScale Power, LLC
Reactor Vessel
Reactor Core
Containment Vessel
Hot Riser
Pressurizer
Steam Generator
Refueling Pool
Spent Fuel Storage Pool
Reactor Building
NuScale Power Module
NuScale plant basics
Module Crane
Reactor Pool
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“Load following” vs “load switching”
Integrate continuous (nuclear) with variable (wind/solar) generators
Couple to one or more non-electrical product streams
Optimize on capital investment, fuel costs, and product costs
Source: Idaho National Laboratory
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Why NuScale for NHES?
• Scalable in small power increments – Low initial commitment and cost
– Easily expandable as HES grows
– High reliability and continuous power output
• Flexible for multi-product outputs – Co-generation of individual modules
– Whole-module dedication to different products
• Strong basis for significantly reduced emergency planning zone (EPZ) – Low frequency of core damage
– Additional features to reduce radionuclide release
– Lower risk factors simplify co-location with industrial plant
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New reactor challenges
• Technical challenges:
– New materials and fuels (hi-temp and fast reactors)
– Fuel reprocessing technologies (fast reactors)
– New sensors, instrumentation and controls
– Validating design and engineering innovations (SMRs)
• Institutional challenges: – Community mindset for large, centralized plants
– Traditional focus of regulator on large LWR plants
– Customer/investor fear of first-of-a-kind
– Cheap natural gas and lack of national carbon policy
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Expanding nuclear energy…
• We need to pursue all clean energy technologies to meet our national GHG goals
• Nuclear power should be a central part of our energy future
• Nuclear energy can integrate with other sources and applications
• New reactor technologies and designs are needed to meet the diverse energy needs of the country