FT article8 Dec 2022 05:06
Big has been beautiful in the nuclear industry. For decades, the size of nuclear reactors has steadily increased, with each new plant able to generate ever greater amounts of electricity.
Britain’s first commercial reactor, at Calder Hall in Cumbria, was capable of generating 50 megawatts in the 1950s; Sizewell B, the power plant in Suffolk on England’s east coast that started operating in 1995, currently generates 1,200MW or 1.2 gigawatt.
But the future may be much smaller. Dozens of companies are working on a new generation of reactors that, they promise, can deliver nuclear power with less cost and risk. These smaller plants will, on average, generate between 50MW and 300MW of power, compared with the 1,000MW-plus from a conventional reactor. They will also draw on modular manufacturing techniques that reduce the construction risks encountered with larger reactors.
And nuclear power is now firmly back on the agenda, amid new fears for energy security following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the ever-greater need to reduce global carbon emissions.
In Germany, chancellor Olaf Scholz decreed in October that all three of the country’s remaining nuclear plants would continue operating until mid-April 2023. The country had been due to shut down the plants by December 31, under plans drawn up by then-chancellor Angela Merkel following Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster of 2011. France, meanwhile, is considering ambitious plans to build new reactors.
However, with large reactor projects still facing financial and construction problems — in the UK, the new 3.2GW Hinkley Point C plant in Somerset has been hit by delays and cost overruns — analysts believe the time may be right for small modular reactors (SMRs).
Beyond the provision of baseload electricity, SMRs can be used to produce green hydrogen or a combination of heat and power in remote locations. They can also be used to power large industrial sites or data centres.
One of their biggest selling points is that they can be largely factory-built, in modules. “It tries to avoid a bunch of the problems associated with large nuclear,” explains Philip Meier, partner at LEK Consulting. “The flat-pack [approach] gives you predictability, [with] construction on site, which reduces the financing costs. You should also be able to march down the learning curve as they will be largely pre-designed.”
Small modular reactors could also prove affordable to nations unable to fund large nuclear. Their smaller size means that there is “less demand for space and for cooling water”, says Vince Zabielski, partner in the nuclear energy practice at law firm Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman. They also involve “smaller emergency planning zones compared to large traditional reactors, meaning there are far more suitable building sites for SMRs”.
Government support for SMRs — most of which will not be commercial until the mid-2030s — has increased substantially in the past two years, running wel
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