eVINCI MICROREACTOR | REACTOR DESIGN transportable so that we can take advantage of
manufacturing at scale. At the end of a fuel cycle we envision a swap out method, with no refuelling or handling of spent fuel at site. We would remove the reactor with the spent fuel and take it back to a dedicated site. If a customer needs continued operations we’ll probably need about 24 hours to do the swap out there. Otherwise, they can have pretty much uninterrupted power.” He continues: “In terms of the fuel, the plan is to bring
it back to a Westinghouse facility and do the defuel and the refuelling and handle the waste management side of things. How we handle the transportation and the transport of a fuelled eVinci and a defuelled eVinci will really be dependent on the regulator in the specific country. That’s why we’re working really closely with the CNRC and the NRC to ensure that we meet all the requirements. We would do the same thing with the regulators in any other area as well. There are some nuances, but they’re all based on the IAEA regulatory requirements for nuclear power plants so there would be a lot of similarities.”
A wealth of applications Refuelling cycles aside, the units are designed for at least 40 years of service life although some components will probably need to be refurbished after initial operations. As the next step in the development programme, Westinghouse will be installing a nuclear test reactor at the Idaho National Labs by 2026. This will be a scaled down version with a capacity of 1 MWe. “The nuclear test reactor will give us critical data, not only informing the design, but also licensing and lifespan,” says Saab. Given the ambitious plans for that commercial
eventuality there is clearly still significant work to do in validating the design of the reactor. Says Saab: “We’ve validated that the heat pipe technology can be scaled. We started with 4 foot [1 metre] heat pipes, and now we’re creating 12 foot heat pipes [4 metre]. Eventually for the full-scale design, the heat pipes will be just over 20 feet [5 metre].” Nonetheless, Saab acknowledges there are challenges that lie ahead: “I think one challenge will be overlapping the regulatory requirements for nuclear as well as the requirements for marine-based vessels. Timing will also be a challenge and also ensuring the process is
commercially viable, finding the sweet spot between timing and cost is the key.” Given that sweet spot is reached, Saab is optimistic that there are numerous applications that match the eVinci’s design outputs. “The luxury of what we’re developing is that the customer base is going to be quite broad. From remote industrial sites, data centres, communities, government installations, islands and island nations all requiring this nuclear battery. Although we’re proceeding this way because we’ve seen strong interests from the Canadian and the US markets, but we anticipate growth elsewhere too. We signed an MOU with ENEC, the Emirates Nuclear Energy Company, in the UAE, for instance and we’re discussing with additional customers and in other geographies. We do see eVinci supporting customers across Europe, to Africa, to the Middle East and even Australia when they lift their moratorium on nuclear. This will be a geographic solution for anyone requiring 5 MWe of clean, safe energy. And, if required and the end customer requires the heat as opposed to electricity, you can also get about 15 MW of thermal energy, that’s hot air at about 8000C. It is pretty dynamic technology that really allows nuclear to participate in areas that we’ve never participated before. Barge-mounted transportable EVINCI nuclear batteries will open the market to end users with siting challenges.” A barge-mounted transportable plant is currently being developed in partnership with Canadian firm Prodigy Clean Energy. Westinghouse is working with the company on two projects, one marine or land-based and a grid-scale version installed at a shoreline within a protected harbour. In a related development Prodigy also recently signed a separate Memorandum of Understanding to explore potential TNPP projects with First Nations, Inuit, and Métis across Canada. The goal is to identify ways in which Indigenous Peoples could have ownership in the new generation of nuclear plants.
As Saab concludes: “It’s exciting to take our eVinci and find additional applications previously not able to leverage the many attributes of nuclear. Think of it as a battery pack, and our battery pack can be put on a barge, on piles on the shoreline, on a concrete pad and one day soon in space – it really depends on the customer and the environment and what the ultimate end need is.” ■
Above: Westinghouse plans to develop serial manufacturing and a production line approach at its Etna facility in Pittsburgh, USA
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