COVER STORY | ADVANCED REACTORS Regulated utilities are likely to be many of the first


movers for deploying advanced nuclear as opposed to merchant or non-traditional companies. Because of the risks of cost and schedule overruns, it is unlikely that a first mover will emerge to deploy advanced nuclear without rate recovery.


Developing a committed order book could also be


facilitated by pooling demand, for example through a consortium of utilities. The report adds that participation in such a model could be accelerated with some form of financial support (either public or private) to help de- risk the first 5-10 projects and could take advantage of opportunities to transition retiring fossil assets with new nuclear assets. Cost overrun insurance, financial assistance, the government acting as an owner, and the government acting as off-taker are four additional possible approaches to accelerating the first batch of orders. Delivery of projects on-time and on-budget (at least within ± 20%) could be also further enabled by incorporating lessons learned from Units 3 and 4 of the development at Vogtle, especially around investment in up-front planning and scheduling, the authors note. It could also be supported by the development of an institutionalised project management and development entity. Commitments to some of these principles could be included as contingencies for receiving the financial support for the order book. However, while such support schemes will help get the


ball rolling there are some other substantial challenges that must be addressed to truly scale the advanced reactor industry. Full scale industrialisation of advanced nuclear power through 2050 would require developing a sufficiently large and experienced workforce. The analysis indicates that the US would need around 375,000 additional workers with technical and non-technical skill sets to construct and operate 200 GW of advanced nuclear power. There is also the need to upscale the fuel supply chain. The authors calculate that the US would need some 5,000 metric tonnes per year of additional fuel fabrication capacity annually to meet the fuel demands of a vastly expanded nuclear fleet. To fabricate this much fuel, the US would also need to mill an additional roughly 50,000 tonnes per year of U3


O8 , to produce near 65,000 tonnes per year of


Right: A high temperature reactor, like the Fort Saint Vrain helium- cooled design, is one approach for advanced reactor technologies


UF6 through conversion. The nation will also and to have an additional approximately 30M separative work units (SWU) per year of enrichment capacity in place. This includes HALEU enrichment capacity, which, the authors point out, does not currently exist in the US. Along side the fuel supply chain, the component supply


chain also needs to be expanded to meet this demand. The US would need to substantially grow the component supply chain especially in areas like large forgings. Beyond the supply chain and the workers needed to build and operate this capacity, regulatory changes are also required to ramp up capacity, the DOE report says, noting that the NRC would need to scale its license-application capacity from ~0.5 GW per year to 13-GW-per-year to meet projected demand. This would likely require significant additional resources for the NRC. Nonetheless, the report notes that the licensing process could be streamlined through deliberate actions from both the NRC and industry. One other outstanding issue is the need to manage spent


nuclear fuel. Although an interim storage site has been given the go-ahead in New Mexico, the US should continue efforts to identify sites for consolidated storage and


42 | June 2023 | www.neimagazine.com


permanent disposal of spent nuclear fuel. New legislation would be required to build a federal storage facility and allow development of geologic repositories for permanent disposal at sites other than Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Despite these challenges the report concludes that


advanced nuclear can play a critical role in strengthening energy security, reliability, and affordability while generating high-quality, high-paying jobs and facilitating an equitable energy transition. Industry, investors, government, and the broader stakeholder ecosystem each has a role to play in ensuring advanced nuclear achieves commercial lift-off and rises to meet the challenge in time. According to the report, while the capital costs of a


first-of-a-kind advanced nuclear power plant are expected to range from around $6,000 to $10,000 per kW, repeated Nth-of-a-kind developments are expected to see that capital cost reduced by around 40%. Nonetheless, the report concludes that if the nuclear industry is to go beyond the current commercial “liftoff” stalemate deliberate action is needed. The DOE argues that during the industrialisation process, the public and private sectors could both track progress towards the necessary capabilities in terms of workforce, fuel supply, component supply, licensing, testing, and spent fuel management, and could offer financial support where constrained to provide the necessary kick start. Overall though, it’s clear that reaching 200 GW of new


nuclear capacity in the US by 2050 – though effective generation of a committed order book, project delivery, and wider nuclear sector industrialisation – will require targeted action by both public and private sectors. ■


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