OPINION | DAVID HESS
nuclear future ok? Is a boring
With all the hype around so-called advanced reactors will it be a disappointment if the future nuclear technology landscape ends up looking… a lot like the present?
David Hess, Senior VP DeepGeo ATER-COOLED REACTOR
technologies are boring. There, I said it. After all, the
steam engine was invented in the 18th century and your typical water-cooled reactor is essentially just a glorified
example of this, albeit with a nuclear heat source and an electric generator. An even simpler analogy, often provided to younger students, is that a nuclear reactor is like a giant kettle. Granted, the nuclear plant is generating useful energy instead of consuming it, but the basics are the same. As the old saying goes, nuclear plants are a complex way to boil water.
No one habitually catches steam trains these days and it must appear anachronistic to outsiders that we still depend on steam for electricity generation. With the exception of certain enthusiasts, most people just don’t get excited by steam anymore.
Given the perpetual buzz around new technologies, most notably AI at the moment, it does seem that the arrow of
progress points in one direction. The old and established ways of doing things are inevitably destined for the dustbin of history – making way for shinier ‘advanced’ alternatives. Those with a casual interest in the nuclear sector will be
drawn to future technology. They will likely be dazzled by the potential of fast reactors, molten salt, high temperature, thorium and even fusion reactors – all of which tantalizingly promise numerous advantages over the antiquated water- cooled and moderated reactors of today. This is an exciting story filled with feisty start-up ‘heroes’ and big transformative visions. It’s no small part of the reason why public attitudes towards nuclear energy have been improving. According to the mainstream media narrative, old nuclear is slow, expensive and prone to fault – if not downright dangerous. By contrast new ‘advanced’ reactors are none of these things. Inside the nuclear industry it’s a different story. Boring
is in fact generally a good thing. Boring is predictable and safe. Boring means turning up to work and enjoying another day of uninterrupted production with all the gauges in the green and zero injuries to report. Boring is being able to meet your contract obligations, keep your customers happy and make a reasonable profit. At the present time, large utilities and operators are the
©Alexy Kovynev
main customers for nuclear reactors and they are the ones that will chiefly determine which new nuclear technologies get built in the future. It is clear that most utilities would prefer to stick with what they know, and what they know is light water reactors – pressurised water reactors (PWRs) and boiling water reactors (BWRs). In a few notable exceptions, such as India and Romania, the preference is for pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWRs). The age of the large, water-cooled water moderated
“Just another boring day on the job. That’s the only way I like it”
14 | August 2024 |
www.neimagazine.com
reactor is far from over. Indeed, there appears to be no end in sight. Small modular reactors (SMRs) are gaining traction and a number of countries are moving to deploy these, with some intending SMRs to be the first and only class of nuclear technology installed on their grid. But here again the water- cooled designs are set to dominate the near-term market, and possibly over the longer term as well. Observing the market ‘leaders’, we see that Russia’s
land-based SMR is a variant of a PWR deployed in its icebreakers. It is true that China has recently constructed
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