Nuclear power | Key US projects underway
This summer has seen start of construction on two key nuclear power projects in the USA: the TerraPower/GE-Hitachi Natrium demonstration power plant in Wyoming and Kairos Power’s Hermes Low-Power Demonstration Reactor, Oak Ridge, Tennessee
In June, start-up TerraPower celebrated the commencement of construction – albeit non-nuclear scope – on the Natrium reactor demonstration project, Kemmerer, Wyoming. This is the first of a new wave of advanced and small modular reactor projects at various stages of development in the USA to move from design into construction (with “advanced” essentially meaning not water cooled).
“This groundbreaking represents the beginning of the next era of nuclear energy. The Natrium reactor is more than a design, it’s a plant coming to life that will support both the clean energy transition and our historic energy communities,” said Chris Levesque, TerraPower President and CEO. TerraPower Chairman and Founder, Bill Gates, said “I’m proud of all the partners and people who helped get the most advanced nuclear project in the world built in Kemmerer, Wyoming. I believe that TerraPower’s next-generation nuclear energy will power the future of our nation—and the world.”
The project also demonstrates how “good things can happen when the private and public sectors work together to solve problems,” said Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon. Upon completion, the Natrium plant, aka Kemmerer 1, although classified as a demonstration facility, will be “a fully functioning commercial power plant,” says TerraPower. It is being constructed on a site purchased from PacifiCorp near a retiring coal-fired power plant (Naughton) and is said to be “the only coal-to- nuclear project under development in the world.” Natrium, based on GE-Hitachi’s Prism concept, which can trace its antecedents back to the beginnings of nuclear power generation, EBR 1 (the first nuclear reactor to generate electricity), EBR 2 and S2G (employed in the Seawolf nuclear submarine in 1953 but subsequently replaced with a PWR). It is a 345 MWe (840 MWt) sodium-cooled fast reactor with a molten-salt-based heat transfer and energy storage system. The storage technology can boost the system’s output to 500 MW [for 5.5 hours] when needed, allowing “the plant to integrate seamlessly with renewable resources,” says TerraPower, noting that it is “the only advanced reactor design with this unique feature.”
Energy island
We dig Natrium. Left to Right: Brian Smith, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Reactors, DOE; Craig Albert, President and Chief Operating Officer, Bechtel Group; Governor Mark Gordon, Wyoming; Bill Gates, Co-Founder and Chairman of TerraPower; Chris Levesque, CEO TerraPower; Cindy Crane, CEO of Pacificorp; Dick Garlish, President of Rocky Mountain Power (source TerraPower)
TerraPower submitted its construction permit application for the Natrium reactor to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in March 2024, the first such application for a commercial advanced reactor to be submitted to the NRC, says TerraPower. “Due to its unique design”, non-nuclear construction was able to start, “while nuclear construction will begin after this application is approved.” The plant could enter operation potentially by about 2030. “With the separation of major structures into a ‘nuclear island’ and ‘energy island’, the Natrium plant requires less nuclear-grade safety equipment and is designed to utilise construction material quantities that are comparable to a combined cycle plant and significantly less than other reactor designs,” suggests TerraPower. Through the US DOE’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP), a public– private partnership, the Kemmerer project “is intended to validate the design, construction and operational features of the Natrium technology.” ARDP authorises a 50/50 cost share and up to $2 billion for the Natrium project. TerraPower and partners will match this investment dollar for dollar. The first-of-a-kind cost for the Natrium demonstration plant will include the reactor design and licensing, codes and methods development, fuel development and qualification, and the design, construction and operation of two supporting facilities: the Natrium Fuel Fabrication Facility and Sodium Test and Fill Facility. The sodium facility will be used to test and demonstrate the performance of first-of-a-kind equipment prior to operations in the reactor plant.
Nuclear island
Rendering of Kemmerer Natrium power plant (source TerraPower)
TerraPower was founded some 16 years ago by Bill Gates and a group of “like-minded visionaries” that decided the private sector needed to act in developing advanced nuclear energy “to meet growing electricity needs, mitigate climate change, and lift billions out of poverty.”
26 | September 2024|
www.modernpowersystems.com
An expert group of scientists and engineers was formed to analyse all energy generation technology options from a total systems perspective.
After a thorough examination of all known and “some heretofore unknown” reactor concepts, including lead-cooled reactors and small modular helium-cooled reactors, TerraPower decided to focus development on improving the sodium- cooled reactor design that met all of the stated objectives of TerraPower’s founding principles. TerraPower then embarked on the half-billion- dollar development programme which is still underway.
In 2019, TerraPower and GE-Hitachi joined forces to develop the Natrium technology. Partners include EPC contractor Bechtel and utilities Energy Northwest, Duke Energy, PacifiCorp and Rocky Mountain Power (subsidiary of Pacificorp). (Interestingly, back in the early 1960s, Bechtel built the Naughton power station that is now being retired, originally constructed as a “mine mouth powerhouse” for a coal strip- mining operation.)
The Natrium reactor employs high-assay, low-enriched uranium (HALEU) metallic fuel and aims to take advantage of the simple and robust safety profile of sodium cooled fast reactors to dramatically reduce the complexities associated with nuclear design and construction, including avoidance of complex containment structures and maximum use of inherent safety features. Safety functions are made integral to the reactor vessel, and support equipment is moved to separate structures with reduced requirements, resulting in a vastly simplified reactor building. The superior heat transfer characteristics of sodium and operation at low pressure permit the use of compact and lightweight equipment, unlike in other reactor types cooled with pressurised water or gas.
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