POWER June 2016 - 52

NUCLEAR POWER
3. NuScale control room simulator.
With a 12-module facility, the NuScale
design includes 12 identical operating and
monitoring stations in a single power plant
control room, like the simulator shown here
in Corvallis, Ore., which has been operational
since May 2012. Courtesy: NuScale Power
5. A petite footprint. The 600-MW NuScale design only requires 34.5 acres to accommodate
the fenced-in protected area. Courtesy: NuScale Power
4. An integral package. Each NuScale
power module is installed below-grade in a
seismically robust, steel-lined, concrete pool.
Courtesy: NuScale Power
down and self-cools indefinitely with no operator
action, no electrical power, and no additional
water. The plant's containment vessel
is submerged in an ultimate heat sink for core
cooling in a below-grade reactor pool structure,
housed in a Seismic Category 1 reactor
building (Figure 4).
" Safety was a huge selling point for us, "
it's going to be a good project, we will invest
more energy, more time, get more staff
involvement. Sometimes the board gets involved
in helping us to make decisions about
new projects, whether or not they will work
well for some or even all the members. As
new projects are looked at, not all members
will become involved because of the diversity
of the board. "
According to UAMPS's 2015 Annual Report,
32 of its 45 members had signed onto
the Carbon Free Power Project. However, its
two largest members-Lower Valley Energy
(with roughly 27,500 customers and about
210 MW of peak demand) and City of St.
George (with roughly 28,700 customers and
about 188 MW of peak demand)-had not
elected to participate. Regardless of that
fact, UAMPS believes its coal plants may
have to be replaced with carbon-free generation
within the next 10 years, and it sees
SMR technology as the safe, stable, longterm
solution.
For its part in the venture, Energy Northwest
holds first right of offer to operate the
project (Figure 3). The company operates the
1,190-MW Columbia nuclear plant located
north of Richland, Wash., and welcomes the
opportunity to operate the first SMR plant in
the U.S.
Passive Safety Systems and
Deployability
NuScale claims that its IPWR safely shuts
50
Doug Hunter, CEO of UAMPS, said during
the Atlanta event.
With no reactor coolant pumps (the nuclear
steam supply system is designed to operate
at full power using natural circulation due to
density differences for core coolant flow), a
small nuclear fuel inventory (roughly 5% of
the fuel contained in a 1,000-MW reactor),
and integrated reactor, steam generators, and
pressurizer (eliminating large primary piping),
there is less to go wrong than in a large
conventional PWR. NuScale's design only requires
a handful of safety valves to be opened
in the event of an accident to actuate the emergency
core cooling system. The safety valves
are designed to fail in their safe condition, that
is, following a loss power, they mechanically
realign to their required emergency position.
" The other thing is they're scalable, " said
Hunter. " We're a municipality. UAMPS as a
whole, we're about 1,500 MW of load, but
I have some members that are a megawatt
of load. "
Hunter said that having a dozen 50-MW
reactors, deployable as needed, would allow
UAMPS to dice up the output into small
pieces and sell it to a variety of very small
utilities. He sees that as a big advantage.
He also said that funding an SMR project
is not as difficult as one might think. In
fact, according to Hunter, it is much easier
than building a new coal-fired power plant.
UAMPS has signed an agreement with Bank
of America Merrill Lynch and is also workwww.powermag.com
ing
with two other large national banks to
line up financing.
Looking Forward
In February, UAMPS and the Department of
Energy (DOE) entered into a use agreement
that allows UAMPS to explore certain locations
for plant development on the Idaho National
Laboratory (INL) site near Idaho Falls.
UAMPS's compliance strategy for meeting
National Environmental Policy Act requirements
is to have the DOE conditionally agree
to future actions pending the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission (NRC) completing its
permitting process.
There are essentially three areas being
considered on the INL site, but the ultimate
spot (Figure 5) won't be designated until after
the NRC completes the combined license application
(COLA) approval process. UAMPS
has a cost-sharing cooperative agreement
with the DOE through NuScale to help pay
for the COLA development.
A look at UAMPS's preliminary schedule
shows a lot of work needs to be done before
the first SMR begins commercial operation.
Among the 2016 milestones are selecting
the site, finalizing the plant design, and submitting
a design certification application to
the NRC.
UAMPS expects to submit its COLA in
2018. The following year, site mobilization
and preparation are scheduled to begin, and
UAMPS expects to place an order for the
modules. Assuming the NRC issues the COL
on schedule in 2021, the first safety concrete
pour is slated to take place that year. Ultimately,
if all goes as planned, the first module
could enter commercial operation by the
middle of 2024. ■
-Aaron Larson is a POWER associate
editor.
POWER | June 2016
http://www.powermag.com
POWER June 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of POWER June 2016
