POWER May 2023 - 5

SPEAKING OF POWER
Searching for Advanced
Nuclear Power Technology?
Look to Idaho
Aaron Larson
I
t might surprise many people to learn
that nearly every operating reactor
in the world has technological roots
in Idaho. The fact is, the Idaho National
Laboratory (INL), which was known as
the National Reactor Testing Station in
its early days, has been leading the way
in nuclear energy research and development
for more than 70 years.
INL consists of an 890-square-mile area
in southeastern Idaho, as well as laboratories
and administrative buildings located
approximately 35 miles to the east in the
city of Idaho Falls. For perspective, consider
that the site is nearly the size of Rhode
Island, albeit with far fewer people-much
of the land is considered desert.
I had the chance to visit the lab in April
and met with several of INL's staff members.
I came away thoroughly impressed
by the site and its people.
Nuclear Energy Innovation
INL is one of 17 national labs in the U.S.
Department of Energy (DOE) complex,
and one of only 10 with multiprogram capabilities.
INL is home to more than 5,700
researchers and support staff focused on
innovations in nuclear research, renewable
energy systems, and security solutions.
The lab claims to serve as " the nation's
command center for advanced nuclear energy
research, development, demonstration,
and deployment. " INL is home to the
" unparalleled Advanced Test Reactor " and
associated assets for post-irradiation examination,
fuel fabrication, materials testing,
and development assets.
The National Reactor Testing Station
was established in 1949 by the
U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. The
site generated " the world's first usable
amount of electricity from nuclear energy "
in 1951. Over the years, 52 mostly
first-of-their-kind reactors have been built
at INL, creating the largest concentration
of reactors in the world. After fulfilling
their research missions, most have since
been decommissioned, but the lessons
learned from them live on.
" In some sense, when we talk about
these new advanced reactors, those
May 2023 | POWER
technologies have pretty much all been
demonstrated in the past, " INL Director
Dr. John Wagner said during a presentation
given while I was at the site. " Not
to take anything away from the new developers-they've
innovated on different
aspects, made them even better-but a
lot of those technologies that you'll hear
about-molten salt, high-temperature gas,
liquid-metal reactors, so forth-have been
demonstrated in some way, either here or
in other places in the U.S., " he said.
Projects in the Queue
It's been a while since a new reactor has
been commissioned at INL, however.
" The last time we took a new novel reactor
operational on this site was 1973, "
Wagner said. But that's going to change
next year; the DOE has plans to construct
a microreactor at the site. Known
as the MARVEL project, which stands for
Microreactor Applications Research Validation
and EvaLuation, the new unit is
expected to accelerate the deployment
of microreactors worldwide.
" When the MARVEL reactor comes online
next calendar year, it will have been 50
years since we operated a new reactor on
this site, " said Wagner. " What we're talking
about here is historic in the U.S., and urgent
in terms of demand for clean energy. "
But that's far from all the INL team is
involved in. Wagner showed a timeline
that included MARVEL and 8 other new
nuclear reactors-projects that he said
" will be demonstrated this decade. " He
said the graphic failed to include many
additional projects that didn't quite measure
up to INL's credibility standards,
which include such things as having suitable
engagement with regulatory authorities,
adequate funding, DOE support,
and signed contracts. Considering all of
the projects, he noted, " There's a lot going
on in nuclear right now. "
MARVEL Overview
The MARVEL reactor will be contructed
at INL's Transient Reactor Test Facility.
Yasir Arafat, project lead for MARVEL,
showed me the site and provided an
overview of the project. Arafat explained
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that microreactors are " very tiny reactors "
compared to today's more standard
gigawatt-scale commercial units. He said
they typically produce single-digit megawatt
output, although some can run up
to 20 MW or more. Arafat noted that microreactors
have three key features: they
can be built in factories, transported over
standard roads, and are self-regulating,
that is, they're automated to operate
safely without human interaction.
The MARVEL design is a liquid-metal
cooled microreactor with Stirling engines
that will produce 100 kW of energy using
small amounts of high-assay, low-enriched
uranium (HALEU) from available
research materials. Its design is primarily
based on existing technology and will be
built using off-the-shelf components allowing
for faster construction.
Microreactors are expected to be deployed
in a few very specific applications
to begin with, but that could evolve over
time. One example is in remote communities,
such as villages in Alaska that
currently rely on diesel-fueled power generators
for their electricity. Another use
is for disaster relief; a microreactor could
be shipped into affected areas to supply
power to critical infrastructure such as
hospitals, police and fire stations, and water
facilities. The Department of Defense
is also keenly interested in microreactors
to supply power to military bases in remote
locations. Space applications, such
as on the Moon or Mars, also present an
opportunity for these types of units.
In all cases, Arafat said, " We want to
give them a nuclear reactor that is small,
transportable, they can put it on the
ground and it will run for five, 10, or 20
years, depending on the design. " Looking
toward the future, Arafat was highly
optimistic. " We're going to be making
this microreactor so safe, so benign, but
also economically feasible, that it can be
widespread around not just the U.S. but
around the world, " he said. " With microreactors,
we have an opportunity to export
the product, but not the technology, which
is a very important thing for the country. " ■
-Aaron Larson is POWER's
executive editor.
5
http://www.powermag.com
POWER May 2023

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