POWER November 2010 - 61
NUCLEAR PLANT DESIGN
Siting small, modular reactors could also
present vexing problems, particularly if
the market for the new machines encompasses
non-utility industrial customers
seeking to self-generate or co-generate
power at their factories and plants.
NRC licensing process; none is expected to
make formal submission to the NRC until
2012. But the NRC has had pre-licensing
discussions with the three pressurized lightwater
reactors in the small, modular race
(see sidebar): mPower, NuScale, and IRIS.
In addition to the usual business hurdles
involving novel, first-of-a-kind
technologies, small reactors will present
the NRC with unique regulatory issues.
Among them, according to Michael Mayfield,
director of the NRC's advanced reactor
program, are emergency planning,
the radioactive source term (the mix and
amounts of radioactivity that could be
released in a severe accident), control
room staffing, siting and site security, and
operational issues such as in-service inspections
and how to apply existing engineering
codes to the new machines.
An example of the kinds of questions
the NRC will face involves what might appear
to be a mundane issue: control room
staffing. In the large reactor paradigm,
each unit has its own, separate, and separately
staffed control room. As several
speakers at the Platts meeting noted, part
of the economic appeal of modular reactors
is that one control room might control
as many as 12 modules at a time. This has
the regulators scratching their collective
heads. Mayfield noted, " NRC is currently
conducting research to support future reviews "
of control room issues.
Siting small, modular reactors could
also present vexing problems, particularly
if the market for the new machines encompasses
non-utility industrial customers
seeking to self-generate or co-generate
power at their factories and plants. The
NRC is accustomed to dealing only with
dedicated sites that have gone through a
rigorous regulatory review.
All of these and many other still-unresolved
regulatory issues will have major
impacts on the costs of the small plants.
Whether these plants are able to live up
in reality to the economics that designers
and dreamers have been speculating about
likely will determine their future and the
viability of a paradigm shift in nuclear
plant design.
Entergy Nuclear's Hughey summed up
the business case for smaller reactors at
the Platts meeting: " In the end, " he said,
" all things being equal, it comes down to
dollars per kilowatt to install and dollars
per kilowatt to operate. " ■
-Kennedy Maize is executive
editor of POWER's sister publication,
MANAGING POWER, and a POWER
contributing editor.
60
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POWER November 2010
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of POWER November 2010
Contents
POWER November 2010 - Cover1
POWER November 2010 - Cover2
POWER November 2010 - Contents
POWER November 2010 - 2
POWER November 2010 - 3
POWER November 2010 - 4
POWER November 2010 - 5
POWER November 2010 - 6
POWER November 2010 - 7
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