Source: AFP
Despite the recent cancellation of a next-generation U.S. nuclear power plant, advocates of the carbon-free energy source remain hopeful that new projects will be up and running by the end of the decade.
Late last year, US energy company NuScale announced it was pulling the plug on a small modular reactor (SMR) project in the western state of Idaho.
The project — the only SMR project not yet approved by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission — has faced a cost blowout that has pushed the estimated price tag from $5.3 billion to $9.3 billion.
“The collapse of the NuScale project should spell the end for small modular nuclear reactors,” predicted MV Ramana, a professor at the University of British Columbia.
However, according to Mason Lester, an analyst at S&P Global Commodity Insights, there is “a lot of positive evidence that has come in over the last year” for the US nuclear outlook.
![](https://images.yen.com.gh/images/e0b7a6d0b17d3002.jpg?impolicy=cropped-image&imwidth=256)
![](https://images.yen.com.gh/images/e0b7a6d0b17d3002.jpg?impolicy=cropped-image&imwidth=256)
Read also
Forecasting the future of science to keep the Swiss diplomatic hub buzzing
He pointed to Darlington in Ontario, Canada, where GE Hitachi aims to have its new SMR design, the BWRX-300, start generating power in 2029.
“Pending regulatory approval, nuclear construction work will begin in 2025,” Ontario Power Generation told AFP.
The Tennessee Valley Authority, a US federal electric utility that covers several southern states, has also invested in the BWRX-300.
“At the end of the day, it was a project,” John Kotek of the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry group, said of NuScale’s Idaho venture.
In this case, the original estimated cost “wasn’t the problem,” said Kotek, a former Energy Department official.
“The problem was the possibility of upside risk.”
He said the solution is to improve “risk sharing” on the first new models before the industry can “get to the place where we build them with some repeatability”.
![](https://images.yen.com.gh/images/bdc96f49aad54da7.jpg?impolicy=cropped-image&imwidth=256)
![](https://images.yen.com.gh/images/bdc96f49aad54da7.jpg?impolicy=cropped-image&imwidth=256)
Read also
Three companies are vying for NASA’s next Moon rover
Evidence is still needed
Some of the reasons for the inflated costs are not particularly related to nuclear power, but the result of higher prices for steel and other commodities, said Marcia Burkey, TerraPower’s chief financial officer.
He noted that uranium prices have also increased.
TerraPower plans to start construction of a nuclear reactor in June in Kemmerer, Wyoming at a retired coal plant.
“I could see people saying, ‘Nuclear is coming again,’ when it’s really very different,” Burkey said of the cost pressures, which are “common to every infrastructure sector.”
“We’re hoping that innovation can help solve that,” Burkey said.
TerraPower, which also partners with GE Hitachi and is backed by a group of investors that includes Bill Gates, is focusing on a new “molten chlorine” technology that it says can operate at higher temperatures than conventional reactors, allowing for greater efficiency.
Burkey said the US nuclear industry realizes it needs to “standardize” across many projects to reduce costs.
![](https://images.yen.com.gh/images/9b809716bf6bcaae.jpg?impolicy=cropped-image&imwidth=256)
![](https://images.yen.com.gh/images/9b809716bf6bcaae.jpg?impolicy=cropped-image&imwidth=256)
Read also
Swan song for General Electric as it completes demerger
Another project under development is the Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation, which has selected Gadsden, Alabama for its Micro-Modular Reactor (MMR) assembly plant, which is supposed to be operational in 2027.
While China and Russia already have operational small reactors, the United States is ahead of Europe in this area of nuclear, said Sylvain Cognet-Dauphin of S&P Global Insights.
“My impression is that Europe is lagging behind the US in SMRs,” said Cognet-Dauphin.
“There are some discussions. And some new plans are being proposed, but nothing as advanced” as the projects in the United States, he added.
In Washington, the US House of Representatives passed a bill in late February to speed up licensing of advanced nuclear power. The Senate has also passed similar legislation.
Lester called the move a “big step”.
The efforts come amid growing recognition of the need to address rising energy demand, in part due to increased use by data centers.
![](https://images.yen.com.gh/images/a7cbc696c8bd865d.jpg?impolicy=cropped-image&imwidth=256)
![](https://images.yen.com.gh/images/a7cbc696c8bd865d.jpg?impolicy=cropped-image&imwidth=256)
Read also
Shortage of maintenance personnel could clip the wings of the airline industry
In March, Google, Microsoft and steel company Nucor announced a joint venture to boost clean energy, including using advanced nuclear power.
PacificCorp, an energy company in the western United States, is also studying adding nuclear capacity through a partnership with TerraPower.
“There is this appetite now and people are really interested in nuclear,” Cognet-Dauphin said.
But “you still have to convince the customer,” he said. “You have to prove your product.”
Source: AFP