BOISE, Idaho (AP) — U.S. officials have for the first time approved a design for a small commercial nuclear reactor, and a Utah energy cooperative wants to build 12 of them in Idaho.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Friday approved Portland-based NuScale Power’s application for the small modular reactor that Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems plans to build at a U.S. Department of Energy site in eastern Idaho.
The small reactors can produce about 60 megawatts of energy, or enough to power more than 50,000 homes. The proposed project includes 12 small modular reactors. The first would be built in 2029, with the rest in 2030.
That sounds like good news for non-carbon power generation.
I like concentrated solar power and the Stirling engine as another venue. Just like the line of wind turbines from Amarillo, Texas all the way to the northern border of the USA, I'd like to see concentrated solar power being used in New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and eastern California.
Hi, Patrick - The Navy gets a pass because the fuel in their reactors is highly enriched. Nearly Weapons Grade. From Wikipedia (I know! We hates it):
Current U.S. naval reactors are all pressurized water reactors, which are identical to PWR commercial reactors producing electricity, except that:
They have a high power density in a small volume and run either on low-enriched uranium (as do some French and Chinese submarines) or on highly enriched uranium (>20% U-235, current U.S. submarines use fuel enriched to at least 93%)[3] They have long core lives, so that refueling is needed only after 10 or more years, and new cores are designed to last 25 years in carriers and 10–33 years in submarines, The design enables a compact pressure vessel while maintaining safety.
The Navy gets a pass because the fuel in their reactors is highly enriched.
Navy nuclear reactors are different from the ones used for power generation as well. One important difference is that utilities use nukes as base load, and the load is fairly constant. They aren't designed to be ramped up and down quickly like the ones used in the Navy.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Friday approved Portland-based NuScale Power’s application for the small modular reactor that Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems plans to build at a U.S. Department of Energy site in eastern Idaho.
The small reactors can produce about 60 megawatts of energy, or enough to power more than 50,000 homes. The proposed project includes 12 small modular reactors. The first would be built in 2029, with the rest in 2030.
https://apnews.com/910766c07afd96fbe2bd875e16087464