TVA signs contract for Clinch River mPower Construction Permit

The Babcock & Wilcox Company (B&W) (NYSE: BWC) announced today that its subsidiary, Babcock & Wilcox mPower, Inc. (B&W mPower), and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) have signed a contract to prepare and support Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) review of a Construction Permit Application for a B&W mPower™ small modular reactor (SMR) nuclear plant at TVA's Clinch River Site in Oak Ridge, Tenn.

“B&W thanks the State of Tennessee, Governor Haslam, Senators Alexander and Corker, Representative Fleischmann and the DOE”

This contract formalizes the first steps toward the anticipated B&W mPower deployment at Clinch River, as contemplated in TVA's May 2011 Letter of Intent to B&W for the project. It also represents the first definitive milestone in the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) recently initiated SMR Licensing Technical Support Program for commercial demonstration of SMRs by 2022. The DOE selected B&W mPower in November 2012 as the recipient of the Program's competitively bid cost-share funding grant.

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Power Utilities Could Turn toPower Utilities Could Turn to Smaller Nuclear Reactors

The possibility of using small, modular nuclear reactors has FirstEnergy reconsidering its future in nuclear power, reports the Toledo Blade. In the mid 1980s, FirstEnergy spent $6 billion building the Perry Nuclear Power plant on Lake Erie, the paper reports, but the price tag kept the company from expanding.

However, the smaller reactors, which are only about the length of a bowling lane and cost as little as $500 million each, are making the Akron-based utility rethink its future in nuclear power.

Pete Sena, president of FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co., the utility's nuclear subsidiary, said while FirstEnergy can’t afford full-scale nuclear reactors, smaller reactors are manageable investments.

FirstEnergy is among 15 utilities who last year joined nuclear engineering and design firm Babcock & Wilcox Co. to form the mPower Industry Consortium. The group provides oversight and pre-licensing funding to develop a 125-megawatt "mPower" reactor — a small, modular light water reactor that is 83 feet high, weighs about 700 tons, and can power about 125,000 homes.

In comparison, the Davis Besse nuclear reactor, commissioned in 1978 near Toledo, generates about 940 megawatts.

The smaller reactors are more cost-effective for companies that must fund the cost of building their own plants, said Chris Mowry, president of Babcock & Wilcox's Modular Nuclear Energy subsidiary.

Since Ohio deregulated electric utilities in 2000, electric rates are determined through competitive bidding, and utility companies such as FirstEnergy can’t build new plants and have the cost passed on to customers.

The answer, Mowry said, is to get the total cost under $2 billion, or about the price tag of a new coal-fired or combined-cycle natural-gas fired plant.

With small, modular reactors, that $2 billion or less price is achievable, because for that amount, a utility should be able to buy two modular reactors with a total output near 360 megawatts, Mowry said.

The small modular reactors are still under development, and won’t be approved for use in the United States before 2020.

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Department of Energy Back Small Modular Reactors at Annual Global Meeting

By etully on Mar 7, 2012

This week the U.S. Department of Energy announced it will deploy Small Modular Reactors at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.

3 units in total will be built at the site, including two LWRs from NuScale and SMR LLC and one advanced reactor from Hyperion Power Generation.

This announcement was quickly followed by the Savannah River National Laboratory confirming their role as the Platinum Sponsor of the 2^ndAnnual Small Modular Reactor Conference, which is taking place in Columbia South Carolina on the 24-25 April 2012.

Dr. Dave Moody, who will be delivering a keynote address at the conference, stated in a recent interview “we have a unique combination of nuclear knowledge and laboratory expertise, infrastructure, location and much more to make the Site a natural fit for advancing the small modular reactor technology,” the deployment of reactors at the site is also set to reinvigorate “SRS assets to impact national needs and influence new missions for the future.”

The 2^ndAnnual Small Modular Reactor Conference is also well supported by national utilities including Exelon, SCE&G, Progress, Duke, Dominion and many more – not to mention international utilities from mainland Europe and nuclear giant China. As the scale of the world’s largest SMR conference was released rumours throughout the industry, and of course Capitol Hill, quickly spread. This led to U.S. Congressmen, NRC directors and global nuclear decision makers instantly confirming their participation.

Now over 300 of the most powerful global generation executives will make their way to Columbia SC on the 24-25 April to develop their SMR plans and build multi-billion dollar supply chains with expert contractors and service providers.

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