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For the first time, U.S. officials have approved a small nuclear power plant design.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission [(NRC)] 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.
NuScale says the reactors have advanced safety features, including self-cooling and automatic shutdown.
"This is a significant milestone not only for NuScale, but also for the entire U.S. nuclear sector and the other advanced nuclear technologies that will follow," said NuScale Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John Hopkins in a statement.
The cooperative pushing the effort will next need to submit an application to the NRC for a combined construction and operating license and expects this to be ready within two years.
Also at Ars Technica.
(Score: 2) by aiwarrior on Friday September 04 2020, @02:53PM (1 child)
I always had a problem with gravity. It only works if the center of gravity did not shift. Should it not be spring loaded? I am sure they thought of this, but spring loaded seems more likely to work even in case where the CG moves due to some bad things happening.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 04 2020, @03:46PM
And had enough of them to only use a partial set at any one time. The problem with springs is that given too much time sprung they can seize, bind, or otherwise lose their mechanical force. Given that this is a reactor that may be lasting 20+ years with little or no maintenance (if I am remembering correctly.) then spring failures during an event could be a critical failure. This could also be true for the gravity based design if either tolerances changed over the life of the unit, or as previously mentioned if its gravitational orientation changes such that the control rods relying on gravity failed to drop into place correctly.