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An unnamed contributor wrote:
NuScale will get the final approval nearly six years after starting the process:
On Friday, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) announced that it would be issuing a certification to a new nuclear reactor design, making it just the seventh that has been approved for use in the US. But in some ways, it's a first: the design, from a company called NuScale, is a small modular reactor that can be constructed at a central facility and then moved to the site where it will be operated.
[...] Once complete, the certification is published in the Federal Register, allowing the design to be used in the US. Friday's announcement says that the NRC is all set to take the publication step.
The NRC will still have to weigh in on the sites where any of these reactors are deployed. Currently, one such site is in the works: a project called the Carbon Free Power Project, which will be situated at Idaho National Lab. That's expected to be operational in 2030 but has been facing some financial uncertainty. Utilities that might use the power produced there have grown hesitant to commit money to the project.
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(Score: 5, Interesting) by bradley13 on Wednesday August 03 2022, @10:58AM (3 children)
For what it's worth, the journalist has done what journalists always do: write about something they don't understand. Although the Nuscale website doesn't use the term, it's pretty clear that thus is a PWR. They write:
It still seems a fairly old fashioned design, but maybe that helps keep costs down.
Now they need to build hundreds of the things, not just one or two.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Wednesday August 03 2022, @01:09PM (1 child)
PWRs are very safe if you can keep water in them and keep it circulating in case of an accident. Modern designs that allow convective cooling are great because they can still remove the decay heat after shutdown if all the pumps fail. Obviously, the secondary cooling loop has to remain intact and there has to be somewhere for the heat to go.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 3, Informative) by Immerman on Thursday August 04 2022, @04:38PM
They're claiming to be the first LWR to provide an unlimited coping time without power or additional water. I believe that means they can bring the core's power output down below what at least the secondary cooling loop can passively shed into the ambient air. https://www.nuscalepower.com/technology/design-innovations [nuscalepower.com]
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Thursday August 04 2022, @04:23PM
I recall hearing (speculation?) that the motivation for the old-fashioned design was to accelerate both design and regulatory approval.
It might not be as theoretically safe as something like the molten salt reactors others are working on - but it's well understood technology just packaged in a new way, so the regulators are less hesitant to approve it, confident that real-world safety issues are also well-understood and adequately addressed.