Clean Energy Insight - Moving Energy Forward

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See, sometimes people don’t think bigger is better.

Neither does the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).  TVA has agreed to assist Babcock & Wilcox of Lynchburg, Va. in gaining certification of a “mini” nuclear power plant. TVA has signed a non-binding agreement to evaluate a possible site for building a small modular reactor near Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.

The nuclear reactors would be approximately one tenth (≥125 MW) the size of a normal size nuclear power plant (1000 - 1600 MW). The nuclear reactions would be contained in an enclosure that is stored underground.

It is roughly estimated that a 125 MW reactor would cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $750 Million, whereas recent estimates for the new generation nuclear plants that are being reviewed by the NRC show a cost of construction around $10 Billion.

The article mentions that one issue the companies may face in obtaining a design certification is that the NRC is currently busy with licensing requests from utilities for new designs of standard size nuclear plants. A license application for a “mini” reactor has not yet been submitted to the NRC, but could be in as little as two years, states Chris Mowry (President and Chief Executive of B&W Modular Nuclear Energy LLC). Once an application is submitted to the NRC, a review could potentially take several years.

Here is a link to the original article.

Here is a link to another recent article that discusses the possibility of this “mini” reactor:

( By Carrington Dillon )

We posted an article a week ago on Duke Energy and AREVA’s plans to negotiate the construction of a 1,650 MW EPR in Piketon, Ohio.  Since then, Ohio Senator George Voinovich wrote this letter to the people of Ohio in support of the deal.  For the past eight years, Senator Voinovich has been either the Ranking Member or Chairman of the Senate Clean Air and Nuclear Safety Subcommittee.

In the letter, Senator Voinovich expresses his enthusiasm for two nuclear industry projects slated to take place in Ohio. First, the Duke/AREVA announcement of the possible EPR and Nuclear energy production center in Piketon, Ohio.  Second, the Babcock & Wilcox announcement of their new mPower Modular Nuclear Reactor manufacturing centers slated for Euclid and Barberton, Ohio.

[ I wanted to write about the B&W mPower reactors earlier in the week, but Rod Adams over at Atomic Insights has done a great job following that story.  See here. ]

Senator Voinovich then states an interesting statistic.  It is widely known in the nuclear industry that nuclear power accounts for over 70 percent of emission free energy in the United States.  However, Sen. Voinovich brings up that wind and solar energies account for only 1.4 and 0.08 percent, respectively, of our nation’s emission free energy.

The next interesting topic that Sen. Voinovich covers is his previous conversation with President and CEO of Westinghouse, Dr. Aris Candris.  Dr. Candris cited an important fact to Sen. Voinovich; approximately 12,000 jobs are created for each new nuclear plant when you include manufacturing jobs.

I’d like to clarify that statement a slight bit.  The number is correct from recent economic impact studies done by energy utilities who plan to build new nuclear reactors.  However, those 12,000 jobs will be jobs that are either created or supported from the construction of the new plant.  I would hope that that technicality doesn’t  take away from the economic importance or magnitude of that number.  That is still the largest and most realistic job promise than any other energy industry has been able to make to date.

Here is the rest of Sen. Voinovich’s letter:

“We don’t want to be left behind. Now is the time for Ohio to take a leadership role on the nuclear stage with the vast amount of industrial talent in our great state, and to become a manufacturing center for nuclear components.

Organized labor gets it.

They understand expanding nuclear power will create a lot of well-paying jobs.

Everyone is starting to get it – nuclear is a three’fer: Without it, we will not be able to reach our goal of reducing carbon emissions; Without it, we will not be able to provide the base-load electricity our growing country will demand; And, without it, we will not be able to rebuild our manufacturing base.

Ohio is poised to be the heart of it all during the nuclear renaissance. Let’s seize the moment.”

Thank you, Senator, for standing up and publicly extolling the industry as an engine of job creation and growth.  We get it here at Clean Energy Insight.  Hopefully, the rest of your colleagues will follow.  When Clean Energy Insight starts our letter-writing campaign, we will be sure to send Sen. Voinovich a sincere Thank-you and post it here on the blog.