Resources & Stats

Small-scale reactors can complement large nuclear plant projects by expanding potential markets in the United States and abroad for carbon-free energy production. Smaller reactors provide energy companies and other users with additional options that help achieve critical energy and environmental policies.

November 2011

Key Points

• Small-scale reactors can complement large nuclear plant projects by expanding potential markets in the United States and abroad for carbon-free energy production. Smaller reactors provide energy companies and other users with additional options that help achieve critical energy and environmental policies.

• Their small size—less than 300 megawatts electric—and modular construction will allow some new small reactors to be built in a controlled factory setting and installed module by module, improving manufacturing efficiency and cost while reducing construction time and financing costs.

• The potential applications for small reactors include electricity generation and industrial process heat, desalination or water purification, and co-generation applications, such as in the petrochemical industry. Process heat produced by small-scale reactors may also be used to improve energy security by developing liquid fuels for use in transportation applications while reducing the overall life-cycle carbon footprint.

• Small reactors can be manufactured in North America to meet growing domestic and export demand—creating high-tech U.S. jobs and improving America’s global competitiveness.

• Small reactors expand the range of sites suitable for development and, when used to power older fossil plants, they can use existing infrastructure such as transmission systems.

• Public-private partnerships can accelerate commercial development of small reactors. Legislation has been introduced in Congress to help fund essential enabling research, development and commercialization through public-private partnerships to accelerate construction of small reactors.

Designs Target Diverse Applications
Many small reactor designs are under development to meet specific U.S. and international market needs, and they are attracting considerable attention from the electric utility industry, state and local government officials, Congress, and the business community.

Three small reactor technologies are in under consideration. Each has unique development needs and a different timeline for reaching the market. Applications are expected within the next few years for Nuclear Regulatory Commission design certifications and combined licenses for construction and operation of the first-of-class plants.

The three major types of small reactors are:

Light Water Reactors. These designs are the most compatible with the existing federal regulatory framework. They could be used to replace older power stations, benefitting from infrastructure, cooling water, rail and transmission facilities already in place, or for greenfield applications, including energy park concepts.

High-Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactors. These reactors are especially well-suited for providing process heat for the industrial and transport sectors in the medium term and hydrogen in the longer term while reducing the carbon footprint of these activities. It is in America’s strategic national interest to increase sources of energy by using these innovative small reactors to develop new domestic sources of liquid fuel.

Liquid Metal and Gas-Cooled Fast Reactors. Liquid metal and gas-cooled fast-reactor technologies also share attributes suitable for distributed nuclear applications for electricity, water purification and district heating in remote communities. These types of reactors also could provide nuclear fuel cycle services, such as improving the efficiency of nuclear fuel utilization and consuming recycled nuclear fuel. They could also support government-sponsored nonproliferation efforts by consuming material from nuclear weapons, thus eliminating it as a threat.

Essential Industry and Public Partnerships
The economic, energy security and environmental benefits of small reactor technologies make a strong case for accelerated market development. Work remains to design, develop and license small reactor designs. Evolving partnerships between technology developers, component manufacturers and end users are necessary to move these technologies to market. Additionally, support from the Department of Energy and other government entities will accelerate broader market acceptance of these new reactor technologies and provide a greater selection of nuclear energy options for the electric and industrial sectors.

NEI supports the small reactor program contained in President Obama’s fiscal year 2012 budget and submitted testimony on July 14, 2011. This program includes a public-private partnership to drive small reactor development.  At a five-year cost of $452 million, it would:

• establish a competitive process for providers with a minimum 50 percent cost share by industry

• assist two technology vendors to receive reactor design certification

• assist two utilities or consortia to receive licenses to build and operated small reactors.

NEI submitted testimony on June 7, 2011, supporting the Nuclear Power 2021 Act introduced by Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and reported out of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in August 2011. The House companion bill was introduced by Rep. Jason Altmire (D-Pa.) in May 2011. 

The Nuclear Power 2021 Act shares many features of the Energy Department’s 2012 budget request and, if passed, would accelerate the deployment of small reactors in the United States.

Directors of the 10 DOE national laboratories, including now-Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, published a report in 2008 recognizing that “nuclear energy must play a significant and growing role in our nation’s … energy portfolio … in the context of broader global energy, environmental, and security issues.” NEI supports the research and development priorities listed in that strategy:

• Significantly expand the number of light water reactors, including small reactor designs. The industry encourages the Energy Department to continue its efforts to bring advanced light water reactors and small reactors to the marketplace in an expedited manner.

• Build U.S.-designed reactors internationally, which will provide global leadership in safe nuclear plant operation while meeting stringent nonproliferation objectives.

• Develop fast-reactor designs and proliferation-resistant reprocessing technologies that will enable a higher percentage of the uranium fuel to be used before reprocessing or disposal. Reprocessing also could reduce the volume and toxicity of the waste byproduct that requires safe permanent disposal in a geologic repository.

• Develop high-temperature reactors for electricity generation and use in other applications, such as a heat source for industrial processes. High-temperature reactors can reduce greenhouse gas emissions from large-scale process heat operations in the petroleum and chemical industries. This technology could also produce hydrogen economically for fuel cells and other industrial applications.

In testimony submitted on the U.S. Department of Energy’s 2010 research and development roadmap, NEI said that funding for the administration’s proposed activity in the Office of Nuclear Energy on Advanced Methods for Manufacturing and the expansion and extension of investment tax credits for investments in manufacturing provided in the stimulus bill would ensure continued expansion of the nuclear supply chain and help restore U.S. leadership in this sector.

Work force development and new manufacturing facilities will be required to support the expansion of nuclear energy facilities. Incentives for these supporting activities are just as critical as incentives for technology development and deployment of new and even safer nuclear technologies.

Summary
Small reactors in scalable facilities can fill a broader spectrum of new energy demands as well as replace inefficient electricity facilities, provide process heat for diverse industrial applications and generate electricity for remote locations. Modules can be added as needed—built in controlled factory settings and easily transported to the site.

Together with large reactors and other low-carbon energy options, such as wind and solar, small reactors contribute to a full line of safe, secure carbon-free energy sources.