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Expanding Nuclear Energy Beyond Base-load Electricity:

Challenges and Opportunities

Daniel Ingersoll

February 6, 2014

Frontiers in Sustainable Fuels and Chemicals:

What’s Beyond the Horizon?

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Why “all of the above”

Misc

Commercial

Residential

Transportation

Electricity

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

2050 Goal

2005 U.S. CO2

Emissions (Tg)

For nuclear energy:

1. Reach more utility customers 2. Reach more non-electric energy

consumers

Industrial

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Nuclear Energy Development Timeline

Early Prototype

Reactors

Generation I

- Shippingport

- Dresden, Fermi I

- Magnox

Commercial Power

Reactors

Generation II

- LWR-PWR, BWR

- CANDU

- VVER/RBMK

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 2030

Generation IV

- Highly Economical

- Enhanced Safety

- Minimal Waste

- Proliferation Resistant

- ABWR

- System 80+

- AP600

- EPR

Advanced

LWRs

Generation III

Gen I Gen II Gen III Gen III+ Gen IV

Generation III+

Evolutionary

Designs Offering

Improved

Economics

-AP1000

-ESBWR

You are here

1st Nuclear Era 2nd Nuclear Era ?

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1st Nuclear Era: large base-load electricity

U.S. plant construction

during the first nuclear era

Generation I

Generation II

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Moving beyond Gen II

• Demanding more stringent performance goals

– Safety

– Economics

– Sustainability

– Proliferation Risk

• Expanding nuclear energy to new applications

– High-temperature reactors for process heat

– Fast spectrum reactors for resource extension and waste management

– Small reactors for diverse and distributed customers

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Why high-temperature reactors?

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Why fast reactors?

• Spent nuclear fuel can be separated into useable and waste materials

• Residual waste will go to a geological repository

• Useable components can be recycled in thermal reactors, then in fast reactors

• Fast reactors can also breed new fuel and burn waste

ABR

Recycle

LWR

Recycle

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• Safety – Smaller decay heat – Easier to remove decay heat – Smaller radionuclide inventory – Lower overall risk

• Affordability – Smaller up-front cost – Lower debt profile & financing costs – Incremental capacity additions

• Flexibility – Better match to local power needs – Incremental capacity for regions

with low growth rate – Adaptable to non-electric applications – Match to retiring coal plants – Stabilize wind/solar variability

Plants >50 yr old have capacities Less than 300 MWe

U.S. Coal Plants

Why small modular reactors?

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SMR example: NuScale

Building on vast LWR experience

– Innovations in design and engineering

Incorporating integral system design with natural circulation cooling

– Eliminates several major accident scenarios

– Design simplicity also simplifies emergency response

– Eliminates the need for post-accident power or operator response

Operating under water and under ground

– Assured access to ultimate heat sink for long term cooling

– Enhanced protection and security

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Nonproprietary © 2013 NuScale Power, LLC

Reactor Vessel

Reactor Core

Containment Vessel

Hot Riser

Pressurizer

Steam Generator

Refueling Pool

Spent Fuel Storage Pool

Reactor Building

NuScale Power Module

NuScale plant basics

Module Crane

Reactor Pool

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“Load following” vs “load switching”

Integrate continuous (nuclear) with variable (wind/solar) generators

Couple to one or more non-electrical product streams

Optimize on capital investment, fuel costs, and product costs

Source: Idaho National Laboratory

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Why NuScale for NHES?

• Scalable in small power increments – Low initial commitment and cost

– Easily expandable as HES grows

– High reliability and continuous power output

• Flexible for multi-product outputs – Co-generation of individual modules

– Whole-module dedication to different products

• Strong basis for significantly reduced emergency planning zone (EPZ) – Low frequency of core damage

– Additional features to reduce radionuclide release

– Lower risk factors simplify co-location with industrial plant

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New reactor challenges

• Technical challenges:

– New materials and fuels (hi-temp and fast reactors)

– Fuel reprocessing technologies (fast reactors)

– New sensors, instrumentation and controls

– Validating design and engineering innovations (SMRs)

• Institutional challenges: – Community mindset for large, centralized plants

– Traditional focus of regulator on large LWR plants

– Customer/investor fear of first-of-a-kind

– Cheap natural gas and lack of national carbon policy

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Expanding nuclear energy…

• We need to pursue all clean energy technologies to meet our national GHG goals

• Nuclear power should be a central part of our energy future

• Nuclear energy can integrate with other sources and applications

• New reactor technologies and designs are needed to meet the diverse energy needs of the country