D. T. Ingersoll

NuScale Power LLC, Oak Ridge, TN, USA

2.1 Introduction

The pursuit of small modular reactors (SMRs) is both a persistent and global phenomenon with widespread interest from developers and customers alike. Some of the earliest concepts emerged in the 1970s for merchant ship propulsion and industrial process heat applications. Today, more than 50 concepts have been reported by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) ranging from minor evolutions of operational reactors to exotic liquid-fueled and fission-fusion hybrid designs. Chapter 1 describes many of the motivations that drive customer interests, including lower upfront capital investment, better match to projected demand, better compatibility with electrical grid infrastructure, and greater flexibility in site locations. After an extreme earthquake and induced tsunami in Japan destroyed the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in 2011, the promise of enhanced safety and plant resilience of SMRs has become a central consideration in countries with established nuclear programs as well as countries seeking to initiate nuclear power programs.

Reactor developers worldwide are seeking to develop SMR designs to meet the large anticipated market demand. Designs are emerging from both traditional reactor vendors and new start-up companies, and also are being developed in both traditional and new nuclear supplier countries. Many SMR concepts are being developed by research organizations, typically characterized by advanced fuels, materials and coolants, and often with exotic design features that will require decades to develop and qualify for commercial application. All of the SMRs discussed in this chapter are actively being developed by commercial companies and most have some level of engagement by a licensing authority, either in the country of development or country of potential deployment. As such, these designs are considered to have the potential to be deployed within the next 10-15 years, depending on developer commitment and customer interest. An effort was made to select designs that span the gamut from traditional technology and engineering to novel technology and highly innovative engineering. Keeping with the widely accepted definition of ‘small,’ the designs presented in this chapter all have an electrical output of less than approximately 300 MWe, although some designs exceed this limit by a modest amount.

Handbook of Small Modular Nuclear Reactors. http://dx. doi. Org/10.1533/9780857098535.1.27

Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

As discussed in Chapter 1, SMRs do not represent a unique reactor technology, but rather reflect the same spectrum of technologies considered for large plants. Brief summaries of 22 commercially developed SMRs designs are provided in the following sections, organized by technology type. This is a natural approach for organizing the designs since the different technology classes generally target different energy applications. Within a technology class, the designs are presented by country in alphabetical order.

The information presented in this chapter was gleaned from publicly available information gathered in reports, papers, presentations, websites and personal communications. Many of these sources are listed in Section 2.7. Because all of the designs have commercial interests, detailed information regarding design features is generally treated as proprietary and is not publicly available. Also, most of the designs continue to evolve at a rapid pace and design parameters change equally fast. In some cases, multiple sources for a single design have conflicting information. Every attempt has been made to present the latest and most accurate information available. Preference was given to sources of information provided directly by the designer rather than third party informants. Even with these sources, it was often difficult to glean factual information from bold marketing claims. Therefore, no claims are made regarding the accuracy or currency of the information. The information presented in the remainder of this chapter represents a best effort, objective portrayal of the leading commercial SMRs under development worldwide.