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NuScale will start manufacturing its small modular reactor

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NuScale Power has selected BWX Technologies Inc (BWXT) as the first manufacturer of its small modular reactor (SMR). This marks the transition to the manufacturing phase and represents major progress in bringing the technology to market.

BWXT will immediately start work on this first manufacturing phase of NuScale’s SMR, which we expect will continue through June 2020. NuScale will contract for the remaining two phases, preparation for fabrication then fabrication, at a later date. BWXT is a leading supplier of nuclear components and fuel to both the U.S. government and commercial nuclear power industry. It expects to use Pennsylvania-based Precision Custom Components as a component manufacturing contractor on this project.

NuScale’s self-contained SMR design houses the reactor core, pressurizer and steam generator inside a single containment vessel. A single module can generate 50 MWe (gross) of electricity and at just under 25 meters in length, 4.6 meters in diameter and weighing 450 tonnes, incorporates simple, redundant, diverse, and independent safety features. A power plant could include up to 12 modules, to produce as much as 600 MWe (gross).

134 thoughts on “NuScale will start manufacturing its small modular reactor”

  1. Sorry, I left for a while. I was laughing with the President, he pointed out how great he’s been. Such a humble guy, I don’t think I’ve heard that before.

  4. The anti-nuke libtards will kill this. ‘Kill’ as in de-facto make it impossible to build in the areas where it is most needed. Hope this is for foreign export only.

  5. Sorry I left for a while. I was laughing with the President he pointed out how great he’s been. Such a humble guy I don’t think I’ve heard that before.

  8. The anti-nuke libtards will kill this. ‘Kill’ as in de-facto make it impossible to build in the areas where it is most needed.Hope this is for foreign export only.

  12. Yes. I laughed at Barry when mentioned himself 102 times in the 62 minute speech he gave. Such a humble guy is right.

  13. Helps that NRC is apparently close to approving evac boundaries for SMR’s being limited to plant boundaries, which will substantially improve ease of licensing. No info on the conditions for that approval, such as the reactor being in an underground hole rather than an above ground containment dome.

  15. IMHO, you have to go all the way back to Isenhour to find a president that sucked less. Compared to the crook that otherwise would have won the general election he is extraordinarily superior. Based on that, I think he’s entitled to brag. If he applies the rule of law to the criminals in the federal government, which may have something to do with the huge number of sealed indictments in the federal courts, I’ll say he’s great.

  16. Someone should explain to the Watermelons that no matter how electricity is generated, someone is going to make money on the deal. They can’t stand the idea of anyone but government getting paid.

  17. Isn’t it ironic that federal “safety regulations” make it impossible to commission anything but a light water reactor in the US? The things are steam explosions waiting to happen, they have low fuel burnup, and corrosion problems, and they should have been left in submarines where they belong. The only thing they are safe for, is the legacy nuclear industry,

  21. Yes. I laughed at Barry when mentioned himself 102 times in the 62 minute speech he gave. Such a humble guy is right.

  22. Helps that NRC is apparently close to approving evac boundaries for SMR’s being limited to plant boundaries which will substantially improve ease of licensing. No info on the conditions for that approval such as the reactor being in an underground hole rather than an above ground containment dome.

  24. IMHO you have to go all the way back to Isenhour to find a president that sucked less. Compared to the crook that otherwise would have won the general election he is extraordinarily superior. Based on that I think he’s entitled to brag.If he applies the rule of law to the criminals in the federal government which may have something to do with the huge number of sealed indictments in the federal courts I’ll say he’s great.

  25. Someone should explain to the Watermelons that no matter how electricity is generated someone is going to make money on the deal. They can’t stand the idea of anyone but government getting paid.

  26. Isn’t it ironic that federal safety regulations”” make it impossible to commission anything but a light water reactor in the US? The things are steam explosions waiting to happen”” they have low fuel burnup and corrosion problems and they should have been left in submarines where they belong. The only thing they are safe for is the legacy nuclear industry”

  27. As Venezuela has demonstrated: with sufficient levels of oversight it is totally possible to have an economy where nobody makes any money.

  28. As Venezuela has demonstrated: with sufficient levels of oversight it is totally possible to have an economy where nobody makes any money.

  31. Holtec has a shop and an N stamp so they are also a supplier of metal and likely bid on the job. Their self-funded SMR design is basically not moving forward at any rate that it should be taken seriously.

  34. Holtec has a shop and an N stamp so they are also a supplier of metal and likely bid on the job. Their self-funded SMR design is basically not moving forward at any rate that it should be taken seriously.

  35. 1000 fuel assemblies in the proposed ESBR. The two phase flow of the boiler gives better heat transfer than the single phase buoyancy driven flow of a natural circulation PWR like NuScale. Natural circulation in a PWR is not optimum, whereas it can be optimized in a BWR. Core mass flow rate in a typical pumped BWR is 100Mlb/hr. Core mass flow rate in the ESBWR is somewhere around 60-70Mlb/hr; not bad – good enough to keep heat rates high and protect against CHF. Two phase flow – like a drip coffee maker. It ‘pumps’ water better than buoyancy forces. IMNSHO BWR is the optimum configuration for LWR SMR – the only one that makes any sense in a natural circulation configuration. GE has offered/built BWR of the same design (say BWR4) with drastically different diameters – they could build SMR tomorrow – if there were a demand (there isn’t).

  36. So, we know that the Japanese can build any machine from a 125cc scooter to modern aircraft – even aircraft carriers. Nuclear reactors are somewhere in the middle of that scale. Nobody should doubt that the Japanese could dominate the global nuclear export business if they desired to do so. That desire would exist if the business case for nuclear provided a straightforward opportunity to profit (it don’t). As it turns out, nobody has ever made a profit in the nuclear industry – save for the founder of HOLTEC. Kris made his $billions providing equipment that the big 4 GenII LWR design bureaus (GE, W, B&W, CE) didn’t bother with – racks and trashcans for spent nuclear fuel. This isn’t because trashcans are particularly profitable; it is due to the politics of spent fuel, which is a mess of shared responsibility between the US government and plant operators with active participation from the public and special interests. HOLTEC has deftly navigated this mess, provided storage solutions, and straw slurped big cash from the govn’t throught the licensees while the ‘real’ vendors floundered and remained mostly disinterested in the ‘trashcan business’. While HOLTEC was making $B, Westinghouse was being passed around like the town ____, having three owners in about 13 years. BNFL offloaded Westinghouse in 2006 – set the opening bid at

  37. 1000 fuel assemblies in the proposed ESBR. The two phase flow of the boiler gives better heat transfer than the single phase buoyancy driven flow of a natural circulation PWR like NuScale. Natural circulation in a PWR is not optimum whereas it can be optimized in a BWR. Core mass flow rate in a typical pumped BWR is 100Mlb/hr. Core mass flow rate in the ESBWR is somewhere around 60-70Mlb/hr; not bad – good enough to keep heat rates high and protect against CHF. Two phase flow – like a drip coffee maker. It ‘pumps’ water better than buoyancy forces. IMNSHO BWR is the optimum configuration for LWR SMR – the only one that makes any sense in a natural circulation configuration. GE has offered/built BWR of the same design (say BWR4) with drastically different diameters – they could build SMR tomorrow – if there were a demand (there isn’t).”

  38. So we know that the Japanese can build any machine from a 125cc scooter to modern aircraft – even aircraft carriers. Nuclear reactors are somewhere in the middle of that scale. Nobody should doubt that the Japanese could dominate the global nuclear export business if they desired to do so. That desire would exist if the business case for nuclear provided a straightforward opportunity to profit (it don’t).As it turns out nobody has ever made a profit in the nuclear industry – save for the founder of HOLTEC. Kris made his $billions providing equipment that the big 4 GenII LWR design bureaus (GE W B&W CE) didn’t bother with – racks and trashcans for spent nuclear fuel. This isn’t because trashcans are particularly profitable; it is due to the politics of spent fuel which is a mess of shared responsibility between the US government and plant operators with active participation from the public and special interests. HOLTEC has deftly navigated this mess provided storage solutions and straw slurped big cash from the govn’t throught the licensees while the ‘real’ vendors floundered and remained mostly disinterested in the ‘trashcan business’. While HOLTEC was making $B Westinghouse was being passed around like the town ____ having three owners in about 13 years. BNFL offloaded Westinghouse in 2006 – set the opening bid at

  39. Ummmmm, no. In almost all categories by which one could measure, the Japanese do NOT dominate the automobile market. The Germans make three times more autos than the Japanese, the American’s also make more autos than the Japanese. JD Power also would disagree with you. There aren’t many metrics today that would agree with that statement. True, their engineers are good, but that has very little to do with being able to build nuclear plants. All three Japanese nuclear companies have competed in the United States unsuccessfully: Toshiba, Mitsubishi, and Hitachi. The Japanese have not built a single plant overseas yet: in fact, the Koreans and Russians are dominating international nuclear export and doing so with less than optimal tech. So your arguement that superior engineering leads to nuclear export dominance is all wet. If it were true, Siemens would still be building plants.

  40. The takeaway is that if the Japanese aren’t pursuing the business (i.e. SMRs) then there is no business (in SMRs). If GE isn’t pursuing SMRs then SMRs don’t have a business case because GE could have made one at any time. So could Hitachi or Toshiba. Even Framatome will sell you a Siemans BWR. Who is stepping up to build SMRs besides the Russian government and Idaho National Lab? Nobody.

  41. Japanese OWN modern machine design and manufacturing. They do it economically. They do it with quality. They dominate the automobile market. If there were open competition building nuke plants everywhere – tens of new contracts every year on top of 100 under construction – in that kind of climate Japanese would win. That is my opinion – that the Japanese are the best engineers and manufacturers on the planet and only with protectionism can white mens companies survive. It is also my opinion that the GE BWR technology is the superior LWR tech – I say this being intimately familiar with PWR and BWR.

  42. Nobody should doubt that the Japanese could dominate the global nuclear export business if they desired to do so.” — Oh I have a LOT of doubt — as someone who used to work for a Japanese nuclear company. Name a single Japanese company that has had success exporting nuclear tech? Toshiba’s tech is actually GE tech, as is Hitachi’s tech. Mitsubishi is struggling to survive and may not be in the nuclear business in three more years. Toshiba went bust. I don’t think you thought that through very well.

  43. Ummmmm no. In almost all categories by which one could measure the Japanese do NOT dominate the automobile market. The Germans make three times more autos than the Japanese the American’s also make more autos than the Japanese. JD Power also would disagree with you. There aren’t many metrics today that would agree with that statement. True their engineers are good but that has very little to do with being able to build nuclear plants. All three Japanese nuclear companies have competed in the United States unsuccessfully: Toshiba Mitsubishi and Hitachi. The Japanese have not built a single plant overseas yet: in fact the Koreans and Russians are dominating international nuclear export and doing so with less than optimal tech. So your arguement that superior engineering leads to nuclear export dominance is all wet. If it were true Siemens would still be building plants.

  44. The takeaway is that if the Japanese aren’t pursuing the business (i.e. SMRs) then there is no business (in SMRs).If GE isn’t pursuing SMRs then SMRs don’t have a business case because GE could have made one at any time. So could Hitachi or Toshiba. Even Framatome will sell you a Siemans BWR.Who is stepping up to build SMRs besides the Russian government and Idaho National Lab? Nobody.

  45. Japanese OWN modern machine design and manufacturing. They do it economically. They do it with quality. They dominate the automobile market. If there were open competition building nuke plants everywhere – tens of new contracts every year on top of 100 under construction – in that kind of climate Japanese would win. That is my opinion – that the Japanese are the best engineers and manufacturers on the planet and only with protectionism can white mens companies survive. It is also my opinion that the GE BWR technology is the superior LWR tech – I say this being intimately familiar with PWR and BWR.

  46. Nobody should doubt that the Japanese could dominate the global nuclear export business if they desired to do so.”” — Oh I have a LOT of doubt — as someone who used to work for a Japanese nuclear company. Name a single Japanese company that has had success exporting nuclear tech? Toshiba’s tech is actually GE tech”””” as is Hitachi’s tech. Mitsubishi is struggling to survive and may not be in the nuclear business in three more years. Toshiba went bust. I don’t think you thought that through very well.”””

  54. Yep, Russians are dominating and the Koreans seem to be completing plants in UAE even though UAE doesn’t have the expertise ATM to run them – yet. The Germans sell premium stuff – name brand vehicles – like the iPhone vs. Android phones where the $70 android phone (japanese/korean car) has all of the functionality of the $1000 iPhone (Mercedes/BMW). The hardware in nuclear power plants is not particularly sophisticated. The Japanese built their own fleet of nuke plants and they are stuck in the same policy indecision quagmire of Taiwan, USA, Germany, etc. I understand that you don’t believe that the Japanese are the best engineers making refined products at reasonable cost (unlike the Germans). Cost has a lot to do with it. Travel to the 3rd world and you will see how the Japanese brands dominate transportation – not the German brands. It’s not Volkswagen clogging the streets of Manila – it ain’t BMWs.

  55. Yep Russians are dominating and the Koreans seem to be completing plants in UAE even though UAE doesn’t have the expertise ATM to run them – yet.The Germans sell premium stuff – name brand vehicles – like the iPhone vs. Android phones where the $70 android phone (japanese/korean car) has all of the functionality of the $1000 iPhone (Mercedes/BMW).The hardware in nuclear power plants is not particularly sophisticated. The Japanese built their own fleet of nuke plants and they are stuck in the same policy indecision quagmire of Taiwan USA Germany etc.I understand that you don’t believe that the Japanese are the best engineers making refined products at reasonable cost (unlike the Germans). Cost has a lot to do with it. Travel to the 3rd world and you will see how the Japanese brands dominate transportation – not the German brands. It’s not Volkswagen clogging the streets of Manila – it ain’t BMWs.

  56. Yep, Russians are dominating and the Koreans seem to be completing plants in UAE even though UAE doesn’t have the expertise ATM to run them – yet.

    The Germans sell premium stuff – name brand vehicles – like the iPhone vs. Android phones where the $70 android phone (japanese/korean car) has all of the functionality of the $1000 iPhone (Mercedes/BMW).

    The hardware in nuclear power plants is not particularly sophisticated. The Japanese built their own fleet of nuke plants and they are stuck in the same policy indecision quagmire of Taiwan, USA, Germany, etc.

    I understand that you don’t believe that the Japanese are the best engineers making refined products at reasonable cost (unlike the Germans). Cost has a lot to do with it. Travel to the 3rd world and you will see how the Japanese brands dominate transportation – not the German brands. It’s not Volkswagen clogging the streets of Manila – it ain’t BMWs.

  66. Ummmmm, no. In almost all categories by which one could measure, the Japanese do NOT dominate the automobile market. The Germans make three times more autos than the Japanese, the American’s also make more autos than the Japanese. JD Power also would disagree with you. There aren’t many metrics today that would agree with that statement. True, their engineers are good, but that has very little to do with being able to build nuclear plants. All three Japanese nuclear companies have competed in the United States unsuccessfully: Toshiba, Mitsubishi, and Hitachi. The Japanese have not built a single plant overseas yet: in fact, the Koreans and Russians are dominating international nuclear export and doing so with less than optimal tech. So your arguement that superior engineering leads to nuclear export dominance is all wet. If it were true, Siemens would still be building plants.

  67. Ummmmm no. In almost all categories by which one could measure the Japanese do NOT dominate the automobile market. The Germans make three times more autos than the Japanese the American’s also make more autos than the Japanese. JD Power also would disagree with you. There aren’t many metrics today that would agree with that statement. True their engineers are good but that has very little to do with being able to build nuclear plants. All three Japanese nuclear companies have competed in the United States unsuccessfully: Toshiba Mitsubishi and Hitachi. The Japanese have not built a single plant overseas yet: in fact the Koreans and Russians are dominating international nuclear export and doing so with less than optimal tech. So your arguement that superior engineering leads to nuclear export dominance is all wet. If it were true Siemens would still be building plants.

  68. The takeaway is that if the Japanese aren’t pursuing the business (i.e. SMRs) then there is no business (in SMRs). If GE isn’t pursuing SMRs then SMRs don’t have a business case because GE could have made one at any time. So could Hitachi or Toshiba. Even Framatome will sell you a Siemans BWR. Who is stepping up to build SMRs besides the Russian government and Idaho National Lab? Nobody.

  69. The takeaway is that if the Japanese aren’t pursuing the business (i.e. SMRs) then there is no business (in SMRs).If GE isn’t pursuing SMRs then SMRs don’t have a business case because GE could have made one at any time. So could Hitachi or Toshiba. Even Framatome will sell you a Siemans BWR.Who is stepping up to build SMRs besides the Russian government and Idaho National Lab? Nobody.

  70. Japanese OWN modern machine design and manufacturing. They do it economically. They do it with quality. They dominate the automobile market. If there were open competition building nuke plants everywhere – tens of new contracts every year on top of 100 under construction – in that kind of climate Japanese would win. That is my opinion – that the Japanese are the best engineers and manufacturers on the planet and only with protectionism can white mens companies survive. It is also my opinion that the GE BWR technology is the superior LWR tech – I say this being intimately familiar with PWR and BWR.

  71. Japanese OWN modern machine design and manufacturing. They do it economically. They do it with quality. They dominate the automobile market. If there were open competition building nuke plants everywhere – tens of new contracts every year on top of 100 under construction – in that kind of climate Japanese would win. That is my opinion – that the Japanese are the best engineers and manufacturers on the planet and only with protectionism can white mens companies survive. It is also my opinion that the GE BWR technology is the superior LWR tech – I say this being intimately familiar with PWR and BWR.

  72. Nobody should doubt that the Japanese could dominate the global nuclear export business if they desired to do so.” — Oh I have a LOT of doubt — as someone who used to work for a Japanese nuclear company. Name a single Japanese company that has had success exporting nuclear tech? Toshiba’s tech is actually GE tech, as is Hitachi’s tech. Mitsubishi is struggling to survive and may not be in the nuclear business in three more years. Toshiba went bust. I don’t think you thought that through very well.

  73. Nobody should doubt that the Japanese could dominate the global nuclear export business if they desired to do so.”” — Oh I have a LOT of doubt — as someone who used to work for a Japanese nuclear company. Name a single Japanese company that has had success exporting nuclear tech? Toshiba’s tech is actually GE tech”””” as is Hitachi’s tech. Mitsubishi is struggling to survive and may not be in the nuclear business in three more years. Toshiba went bust. I don’t think you thought that through very well.”””

  74. 1000 fuel assemblies in the proposed ESBR. The two phase flow of the boiler gives better heat transfer than the single phase buoyancy driven flow of a natural circulation PWR like NuScale. Natural circulation in a PWR is not optimum, whereas it can be optimized in a BWR. Core mass flow rate in a typical pumped BWR is 100Mlb/hr. Core mass flow rate in the ESBWR is somewhere around 60-70Mlb/hr; not bad – good enough to keep heat rates high and protect against CHF. Two phase flow – like a drip coffee maker. It ‘pumps’ water better than buoyancy forces. IMNSHO BWR is the optimum configuration for LWR SMR – the only one that makes any sense in a natural circulation configuration. GE has offered/built BWR of the same design (say BWR4) with drastically different diameters – they could build SMR tomorrow – if there were a demand (there isn’t).

  75. 1000 fuel assemblies in the proposed ESBR. The two phase flow of the boiler gives better heat transfer than the single phase buoyancy driven flow of a natural circulation PWR like NuScale. Natural circulation in a PWR is not optimum whereas it can be optimized in a BWR. Core mass flow rate in a typical pumped BWR is 100Mlb/hr. Core mass flow rate in the ESBWR is somewhere around 60-70Mlb/hr; not bad – good enough to keep heat rates high and protect against CHF. Two phase flow – like a drip coffee maker. It ‘pumps’ water better than buoyancy forces. IMNSHO BWR is the optimum configuration for LWR SMR – the only one that makes any sense in a natural circulation configuration. GE has offered/built BWR of the same design (say BWR4) with drastically different diameters – they could build SMR tomorrow – if there were a demand (there isn’t).”

  76. So, we know that the Japanese can build any machine from a 125cc scooter to modern aircraft – even aircraft carriers. Nuclear reactors are somewhere in the middle of that scale. Nobody should doubt that the Japanese could dominate the global nuclear export business if they desired to do so. That desire would exist if the business case for nuclear provided a straightforward opportunity to profit (it don’t). As it turns out, nobody has ever made a profit in the nuclear industry – save for the founder of HOLTEC. Kris made his $billions providing equipment that the big 4 GenII LWR design bureaus (GE, W, B&W, CE) didn’t bother with – racks and trashcans for spent nuclear fuel. This isn’t because trashcans are particularly profitable; it is due to the politics of spent fuel, which is a mess of shared responsibility between the US government and plant operators with active participation from the public and special interests. HOLTEC has deftly navigated this mess, provided storage solutions, and straw slurped big cash from the govn’t throught the licensees while the ‘real’ vendors floundered and remained mostly disinterested in the ‘trashcan business’. While HOLTEC was making $B, Westinghouse was being passed around like the town ____, having three owners in about 13 years. BNFL offloaded Westinghouse in 2006 – set the opening bid at

  77. So we know that the Japanese can build any machine from a 125cc scooter to modern aircraft – even aircraft carriers. Nuclear reactors are somewhere in the middle of that scale. Nobody should doubt that the Japanese could dominate the global nuclear export business if they desired to do so. That desire would exist if the business case for nuclear provided a straightforward opportunity to profit (it don’t).As it turns out nobody has ever made a profit in the nuclear industry – save for the founder of HOLTEC. Kris made his $billions providing equipment that the big 4 GenII LWR design bureaus (GE W B&W CE) didn’t bother with – racks and trashcans for spent nuclear fuel. This isn’t because trashcans are particularly profitable; it is due to the politics of spent fuel which is a mess of shared responsibility between the US government and plant operators with active participation from the public and special interests. HOLTEC has deftly navigated this mess provided storage solutions and straw slurped big cash from the govn’t throught the licensees while the ‘real’ vendors floundered and remained mostly disinterested in the ‘trashcan business’. While HOLTEC was making $B Westinghouse was being passed around like the town ____ having three owners in about 13 years. BNFL offloaded Westinghouse in 2006 – set the opening bid at

  82. Holtec has a shop and an N stamp so they are also a supplier of metal and likely bid on the job. Their self-funded SMR design is basically not moving forward at any rate that it should be taken seriously.

  83. Holtec has a shop and an N stamp so they are also a supplier of metal and likely bid on the job. Their self-funded SMR design is basically not moving forward at any rate that it should be taken seriously.

  84. Ummmmm, no. In almost all categories by which one could measure, the Japanese do NOT dominate the automobile market. The Germans make three times more autos than the Japanese, the American’s also make more autos than the Japanese. JD Power also would disagree with you. There aren’t many metrics today that would agree with that statement. True, their engineers are good, but that has very little to do with being able to build nuclear plants. All three Japanese nuclear companies have competed in the United States unsuccessfully: Toshiba, Mitsubishi, and Hitachi. The Japanese have not built a single plant overseas yet: in fact, the Koreans and Russians are dominating international nuclear export and doing so with less than optimal tech. So your arguement that superior engineering leads to nuclear export dominance is all wet. If it were true, Siemens would still be building plants.

  85. The takeaway is that if the Japanese aren’t pursuing the business (i.e. SMRs) then there is no business (in SMRs).

    If GE isn’t pursuing SMRs then SMRs don’t have a business case because GE could have made one at any time. So could Hitachi or Toshiba. Even Framatome will sell you a Siemans BWR.

    Who is stepping up to build SMRs besides the Russian government and Idaho National Lab? Nobody.

  86. Japanese OWN modern machine design and manufacturing. They do it economically. They do it with quality.
    They dominate the automobile market. If there were open competition building nuke plants everywhere – tens of new contracts every year on top of 100 under construction – in that kind of climate Japanese would win. That is my opinion – that the Japanese are the best engineers and manufacturers on the planet and only with protectionism can white mens companies survive. It is also my opinion that the GE BWR technology is the superior LWR tech – I say this being intimately familiar with PWR and BWR.

  87. “Nobody should doubt that the Japanese could dominate the global nuclear export business if they desired to do so.”

    — Oh I have a LOT of doubt — as someone who used to work for a Japanese nuclear company. Name a single Japanese company that has had success exporting nuclear tech? Toshiba’s tech is actually GE tech, as is Hitachi’s tech. Mitsubishi is struggling to survive and may not be in the nuclear business in three more years. Toshiba went bust. I don’t think you thought that through very well.

  88. As Venezuela has demonstrated: with sufficient levels of oversight it is totally possible to have an economy where nobody makes any money.

  89. As Venezuela has demonstrated: with sufficient levels of oversight it is totally possible to have an economy where nobody makes any money.

  90. 1000 fuel assemblies in the proposed ESBR. The two phase flow of the boiler gives better heat transfer than the single phase buoyancy driven flow of a natural circulation PWR like NuScale. Natural circulation in a PWR is not optimum, whereas it can be optimized in a BWR. Core mass flow rate in a typical pumped BWR is 100Mlb/hr. Core mass flow rate in the ESBWR is somewhere around 60-70Mlb/hr; not bad – good enough to keep heat rates high and protect against CHF. Two phase flow – like a drip coffee maker. It ‘pumps’ water better than buoyancy forces. IMNSHO BWR is the optimum configuration for LWR SMR – the only one that makes any sense in a natural circulation configuration. GE has offered/built BWR of the same design (say BWR4) with drastically different diameters – they could build SMR tomorrow – if there were a demand (there isn’t).

  91. So, we know that the Japanese can build any machine from a 125cc scooter to modern aircraft – even aircraft carriers. Nuclear reactors are somewhere in the middle of that scale. Nobody should doubt that the Japanese could dominate the global nuclear export business if they desired to do so. That desire would exist if the business case for nuclear provided a straightforward opportunity to profit (it don’t).

    As it turns out, nobody has ever made a profit in the nuclear industry – save for the founder of HOLTEC. Kris made his $billions providing equipment that the big 4 GenII LWR design bureaus (GE, W, B&W, CE) didn’t bother with – racks and trashcans for spent nuclear fuel. This isn’t because trashcans are particularly profitable; it is due to the politics of spent fuel, which is a mess of shared responsibility between the US government and plant operators with active participation from the public and special interests. HOLTEC has deftly navigated this mess, provided storage solutions, and straw slurped big cash from the govn’t throught the licensees while the ‘real’ vendors floundered and remained mostly disinterested in the ‘trashcan business’. While HOLTEC was making $B, Westinghouse was being passed around like the town ____, having three owners in about 13 years. BNFL offloaded Westinghouse in 2006 – set the opening bid at < $2B. The Russians never stopped building nuclear reactors and are malleable enough to have adapted Siemens components (similar to Westinghouse PWR parts) into the Bushehr VVER. They recently built a floating power station barge with a pair of PWRs and 70MWe output. Nobody is interested in it – no country is placing orders. This isn’t because it’s Russian; it is because there is no demand for ‘all that trouble’ and 70MWe. In the current climate, the Russians and Koreans are the only ones with an export business keeping their domestic nuclear industries alive; demand at home is not enough to give the workforce consistent traction. Knowledge transfer; train the new guys so the old guys can retire in Crimea. NuScale’s selling point will be NRC approval (when it comes). The NRC is the brand. Combine that with the sanctions of the week against Russia and perhaps some NuScale plants will be exported. They are going to build the pilot plant in Idaho. There is no market for SMRs. That is not my opinion; it is Westinghouse’s opinion; it is B&W’s opinion. They both went on record with this opinion before 2014 and stopped work on the idea. Shrewd GE never got on the SMR bandwagon until recently – when they are trying to stay alive with $13 stock price and looming difficulties. GE’s recent work on BWRX-300 is being funded by Dominion (Utility) and the US government to some extent. GE could have built a SMR BWR at any time in the last 40 years. Traditionally BWRs were sold in several vessel diameters with fuel loads varying from over 800 fuel assemblies to less than 400 fuel assemblies; they will use more than

  99. Yes. I laughed at Barry when mentioned himself 102 times in the 62 minute speech he gave. Such a humble guy is right.

  100. Yes. I laughed at Barry when mentioned himself 102 times in the 62 minute speech he gave. Such a humble guy is right.

  101. Helps that NRC is apparently close to approving evac boundaries for SMR’s being limited to plant boundaries, which will substantially improve ease of licensing. No info on the conditions for that approval, such as the reactor being in an underground hole rather than an above ground containment dome.

  102. Helps that NRC is apparently close to approving evac boundaries for SMR’s being limited to plant boundaries which will substantially improve ease of licensing. No info on the conditions for that approval such as the reactor being in an underground hole rather than an above ground containment dome.

  106. IMHO, you have to go all the way back to Isenhour to find a president that sucked less. Compared to the crook that otherwise would have won the general election he is extraordinarily superior. Based on that, I think he’s entitled to brag. If he applies the rule of law to the criminals in the federal government, which may have something to do with the huge number of sealed indictments in the federal courts, I’ll say he’s great.

  107. IMHO you have to go all the way back to Isenhour to find a president that sucked less. Compared to the crook that otherwise would have won the general election he is extraordinarily superior. Based on that I think he’s entitled to brag.If he applies the rule of law to the criminals in the federal government which may have something to do with the huge number of sealed indictments in the federal courts I’ll say he’s great.

  108. Holtec has a shop and an N stamp so they are also a supplier of metal and likely bid on the job. Their self-funded SMR design is basically not moving forward at any rate that it should be taken seriously.

  109. Someone should explain to the Watermelons that no matter how electricity is generated, someone is going to make money on the deal. They can’t stand the idea of anyone but government getting paid.

  110. Someone should explain to the Watermelons that no matter how electricity is generated someone is going to make money on the deal. They can’t stand the idea of anyone but government getting paid.

  111. Isn’t it ironic that federal “safety regulations” make it impossible to commission anything but a light water reactor in the US? The things are steam explosions waiting to happen, they have low fuel burnup, and corrosion problems, and they should have been left in submarines where they belong. The only thing they are safe for, is the legacy nuclear industry,

  112. Isn’t it ironic that federal safety regulations”” make it impossible to commission anything but a light water reactor in the US? The things are steam explosions waiting to happen”” they have low fuel burnup and corrosion problems and they should have been left in submarines where they belong. The only thing they are safe for is the legacy nuclear industry”

  113. Sorry, I left for a while. I was laughing with the President, he pointed out how great he’s been. Such a humble guy, I don’t think I’ve heard that before.

  114. Sorry I left for a while. I was laughing with the President he pointed out how great he’s been. Such a humble guy I don’t think I’ve heard that before.

  119. The anti-nuke libtards will kill this. ‘Kill’ as in de-facto make it impossible to build in the areas where it is most needed. Hope this is for foreign export only.

  120. The anti-nuke libtards will kill this. ‘Kill’ as in de-facto make it impossible to build in the areas where it is most needed.Hope this is for foreign export only.

  126. Helps that NRC is apparently close to approving evac boundaries for SMR’s being limited to plant boundaries, which will substantially improve ease of licensing. No info on the conditions for that approval, such as the reactor being in an underground hole rather than an above ground containment dome.

  128. IMHO, you have to go all the way back to Isenhour to find a president that sucked less. Compared to the crook that otherwise would have won the general election he is extraordinarily superior. Based on that, I think he’s entitled to brag.
    If he applies the rule of law to the criminals in the federal government, which may have something to do with the huge number of sealed indictments in the federal courts, I’ll say he’s great.

  129. Someone should explain to the Watermelons that no matter how electricity is generated, someone is going to make money on the deal. They can’t stand the idea of anyone but government getting paid.

  130. Isn’t it ironic that federal “safety regulations” make it impossible to commission anything but a light water reactor in the US? The things are steam explosions waiting to happen, they have low fuel burnup, and corrosion problems, and they should have been left in submarines where they belong. The only thing they are safe for, is the legacy nuclear industry,

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