NuScale Cancels Idaho Nuclear Reactor

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NuScale Power and Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS) announced that they are canceling the Carbon Free Power Project (CFPP). The subscription rates by customers for the Carbon Free Power Project did not meet the threshold needed to continue. Prices for utilities per kWh had those customers drop out.

The Carbon Free Power Project’s was going to build a NuScale nuclear fission reactor at the Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory (INL). A site license was issued in 2016.

The NuScale small modular reactor (SMR) offers a scalable power plant solution incorporating enhanced safety, improved affordability, and extended flexibility for diverse electrical and process heat applications.

The NuScale Power Module™ (NPM) is a 77 MWe integral pressurized water reactor (PWR) that employs gravity-driven natural circulation of the primary coolant for both normal operation and shutdown mode.

The NPM, including containment, is fully factory-built and shipped to the plant site by truck, rail, or barge without the need for field fabrication, erection, or construction.

ENTRA1 Energy is the commercialization partner of NuScale Power, the only technology provider and producer of small modular reactors that has obtained U.S. regulatory approval and is ready for commercial deployment.

In November 2021, NuScale announced its intent to build with Nuclearelectrica its first reactors in Romania by 2028.

In February 2022, NuScale and mining conglomerate KGHM announced a contract to construct an SMR in Poland by 2029.[40] A 12-module, 924-MWe plant design may have an LCOE of $64/MWh (¢6.4/kWh). In April, Doosan Enerbility was contracted to begin manufacturing Power Module components. Doosan Enerbility expected to reach full-scale production at their plant in Changwon, South Korea, in the second half of 2023.

In May 2022, NuScale completed a merger with the special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC), Spring Valley Acquisition Corp, raising $380M.

On 28 July 2022 the NRC announced it would certify NuScale’s small modular reactor.

On 28 December 2022 Romanian company RoPower Nuclear contracted for Front-End Engineering and Design. The location is expected to be Doicesti. RoPower is a joint venture between Nuclearelectrica and Nove Power & Gas.

In January 2023, CFPP approved a new Budget and Plan of Finance, establishing a target price of $89/MWh (¢8.9/kWh) after an estimated $30/MWh generation subsidy from the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.

In January 2023, the NRC certified NuScale’s 50 MWe design for use in the US.[48] However this was for an earlier version of the design to the current 77 MWe design expected to be deployed; this version was resubmitted to the NRC in January 2023 and could take up to two years for approval.

11 thoughts on “NuScale Cancels Idaho Nuclear Reactor”

  2. Utility CEOs run businesses. The numbers didn’t work. A 1000 Mwe gas plant construction cycle is fairly predictable. US and Western European nuclear plant construction cost per Mw estimates have been off by half or more in recent installations. Some older plants moved the decimal point on final cost.

    Unlike China and Russia and India, where nuclear power plants are under construction and put on line in 4 to 5 years and closer to budget.

    And the US still piddles with commercial spent fuel storage strategy and process decisions. How can a board approve that project? Stable base load power is needed and I believe nuclear us a viable answer with a few corrections.

    We have to improve our domestic construction capability to deploy necessary nuclear power generation. Solar and wind are struggling.

  4. OMG. LOL. And Orsted just withdrew from the New Jersey offshore wind project… subsides weren’t good enough apparently.

    I have told you all for years that NuScale was a turd.

    12 reactors, 10 tons of U each making at best 924 MWe together is NOT better than 1 reactor with 82 tons of U making 1100 MWe. Not better in any way. NuScale will require more licensed operators too.

    Boo hoo.

  5. OK, so I read this article, and was left with the open question. WHY is NuScale not building the Idaho plant? The rest sounds like marketing fluff to attract investors, maybe mostly in Eastern Europe. What about the Idaho gig didn’t produce fissile fruit?

    Small modular nuclear reactors are not a bad idea, especially in this era of high projected demand for AI computing, quite power intensive all in all. One can imagine a well guarded but physically remote AI computing site, powered by a couple of these reactors next door. Free from the wiles of a Green Energy flaky grid. Y’know?

    ⋅-⋅-⋅ Just saying, ⋅-⋅-⋅
    ⋅-=≡ GoatGuy ✓ ≡=-⋅

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