TVA logoSmaller modular reactorName: mPowerDeveloper: Babcock and WilcoxEngineers: Bechtel Corp.First utility: Tennessee Valley AuthorityOutput: Each unit will have 180 megawatts, about 15 percent of the size of a nuclear plant like Sequoyah or Watts BarInitial site: TVA’s Clinch River property in Oak RidgeSchedule: Regulatory licensing by 2015 and commercial operation by 2022, if approvedCost: Estimated $900 million per unit, or $5,000 per kilowatt output
The Tennessee Valley Authority, created 80 years ago to be a “living laboratory” for new government projects, plans to test a new type of a nuclear reactor designed to be smaller, simpler and less costly than America’s current fleet of nuclear power plants.
TVA announced Wednesday it has signed a contract with Babcock & Wilcox and Bechtel Corp. to help pursue plans to construct a small modular reactor in Oak Ridge. Although TVA directors must still approve the actual building of such a facility, TVA will seek a construction permit from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission by 2015 to build the new reactors on one of its properties on the Clinch River near Oak Ridge.
“This provides us a really good opportunity to look at this new and promising technology and to decide how it best fits into our portfolio for the future,” said Dr. Joe Hoagland, executive vice president for TVA.
The new 180-megawatt modular reactors will be only about 15 percent as big as TVA’s existing reactors at Sequoyah and Watts Bar. Such units will be located underground and could be prefabricated to be more standardized and built in more incremental power stages than the typical 1,200-megawatt units built in the past three decades.