Smaller reactors widen opportunities for nuclear energy

As renewed interest in nuclear energy is sweeping the world, several countries are looking at small and medium reactors, often referred to as SMR, as alternatives to large nuclear power stations. Typically, they are defined as facilities with a power output of up to 700 MW (e). SMRs represent an attractive option for countries with limited financial resources, small electricity grids, or for those which are looking for scalable and flexible nuclear installations.

“Today, the progress of SMRs is largely defined by their capability to address those uses that for whatever reason cannot be met by large nuclear power station deployments,” says Vladimir Kuznetsov, a staff member in the IAEA’s Department of Nuclear Energy.

This week the IAEA hosted a meeting that looked into the different issues surrounding the construction of a particular type of SMRs, the so-called non-stationary nuclear power plants. Installed on barges or purpose-built platforms, non-stationary nuclear power plants are being designed to provide power to coastal areas. For three days, world experts and consultants gathered at the IAEA headquarters in Vienna to discuss and analyze the legal and institutional issues that can affect the development of such facilities.

“The outcome of this meeting includes the scope and scheduling, and mapping of responsibilities and assignments for the preparation of a new IAEA Nuclear Energy Series Report on this subject,” says Kuznetsov.

Of the 439 operating nuclear power plants in the world, there are 134 SMR class and ten more are under construction. Recently commissioned SMRs include the facilities at Chernavoda, Romania, and Kaiga, India – both featuring the pressurized heavy water reactor technology.

New SMR concepts under development include South Africa’s Pebble Bed Module Reactor (PMBR), which utilises coated particles of uranium dioxide fuel encapsulated in graphite spheres contained in a steel pressured vessel. In Russia, floating nuclear power plants are being constructed near St. Petersburg and are expected to be deployed by 2012.

“Everybody knows about PMBR. But fewer people know that in China there is a similar design under development,” said Kuznetsov. “The floating reactors are also known as Marine Reactor Derivatives because they are based on technology used on nuclear submarines and ice-breakers.”

An additional SMR concept being explored are integral design pressurized water reactors (PWRs), which are being developed in the USA, the Republic of Korea, and Argentina. First of a kind or prototype plants are expected around the middle of the next decade. As with many SMRs, integral design PWRs hope to achieve a greater overall power output by incrementally adding capacity, via the staggered build of new units at a site or by building twin units with SMRs.