More Criminal Charges in Ohio Nuclear Bribery Case

Ohio Attorney General David Yost has filed a total of 27 criminal (felony) charges against two former executives of First Energy and the former chairman of the Ohio Public Utilities Commission (PUC). Yost said the charges were brought following an investigation by the Ohio Organized Crime Investigations Commission (OOCIC).

“Jones and Dowling actively worked to spend FirstEnergy money to improperly influence Randazzo to exercise the authority of PUCO chairman to advance FirstEnergy’s regulatory and policy agendas,” the indictment says.  (Full text of the indictment)

Specifically, the indictment accuses the enterprise of engaging in a scheme to corrupt the PUCO chairman and ratemaking policies, stealing millions of dollars from FirstEnergy and a nonprofit trade group, and tampering with government records.

Former FirstEnergy Corp. CEO Charles “Chuck” Jones and vice president Michael Dowling were charged as was former PUC Chair Sam Randazzo. The charges include engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, grand theft, bribery and money laundering. All three men pleaded not guilty and posted bond to remain free while awaiting trial.

“These individuals used First Energy to break the law and betray the public’s trust,” Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh Walsh said. “This indictment is another step toward bringing justice for the residents of Summit County and Ohio. First Energy has its corporate headquarters in Akron, OH, which is the county seat for Summit County, OH.

The charges stem from First Energy paying $60 million in bribes to then Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder to advance a bill, HB6, in the legislature to provide rate subsidies ($1.3 billion) for two nuclear reactors (Davis-Besse and Perry) to retain their profitability in the face of competition from natural gas plants.

First Energy also paid Sam Randazzo a “consulting fee” of $4 million just prior to his appointment by Ohio Governor Mike DeWine to chair the PUC. Randazzo is also charged with stealing $1M from one of his clients, an energy industry trade association,  to pay for personal expenses.

Former FirstEnergy Corp. CEO Charles “Chuck” Jones and vice president Michael Dowling were charged with paying the bribes to Householder. Larry Householder, the former Ohio House speaker and former Ohio Republican Party chair and lobbyist Matt Borges were found guilty of corruption charges.

Householder got a 20-year and Borges got five-years. Two other men, Jeffrey Longstreth and Juan Cespedes, pleaded guilty in federal court in 2020. They are awaiting sentencing. The third person arrested, lobbyist Neil Clark, pleaded not guilty before dying by suicide in March 2021.

Householder used some of the bribery funds for campaign financing of 14 republican candidates for House seats in return for pledges that once elected they would support his ambition to become House speaker. The money was funneled through a “dark money” political action committee. He also used some of the money to pay off personal debts among other things.

The dark money group used to funnel FirstEnergy money, Generation Now, pleaded guilty to a federal racketeering charge in February 2021.  Jeffrey Longstreth, a longtime campaign and political strategist to Ohio House Representative Larry Householder, signed the plea document on behalf of the entity.  As part of the plea, Generation Now agreed to forfeit its assets, including nearly $1.5 million seized from organization bank accounts. None of the republican state legislators who received the dark money PAC campaign funds were charged with crimes.

FirstEnergy representatives signed a deferred prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors in July 2021 and agreed to pay a $230 million fine. The publicly traded utility holding company admitted it conspired with public officials and others to pay $60 million in exchange for the bailout bill.

FirstEnergy fired Jones and Dowling in the fall of 2020 after a company investigation revealed the $4 million payment to Randazzo. Randazzo resigned from the PUC after the FBI raided his home as part of the federal investigation.

According to the indictment, First Energy Executives Dowling and Jones lobbied Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and and Lt. Gov. Jon Husted in January 2019 to select Randazzo as the chair of PUCO. The body regulated energy utilities in Ohio including their rates.

Very soon after meeting with DeWine and Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, Jones and Dowling met with Randazzo and agreed to pay him $4.3 million for “consulting fees” that were never invoiced to First Energy. The indictment claims Randazzo did no work for First Energy.

Two weeks after the First Energy meeting with DeWine, Randazzo applied for the PUCO job. Despite being advised not to do it, a month after being lobbied by First Energy, DeWine announced in February 2019 that he was giving the PUCO job to Randazzo. As PUCO chair, Randazzo stopped a scheduled 2024 rate evaluation of FirstEnergy that the company feared would force it to reduce its rates.

Undoing the Effects of the Bribery Scheme

Subsequently, through several civil court filings AG Yost removed the gains from the corrupt legislation, saving the state’s FirstEnergy customers nearly $2 billion over the life of HB6.

• November 2020: Yost moved to block HB6’s nuclear bailout, which would have taken $150 million a year from ratepayers to give to Energy Harbor.  Yost’s request to prevent the bailout was granted by a judge a month later.
• January 2021: Yost filed a motion to prevent the “decoupling rider,” which would have cost customers $700 million to $1 billion through 2029.
• August 2021: A judge grants Yost’s request to freeze $8 million of Randazzo’s assets after Randazzo began transferring and selling properties. The ruling was later appealed and affirmed.
• In August 2021, Yost sued former FirstEnergy CEO Jones and Randazzo, among others, seeking to recover the $4.3 million bribe that FirstEnergy has admitted paying Randazzo.

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• Westinghouse Wins an SMR Project in the UK
• Westinghouse Eliminated from Czech Nuclear Project
• Five Companies Shortlisted to Build Bulgaria’s Kozloduy-7 AP1000 Nuclear Plant
• Korean Shipbuilder Joins Maritime SMR Project
• Fuel Fabrication Starts for MARVEL Microreactor
• NASA Contracts for Lunar Reactor Development

Westinghouse Wins an SMR Project in the UK

Westinghouse scored a significant win for its marketing efforts in the UK this week with an agreement in principle to build four 300 MW AP300 small modular reactors in a privately funded project in an industrial region of the UK. The firm has not publicly disclosed the names of its investors.

In a press statement the firm said, “Westinghouse Electric Company today announced that it has signed an agreement with Community Nuclear Power, Ltd. (CNP) that puts it on track to deploy the UK’s first privately-financed small modular reactor fleet, with the Westinghouse AP300 SMR.”

“ It is a significant step in making this new energy sector a reality with commercial operation expected by the early 2030s. CNP is also working with strategic partners, including Jacobs and Interpath Advisory, to develop a fully licensed site for the project, with a target of 2027.”

Westinghouse added, “The project is in accordance with the recently published UK Government Alternative Routes to Market for New Nuclear Projects consultation and complementary to and supportive of Westinghouse’s participation in Great British Nuclear’s (GBN) SMR technology selection process. This collaboration will further expand scale for workforce, training and supply chain localization via multiple deployment projects.”

Lord Ben Houchen, the Mayor of Tees Valley, said one of the major issues it faced was the lack of policy clarity in the UK over SMRs. The UK government is currently holding its second SMR competition with six firms, all offering LWRs, but no date has been set for awards nor the amount of funding the government would provide to the winner(s). The UK government’s first SMR competition ended without formally declaring a winner or awarding significant funding to any SMR developer.

CNP said on its website, “Previously there was no development capability to deploy SMRs in the UK. The only route historically to nuclear energy has been via the public sector model that has struggled to deliver giga-scale mega-projects.”

SMR Site Selected

Westinghouse said on social media “it has secured an agreement for the site. This means the component parts and agreements needed to make this ground-breaking proposition happen – land, capability, technology, private capital funding, and community demand – are in place.”

The new power station will be sited at Seal Sands, a former chemical works. The plant closed on November 2021. Located on the shore of the Tees river, the proposed SMR plant site is adjacent to a Conoco Oil facility and upriver from an ecological reserve.

The North Teesside region of Northeast England, Middlesbrough, is located on England’s North Sea coast, 260 miles due north of London. Iron and steel have dominated the industry of both Middlesbrough and the Teesside area from the 1840s. Teesside had also become one of the major steel centers in the country, and one of the largest worldwide. Industrial decline in recent years has hampered economic development in the region.

Ship building and coal mining have also been major industries in the region. All of these industries would be logical customers in terms of offering robust demand for electricity and decarbonization of power intensive manufacturing processes. New, reliable power sources, which provide carbon free electricity, would be attractive incentives for new industry to move to the region.

Status of the AP300

Westinghouse noted in its press statement that in May 2023 it launched the AP300 small modular reactor, the only SMR based on an advanced, large Generation III+ reactor already in operation globally, the AP1000 technology. The firm claims that “unlike every other SMR under development with first-of-a-kind technologies and risks, Westinghouse’s AP300 SMR utilizes the AP1000 engineering, components, and supply chain, enabling streamlined licensing and leveraging available technical skills.”

That’s mostly true. The the GE-Hitachi BWRX-300 is based on the full scale version of the ESBWR, a 1500 MW design. Although several US utilities sought and received licenses to build one, none of the projects every broke ground mostly due to depressed demand for electricity resulting from the great recession of 2008.

Conceptual Design Image  of the AP300. Image: Westinghouse

Westinghouse will have to take steps to assure its customer in the UK that building AP300 SMRs will not fall victim to the significant schedule delays and cost overruns that plagued its construction of two AP1000s for Georgia Power in the US.

Westinghouse has not yet submitted its AP300 design to the UK Office of Nuclear Regulation (ONR) for completion of the generic design assessment (GDA) to license the reactor for sale to customers. The complex, expensive, and time consuming process takes three-to-four years. If the firm submitted the design in 2024, it would be 2027 or 2028 before it could break ground.

AP300 v. Rolls-Royce

The deal is a marketing setback for Rolls-Royce which has promoted it 470 MW PWR as the “home town team” SMR for the UK. Rolls-Royce has offered its PWR in the form of a 16 reactor fleet built one at a time on individual sites throughout the UK. It has not, so far, presented a potential customer with a proposal for a group of three-or-four of them. Its size puts its well beyond the 300 MW limit for SMRs set by the IAEA. (Rolls-Royce web page with a technical briefing on its 470 MW PWR)

Comparing the two PWR type reactors head-to-head yields some interesting observations. Four of the AP300s would generate 1,200 MW. Two of the Rolls-Royce 470 MW PWRs would generate 940 MW, and three of them would exceed CNP’s requirements with a total of 1,410 MW.

At $4,000/Kw the Westinghouse project would cost $4.8 billion. However, by the time the project breaks ground, 2028 at the earliest, and completes all four of the reactors, around 2032-2034, costs will undoubtedly be higher. Assuming a hypothetical completion price of $6,000/Kw, the four SMRs would cost as much as $7.2 billion. Depending on economies of scale achieved building multiple units at the same site, total costs for the quartet could be lower.

While Rolls-Royce is part way through the ONR GDA process, if it breaks ground for a first of a kind unit in two-to-three years, e.g., 2026/2027, completion of a first-of-a-kind (FOAK) unit might take place in 2031. At $4,000/Kw, one unit would cost $1.9 billion. At  $6,000/Kw, the cost of one 470 MW PWR would be $2.8 billion. A twin set would cost $5.6 billion. FOAK units always have higher costs than “Nth” of a kind. Much depends on what kinds of economies of scale Rolls-Royce can achieve with a “fleet” approach supported by the UK government. As a cost conscious entity, it has have a direct interest in building a fleet of SMRs, lined up for coordinated new builds, rather than inking one deal after another in a irregular daisy chain of commitments.

Westinghouse should be able to produce cost savings after completion of the first SMR by moving skilled trades crews from one SMR under construction to the next, as there will be economies of scale building four SMRs instead of one.

CPN noted on its website that by choosing Westinghouse its SMR project will have access to a US supply chain in addition to using UK suppliers like Sheffield Forgemasters which recently completed its process of applying for NQA-1 and related certifications.

Similar challenges await Rolls-Royce regardless of whether the firm builds its PWRs one-at-time at 16 different sites or in “fleet” mode of several units at one site. Rolls-Royce, despite having manufactured specialty SMRs to meet the defense needs of the UK Royal Navy for decades, will also face similar cost escalation challenges for its SMR, supply chain challenges, and competition for skilled workers.

Two Very Large UK Reactor Projects Are Soaking Up Resources and People

Given the rapidly escalating costs in the UK for the Hinkley C and Sizewell C reactors, caused by supply chain issues and availability of a skilled labor force, cost escalation for SMRs in the UK, regardless of vendor, is to be expected.

World Nuclear News reported last week The UK’s Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant, which was expected to be completed in 2027 and cost up to GBP26 billion, is now unlikely to be operational before 2030, with the overall cost revised to between GBP31 to GBP34 billion (in 2015 prices).

The two EDF projects are each building twin 1600 MW EPRs. As EDF, which is the vendor and the EPC for both projects, it is drawing big buckets from the well of skilled trades in the UK.

Within the UK government there are concerns whether the nation’s objective for 24 GB of new nuclear generation capacity can be achieved given the stretched cohorts of skilled trades and the need to ramp up supply chains.

Actual cost escalation for all nuclear reactor projects in the UK will occur at a rate that depends on whether there will be more skilled workers trained and if key suppliers can get investors to support ramping up production to meet the needs of new reactor projects.

The Choices that Face CNP for SMRs

The numbers for Westinghouse and Rolls-Royce noted here are hypothetical for the purpose of drawing comparisons and creating an interesting alternative look at options for SMRs. For these scenarios, while Westinghouse has scored a marketing first with the agreement with CNP, that utility might be able to get nuclear power for 940 MW several years earlier, and at a lower cost, from two Rolls-Royce 470 MW PWRs than four Westinghouse AP300s.

Many other factors will weigh in on such as comparison including timely completion of the GDA, the mix of government and investor financing that is available, the speed at which suppliers can deliver key components and systems, and the availability of skilled trades to build the plants.

If the UK government wants to have its cake, and eat it too, e.g., support Rolls-Royce as the hometown team, and avoid cost escalation for private investor driven project like CNP’s deal with Westinghouse, it will need to invest in expanding the cadres of skilled workers – steel, concrete, electrical, mechanical, etc., – and develop low cost financing for the UK firms that are needed to supply components and systems to these kinds of SMR projects.

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Westinghouse Eliminated from Czech Nuclear Project

Earlier this month the Czech Government’s State owned nuclear utility CEZ eliminated Westinghouse from a competition to build four 1200 MW PWRs, two at Dukovany and two at Temelin. The original tender was for one 1200 MW unit at Dukovany, but the utility made an abrupt update to the tender changing it to four units.

The reason Westinghouse was cut, CEZ said, is that the firm declined to submit a “binding bid.” In other words, what CEZ wants is a repeat of the performance of South Korean firms in the UAE which delivered four 1400 MW PWRs more or less on time and within budget. It is looking for a firm, fixed price.

CEZ said in statements to the news media that it “wanted all four units to be subject to binding offers to mitigate risks of price escalation and provide the highest degree of certainty on costs.”

“Our goal is to get a turnkey delivery with clear guarantees, with a clear price, with clear deadlines, with clear sanctions if those deadlines are not met, and with other clear parameters.”

Prime Minister Fiala said, “During the tender, the non-binding offers showed that the construction of several blocks, i.e,  up to four blocks in one package, even if it were to be carried out gradually, is economically significantly more advantageous than the construction of only one block, it is also significantly more advantageous than we expected, by up to 25% compared with the construction of only one block.”

The two entities that remain are France’s EDF and South Korea’s KHNP. Both are state owner or partially state funded firms which have the backing of the deep pockets of their respective governments.

Westinghouse, which is jointly owned by two Canadian firm – Brookfield, a private equity firm, and Cameco, a uranium miner, have neither the capital nor the willingness to assume debt for an open end commitment to build four AP1000s without US government export financing.

At $4,000/Kw, four AP1000s would cost $18.4 billion. That’s almost the entire market capitalization of Cameco ($19.4 billion)  Brookfield’s ownership of Westinghouse lives in the Brookfield Renewable Partners business unit which has a market capitalization of $15.8 billion.  Absent US export financing, the Czech project would a a “bet the company” risk that neither firm would take on as prudent investors. This explains why Westinghouse did not submit a “binding” bid to CEZ.

EDF and KHNP have until April 15th to submit best and final binding offers. CEZ says it will make a decision on contract award in June.

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Five Companies Shortlisted to Build Bulgaria’s Kozloduy-7 AP1000 Nuclear Plant

(NucNet) Five undisclosed companies have expressed interest in building the proposed Kozloduy-7 AP1000 nuclear plant after a construction tender for the new unit was closed for applicants last week, according to a Bulgarian energy ministry statement.

Applicants were required to demonstrate experience of construction and commissioning of a minimum of two nuclear units, and similarly a proven track record of contracts for detailed design in nuclear or turbine islands. They also needed to have supplied and installed equipment for such islands within the last fifteen years.

A financial prerequisite for the companies was that they needed to demonstrate that their turnover and profit amounted to a minimum of €5.6B ($6B) in the five-year period between 2018 and 2022.

According to the prequalification criteria listed in the Kozloduy NPP-Newbuild tender invitation, “candidates from the Russian Federation will not be considered and shortlisted.”

Rumen Radev, the Bulgarian prime minister, said in a statement the invitation for expressions of interest is specifically related to the construction of Kozloduy-7, as the first priority in new nuclear construction in the country.

The overall objective and result of the current assignment is to have an AP1000 plant [reactor] procured, constructed, commissioned and operational before 2035. The 2035 deadline for the new unit, Kozloduy-7, represents a revision to a previous government target for completion of the first new unit at Kozloduy in 2033.

In December 2023, the Bulgarian parliament approved a government proposal to inject up to €766M into the state-owned Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant corporation to fund the planned construction of the first of two proposed reactors using Westinghouse’s AP1000 reactor technology.

According to deputy energy minister Nikolay Nikolov said in a statement to the Bulgarian Telegraph Agency, the two new AP1000 units will cost €6B each, or about $5,455/Kw, with the Bulgarian state being the sole investor in the project. Nikolov also said that the main construction company will be a choice between Bechtel Corporation, Fluor and Hyundai.

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Korean Shipbuilder Joins Maritime SMR Project

(WNN) South Korea’s HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (KSOE) plans to develop a small modular reactor (SMR) for use in shipping in cooperation with the UK’s Core Power and the USA’s Southern Company and TerraPower.

The plans were announced following a joint research and technology exchange meeting in Washington, DC, between KSOE – a subsidiary of South Korea’s HD Hyundai – and TerraPower and Core Power. In November 2022, KSOE invested $30 million in TerraPower. (MCFR conceptual image right. Image: TerraPower)

The reactor to be jointly developed centers around TerraPower’s Molten Chloride Fast Reactor (MCFR) design. The technology uses molten chloride salt as both reactor coolant and fuel, allowing for so-called fast spectrum operation which the company says makes the fission reaction more efficient.

It operates at higher temperatures than conventional reactors, generating electricity more efficiently, and also offers potential for process heat applications and thermal storage. An iteration of the MCFR – known as the m-MSR – intended for marine use is being developed by TerraPower. The firm will test a prototype of the MCFR at the Idaho National Laboratory.

KSOE plans to send an R&D team to TerraPower in March to continue cooperation with all the joint research companies from various fields including marine nuclear power plants and new nuclear applications. In addition, KSOE plans to join the establishment of a system for the application of marine reactors with the International Atomic Energy Agency and classification societies ABS and Lloyd’s Register.

Core Power President and CEO Mikal Bøe welcomed KSOE’s involvement in the project, saying, “Adding their world-class expertise in shipbuilding and process engineering and Core Power’s 60+ shareholders from the maritime and energy industries illustrates how a broader understanding that there is no net-zero without nuclear, is now being established.”

In January this year, a memorandum of understanding was signed between Lloyd’s Register, Zodiac Maritime, KSOE and Kepco Engineering & Construction for the development of nuclear-propelled ship designs, including bulk carriers and container ships. Under the joint development project, KSOE and Kepco E&C will provide designs for future vessels and reactors while Lloyd’s Register will assess rule requirements for safe operation and regulatory compliance models.

The partners will work to address the challenges involved with nuclear propulsion, such as applying existing terrestrial nuclear technology to ships, and the project will enable shipping company Zodiac to evaluate ship specifications and voyage considerations around nuclear technology.

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Fuel Fabrication Starts for MARVEL Microreactor

TRIGA International recently started fabricating fuel for the U.S. Department of Energy’s MARVEL microreactor project. MARVEL will be one of the first new reactors built at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) in more than four decades and will be used to advance new reactor technologies. The first shipment of fuel is expected to be delivered in spring 2025.  (Triga fuel briefing)

“Securing the fuel for the MARVEL microreactor project addresses a primary technical challenge,” said Dr. John Jackson, the national technical director for DOE’s microreactor program.

“The initiation of fuel fabrication represents another tangible step toward making this exciting test platform a reality.”

TRIGA International is a joint venture between Framatome and General Atomics and is the only TRIGA fuel supplier in the world. The company was awarded an approximately $8.4 million contract in November 2023 to produce 37 TRIGA fuel elements for the MARVEL project and started the fabrication process at its facility in Romans, France last month.

The fuel created for MARVEL is similar to the TRIGA fuel used in university reactors for research and hands-on training. It was selected for its high safety performance and certified use in the United States.

The Marvel design is a sodium-potassium-cooled microreactor that will generate 85 kilowatts of thermal energy. It will be built inside the Treat facility with plans to connect it to a microgrid. DOE officials said the test facility is expected to be online in 2027.

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A New Consortium For Deploying Lead-Cooled SMRs

(EuroNuclear) Five companies leading research and innovation in heavy liquid metal technology have joined forces to boost the implementation and the industrial deployment of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) using Lead Fast Reactor Technology.

Ansaldo Nucleare, SCK CEN, Westinghouse (ENS Corporate Members), ENEA and RATEN-ICN signed a Memorandum of Understanding outlining the next demonstration steps.

First, a small-size reactor to demonstrate the technological and engineering aspects of the commercial SMR-LFR will be developed at SCK CEN facilities in Mol, Belgium.

Separately, the consortium will continue to develop and build the ALFRED (Advanced Lead-cooled Fast Reactor European Demonstrator) project in Pitesti, Romania, aimed at developing a Generation IV Lead-cooled Fast Neutron Reactor (LFR) demonstrator, led by Ansaldo Nucleare, ENEA, RATEN-ICN and other European organizations within the FALCON Consortium.

Finally, the Lead-cooled Fast Reactor design will be developed by Westinghouse and will be the starting point for this project ultimately targeting its global commercialization.

Lead-cooled fast reactors have passive safety features and a more efficient nuclear fuel use than other reactors, reducing then the amount of long-lived radioactive waste, the consortium said.

Last year, Ansaldo Nucleare and Westinghouse signed a cooperation agreement to develop LFR technology, and a new milestone was achieved in May 2023, with the completion of the first testing campaign at the Passive Heat Removal Facility in the UK. The testing campaign advances within Phase 2 of the Advanced Modular Reactor (AMR) program partially funded by the UK Government’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

Ansaldo is also building the ATHENA (Advanced Thermo-Hydraulics Experiment for Nuclear Application) facility at the RATEN-ICN research centre, which will host scale components for testing and demonstration of LFR technology.

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NASA Contracts for Lunar Reactor Development

• Final design to be chosen in 2025

(NucNet) NASA said it is extending contracts under Phase 1 of an ambitious project to develop a small, power-generating nuclear fission reactor that could potentially be deployed as a demonstrator on the Moon. According to NASA, fission systems, which are relatively small and lightweight compared to other power systems, could enable continuous power regardless of location, available sunlight, and other environmental conditions.

Under its Fission Surface Power Project, NASA awarded in 2022 three $5M (€4.65M) contracts tasking partners with developing an initial design that included a reactor with an output of up to 40 Kw and weight of maximum six tonnes, its power conversion, heat rejection, power management and distribution systems.

The contracts also included cost estimations, and a development schedule that could pave the way for powering a sustained human presence on the Moon for at least 10 years. NASA said at the time that the projects also had to show envisioned how the reactor would be remotely powered on and controlled, including a decade of operation without human intervention. The agency said the projects identified potential faults and considered different types of fuels and configurations.

NASA said it decided to extend the three Phase 1 contracts in order to collect more information before the start of Phase 2 of its project when industry will be contracted to design the final reactor to demonstrate on the Moon. This additional knowledge will help the agency set the Phase 2 requirements, said Lindsay Kaldon, Fission Surface Power project manager at the NASA Glenn research center in Cleveland. OH. (NASA Briefing on Fission Surface Power)

“We’re getting a lot of information from the three partners,” Kaldon said.

“We’ll have to take some time to process it all and see what makes sense going into Phase 2 and levy the best out of Phase 1 to set requirements to design a lower-risk system moving forward.”

NASA has scheduled the start of Phase 2 of its Fission Surface Power Project for 2025, with an actual deployment for the demonstrator earmarked for the early 2030s. According to the agency, the reactor will complete a one-year demonstration followed by nine operational years and if successful, the design may be updated for potential use on Mars.

The three companies which received Phase 1 contracts in 2022 were: Westinghouse Electric Company; Lockheed Martin; and a joint venture of Intuitive Machines and X-Energy.

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OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman said at a forum held at the Davos conference in Switzerland that an energy breakthrough is necessary for future artificial intelligence.

It is needed, he said, because the semiconductors that process AI applications consume enormous amounts of electrical power. Altman said the power requirements for the semiconductors that run AI software applications are much greater than he expected.

It follows that the data centers that will host the computers using these chips will be larger and consume much more electricity than facilities that host traditional business transaction processing programs.

Where will the energy (electricity) come from the power these hyperscale data centers? According to the trade journal Data Center Industry News (DCD), “ Hyperscale data centers are massive business-critical facilities designed to efficiently support robust, scalable applications and are often associated with big data-producing companies such as Google, Amazon, Facebook, IBM, Apple, and Microsoft.”

DCD reports that Apple’s $2bn Mesa data center in Arizona, for instance, spans 1.3 million square feet. Google’s Council Bluffs data center covers more than two million square feet and has a demand for electrical power of over 100 MW. According to Cisco, despite representing less than 10 percent of the market, more than half of all data processed in 2020 passed through a hyperscale facility.

In looking at the market for hyperscale data centers, DCD reports that the US, Tier 1 markets include Northern Virginia; Silicon Valley; Dallas; Chicago; Phoenix; New York and Atlanta. In EMEA, you have what is known as the FLAP markets – Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam and Paris – as well as Dublin and Madrid. APAC’s Tier 1 markets include Greater Tokyo, Singapore, Sydney and Hong Kong.

DCD reports that If they can achieve strong connectivity, hyperscale companies can choose to locate in rural areas, wherever the most reliable energy supply and affordable land are.

Where and How Will the Power Come from for Data Centers?

At Davos Sam Altman told the Reuters news wire, “There’s no way to get there without an (energy)  breakthrough,” he said. “It motivates us to go invest more in fusion.”

In 2021, Altman invested $375 million in privately held U.S. nuclear fusion company Helion Energy, which has since signed a power purchase agreement to provide energy to Microsoft in future years.

While Altman’s expressed solution for an energy breakthrough cites an example in which he has a major interest, Altman also said he wished the world would embrace nuclear fission as an energy source as well.

Microsoft’s Commitment to Nuclear Fission and Fusion

Microsoft is OpenAI’s biggest financial backer having invested $13 billion in the firm and provides computing resources for AI  which is one big bet by any measure.  If it is going to realize a return on that investment, it will need unprecedented amounts of electrical power to run the data centers that will process AI software applications.

It follows that it will likely replicate its power purchase agreement with Constellation Energy to draw power from the utility’s nuclear reactors.

Looking at the future, the demand for electrical power to support data centers that host artificial intelligence software, as well as other business applications, may result in partnerships involving Microsoft and developers of small modular reactors (SMRs). The SMRs, which come in sizes of from 50-to-300 MWe, can offer the advantage of a secure, captive source of reliable conditioned power for the firm’s data centers.

By positioning itself as a customer of power from SMRs, and not as a developer of nuclear reactors, Microsoft, and other major IT platforms like Amazon and Google, may become initiators of new demand for SMRs focused on a specific vertical market, e.g. power for data centers, beyond general demand for electricity.

Microsoft recently published a 17-page white paper on its approach to nuclear energy – fission and fusion. The white paper was completed last month about the same time the firm hired its first two senior level managers to run the firm’s engagement with and use of nuclear energy.

In December Microsoft hired two key managers to work on the use of nuclear energy to power the firm’s global data centers. They are Archie Manoharan as Director of Nuclear Technologies, and Erin Henderson as Director of Nuclear Development Acceleration. Both managers come to their respective positions with significant nuclear energy industry experience.

Microsoft stated in the white paper it is committing to using digital technologies, including artificial intelligence, to unravel the complexity and, presumably the cost, of regulatory processes.

In the white paper the firm writes, “Digital technology can accelerate innovation and integration. We are using our expertise in AI, cloud, and digital platforms to help our customers and partners in the nuclear and fusion industry streamline processes, optimize performance, and enhance safety and security.”

Separately, Bill Gates is an investor in TerraPower which is planning to build a first of a kind advanced sodium cooled 345 MWe nuclear reactor at the site of a former coal fired power plant in Kemmerer, WY. Pacific Corp, which owns the plant, has an MOU with TerraPower to build additional units to replace five other coal fired plants.

TerraPower’s effort is funded in part under a cost sharing grant of federal funds as part of the Department of Energy’s Advanced Reactor Development Program.

It follows that TerraPower’s 345 Mwe advanced SMR could be one of the offerings that supply electricity to Microsoft data centers funded, in part, by its $13 billion investment in OpenAI.

As a parallel effort to plans by TerraPower to replace a coal fired power plant, Microsoft has also entered into a strategic partnership with Terra-Praxis to repower coal-fired power plants.

In September 2022 Terra Praxis and Microsoft signed an agreement to deliver a digital solution to tackle a significant decarbonization challenge – repurposing over 2,400 coal-fired power plants worldwide to run on carbon-free energy. Terra Praxis will combine its deep expertise in energy with Microsoft to build and deploy a set of tools to automate the design and regulatory approval needed to decarbonize coal facilities with nuclear power, helping transition one of the world’s largest sources of carbon to zero emissions.

Siting Options for Data Centers and SMRs

It follows that given the multi-year delays in building new long distance electricity transmission lines, that data centers seeking to rely on nuclear power should consider the following sequences of priorities for location and development.

First – Locate adjacent to an existing nuclear power plant anchoring the business relationship on a power purchase agreement. Microsoft has already done this with Constellation and with Ontario Power Generation. These agreements have the advantage of accessing the relevant reactor’s grid connection regardless of whether power is coming from the reactor or other sources, e.g., solar, wind, or gas, on the grid.

Second – Locate adjacent to a small modular reactor built on or near the site of an existing nuclear reactor. From the nuclear utility’s perspective, the SMR is a roughly equivalent choice relative to uprating the power of the reactor. Plus, if demand for electricity grows, additional SMRs can be built insuring reliable conditioned power as the data center customer based grows over time.

Third – Locate adjacent to a greenfield SMR that has a locked in grid connection. A proposed greenfield combined SMR and hydrogen production project in Southwest Virginia is also planning to host data centers needing power from the project.

A Modest Proposal for a Joint Forum for Nuclear and Data Center Managers and their Customers

Getting power from nuclear reactors, large or small, is a relatively new idea for data center managers. It is important for the nuclear industry to emphasize that the path for data centers to tap SMRs, or other types of nuclear power plants, is through power purchase agreements thus avoiding the inherent risks of building them.

A forum composed of industry leaders from the data center and nuclear worlds, along with data center customers, would help facilitate the development of business arrangements whereby the evolving rapid growth in the size of data centers and their demand for electricity could be satisfied by nuclear energy.

The US Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory could host such a forum with an annual conference, joint working groups, and publication of conference proceedings and technical white papers.

While the idea is entirely hypothetical on my part, and is in no way intended to presume to speak on behalf of any other organization, I think it has potential given the interest in partnerships by data centers and their customers in using nuclear power to meet their demand for electricity.

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Prior coverage on this blog:  Some Quick Thoughts on SMRs for Data Centers

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• Holtec Optimistic on DOE $1.5 Billion Loan to Reopen Palisades
• DOE Awards PG&E’s Diablo Canyon $1.1 billion
• Czech Republic Seeks Bids for Four Nuclear Reactors From EDF And KHNP
• SaskPower Deal with GE Hitachi for BWRX300 SMR
• Capital Power and Ontario Power Generation Partner for Nuclear Power in Alberta
• Zeno Power Selects Westinghouse for Radioisotope Power System Fabrication
• Commercial Advanced Nuclear Fuel Arrives In Idaho For Testing

Holtec Optimistic on DOE $1.5 Billion Loan to Reopen Palisades

A Holtec spokesman told the Bloomberg wire service last week that the company is “very optimistic” that the Department of Energy (DOE) will approve a loan of $1.5 billion to cover the cost of reopening the Palisades nuclear power plant in Michigan. DOE declined to comment on the report. (Image: NRC)

Holtec added that it expects the money could be approved this month.  Holtec said that once it has the money, and an NRC, license, it could have the reactor in revenue service by the end of 2025.

This is an ambitious agenda. First, the firm must address a multitude of technical issues to get the plant into a state of operational readiness. The plant needs extensive renovations and has a backlog of deferred maintenance that accumulated once it closure was announced several years ago.

Second, it must convince the NRC that the plant can be operated safely. Given that the agency has never faced the challenge of relicensing a closed plant, it is likely to resist Holtec’s desire for progress at warp speed.

Prema Chandrathil, an NRC spokesperson, responding the media requests, said, “NRC will only authorize the restart if Holtec shows usage of material in a safe matter to the public and environment.”

Holtec had originally planned to decommission the reactor, and without the federal loan, would revert to that plan.

Nick Culp, a Holtec spokesman, told the Bloomberg wire service he is “very optimistic” about DOE’s plans to approve the loan.

“This is a historic opportunity for the country and Michigan,” Culp said. “As we transition away from fossil fuels, nuclear is going to be a critical part of not only reaching our climate goals but doing so in a way that ensures the lights stay on.”

Holtec bought the 800 MW reactor in 2022 after Entergy Corp closed it due to financial reasons. After consultations with Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Holtec began working to reopen it. The State of Michigan has pledged $150 million towards restart of the reactor.

The PWR type reactor was commissioned in 1971 having been built in just four years for a cost of $630 million.

Holtec also plans to build two 300 MW small modular reactors (SMR) on the site to take advantage of existing infrastructure including the Palisade’s grid connection, switchyard, and access to cooling water from Lake Michigan. Holtec recently announced the new power rating for its SMR having previously worked on a 160 MW design. Holtec has been in prelicensing meetings with the NRC for the 160 MW SMR. It will have to update its technical documents submitted to the agency to address the new 300 MW power rating.

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DOE Awards PG&E’s Diablo Canyon $1.1 billion

(WNN) The Department of Energy has awarded $1.1 billion in payments to  PG&E for continued operation of its twin reactors at the Diablo Canyon plant. The money comes from the agency’s Civil Nuclear Credit Program.

The payments will be made in instalments over four years of operation from 2023, with the amounts adjusted to reflect factors including the actual costs of keeping the two-unit plant in operation. The first payment, to be made in 2025, will be based on the operation of the plant in 2023 and 2024.

PG&E agreed in 2016 that the two-unit Diablo Canyon plant would close at the end of its current licenses – in 2024 for unit 1 and 2025 for unit 2. At that time, it was thought that the plant’s output would no longer be required as California focused on an energy policy centered on efficiency, renewables and storage. The two reactors, each rated at 1,100 MW, were commissioned in 1985 and 1986.

However, in September 2022 – as California’s energy grid saw its highest-ever peak demand during a record-breaking heatwave – the state passed a law allowing the two nuclear units that provide 9% of California’s power generation to continue operation.

Maria Robinson, director of the US Department of Energy’s Grid Deployment Office said, “Preserving the nation’s nuclear fleet is critical not only to reaching America’s clean energy goals, but also to ensuring that homes and businesses across the country have reliable energy. The announcement “demonstrates the Administration’s commitment to domestic nuclear energy by preserving existing generation, while we continue to support a stronger nuclear power industry.”

The Civil Nuclear Credit Program is part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law signed by President Joe Biden in November 2021. It is being used to allocate credits to “certified” reactors which can show that they are projected to close for economic reasons and that closure will lead to a rise in air pollutants and carbon emissions. A total of 13 nuclear reactors have closed since 2012 due for economic reasons.

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Czech Republic Seeks Bids for Four Nuclear Reactors From EDF and KHNP

• Prague hopes to cut down new-build costs via a ‘package’ deal
• Westinghouse cut from consideration over lack of a “binding” offer
• Financing for only the 1st of the four units is in place

(NucNet) The Czech government announced on that it will be seeking binding bids from two technology vendors, France’s EDF and South Korea’s KHNP, for the construction of up to four new reactor units at the existing Dukovany nuclear power station.

The announcement means the government has changed its approach to new-build as it was previously looking for binding bids for a single new 1,200-MW Dukovany unit with the possibility for non-binding offers for an additional three units split between the Dukovany and Temelin nuclear stations.

In October 2023, Elektrárna Dukovany II, a wholly owned subsidiary of state utility CEZ, received final bids for the construction of a new nuclear power unit at Dukovany, or Dukovany-5, from Westinghouse, EDF and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP). All three submitted initial bids in November 2022.

The government said that Westinghouse will not be invited to the next stage of the Dukovany tendering process for up to four units now because the US company “did not meet the necessary conditions.”

It said Westinghouse’s offer was not binding, which “makes it impossible” to assess it, while “the entity responsible for the quality of the project” was not clearly defined.

Four Units Possibly Cheaper Than One

Czech prime-minister Petr Fiala told journalists at a press conference that building up to four new reactor units “in one package” is economically advantageous and estimated to push the total cost down by 25%.

According to the government, savings can be made by synergies in preparation, such as engineering, increased order quantities, and optimized construction, where heavy equipment, site equipment, accommodation capacity, and logistics can be used more efficiently across several reactor units.

The  vendors will now have until April 15th to submit their binding bids for four new reactor units, while a review process is scheduled to take a month with results announced in late May. A contract with the selected supplier is then expected to be signed in March 2025.

In 2020, the Czech state, which holds a 70% stake in CEZ, approved plans to give an interest-free loan for to finance Dukovany-5. Estimations at the time said the loan would be valued at about €7.5 billion or $8,1 billion.

The government said that a financing model for an addition three reactor units has not yet been decided.

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SaskPower Deal with GE Hitachi for BWRX300 SMR

SaskPower and GE Hitachi have signed an agreement to work with GE Hitachi on design, fuel sourcing and fabrication for a BWRX-300 small modular reactor (SMR).

The corporation says the agreement will also “support workforce and supply chain planning needed for a Saskatchewan-based SMR deployment.”

SaskPower recently signed a master services agreement with Ontario Power Generation (OPG) and its subsidiary, Laurentis Energy Partners.

OPG also selected the BWRX-300 as the technology to be used for the development of the SMR’s in the province. The utility is currently building one of four SMR’s at its nuclear facility in Darlington.

Rupen Pandya, President and CEO of Sask Power, told wire services that the Esteven and Elbow regions in the province are being considered as potential sites for the the SMR. SaskPower says a final decision on whether to move forward with nuclear power will be made in 2029.

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Capital Power and Ontario Power Generation Partner for Nuclear Power in Alberta

Capital Power Corporation (TSX: CPX) and Ontario Power Generation have entered into an agreement to jointly assess the development and deployment of grid-scale small modular reactors (SMRs) in the Canadian province of Alberta which is home to the country’s oil producing tar sands.

Through the agreement, the two companies will examine the feasibility of developing SMRs in Alberta, including possible ownership and operating structures. Capital Power and OPG will complete the feasibility assessment within two years, while continuing to work on the next stages of SMR development.

“Alberta is focused on being a leader in delivering a reliable, affordable and decarbonized energy system so our province can grow, prosper and excite others to do the same. SMRs are a critical component of the clean power generation supply mix and hold promise for the oil sands,” said Hon. Brian Jean, Minister of Energy and Minerals, Government of Alberta.

“We look forward to working with Capital Power and OPG in creating the right framework to eventually bring SMRs onto Alberta’s power grid.”

About Capital Power

Capital Power owns approximately 7,700 megawatts (MW) of power generation capacity at 30 facilities across North America. Projects in advanced development include approximately 213 MW of renewable generation capacity in Alberta and North Carolina, 512 MW of incremental natural gas combined cycle capacity from the repowering of Genesee 1 and 2 in Alberta, and approximately 350 MW of natural gas and battery energy storage systems in Ontario.

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Zeno Power Selects Westinghouse for Radioisotope Power System Fabrication

Zeno Power announced a strategic partnership with Westinghouse Electric Company. The firm will be responsible for processing radioisotopes, a crucial step in creating the heat sources for Zeno Power’s RPSs.

These systems are designed to convert heat from radioisotopes into a continuous and clean energy supply, ideal for applications in remote locations like deep-sea environments and outer space missions.

This new phase builds upon a successful demonstration at Pacific Northwest National Lab last October. It showcased the increased specific power of Zeno’s Sr-90 heat source compared to traditional Sr-90 sources, underscoring the potential of Zeno’s patented innovation in enhancing RPS efficiency.

Harsh S. Desai, Chief Commercialization Officer of Zeno Power, said, “We’ve demonstrated the core building block of our technology – now we’re pleased to be working with the team at Westinghouse to enable and accelerate the deployment of our commercial RPSs.”

About the Zeno Power RPS

Radioisotope Power Systems (RPSs) are compact devices that convert the heat from decaying radioisotopes into a constant supply of clean energy. RPSs utilizing Plutonium-238 have long been used on government space missions, such as NASA’s Voyager and New Horizons Missions. Additionally, the Department of Defense has deployed Strontium-90 RPSs for use in remote terrestrial and maritime environments.

Zeno Power announced on January 24th that it has secured Strontium-90 (Sr-90) material from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to fuel its initial full-scale radioisotope power systems (RPSs) for national security and space exploration missions. Zeno will use this material to deliver on its contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and work to commercialize its RPS technology by 2026.

To date, Zeno has been awarded more than $40M in contracts from the DOD and NASA to deliver RPSs that will enable critical operations on the seabed, on orbit, and the surface of the Moon.

Through a new public-private partnership, Zeno Power and DOE’s Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management (OREM) will recycle a legacy Sr-90 RPS – the BUP-500 – into fuel for Zeno’s RPSs.

Sr-90 has been used in RPSs before – but historically these systems were heavy, constraining their use to limited terrestrial applications. Zeno’s claims its key innovation is a novel design that increases the specific power of Sr-90 heat sources, enabling broad use of its RPSs in space and terrestrially.

In October 2023, Zeno demonstrated its first Sr-90 heat source at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The demonstration confirmed that Zeno’s patented innovation increases the specific power of its Sr-90 heat source compared to historic Sr-90 heat sources.

The company, founded in 2018, has offices in Washington, D.C., and Seattle, WA. Zeno is currently executing on contracts with NASA and the DOD, and is on track to deliver its initial RPSs to customers by 2026. Zeno is backed by a portfolio of investors including Tribe Capital, 1517 Fund, AIN Ventures, Balerion Space Ventures, and DCVC.

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Commercial Advanced Nuclear Fuel Arrives In Idaho For Testing

For the first time in two decades, Idaho National Laboratory, the nation’s nuclear energy laboratory, has received a shipment of used next-generation light water reactor fuel from a commercial nuclear power plant to support research and testing.

In December, INL received 25 experimental fuel rods irradiated in the reactor core of a commercial reactor. The fuel rods were developed and manufactured by Westinghouse Electric Company with technical assistance from several national laboratories, including INL.

These experimental fuels, designed for extended use and robust safety features, could deliver significant cost savings for consumers while increasing a nuclear power plant’s resilience under potential accident conditions.

But first, researchers must examine and analyze the fuel to evaluate how this advanced technology performed during normal usage. Researchers will conduct additional experiments to understand how the fuel performs under postulated accident conditions. Lastly, researchers will perform experiments to demonstrate behavior during storage and recycling.

The data generated from these experiments and analyses are essential to establishing the safety bases required by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to allow the fuel’s use at more nuclear power plants throughout the U.S.

The fuel rod shipment contains both accident tolerant fuel (ATF) and high burnup fuel. High burnup fuels take advantage of unrealized performance capacity available in advanced materials that can allow for extended operating cycles and/or increasing the licensed power generation at existing power plants while significantly reducing spent fuel generation.

Researchers say the new fuel rods, when licensed for commercial use, could extend the amount of time a plant can operate between refueling from 18 to 24 months.

“Increased burnup, when combined with potential ATF-related uprates, could be a huge economic benefit to those plants and the fleet,” said Daniel Wachs, national technical director of DOE’s Advanced Fuels Campaign.

“The increased electrical output in the U.S. could be the equivalent of adding new reactors to the fleet.”

Westinghouse and other nuclear fuel developers, in concert with national laboratories, have spent years developing new fuels for the existing nuclear reactor fleet. INL’s experiments and examinations of the fuel after time spent in a commercial nuclear reactor is one step in the qualification process.

Experts will analyze and test the fuel at INL’s Materials and Fuels Complex. Theywill use remote manipulators in the nation’s largest inert-atmosphere hot cell to perform analyses and tests.

INL is also preparing the Advanced Test Reactor to accommodate fuels for endurance tests that mimic the wear and tear incurred over a decade of service in a commercial reactor in a fraction of the time. This step can support pursuing even higher burnup than that achieved in the commercial plant testing.

Experts will also use the material to explore used fuel management approaches. The material will be examined to measure thermal and mechanical properties, data that is essential for understanding transportation and dry storage behavior. This work also includes demonstrating electrochemical recycling technologies as an option to recover and recycle valuable uranium and other fissile isotopes.

The research will provide valuable data for not only the NRC and INL’s domestic sponsors including the DOE Office of Nuclear Energy, the National Nuclear Security Administration and private entities, but also international partners including regulatory bodies in other parts of the World.

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• UK ONR Starts GDA for BWRX300
• GEH Wins £33 Million Grant For BWRX-300 SMR
• X-Energy Completes CNSC Vendor Design Review
• Westinghouse Plans Deploying a Transportable Nuclear Reactor in Canada By 2030
• Bulgaria Opens Procurement Process for Two AP1000s
• Tender Launched for UAE Nuclear Fuel Plant
• Philippines Power Utility Identifies Three SMR Sites
• OpenAI CEO Altman Says Future of AI Depends on an Energy Breakthrough

GEH BWRX300 Gaining Traction in UK SMR Market

● ONR Begins Generic Design Assessment of 300 MWe BWR SMR
● GEH Wins £33 Million Grant from UK Govt to Further Develop its SMR

ONR Starts GDA for BWRX300

The Office for Nuclear Regulation, along with the Environment Agency and Natural Resources Wales, has started a two-step Generic Design Assessment (GDA) for GE Hitachi’s BWRX300 reactor.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero made the request to the regulators following its readiness review of the GE Hitachi application for the BWRX300 SMR. This review concluded that the reactor’s design is ready to enter the GDA process.

The firm said it will look to actively explore opportunities to maximize the value of international regulatory collaboration and identify efficiencies in processes.  GEH submitted the application in December 2023.

The GDA process allows UK regulators to assess the standards of safety, security and environmental protection of new nuclear reactor designs. GEH will be supported in the GDA by Jacobs which has supported applications for new nuclear power plant projects in the UK since 2007. In October it was announced that GEH has reached the next stage of the Great British Nuclear small modular reactor competition. GEH’s UK-based team is backed by SGE as an investor and developer.

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GEH Wins £33 Million Grant For BWRX-300 SMR

(NucNet) GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) has been awarded a £33.6M (€39M) grant from the UK’s Department for Energy Security & Net Zero to develop its BWRX-300 small modular reactor design. GEH submitted an application for the grant from the government’s Future Nuclear Enabling Fund, which is providing up to £120M to help mature nuclear projects ahead of a planned government selection process.

The application was made with a UK team including Jacobs, Laing O’Rourke and Cavendish Nuclear. The team also included Synthos Green Energy, an investor and developer from Poland.

GEH said it is developing a UK supply chain which includes a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Sheffield Forgemasters for a potential supply agreement for UK-sourced steel forgings in support of the deployment of BWRX-300 SMRs. Sheffield recently completed the qualification process to be certified to fabricate nuclear components in compliance with ASME’s NQA-1 quality standard.

The UK minister for nuclear Andrew Bowie said, “Today’s £33.6 million in funding for GE Hitachi will help develop their design, putting us in an excellent position to become one of the first to deploy this game-changing tech. This means cheaper, cleaner and more secure energy for families and businesses.”

There is growing global interest in the BWRX-300. Ontario Power Generation (OPG) selected the BWRX-300 SMR technology for potential deployment in Canada as early as 2028. OPG recently submitted its license to construct one or more SMRS for the Darlington site to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.

SaskPower and Tennessee Valley Authority have also selected the BWRX-300 technology for potential deployment. TVA is developing its construction permit application for the Clinch River site and is targeting submission to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in late 2023.

In Poland, ORLEN Synthos Green Energy (OSGE) started the pre-licensing process by submitting an application to the National Atomic Energy Agency for assessment of the BWRX-300. OSGE plans to deploy a fleet of BWRX-300s with the potential for deployment of the first unit by the end of this decade.

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X-Energy Completes CNSC Vendor Design Review

• CNSC concluded there are no fundamental barriers to licensing the Xe-100, an outcome that increases confidence in proceeding with formal license applications in Canada

X-Energy Reactor Company, LLC announced that it has successfully completed milestones in the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission’s (CNSC) pre-licensing Vendor Design Review (VDR). The Company submitted the design of its Xe-100 advanced small modular reactor to CNSC for a combined Phase 1 and 2 VDR process.

The Company has been engaged with CNSC in its optional VDR process since July 2020, and included the submission of more than 400 technical documents and white papers across 19 focus areas in the review. The process provides an opportunity for advanced nuclear technology developers like X-energy to demonstrate understanding and compliance with Canadian licensing requirements and seek detailed feedback ahead of a formal license application.

X-Energy said in a press statement that “the completion of the pre-licensing milestone underscores the regulatory and commercial readiness of the Xe-100 and demonstrates the opportunity to bring our advanced high-temperature gas reactor technology to the Canadian market.”

The Xe-100 can address a broad range of uses and applications, including applications that currently rely on fossil fuels to produce steam and high temperature heat for processes like manufacturing, natural resource extraction, petroleum refining and hydrogen production.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program is supporting X-energy’s initial deployment of the Xe-100 at Dow’s Seadrift, Texas facility and a new commercial facility to manufacture TRISO-X high-assay low-enriched uranium-based fuel for next-generation reactors. The project in Seadrift will be the first grid-scale advanced nuclear reactor deployed to serve an industrial site in North America.

X-energy has also signed a joint development agreement with utility Energy Northwest for the deployment of up to 12 Xe-100 plants in central Washington State.

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Westinghouse Plans Deploying a Transportable Nuclear Reactor in Canada By 2030

• The firm, which is wholly owned by Canadian firms, plans a ‘Plug and play’ micro-plant will be deliverable to ‘anywhere’

(NucNet) Westinghouse is seeing significant interest in a project to build a transportable nuclear power plant that will provide “always-on” power in areas where the construction of nuclear projects would be traditionally considered economically or technically impractical.

Westinghouse and Prodigy Clean Energy, a Canadian developer of marine-and-land-based transportable nuclear power plants, or TNPPs, are designing what they say is a solution for the constant demands for electricity and heat in these types of harsh, remote climates.

Their TNPP would have a 5-MW Westinghouse eVinci microreactor and would be prefabricated and transported to a site for installation at the shoreline or on land. The first unit could be operating in Canada by 2030.

“From the start, our eVinci technology was designed to be transportable, that was a key design principle,” said Jon Ball, eVinci technologies president for Westinghouse.

“So, we designed it to be small, we made it plug-and-play, and we made it deliverable to anywhere. The TNPP from Prodigy brings an additional value to the inherent transportability of the technology.”

The eVinci microreactor uses heat pipes filled with liquid sodium to transfer heat from the reactor core to a power generation system. It requires no water in its operation, so no cooling pumps or other systems found in traditional light water reactors. It has few moving parts while operating, which it can do for eight-plus years without refueling. Because of these attributes it is often referred to as a nuclear battery.

Westinghouse and Prodigy signed an agreement in 2022 and have completed milestones for conceptual engineering and regulatory studies.

Westinghouse said the next steps for the project include completing the TNPP design for the eVinci microreactor, completing development of a nuclear oversight model for TNPP manufacturing, outfitting and transport, and achieving progress in licensing and site assessments to support a first project.

Westinghouse is jointly owned by Brookfield, a Canadian private equity firm and Cameco, a Canadian uranium miner.

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Bulgaria Opens Procurement Process for Two AP1000s

• Invitation issued to express interest in Kozloduy 7 construction

(WNN) EPC firms will have a short turnaround to submit expressions of interest by February 2, 2024, to kick off the procurement process for the engineering, construction, procurement and commissioning of two new AP1000 units at the Kozloduy nuclear power plant site by 2035.

This is a request for information (RFI) and not the tender itself. The initial process is for prequalification of candidates against eligibility and qualification criteria. The shortlisted candidates will submit their best and final offers in response to a formal tender.

The overall objective and result of the current assignment is to have the first AP1000 plant commissioned and operational before 2035. Westinghouse will have the overall design authority responsibility for the AP1000 plant. The responsibilities for the design of individual AP1000 plant systems and buildings can be delegated by Westinghouse.

The RFI said in part, “The prequalification and award criteria include the technical capacity and reputation of the candidate and “experience as leading constructor in contract/s for construction and commissioning of at least two nuclear units, experience in contract/s for detailed design of systems, structures and components within nuclear island or turbine island of nuclear plant for at least two nuclear units and experience in contract/s for supply and installation of important equipment within nuclear island or turbine island of at least two nuclear units.”

The RFI also requires provision of evidence of bidders’ “sound financial and economic standing.” The document specifically excludes candidates from the Russian Federation.

Bulgaria is aiming to have two new Westinghouse AP1000 units at Kozloduy nuclear power plant. Deputy Energy Minister Nikolay Nikolov told Bulgaria’s official BTA news agency in December that the aim was to achieve a price of about EUR6 billion (USD6.5 billion) for each of the units. It also quoted him as saying that potential EPC companies had been narrowed down to Bechtel, Fluor and Hyundai, and that the Bulgarian state was expected to be the only investor in the project.

The decision by the Bulgarian government to be the sole source of financing the project is a fundamental change from earlier policies in which it tried to place the responsibility for funding on the vendor.

When the decision to move ahead with AP1000 units at Kozloduy was given approval by the country’s council of ministers in October, the target date for the completion of the first unit was 2033, with the second unit to follow “two or three years after the first one.”

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Tender Launched for UAE Nuclear Fuel Plant

(WNN) The UAE’s Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC) announced it has launched a tender for a domestic nuclear fuel assembly fabrication facility. The facility will produce fuel assemblies for the Barakah nuclear power plant.

“Over the past 18 months, we have been conducting an extensive review into the needs of the UAE Peaceful Nuclear Energy Program going forwards and specifically the strategic supply of the fuel assemblies needed to power the UAE’s Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant over the next 60 years ahead,” ENEC said.

“As part of examining a range of options, we have entered into the tendering for a domestic fuel assembly fabrication facility.”

It said the facility would be dedicated to the industrial fabrication of fuel assemblies from their various components.

“Although the fuel assembly facility will neither involve enrichment or reprocessing, the fabrication of fuel assemblies remains a regulated nuclear activity, given the need for stringent nuclear quality standards.”

The nuclear fuel fabrication process. Image: World Nuclear Association

The UAE embarked on its plan to implement a nuclear energy program in 2008 when its government made the decision to build and operate a nuclear power plant to provide 25% of the country’s electricity needs, diversifying its energy sources and supporting its long-term energy vision and net zero goals. Construction of the first unit began in 2012, and Barakah 1 was connected to the grid in 2020. The fourth and final unit at the plant is currently preparing to start up.

As part of its nuclear energy policy, the UAE made the decision to forgo domestic uranium enrichment and nuclear fuel reprocessing, two key elements of the country’s commitment to non-proliferation.

To obtain nuclear fuel for the Barakah plant, ENEC conducted an extensive procurement competition with international nuclear fuel suppliers. Once the procurement process was complete, the company entered into contracts with six suppliers to provide materials and services, including: the purchase of natural uranium concentrate; the purchase of enriched uranium product and related products and services; and conversion and enrichment services.

Fuel assemblies are currently manufactured in South Korea by Kepco Nuclear Fuel – part of the prime contractor consortium led by Korea Electric Power Company – and then shipped to the UAE.

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Philippines Power Utility Identifies Three SMR Sites

(NucNet) The largest power utility in the Philippines has identified three potential sites for potential construction of a “proof of concept” small modular reactor. The announcement is intended to promote the government’s policy of using nuclear energy to meet the island nation’s future needs for electricity.

The three sites are Talim Island to the southeast of the capital Manila, San Rafael, about 60 km to the north of Manila and Isla del Provisor, a coastal area in Manila itself.

The Philippines and the US previously announced they had signed a civil nuclear cooperation agreement known as a “123 Agreement” that will give Manila access to US nuclear material and equipment. Several US SMR developers are known to be conducting feasibility studies expected to support future responses to government tenders for SMRs.

Reports in the Philippines said recently that the government is preparing a revised energy roadmap that will include nuclear power with plans for the nation’s first reactor units to be online by 2032 and more to follow by 2050.

Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos Jr has been bullish on nuclear energy, saying “this is the right time” to reexamine the country’s approach and policy towards using nuclear energy.

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OpenAI CEO Altman Says Future of AI Depends on an Energy Breakthrough

OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman said at a forum held at the Davos conference in Switzerland that an energy breakthrough is necessary for future artificial intelligence.

It is needed, he said, because the semiconductors that process AI applications consume enormous amounts of electrical power. Altman said the power requirements are much greater than he expected.

He told the Reuters news wire, “There’s no way to get there without a breakthrough,” he said. “It motivates us to go invest more in fusion.”

Altman said he wished the world would embrace nuclear fission as an energy source as well.

In 2021, Altman invested $375 million in privately held U.S. nuclear fusion company Helion Energy, which has since signed a power purchase agreement to provide energy to Microsoft in future years.

Microsoft is OpenAI’s biggest financial backer having invested $13 billion in the firm and provides computing resources for AI.

Microsoft has invested $13 billion in OpenAI which is one big bet by any measure.  If it is going to realize a return on that investment, it will need unprecedented amounts of electrical power to run the data centers that will process AI software applications. It follows that it will likely replicate its power purchase agreement with Constellation Energy to draw power from the utility’s nuclear reactors.

Looking at the future, the demand for electrical power to support data centers that host artificial intelligence software, as well as other business applications, may result in partnerships involving Microsoft and developers of small modular reactors (SMRs). The SMRs, which come in sizes of from 50-to-300 Mwe, can offer the advantage of a secure, captive source of reliable conditioned power for the firm’s data centers.

By positioning itself as a customer of power from SMRs, and not as a developer of nuclear reactors, Microsoft, and other major IT platforms like Amazon and Google, may become initiators of new demand for SMRs focused on a specific vertical market, e.g. power for data centers, beyond general demand for electricity.

Microsoft Progress with Nuclear Energy

Microsoft recently published a 17-page white paper on its approach to nuclear energy – fission and fusion. The white paper was completed last month about the same time the firm hired its first two senior level managers to run the firm’s engagement with and use of nuclear energy.

In December Microsoft hired two key managers to work on the use of nuclear energy to power the firm’s global data centers. They are Archie Manoharan as Director of Nuclear Technologies and Erin Henderson as Director of Nuclear Development Acceleration. Both managers come to their respective positions with significant nuclear energy industry experience.

Microsoft stated in the white paper it is committing to using digital technologies, including artificial intelligence, to unravel the complexity and, presumably the cost, of regulatory processes.

In the white paper the firm writes, “Digital technology can accelerate innovation and integration. We are using our expertise in AI, cloud, and digital platforms to help our customers and partners in the nuclear and fusion industry streamline processes, optimize performance, and enhance safety and security.”

Separately, Bill Gates is an investor in TerraPower which is planning to build a first of a kind advanced sodium cooled 345 MWe nuclear reactor at the site of a former coal fired power plant in Kemmerer, WY. Pacific Corp, which owns the plant, has an MOU with TerraPower to build additional units to replace five other coal fired plants.

TerraPower’s effort is funded in part under a cost sharing grant of federal funds as part of the Department of Energy’s Advanced Reactor Development Program.

Microsoft has also entered into a strategic partnership with Terra-Praxis to repower coal-fired power plants.

It follows that TerraPower’s 345 Mwe advanced SMR could be one of the offerings that supply electricity to Microsoft data centers funded, in part, by its $13 billion investment in OpenAI.

Prior coverage on this blog:  Some Quick Thoughts on SMRs for Data Centers

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• DOE Issues RFP for $500M in HALEU Contracts
• UK / HALEU Nuclear Fuel Gets a £300m Boost
• UK / HALEU Facility Set for Urenco’s Capenhurst Site
• Stock Prices of Uranium Miners Rise on RFP for HALEU
• UK Lays Out Revised Nuclear Roadmap for 24 GW

DOE Issues RFP for $500M in HALEU Contracts

The Department of Energy (DOE) has issued a request for proposals worth $500M for production of high assay low enriched uranium (HALEU) nuclear fuel.

The Inflation Reduction Act will provide up to $500 million for HALEU enrichment contracts selected through this RFP and a separate one, released in November, for services to process the uranium enriched through this RFP into metal, oxide, and other forms to be used as fuel for advanced reactors.

HALEU is needed for advanced reactors that are not based on light water reactor designs. DOE has spent hundreds of millions of dollars through its advanced reactor demonstration program to commercialize two advanced designs. One from TerraPower which is a 345 MW sodium cooled advanced design. The other is from X-Energy which is developing an 80 MW high temperature gas cooled reactor.

DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy plans to award one or more contracts to produce HALEU from domestic uranium enrichment capabilities. Once enriched, the HALEU material will be stored on site until there is a need to ship it to a facility for deconversion. See DOE HALEU Availability Program for details.

Under the HALEU enrichment contracts, which have a maximum duration of 10 years, the government assures each contractor a minimum order value of $2 million, to be fulfilled over the term of the contract. Proposals are due by 5 p.m. MST on March 8. This RFP incorporated industry feedback received on a draft version issued in June 2023.

DOE is supporting several activities to expand the HALEU supply chain for advanced commercial reactors, including recycling spent nuclear fuel from government-owned research reactors.

In November, DOE reached a key milestone under its HALEU Demonstration project when a company produced the nation’s first 20 kilograms of HALEU, providing a first of its kind production in the United States in more than 70 years.

DOE is also working with other countries to promote public and private sector investments that will expand global uranium enrichment and conversion capacity over the next three years and establish a resilient uranium supply market that is free from Russian influence.

Together, the United States, Canada, France, Japan, and the United Kingdom have announced collective plans to mobilize $4.2 billion in government-led spending to develop safe and secure nuclear energy supply chains.

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UK / HALEU Nuclear Fuel Gets a £300m Boost

• Government Says Putin Will Not Hold Country To Ransom
• First HALEU production plant could be operational in early 2030s

(NucNet) The UK has announced plans to spend £300m (€348M, $380M) on a new program to produce advanced nuclear fuel for use in the next generation of reactors. The investment is part of an multi-national effort to to dislodge Russia as the main international supplier of enriched uranium. The first production plant is scheduled to be operational by the early 2030s.

An additional £10m will be provided to develop the skills and sites to produce other advanced nuclear fuels in the UK, helping to secure long term domestic nuclear fuel supply and support international allies.

The UK said its new investment would help support domestic production of high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) – a type of fuel needed for many next-generation advanced reactors, but currently only produced on a commercial scale by Russia.

The £300m investment is part of plans to help deliver up to 24 GW of clean, reliable nuclear power by 2050 – a quarter of the UK’s electricity needs and an increase from around 5.8 GW today.

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UK / HALEU Facility Set for Urenco’s Capenhurst Site

(NucNet) The UK government has not yet named the location of the planned production facility for its high assay low enriched uranium (HALEU) program, but an executive at a UK nuclear development company told NucNet that the facility would be at Urenco’s Capenhurst enrichment plant near the city of Liverpool in northwest England.

HALEU is uranium enriched to more than 5%, but less than 20%, and is expected to be used by most advanced reactor developers.

The UK’s Department of Energy Security and Net Zero launched a £300m (€349m) program on January 8th to develop HALEU in the country, which will limit the UK’s dependence on Russian uranium supply and enrichment services. Urenco says on its website that the Capenhurst facility has three uranium enrichment plants.

The executive noted that during a tour of the facility in 2023, Urenco representatives had discussed with him potential HALEU production at Capenhurst, which has the required capacity of 4,500 metric toness a year separative work units.

Separative work unit, abbreviated as SWU, is the standard measure of the effort required to separate isotopes of uranium (U235 and U238) during an enrichment process in nuclear facilities. 1 SWU is equivalent to 1 kg of separative work. As a larger unit, 1 tonne of separative work units or tSWU equals 1,000 kg of separative work.

The Springfields nuclear fuel fabrication facility, the country’s only fuel production complex and owned by Westinghouse, is also in northwest England, outside the city of Preston. The site previously hosted a plant to convert yellowcake into a gas form (UF6) needed for the enrichment process, but that facility stopped operating, but was not dismantled.

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Stock Prices of Uranium Miners Rise on RFP for HALEU

The Bloomberg wire service reported that North American uranium miners including Global Atomic Corp. (GLO.TO) and NexGen Energy Ltd. (NXE:NYSE) rose after the announcement by DOE of an RFP for procurement of $500M worth of HALEU nuclear fuel.

In Australia firms the stock prices of Paladin Energy Ltd. (PDN.AX) and Deep Yellow Ltd. (JMI.F) increased sharply on prospects for higher prices. Uranium investment firm Yellow Cake Plc (YCA.L) climbed to a record as trading opened in London.

Futures tracking spot prices for a raw form of uranium known as yellowcake hit a 15-year high.  They more than doubled last year as Western efforts to boost energy security and cut emissions sparked a global nuclear renaissance.  Source: Cameco Uranium Spot Prices

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UK Lays Out Revised Nuclear Roadmap

(NucNet contributed to this report) The UK government laid out with considerable public relations fanfare a revised roadmap for building new nuclear power plants between the current era and 2050. It set a target of 24 GW which is a 5 GW increase over an older roadmap devised by previous plans that called for 19 GW.

The government promoted the idea that this would be the biggest expansion of nuclear power in decades. Approval will be given for one or two new reactors every five years from 2030 to 2044, and further backing would be given to another large-scale nuclear station in addition to Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C.  Both sites will host twin EDF EPRs which are among the largest commercial PWRs in the world.  The new station would be similar in size to these existing projects, with plans for several more plants to follow before 2050.

The 24 GW target equates to about 11 new reactors the size of the 1,600 MW Hinkley Point C EPRs coming online by the middle of the century. The government has several sites to choose from that are failed efforts in the past two decades to develop nuclear plants under the 19 GW plan. These sites include Wylfa and Olbury, Moorside, and Bradwell as well as Angelesety in north Wales.

Former PM Boris Johnson booted Chinese State Owned Nuclear Enterprises out of the UK nuclear market on “security grounds” tanking prospects for the Bradwell site. His predecessors failed to come to terms for the Wylfa and Oldbury sites (both twin 1350 MW ABWRs), and the Moorside site ( three Westinghouse AP1000s).

The government will face significant challenges to meet these ambitious goals. They include having a robust supply chain composed mostly of UK firms, training thousands of people in skilled trades to build the plants to nuclear quality standards, and controlling costs and schedules for all projects. Runaway costs and delays like those that have afflicted the Hinkley Point C project in the UK and the Flamanville EPR in Francet could result in a loss of public support for the reactors.

Options for Small Modular Reactors

New capacity would also come from small modular reactors, most likely on industrial sites around the UK. These are  factory-made plants that are smaller and cheaper than facilities such as Hinkley Point C.

While the technology has yet to be deployed, the government has been running an official process to support deployment of the first SMR in Britain. Rolls-Royce SMR, a division of the engineering firm Rolls-Royce, is among those in the running along with five other firms all of them offering light water designs.

Advanced modular reactors will play an important role in the UK’s nuclear revival as, like small modular reactors, they are smaller, can be made in factories, and could transform how power stations are built by making construction faster and less expensive. Many designs have the potential for a range of applications beyond low-carbon electricity generation, including production of hydrogen or industrial heat.

Investment Decisions Needed ‘Every Five Years’

The government said it plans to speed up action on new nuclear projects by introducing a time frame requiring an investment decision every five years from 2030 to 2044. To help achieve this, the government wants to secure investment decisions to deliver 3-7 GW of new nuclear power every five years from 2030-2044 and develop new regulations to speed up the deployment of new plants.

Government and Industry Support for the Massive New Build

Energy secretary Claire Coutinho said a nuclear revival was essential to cut greenhouse gas emissions and boost energy security, especially after the crisis in gas supplies that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Strengthening our energy security means that Britain will never again be held to ransom over energy by tyrants like Vladimir Putin. British nuclear, as one of the most reliable, low-carbon sources of energy around, will provide that security.”

She was backed by prime minister, Rishi Sunak, who said: “Nuclear is the perfect antidote to the energy challenges facing Britain – it’s green, cheaper in the long term and will ensure the UK’s energy security for the long term.

Tom Greatrex, chief executive of the London-based Nuclear Industry Association, said the commitment to explore a further large-scale project beyond Sizewell C in parallel with the deployment of SMRs is very welcome.

“We will need both large and small nuclear at scale and at pace for our energy security and net zero future,” he said. “Decisions on 3-7 GW in each five-year period provide the greater clarity and predictability, which in turn enables supply chain investment and more UK content in the future fleet.”

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