Over the past year or so, there has been a lot of buzz about small modular reactors (SMRs). These are reactors whose electrical output ranges anywhere from ~25 MW to ~300 MW, as compared with over 1000 MW for large "conventional" nuclear power plants. With SMRs, the entire reactor (or possibly the entire nuclear island-NSSS) could be built in a factory and shipped to the site. Any site construction would be much more limited, and would only involve the (non-nuclear) balance of plant. Descriptions of some proposed SMRs can be found here, here and here.

Colvin

On Tuesday, June 7, ANS President Joe Colvin testified about legislation pertaining to Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) before the U.S. Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee.  The committee hearing  began at 10:00 am Eastern Time. A live Webcast was available via the committee's Web site (see "Live Webcast" on the left menu).  An archive video will be available shortly after the hearing is complete.

The hard-copy March edition of Nuclear News will soon be in the hands of American Nuclear Society members. That edition will also be available electronically to members. The edition contains the 13th Annual Reference Issue, which includes a 34-page special section on the World List of Nuclear Power Plants. The special section includes:

The Obama administration, and the Department of Energy, recently released their fiscal year 2012 budget request for nuclear related programs. The budget request is pretty favorable to nuclear, given the current pressure in Washington to cut spending.

The Institute for National Strategic Studies-a component of the National Defense University-has published a new article examining the potential for using small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) to address the U.S. Department of Defense's (DOD) dependence on civilian power grids. The article also looks at the potential for using SMRs in the field.

Eric Loewen, the American Nuclear Society's vice president/president-elect, appeared on the Good Day Columbia (South Carolina) television show on the morning of January 21 to discuss nuclear energy technologies and nuclear-related activities in South Carolina.

In a previous post on the ANS Nuclear Cafe, I discussed how a Clean Energy Standard (CES) that included nuclear energy would be more effective (as well as more fair) than a portfolio standard that includes only "renewable" energy sources. There have been encouraging signs recently that this CES concept is gaining traction in Washington.

Capacity planning targets keep going up

By Wayne Laib

Happy Thanksgiving! The topic for the American Nuclear Society's Special Award in 2011 is "Innovations in Small Modular Reactors."

Infocast held a gabfest for small nuclear proponents last week, promising an opportunity for small modular reactor (SMR) vendors and suppliers to understand how the future of their industry would be shaped by banks and venture capital firms. It's high time that the SMR bandwagon includes the financiers who'll really drive the business.

Over the next 25 years, the demand for electricity in the United States is expected to rise by 30 percent. This is a trend that will almost certainly accelerate as we move increasingly toward an electricity-based transportation infrastructure and plug-in hybrids and we replace fossil fuels.  In fact, as the lead Republican sponsor of the Electric Drive Vehicle Deployment Act of 2010, I'm pushing for exactly that. This bipartisan bill will invest in the development, installation, and deployment of advanced electric vehicle infrastructure, and help put more electric vehicles on the roads.