There are new small modular reactors where the nuclear reactor could be approaching the size of a shipping container but then the balance of the nuclear plant (turbines and other systems) is far larger.
Holos Generator is transportable (by heavy lift cargo plane or truck), sealed, self-controlled, highly-efficient, affordable, and load-following, thus providing a generator as a distributable power source. The breakthrough in size and safety enables many breakthrough designs and applications.
The designers Claudio Filippone ad K. Jordan have had previous nuclear reactor designs. The Clean and Environmentally Safe Advanced Reactor (CAESAR) is a nuclear reactor concept created by Claudio Filippone, the Director of the Center for Advanced Energy Concepts at the University of Maryland, College Park. The CAESAR reactor was featured in the Economist Magazine.
The Holos design choices a sub-critical pebble module reactor makes a nuclear reactor that is about 10-20 times smaller than other reactors. The reactor designed to tightly integrate with the turbine that converts the heat to electricity. All of it fits in shipping container.
Safer because it always below critical threshold
The Holos generator is a subcritical nuclear reactor design uses fewer nuclear pebbles so that all of the nuclear material never reaches criticality. It is subcritical in operation and it remains subcritical in all emergency scenarios. There is never enough nuclear material for a criticality event.
It never gets over 1,127°C. Steel melts at 1370°C. No matter what the steel structure never melts.
Cheaper because it is fully integrated at the factory with fuel, reactor and turbine machinery in a shipping container
Costs are minimized by eliminating the balance of plant. The Holos generator solely relies on air cooling. It enables factory certification. The fuel and the reactor is assembled and sealed in the factory. It utilizes proliferation resistant fuels. Holos represents a truly innovative approach to nuclear generated electricity, through a highly integrated system sealed and contained within pressure subcritical modules. It is inherently safer and less expensive when compared to existing reactor concepts.
Breakthrough in size where everything fits in a shipping container
As the fuel cartridges represents very small heat transfer systems compared to HTGR (high temperature gas reactor) core designs, the distance from the center of the fuel cartridge to the passive heat transfer surfaces is lowered by a factor of 15-20, thus thermal energy is naturally and more effectively transferred by thermal conduction from the fuel cartridge internals to the ultimate heat sink represented by environmental air.
Holos is transportable, sealed, self-controlled, highly-efficient, affordable, and load-following, thus providing a generator as a distributable power source. Its thermal – to – electricity conversion equipment is represented by certified jet engines components and its reinforced fuel cartridges are loaded with melt-resistant non – proliferant fuels that remain safe under worst-case off-normal operational scenarios. By integrating turbo – machinery and power generation components, all together with simplified sealed heat exchangers forming and supporting the fuel cartridges, Holos does not re quire balance of plant. Holos architecture is extremely compact, fully contained within sealed pressure vessels enabling factory certification to reduce licensing costs. Factory certification eliminates design dependencies associated with site-specific requirements. Holos relies on commercially proven components developed for waste heat recovery systems and jet – engine turbo – machinery at comparable power ratings and thermodynamic conditions. Holos components costing is based on detailed engineering non-recurring, labor and materials costs associated with specialized hardware developed for waste thermal energy recovery.
Holos cost estimates include:
* Reactor technology development: $51 million
* LEU fuel (<10% enriched): $4.5 million (no refueling) * Development and test facility modifications: $5 million to $8 million * Transport Security Armor development: $0 to $10 million * NRC Licensing: $0 to $114 million * Total estimated cost: $60.5 to $187 million
Source: NextBigFuture.com
