Clinch River site could house the first small modular nuclear reactor on TVA’s grid.
Just weeks after Gov. Bill Lee proposed investing $50 million to recruit companies to make Tennessee a leader in nuclear energy, the Tennessee Valley Authority gave the public its first look at the Clinch River Nuclear Site that could house the first next-generation reactor on TVA’s grid.
Lee and U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, R-Chattanooga, joined the March 3 tour of the site a little over 30 miles west of Knoxville, near Oak Ridge. Fleischmann was appointed chair of the House Appropriations Energy and Water Development Subcommittee in January, and is known as one of Congress’ foremost experts on nuclear energy.
“The rest of the world is moving forward on nuclear,” Fleischmann said. “We need to be in this area. As (TVA CEO) Jeff Lyash has pointed out time and time again, the world’s demand for electricity is going to continue to increase.”
What is Gov. Lee’s position on nuclear?
In his State of the State address on Feb. 6, Lee proposed investing $50 million to recruit companies to put Tennessee at the forefront of nuclear power generation. Lee said nuclear power could be a solution for advancing clean energy in the country while also being reliable and cheap.
“There’s a lot of conversation around the world about energy independence, about what is clean energy (going to) look like going forward,” Lee said during the Clinch River Nuclear Site visit. “TVA is leading the country in the development of these future reactors. We want Tennessee to be leading the country and creating the ecosystem that can surround the development of these reactors.”
What is the timing for the Clinch River plant?
The Clinch River reactor would be a small modular reactor, a more compact and more easily constructed facility than the large nuclear power plants marked by cooling towers most people associate with nuclear energy.
If all goes according to plan, the Clinch River plant could be operational sometime in the 2030s, TVA senior technical advisor for the project Joe Shea said.
What is a small modular reactor?
A small modular reactor is a type of nuclear reactor that produces 300 megawatts of energy or less. Greg Boerschig, vice president of TVA’s Clinch River Project, told Knox News on Feb. 27 that modular construction – prefabricated units that are then shipped and assembled on site – make the units less expensive to build and more reliable.
According to TVA, these reactors could improve on existing nuclear power plant technology by:
- Being less expensive
- Taking up less space
- Taking less time to build
- Improving safety measures.
While current plants have parts that are made in factories, they still are built mostly on site, according to the Department of Energy. Small modular reactors could cut down on that issue as well as “the lengthy construction times that are typical” at large nuclear plants by having major parts of a small modular reactor plant built in a factory.
Boerschig said the Clinch River plant will be easier to operate and construct because of the simplicity of the design. The plant also will be smaller: one small modular reactor is “the size of a football field.”
With that ease comes lower costs. “Modular components and factory fabrication can reduce construction costs and duration,” the Department of Energy says in a fact sheet about the technology.
The small reactors also could improve safety measures, according to TVA. The traditional nuclear plants are big, and the larger the footprint, the larger the safety zone required around it.
“So if you look at the emergency planning zone for any plant in the U.S. that’s operating today, it’s 10 miles,” Boerschig said. “So that means if there’s a casualty at a plant, the amount of area around the plant, the radius is 10 miles all the way around the plant that you have to protect because of the potential for a release that could impact.”
That would not be the case around a small modular reactor.
“For the plant that we’re looking at, it’s restricted to the site boundary, which means it would be less than 1,400 feet. So because of the smaller amount of fuel you have and the design of the plant, the safety advantages are tremendous,” Boerschig said.
What small modular reactor design could TVA use at Clinch River?
TVA is interested in putting in a small modular reactor designed by General Electric Hitachi Nuclear Energy and called the BWRX-300.
This particular small modular reactor is a generation three light water boiling water reactor, Boerschig said. The site could house about four small modular reactors, Shea said at the event.
For context, reactors online in the U.S. now are light water reactors and can either be a boiling water reactor, such as TVA’s Browns Ferry plant, or a pressurized water reactor, such as the Watts Bar or Sequoyah plants, Boerschig told Knox News.
Boerschig told Knox News that while the generation three small modular reactors use new technology, there aren’t drastic differences from older reactors. GE’s experience in building reactors means the technology is established as well as the supply chain.
By sticking with a design that is similar to previous generations of reactors, Boersching said there is less financial risk from delays or cost overruns.
The model favored by TVA also uses the same uranium fuel as TVA’s Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant. The fuel is uranium that is manufactured as pellets and then is put into rods. The main difference is there would be fewer bundles of fuel rods inserted into the reactor.
“The fuel we use is the same fuel that’s used in the operating reactors today, so there’s a well-established supply chain,” Boerschig said.
What do TVA and GE Hitachi need to do to prepare the site?
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which licenses and regulates civilian use of radioactive materials, said in an email that TVA’s 2019 permit says the Clinch River site is “suitable” as a “generic nuclear power plant, which TVA described as two or more SMR modules generating up to 800 megawatts of electricity.”
Lyash, the TVA CEO, told Knox News in February that the public utility is working on a construction permit application and preparing infrastructure on the site.
TVA will decide whether to proceed with the Clinch River small modular nuclear reactor after it has a construction permit application ready to submit to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Lyash said. He estimates it’ll be the first half of next year when TVA will make the decision.
GE Hitachi has regulatory hurdles of its own to clear for certification of its small modular reactor design.
What will happen to the waste from the Clinch River plant?
The amount of operational waste generated by the plant “should be about the same or less” per megawatt as a traditional plant, according to TVA. High level waste generated per megawatt also should be the same since the fuel, the efficiency and the fuel burnup rates “will be about the same” as plants like Browns Ferry.
Low-level waste is expected to be less based on the size of the plant, innovation, experience of running nuclear plants and the fact the plant is newer. Boerschig said low-level waste is material like trash that results from maintenance or operation of the plant.
The waste will be treated the same way it is at other TVA nuclear plants. The U.S. does not reprocess spent fuel, Boerschig said, so the waste is stored on site.
At Watts Bar, the process involves taking fuel rods out of the reactor and putting them in a pool to cool before storing them in dry storage casks at the facility.
Source: Oakridger