Stuart Nathan

NuScale aims its modular nuclear technology at UK market

News

The US nuclear technology company is seeking partners to help it deploy its 50MW pressurised water reactors in the UK by the mid-2020s

US nuclear technology company NuScale is aiming to deploy its small modular reactor (SMR) technology in the UK, and is looking for partners which will enable it to have units in service by the middle of the next decade. Working with a five-year cost-sharing award of $217m from the US Department of Energy, the company is aiming to have its first 50MW reactor unit in service in 2023, with a prospective customer in Idaho.

SMR technology is seen by some in the nuclear sector as attractive because, rather than being built up from enormous components that require specialist facilities, they could be made in a more conventional factory much more cheaply.

NuScale’s reactor modules, which are passively-cooled pressurised water reactors somewhat similar to the reactors used in nuclear submarines, are 65ft (19.8m) tall by 9ft (2.75m) in diameter, and use no pumps, with coolant circulated only by convection.

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