NuScale study confirms suitability of SMR design to use MOX fuel

NuScale Nuclear power, the Oregon-based nuclear hardware specialist which last autumn unveiled small modular reactor (SMR) technology that it hopes to use in the UK market, has now revealed that its design has been evaluated for partial or full fuelling with mixed uranium and plutonium oxide (MOX) fuels. The company commissioned a study from the UK National Nuclear Laboratory to evaluate whether the reactors could be used to run with the fuel, which can be formulated to use up a stockpile of civil (ie, non-weaponised) plutonium.

The SMR technology, currently untried but slated to come into service in the US in 2023 consists of 50MW pressurised water reactor units designed to be installed in a cluster of up to 12 units within single power stations, to give an option for flexible-output stations whose output could be varied quickly, for example to balance intermittent renewables. Like all SMRs, they could be built in relatively small factories from components cast in conventional foundries, thereby reducing the cost and difficulty of building nuclear reactors.