It seems that the United States is keen to get in on the nuclear renaissance as the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has signed an agreement with Houston-based ENTRA1 Energy to build enough modular nuclear reactors to generate 6 GW of power.
The TVA was established by the Roosevelt administration in 1933 to combat the Great Depression by modernizing the US infrastructure in the Tennessee Valley, which spans seven states and was notorious for its devastating regular flooding. Under its brief, the TVA undertook a massive program of flood control, improvements of inland river navigation, general economic development, and the electrification of the American heartland.
Today, the TVA is a major player in the US energy sector and the latest agreement with ENTRA1 is a significant indicator of the direction of the country's energy policy. Under the agreement, ENTRA1 will buy modular nuclear reactors from NuScale Energy in the largest deal of its kind in US history.
According to the agreement, ENTRA1 proposes to build six new nuclear power plants in the TVA region. These plants will be financed and owned by ENTRA1 and each will consist of 12 NuScale Power Modules (NPM) with an individual output of 77 MWe. This means that each plant will generate a total of 924 MWe per plant, with all six plants coming to a total of about 5.5 GW that will be sold directly to TVA. That's enough to power 4.5 million homes or 60 new data centers from a very small real estate footprint.
The NuScale NPM is an advanced modular nuclear reactor that is the first small nuclear reactor to have its design certified by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Each reactor incorporates not only the reactor core, but the steam generators and pressurizer inside a single pressure vessel. This eliminates a lot of support equipment, like large-bore piping and coolant pumps found in conventional reactors, and allows the reactors to be mass produced in a factory and shipped to the site.
Once on site, the reactors can be installed underground, eliminating much of the civil engineering that makes up most of the cost of a nuclear plant. If more power is needed, more reactors can be installed and when the reactors reach the end of their service life, they can be shipped back to the factory for disposal. In addition, the modular reactors use passive cooling systems, making them inherently safer than currently operating designs.
However, this agreement doesn't exist in isolation. The US Department of Energy recently released an infographic outlining future American nuclear policy, which includes expanding nuclear power output by 300 GW by 2050, speeding plant testing and certification, building a nuclear plant on a US military site within three years, increasing nuclear fuel production, studying re-implementing fuel reprocessing in the US to cut down on waste, and increasing US nuclear exports.
"TVA is leading the nation in pursuing new nuclear technologies, and no utility in the US is working harder or faster than TVA," said Don Moul, TVA President and CEO. "This agreement with ENTRA1 Energy highlights the vital role public-private partnerships play in advancing next-generation nuclear technologies that are essential to providing energy security – reliable, abundant American energy – and creating jobs and investment across the nation."
Source: TVA
