Roger will give a high-level overview of current developments in nuclear reactor and fuel cycle technologies. Topic will include current large, water-cooled reactors, small modular reactors, and advanced reactors. Technical and economic pros and cons and trends will be explored, along with the effects on the electricity grid of various generating technologies.
Sponsored by John Prentice
Program: Live and Zoom: Nuclear Power: The New Era
Speaker: Roger N. Blomquist, PhD, Principal Nuclear Engineer - Argonne National Lab., USN, and more.
Introduced By: John Prentice
Attendance: NESC: 109; Zoom: 34
Guest(s): Roger Dearnaley, Ricstard Otto
Scribe: John Peer
Editor: Carl Warner
View a Zoom recording of this talk at: https://www.scientechclubvideos.org/zoom/05052025.mp4
Nuclear Power: The New Era > Small Nuclear Reactors
Our presenter today was Roger N. Blomquist, PhD. In addition to serving as a nuclear propulsion officer on a US Navy nuclear submarine, Roger is a semi-retired Principal Nuclear Engineer from the Argonne National Laboratories, where he started in the late 1970s. He has also co-taught nuclear energy courses at Northwestern and the University of Chicago among others. He chaired the International Expert Group on Source Convergence in Criticality Safety Analysis, a part of the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development).
Since the early 1800s, there has been an evolution in energy density, enabling the industrial world economy. Sailing ships captured wind energy, but it is a diffuse and intermittent source. Chemical energy (coal, natural gas, oil) is 10x denser. Nuclear energy is 1000000x denser and thus represents a nearly inexhaustible source.
Conventional megawatt (MW) nuclear reactors use pressurized water to generate steam to drive turbines to generate electricity. Each is unique and takes 10+ years before being commissioned. Two recent ones in Georgia took 12 years and were way over budget. SMR (Small Modular) nuclear reactors are similar but are limited to about 300 MW and take advantage of the economy of numbers, a large number of reactors vs. the economy of scale of megawatt reactors. Due to their smaller size, they are more flexible in location, coolant options, etc. SMRs can be sited at industrial plants to use the excess heat in addition to electricity generation for industrial process applications like the manufacturing of cement, steel/aluminum, petrochemicals, etc.
The issue of nuclear waste can be addressed by reprocessing used nuclear fuel with Fast Nuclear (SM) Reactors.
Among many motivations to move to SMR, some of the more significant are:
Smaller investments, incremental power additions as needed.
Faster, efficient factory based production.
Opportunity to use advanced reactor technologies.
Suitable for use on isolated grids or in emerging economies.
Using fast reactors to recycle spent fuel, eliminating the storage issue.
There are 50+ companies working on SMR technologies and applications, but there are still issues to be resolved/clarified including licensing, prototyping, siting, financing, etc.
Four SMR examples currently under development and/or construction:
NuScale Power’s water-cooled SMR is a 160 MWt (t=thermal output) scaled-down version of current large-scale megawatt reactors but passively cooled.
PRISM (Power Reactor Innovative SM) is a fast reactor design from Argonne and GE-Hitachi with 99% fuel utilization (vs <1% for current LWRs) with 165 & 311 MWe (e=electrical output) options.
Terra Power’s Natrium sodium-cooled fast reactor at 350 MWe with a molten salt heat storage tank for peak power of 500 MWe. Sodium is much more efficient as a coolant than water. No fuel recycling is needed due to very high fuel burn-up.
XE-100 X-Energy gas cooled SMR at 80 MW. 10 units ordered by DuPont for a petrochemical complex in Texas as insurance against a fragile power grid.
Future considerations:
Negatives of politics, fear of accidents, and possibly waning climate change concerns
New positives of national/economic security, non-electric generation applications, and venture capital opportunities
Thanks to Roger Blomquist for a very informative and candid presentation. He can be reached at RNBlomquist@anl.gov for a list of useful references.
Roger Blomquist
