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Ultra Safe Nuclear Seeks to Deploy Next Generation Micro Modular Reactors in Idaho and Illinois by 2026

By District Energy posted 10-13-2020 12:06

  

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Summary

Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation (USNC) is proposing to partner with Idaho National Laboratory (INL), the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and U.S. Industry to deploy Ultra Safe Nuclear Micro Modular Reactors (MMR™) in the U.S. for the purpose of demonstrating secure power, heat, and experimental capabilities leading to deployment and global export of USNC's advanced U.S. nuclear energy technology. The USNC-led team seeks to demonstrate integrated energy systems (IES) with renewables and other clean energy technologies at INL, and to provide training and experimental capabilities and heat to UIUC.

  • The University of Illinois plans to demonstrate a single MMR operated as a Training, Research and Test Reactor, and to partially re-power the coal-fired Abbott power station by providing carbon-free district heating and power to the UIUC campus. The University plans to develop the first generation of commercial micro-reactor operators and will be directly involved in MMR design and integration.
  • Ultra Safe Nuclear also proposes placing a micro-reactor power plant (MMR Energy System) at the Idaho National Laboratory to support the demonstration of INL's Integrated Energy Systems (IES), including the optimized carbon-free production of hydrogen by thermo-chemical processes and other zero-carbon energy applications well suited to the high temperature output of the MMR.

The deployment of the MMR in the United States will be supported by a first-generation USNC MMR demonstration at the Canadian Nuclear Laboratories at Chalk River, that will be the first micro reactor to be licensed in Canada. The regulatory review of USNC's next-generation ARDP proposed project will benefit from the Canadian project, as design verification and licensing work with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) will be shared with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), as facilitated through a Memorandum of Cooperation signed between the chairs of the NRC and CNSC in 2019.

Demonstration of USNC's MMR technology in the United States will bring a new level of affordability and reliability to clean power generation, where smaller nuclear plants can be deployed for tens of millions, not billions of dollars. Costs of micro nuclear technology, like renewable energy, are expected to drop rapidly as manufacturing techniques advance and smaller and safer nuclear reactors gain wider acceptance.

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