CNBC
Summary
Westinghouse is offering a smaller-scale nuclear reactor in an effort to expand access to nuclear power as demand for clean energy soars.
The company announced the launch of a small version of its flagship AP1000 nuclear reactor on Thursday. The new reactor, called the AP300, aims to be available in 2027, and will generate about a third of the power of the flagship AP1000 reactor.
“Unlike the previous generation of nuclear power plants, which were only used by large integrated utilities, the sizes of the advanced reactors which range from microreactors of a half-megawatt to 300 megawatts or more, means that there is a significantly larger number of utilities that can utilize these technologies,” Jeffrey S. Merrifield, a nuclear energy lawyer and former commissioner of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, told CNBC. (News of Westinghouse’s AP300 was not public before Thursday morning, so Merrifield was speaking with CNBC about general trends in the nuclear industry.)
Small nuclear reactors are also being eyed by industrial producers as carbon-free sources of heat, Merrifield told CNBC.
“One aspect of many of the advanced reactor technologies, including high-temperature gas, molten-salt and sodium fast reactors, is they can produce industrial grade heat for non-power purposes or combined heat and power applications for industries such as steel making, chemical production, cement production, and milling and mining among many others,” Merrifield said.
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