Rolls Royce Modular Reactors: It’s not that it’s not worth it
In a period of revival of interest in nuclear energy, Rolls Royce presented itself as a protagonist with its own modular nuclear reactors . A modular nuclear reactor is a small reactor, naturally relative to a traditional reactor, which however has different construction methods: instead of being built piece by piece in the destination site, it is built in modular pieces in the factory and simply assembled in the place. of use. In theory this should guarantee lower costs for the application of the so-called “Economies of scale” and therefore because the whole production process is completely standardized, with big savings at the design level. In theory, the cost difference is between a good mass-produced car and a custom-made one, without considering the theoretical advantages from the point of view of construction times.
Based on this concept, Rolls Royce has concluded several contracts worldwide, from the United Kingdom to the Netherlands , they have concluded agreements for the development of this type of technology, but now some doubts are starting to arise.
First of all, there are doubts on the financial outlay side : the estimated cost of a Rolls-Royce SMR ranges from 2.5 to 3.2 billion dollars, with a construction time estimated at 5 and a half years. This is two years longer than it took to build a standard nuclear power plant between 2016 and 2021, according to statistics from the International Atomic Energy Agency. According to some estimates, the cost of building a 1,100 megawatt nuclear power plant is between 6 and 9 billion dollars, but for this power it would take at least two or three SMRs. Therefore, paradoxically, both from the point of view of costs and timing, the SMR would not offer particular advantages.
Then there is a strategic problem: the Rolls Royce project envisages small widespread plants, but what is happening in Ukraine shows how the plants are strategically fragile points for which we should ask ourselves how logical it is to distribute them in a widespread way on the territory instead of concentrating them. in a few strategically defensible locations.
All these factors should be considered in the construction of nuclear plants, therefore considering that perhaps NOT all SMRs are a convenient choice. Rolls Royce made the choice to simply make smaller nuclear reactors based on traditional pressurized water cooling technology. Perhaps the advantage of the SMR could come from the use of other, more advanced solutions, such as that of metal-cooled reactors, or salt, non-pressurized, in which no water is used, but molten metal such as those developed by both the Russians and TerraPower. , or those based on Thorium, a nuclear technology that is safer than uranium.
Therefore nuclear technologies must also be evaluated with caution.
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The article Rolls Royce modular reactors: it's not that it's not worth it comes from ScenariEconomici.it .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/reattori-modulari-rolls-royce-non-e-che-non-ne-vale-la-pena/ on Sun, 11 Sep 2022 14:05:49 +0000.