Small Modular Reactors Get Their First Chance In The US, MIT Technology Review, Richard Martin Editor 12 May 16 Small, modular reactors have long been viewed by many in the nuclear power industry as the most promising technology—indeed, as the only realistic path forward—for nuclear power in the United States. In a possible step forward for next-generation nuclear power, the Tennessee Valley Authority is applying for a permit to build one such reactor. Although the specific reactor technology has yet to be determined, the utility could have it running by the mid-2020s……..As with most nuclear power technology, the promise of small modular reactors is the subject of some dispute, and none have been deployed to date. A 2013 report from the Union of Concerned Scientists concluded that “unless a number of optimistic assumptions are realized, SMRs are not likely to be a viable solution to the economic and safety problems faced by nuclear power.”
Nonetheless, the U.S. government has long supported the development of small modular reactors……Last year the White House issued an executive order that requires all federal agencies to get 25 percent of their electricity by 2025 from “alternative energy” sources, specifically including small modular reactors.
The Tennessee Valley Authority, which supplies power to nine million people in seven southeastern states, was expected to file its application for a small modular reactor to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Thursday. That marks the first step in a years-long licensing process.
The site chosen for the project, on the Clinch River, is notable in the checkered history of nuclear power in this country: it was to be the site of the Clinch River Breeder Reactor, on which more than $1 billion was spent in the 1970s and early 1980s. The project was finally killed by Congress in 1983, and many date the decline of the U.S. nuclear industry to its demise.
