“The development is a major blow to U.S. nuclear ambitions. NuScale is one of several companies working to build and commercialize SMRs. Like other companies, NuScale was targeting the end of the decade for deployment.”
NuScale was the only company to have passed most NRC hurdles to start construction. The cost per kilowatt hour for generation of electricity was just not competitive. The company received millions under the Inflation Reduction Act and DOE is still touting SMR’s.
We need generation that is fast, clean and cheap. Nuclear generation can just not compete on a level playing field.
Facing mounting costs, NuScale cancels small modular reactor project in Utah
The company saw its shares tumble 20% following the announcement.
A rendering of the Carbon Free Power Project (Credit: Carbon Free Power Project)
NuScale Power, the first company to receive approval from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for a small modular reactor (SMR) design, is canceling its signature project in Utah.
NuScale said the company and Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS) mutually agreed to terminate the Carbon Free Power Project (CFPP). The project, envisioned near Idaho Falls, Idaho, at the DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory, would have been NuScale’s first SMR plant to begin operation in the U.S. The plant would have deployed six, 77-MW modules to generate 462 MW of electricity.
The development is a major blow to U.S. nuclear ambitions. NuScale is one of several companies working to build and commercialize SMRs. Like other companies, NuScale was targeting the end of the decade for deployment.
Because of their relatively small physical footprints, reduced capital investment and more flexible siting, these smaller reactors are viewed as an antidote to the cost overruns that have plagued large-scale nuclear projects.
But despite policy support and market growth for new nuclear, the economics are daunting.
First of a kind (FOAK) SMR costs could be as high as $8,000 per kilowatt (kW) and as low as $6,000 per kW, according to industry estimates cited by Wood Mackenzie. Analysts there expect that FOAK costs will be at the high end of this range, and could be even higher, as developers build out early-stage projects.
Earlier this year NuScale said the target price for power from its plant ballooned to $89/MWh, up from a previous estimate of $58/MWh. NuScale said Oct. 8 that despite efforts by all parties to advance the CFPP, it appeared unlikely that the project will have enough subscription to continue toward deployment.
“Our work with CFPP over the past ten years has advanced NuScale technology to the stage of commercial deployment,” said NuScale President and Chief Executive Officer John Hopkins. “Reaching that milestone is a tremendous success which we will continue to build on with future customers.”
UAMPS said it was working closely with NuScale and the DOE to wind the project down.
Source: https://www.power-eng.com/nuclear/facing-mounting-costs-nuscale-cancels-small-modular-reactor-project-in-utah/
