VIKTOR MARTNEZ
Updated on Wednesday, November 17, 2021 – 1:29 am
The great world powers and billionaires like Bill Gates or Warren Buffet are funding projects to develop small modular reactors that require less investment and generate less waste.
Roll Royce.EM nuclear mini reactor project
Behind the reopened debate in Europe on the future of nuclear energy is a multi-million dollar race worldwide to research and develop small modular reactors that provide cheap and stable energy to drive the decarbonization of major economies. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Russia, Argentina, China, Canada, South Korea, France and the UK – who announced a plan last week Roll Royce their nuclear champion – they are working on their own models of minis and microreactors to get nuclear power going again.
The Spanish mechanical engineering company embarked on this career shapeinvesting in the development of one of these innovative projects in Canada through a UK company. Your Director for Nuclear Services, Xabier Ruiz, believes that these reactors will represent a worldwide atomic resurrection by saving one of the greatest obstacles currently faced: the investment of millions that they require due to the delay in their installation and commissioning, which after a long and complex bureaucratic process, can exceed 20 years, which ensures the safety of the system.
A “nuclear mini-reactor” is a power generation plant with an output of almost 300 megawatts, which is about a third of the size of the large power plants currently in existence in Spain. Its promoters point out that its great advantage lies precisely in its small size, as the necessary investments are enormously reduced by the tens of billions of euros that a large-scale system requires.
“The big difference is the installation time due to the simplification of the approval process, which greatly reduces the investment. Since it’s smaller, the license period will be shorter, between three and six years, ”explains Ruiz. The last nuclear power plant to go live in the US in 2020 took a total of 250 months to start generating electricity, almost 21 years.
Another benefit of mini nuclear power plants is their ability to adapt to environments unsuitable for large reactors. These systems can be prefabricated and then transported, which gives them the flexibility to deliver energy to locations that the grid cannot reach.
More than forty projects are currently being investigated, such as the International Atomic Energy Agency. The Spanish company is working on a Canadian-sponsored model that sees the recycling of nuclear waste as a major step forward. This would alleviate another of the currently great burdens on nuclear power: What to do with the thousands of liters of spent fuel and the high radioactive content that are disposed of every year by the power plants? This is precisely one of the arguments used by the tape’s critics, including the Spanish government itself, that nuclear energy cannot be considered “clean” energy, even though it does not emit CO2 into the atmosphere.
SMRs (Small Modular Reactors) also reduce fuel consumption and thus the need for recharging, which forces the power plants to come to a temporary standstill. Initial studies suggest that in this case the charging takes place within a period of three to seven years, compared to one to a maximum of two years with conventional systems. Some mini-jet projects talk about recharging every 30 years. In Spain, the technical shutdown of the two power plants Cofrentes and Almaraz for refueling coincided that same week.
Moltex Energy’s nuclear mini-reactor project in Canada
Will we see such small power plants in Spain? “Here is a very opposing ideology that defies debate. The challenges are to extend the life of the current reactors, what to do with the resources and whether or not to create a centralized temporary storage facility (ATC) for waste … ”complains the director of Idom.
With nuclear power disappearing in Spain, the electricity companies and the government of the entire park have agreed to close the park before 2035. Great Britain and France have announced their reactivation in the last few weeks. The first of these passes was granted Roll Royce Subsidies of 240 million euros for the development of our own nuclear mini-reactor. The second, as its President Emmanuel Macron announced in a speech to the nation, 1,000 million euros for research as one of the main legs in his restructuring plan after the Covid crisis.
The entry of the great world powers with public funds comes in addition to the private investments made by tycoons like Bill Gates or Warren Buffet. Both shares participate in the North American company Terra-Power, working with the goal of having one of these reactors operational by 2030 to cover and stabilize the North American government sponsored grand renewable energy plan.
For their part, environmental organizations believe that the mini-reactors still raise serious doubts about their competitiveness and danger, and are therefore relying on a decarbonization process based entirely on renewable energy, which is also supported by the new storage facilities. Development.
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