The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)… a government agency established in 1933 to harness the Tennessee Valley region’s plentiful resources, promote economic development, improve environmental stewardship, and address energy and infrastructure issues. The dynamic, forward-looking organization represents some of the best that America is capable of, all while supplying power to 10 million people in Tennessee and six surrounding states.
As the nation’s largest public power company, TVA is continually generating electricity via a network of dams, nuclear power plants, and other sources. But… TVA is much more than just a power company to many, many folks in the south… it’s the reason they’ve become empowered toward upward mobility, and the reason their little towns came out of the dark. Now, once again, TVA is leading the charge in change. This time, with small nuclear reactors.
Small nuclear reactors are exactly what they sound like: smaller versions of their towering elders. These reactors still produce electricity, they just happen to do it more efficiently. Also, because they are smaller, they travel. Think of them like those moving pods we all let sit in our driveways. But, while these things are smaller, they are still packing a punch (if we’re being technical, factory-made compact with less than 300 MW capacity).
They’re pretty great because they can fill holes left by solar, wind, and hydropower, because they don’t share the same intermittency and land requirements pain-points. These smaller reactors have a higher conversion of nuclear energy to electricity because their size allows for better heat management, and the utilization of advanced cooling techniques. This means max output, with fewer resources, having a cleaner impact.
How does TVA factor in? Their Chief Nuclear Officer, Tim Rausch, has spoken publicly about TVA’s goal of an 80% reduction in their carbon footprint by 2035, with plans to achieve full net-zero by 2050… and the fact that small nuclear will play in heavily. Plans include, according to Rausch, the construction of 20 small nuclear reactors across its coverage area in an “all in” strategy.
Together with India, America is planning to develop next-generation small modular reactor technologies for markets here at home and abroad… at least according to a statement issued by the White House during a visit from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. So, small nuclear may soon be dotting more of the world’s landscapes, if trends hold. During Modi’s visit, he and Biden pitched these reactors hard… doubt that was for nothing.
Some are calling these little reactors the nuclear space’s chance at a “renaissance”, a company called NuScale’s is poised to profit. As of this writing, NuScale is the only company with a small reactor design that has managed to clear the necessary regulatory benchmarks. Since 2014, the company has been the benefactor of over $600 million in grants from the US Department of Energy, and they’ve spent the money well. Their mini reactor designs come in at about 15 feet in diameter and 76 feet in height.
NuScale’s reactors are built in a factory and shipped to each client, anywhere in the world. It’s like Ubering a nuclear reactor to your jobsite… kind of. They can be scaled up or down, and can be placed in remote, hard-to-previously-reach locations (think rural power here). They’re even a bit like newer cars, they have built-in safety features, like shutting off automatically if there’s a problem.
The company is looking to deploy projects in North Carolina, Wisconsin, and Missouri, and has a US plant called the Carbon Free Power Project planned. Scheduled to reach full production by 2030, the project location is the Idaho National Laboratory in Idaho Falls. Other places they’re looking to build are Romania, South Korea, and Poland. And… these little babies can go from 20% to 100% power in 96 minutes.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, we must double our nuclear energy by 2050 to meet global climate goals. Berkshire Hathaway’s PacifiCorp, along with TerraPower and GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, have launched a small modular reactor project as a clean backup generator. Ontario Power Generation is going small nuclear. Sweeden and France are transforming to fossil-free energy sources and investing billions…
It certainly looks like small nuclear is here. There’s even chatter that these little reactors could sit where once mighty coal plants once stood, helping to revive tattered local economies. We plan to address economic revival of battered towns via sustainable technologies soon, so it’s important that we get introduced to the idea… because in order to make change, we must change our own minds first. Come back next week for more green tech news.