Small modular reactor

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Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) are nuclear fission reactors that are smaller than conventional reactors and that can be manufactured in a factory and then brought to an assembly site: they are said to require less on-site effort and greater risk containment efficiency and enable increased security of the core materials used . SMRs have also been proposed to circumvent financial obstacles affecting conventional nuclear reactors .

There are various designs for SMR, from scaled-down versions of existing nuclear reactor designs to completely new IVth generation nuclear power plant designs. Both thermal neutron reactors and fast neutron reactors have been proposed. Around the world (2017) around 60 SMR concepts are currently being developed by a wide variety of companies, with the first related ideas and designs going back to the 1950s. Optimistic estimates mean that by 2035 just under ten percent of all newly built nuclear power plants will be SMR. They are supposed to rehabilitate atomic energy and also convince critics by calling them so safe that evacuation zones are no longer necessary in the event of a nuclear accident ; In addition, they are a perfect combination with renewable energies because, unlike large (nuclear) power plants, they are flexible, namely can be switched on or off quickly in the event of fluctuations in production and demand. According to analyzes by the OECD nuclear division, their potential is even said to be greatest in power grids with a high proportion of renewables. It should also be possible to dispose of them with scrapping in a factory without any problems.

In Corvallis (Oregon) based start-up -Fa. Nuscale Power, with an EU office in London, develops small, ready-to-use reactor modules with an output of 50 MW and an "integral reactor vessel", in which the reactor core , steam generator and primary circuit are located, which otherwise form separate units. Individual modules with a width of 4.5 meters and a height of 22 m should be able to be brought to their locations by heavy transport , where up to twelve modules, which can work independently of one another, with a combined output of 600 MW, are to be accommodated in one building. Approval of the model for the US market was applied for at the end of 2016, and environmental reports were issued in 2017 on the first construction site planned in Idaho .

Of the 60 nuclear power plants currently under construction worldwide (mid-2017), two are designated as SMR:

Floating SMR are currently also z. B. developed by the Canadian company Dunedin Energy Systems for remote mining projects in the USA and as an " integral light water reactor " by the Chinese Nuclear Power Institute in Chengdu in cooperation with the British Lloyd's Register . Such systems must not only meet the safety requirements of the IAEA, but also those of the International Maritime Organization IMO, which has now drawn up a preliminary catalog of requirements in this regard; however, further regulations and technical requirements are necessary here, e.g. B. also in the event of a sinking of the plants. The international approval practice as a whole is faced with the challenge of the planned cross-border, location-bound and highly standardized productions, i.e. more or less type approval rather than individual approval .

Even Rolls-Royce SMR would in the UK up. The reactors should be able to be transported by truck and mass- produced.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d deutschlandfunk.de , Wissenschaft im Brennpunkt , July 16, 2017, Dagmar Röhrlich : Brave New World of Reactors (July 30, 2017)
  2. ↑ Rolls-Royce plans mini nuclear reactors by 2029 , BBC of January 24, 2020