New Initiatives in White House Summit on Nuclear Energy

• New Initiatives in White House Summit on Nuclear Energy
• Duke Energy Offers New Rates for Data Centers and Steel Mills
• South Korea To Build Three New Nuclear Plants, Plans Exports
• Bulgaria Pitches US EXIM for Financing of Twin AP1000s
• TerraPower and Framatome to Develop HALEU Pilot Plant
• Thailand PM Interested in SMRs

New Initiatives in White House Summit on Nuclear Energy

In an unexpected burst of exuberance, on 05/29/24 the White House hosted a “Summit on Domestic Nuclear Deployment” with key stakeholders from the nuclear industry, government agencies, and nongovernmental organizations.

According to a White House statement about the meeting, “Taken together, these actions represent the largest sustained push to accelerate civil nuclear deployment in the United States in nearly five decades.”

(left) Seth Grae, Chair for ANS International Council and President/CEO of @LightbridgeCorp with
(right) Craig Piercy, ANS CEO/Executive Director @ANS_org; Image @ANS_org on (X) Twitter

The Summit was a combination of announcements of new initiatives and updates on existing federal government commitments to develop nuclear energy in the US. Exports of US nuclear energy technologies were only mentioned in passing with no new actions planned or taken by the government.

The White House Fact Sheet released the day of the meeting highlighted the US participation in the signing last year’s multi-country declaration at COP28 to triple nuclear energy capacity globally by 2050; developing new reactor designs; extending the service lives of existing nuclear reactors; and growing the momentum behind new deployments.   At the top of the list of new initiatives

• Creation of a Nuclear Power Project Management and Delivery Working Group.

The Administration announced the creation of a Nuclear Power Project Management and Delivery working group that will draw on leading experts from across the nuclear and construction industries to help identify opportunities to proactively mitigate sources of cost and schedule overrun risk.

Membership in the Working Group will be made up of federal government bodies, including the White House Office of Domestic Climate Policy, the White House Office of Clean Energy Innovation & Implementation, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and the Department of Energy.

The Working Group will further engage with a broad range of stakeholders, including project developers, engineering, procurement and construction firms, utilities, investors, labor organizations, academics, and NGOs. The Working Group will be a source of collective views on how to help further the Administration’s goal of delivering nuclear power to the nation.

Army RFI for Reactors Across Multiple DOD Sites in the U.S.

The United States Army announced that it will release a Request for Information (RFI) to inform a deployment program for advanced reactors to power multiple Army sites in the United States. Small modular nuclear reactors and microreactors can provide US domestic defense installations resilient energy for several years and insure that electricity is available to support tactical readiness. The Army did not release a timeline for issuing an RFP.

The mini-reactors will also be used to address possible interruptions of electric power by physical or cyberattacks, extreme weather, pandemic biothreats, and other emerging challenges that can all disrupt the commercial grid.

The White House Fact sheet calls out the Department of the Air Force microreactor pathfinder at Eielson AFB and the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) Strategic Capabilities Office (SCO) Project Pele prototype transportable microreactor protype.

It is expected that the lessons learned from deployment of transportable micro reactors to domestics defense installation “will help inform the regulatory and supply chain pathways that will pave for additional deployments of advanced nuclear technology to provide clean, reliable energy for federal installations and other critical infrastructure.”

Separately, Summit announced a Department of Energy released a new primer, highlighting the expected enhanced safety of advanced nuclear reactors including passive core cooling capabilities and advanced fuel designs. The Idaho National Laboratory is also releasing a new advanced nuclear reactor capital cost reduction pathway tool that will help developers and stakeholders to assess cost drivers for new projects.

Taking Action to Promote and Develop Nuclear Energy

The White House also highlighted the release by the DOE of a new primer highlighting the expected enhanced safety of advanced nuclear reactors including passive core cooling capabilities and advanced fuel designs, and the release by Idaho National Laboratory of a new advanced nuclear reactor capital cost reduction pathway tool to help developers and stakeholders to assess cost drivers for new projects.

The US Administration said it “notes the completion” of Vogtle units 3 and 4 made possible by DOE financing and support, including loan guarantees for the construction of the units. It said the government “will continue to take action to enable first movers to deploy advanced and innovative technologies” building on actions that have already been taken.

These include steps to “revive and revitalize” existing nuclear plants including;

• A $1.5 billion conditional loan commitment to support Holtec Palisades’ efforts to restart the Palisades nuclear power plant in Michigan,
• DOE’s Civil Nuclear Credit program to fund the life extension of the Diablo Canyon plant in California, and
• A production tax credit under the Inflation Reduction Act which is supporting the continued operation of existing nuclear power plants.

Taking Credit for Nuclear Energy Accomplishments

The White House highlighted work that is underway in support of the demonstration and deployment of new nuclear technologies, including the DOE’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program. Also, it noted a a Congressional appropriations package providing $800 million to fund up to two Gen III+ SMR demonstration projects, the implementation of which is to be announced later this year. The method for allocation the projects was not announced, but given the costs of SMRs, it is unclear what the program will use as eligibility criteria for the funds.

This is an interesting development given the recent setback experienced by NuScale with cancellation of the UMAMPS six SMR project in Idaho. Details on the program were not provided at the Summit.

The other two LWR SMR developers in the US are GE Hitachi with its BWRX300 and Holtec with a newly uprated SMR300. Both firms are currently submitting topical reports in prelicensing dialogs with the NRC, but neither firm has announced a date for submitting a license application.

GE Hitachi is engaged with the Tennessee Valley Authority to develop up to 800 MW of SMR generating capacity at the utility’s Clinch River Project. Holtec has announced plans to build two of its SMR300 plants at the Palisades Nuclear Plant. Both projects will take advantage of existing grid connections, switchyards, local transportation networks and related infrastructure.

It also highlighted the work that being done by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to streamline the licensing process for building new reactors and life extensions and capacity expansions of existing reactors.

Support for Large Reactors

The US Administration highlighted “the completion” of Vogtle units 3 and 4 which relied in part on government loan guarantees for its financing. In Georgia Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, on the same day as the Summit, called for more nuclear reactors to be built in the United States and worldwide.

“It is now time for others to follow their lead to reach our goal of getting to net zero by 2050,” Granholm said. “We have to at least triple our current nuclear capacity in this country.”

Given the significant schedule delays and cost overruns of the two plants, which together cost approximately $35 billion, the question is whether any current nuclear utility in the US wants to build new full size reactors especially with inflation as yet undeterred by the actions of the Federal Reserve Board.

Granholm said that she believed others could learn from Vogtle’s mistakes, like starting construction before plans were completed. She also predicted additional models of the Vogtle reactors, which were the first of their kind built in the United States, could be built at lower cost.

“So the question is, how do you learn from the new design in the second and the third and the fourth and the fifth plant? If you don’t vary the design, it gets 30% less expensive every time you build it,” Granholm said.

NRC Highlights Progress in Measures for Regulating New Reactors

In anticipation of the growing interest in reactor deployment, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) continues to make strides in reforming its licensing and permitting processes to ensure that its reviews and analyses can be performed efficiently without compromising safety.

• Demonstrating efficient licensing: NRC issued a construction permit to Kairos for the Hermes test reactor this past December; the first non-light water reactor (non-LWR) construction permit issued in the United States in 56 years. NRC completed its safety and environmental reviews of the Kairos Hermes test reactor construction permit application ahead of schedule and on-budget.
• New technology-neutral licensing pathway: The NRC Commission took important steps to improve the proposed draft rule for the new 10 CFR Part 53 technology-neutral licensing pathway in response to stakeholder feedback and to make it more useful to applicants.
• Reducing regulatory uncertainty: NRC issued licensing guidance for applicants seeking to use the existing Part 50 and 52 licensing pathways before the new optional Part 53 is completed. This guidance reduces the regulatory uncertainty for new reactor concepts that do not fit the mold of conventional reactor technologies.
• Streamlining environmental reviews: NRC staff approved a proposed rule for Commission approval which would utilize an advanced reactor generic environmental impact statement (GEIS) to streamline environmental reviews for licensing new reactors. NRC staff also expects to soon issue a GEIS for license renewal to streamline environmental reviews for extending the operating license for existing reactors.
• Preparing for factory-built microreactors: NRC staff identified potential regulatory solutions to enable licensing of microreactors that would be factory-built and then transported to a deployment site.

Export Initiative

The US Export-Import Bank (EXIM) and Department of State announced the “EXIM SMR Financing Toolkit,” a suite of financial tools to support SMR deployments and help U.S. exporters compete in the global SMR market. Consistent with the focus on domestic development of nuclear energy, this is the only mention of US exports of nuclear technologies in the White House summary.

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Duke Energy Offers New Rates for Data Centers and Steel Mills

• Responding to growing demand, Duke Energy, Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Nucor execute agreements to accelerate clean energy options
• It is expected that the new pricing plan will be more efficient, less time consuming, and less costly to administer than traditional RFPs.

Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Nucor announced agreements to explore new and innovative approaches to support carbon-free energy generation and help utilities serve the future energy needs of large businesses in North Carolina and South Carolina. The announcement was made at the White House Summit on Domestic Nuclear Deployment. The participants in the program are among the largest users of data centers and operators of steel mills in the two states.

In memorandums of understanding (MOUs) signed this month, the companies proposed developing new rate structures, known as “tariffs” in the utility industry, designed specifically to lower the long-term costs of investing in clean energy technologies like new nuclear and long-duration storage through early commitments.

The proposed Accelerating Clean Energy (ACE) tariffs would enable large customers like Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Nucor to directly support carbon-free energy generation investments through innovative financing structures and contributions that address project risk to lower costs of emerging technologies.

ACE tariffs would facilitate beneficial on-site generation at customer facilities, participation in load flexibility programs and investments in clean energy assets – features attractive to customers with large-scale energy needs.

The ACE framework also would include a Clean Transition Tariff (CTT). It is a key feature enabling Duke Energy to provide individualized portfolios of new carbon-free energy to commercial and industrial customers. The CTT would match clean-energy generation and customer load to accelerate overall grid decarbonization. This would be a voluntary program for larger customers seeking to advance their clean energy goals, and it would include protections for non-participating customers.

The ACE tariffs would represent new, voluntary pricing structures for Duke Energy’s large commercial and industrial customers. Duke Energy’s five-year capital plan will continue as planned and these tariffs would be subject to regulatory approvals in North Carolina and South Carolina.

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South Korea To Build Three New Nuclear Plants, Plans Exports

• In addition to three APR1400 reactors, it will also build one small nuclear reactor (SMR).
• South Korea Signed an MOU with the UAE to Support Nuclear Reactor Exports
• KAERI and Seaborg APS Sign on for MSR Development

South Korea plans to build as many as three new nuclear power plants by 2038 and put into operation at least one small modular reactor (SMR) by 2035 to become a global nuclear powerhouse. The country will resume building new nuclear power plants after a nine-year hiatus. The reactors will be the APR-1400 PWR design.

The government said it needs to go through a formal site selection process to decide where the reactors will be built. Once the sites are selected, they will need to go through an environmental assessment.

In May 2023 the country began construction of the main portions of Shin Hanul nuclear reactors No. 3 and No. 4, reviving its goal of becoming a global nuclear powerhouse. The construction of the two reactors was suspended came in October 2017 as the former president canceled all plans to build new nuclear power plants.

KEPCO Export Plans with the UAE

In a turnaround from the previous government, Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol also said his government is striving to export 10 nuclear power plants by 2030. All of these units are expected to be APR1400s.

During the UAE state visit (May 28-29), Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Emirates Nuclear Energy Company (ENEC) to explore opportunities for joint development of nuclear power projects in third countries. The agreement aims to establish a strategic partnership and identify opportunities for collaboration on overseas nuclear ventures.

KEPCO CEO Kim Dong-cheol stated, “Overseas nuclear exports are a national competition and require the full efforts of the country. Therefore, trustworthy partners like the UAE are absolutely necessary in the fierce competition of overseas nuclear exports.” He emphasized, “With this MOU signing, we will make every effort to create a success story in our second nuclear power plant export.”

A joint working group by both companies will do a comprehensive review of profitability and risks associated with potential projects. No specific projects or countries were named in the press statements about the MOU.

The main drivers of the MOU are the expertise of KEPCO and the financial strength of the UAE being combined to gain a competitive edge in global nuclear markets.

KAERI and Seaborg APS Sign on for MSR Development

(WNN) On May 27, 2024, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) and Seaborg APS signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) collaborate on advancing nuclear technologies with a focus on molten salt reactors.

KAERI and Seaborg have been developing molten salt reactors. Seaborg said the agreement “paves the way for both institutions to leverage their respective research and development expertise and infrastructure.”

Seaborg’s design is a modular compact molten salt reactor (CMSR) power barges equipped with between two and eight 100 MWe reactors, with an operational life of 24 years. The CMSR’s fuel is mixed in a liquid salt that acts as a coolant, which means that it will simply shut down and solidify in case of emergency. However, the low-enriched fluoride fuel salt is not yet commercially available. Last year Seaborg announced the initial power barges will be fuelled with low-enriched uranium.

April 2023 Seaborg signed an MOU with KEPCO Nuclear Fuel and GS Engineering & Construction to “facilitate a joint feasibility study covering the scope and timeline to establish a fuel salt production capability.

In April 2022, South Korean shipbuilder Samsung Heavy Industries signed an MoU with Seaborg to manufacture and sell turnkey power plants combining its ship-building expertise and Seaborg’s compact molten salt reactor. It also covered the development of hydrogen production plants and ammonia plants. The timeline for Seaborg, which was founded in 2014, is for commercial production of Power Barges beginning from 2028.

In February last year, nine South Korean organizations, including KAERI, signed an MOU to cooperate on the development and demonstration of ships and offshore systems powered with small modular reactors, and jointly developing a molten salt reactor suitable for use in marine vessels.

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Bulgaria Pitches US EXIM for Financing of Twin AP1000s

• US Exim Bank Working on Financing for New Nuclear Reactors At Bulgaria’s Kozloduy Site
• Sofia planning to build two Westinghouse AP1000 plants at site

(NucNet) The US Export-Import Bank (Exim) is reported to be working on the structuring of financing for Bulgaria’s proposed twin AP1000 reactor new-build project. A decision is expected by mid-2025.

In January 2023, Bulgarian parliament asked the government to begin negotiations with Westinghouse on the deployment of one or two AP1000 PWRs at Kozloduy. In February 2024 Sofia and Washington signed an agreement to cooperate on the development of the Balkan country’s civil nuclear power program.

In June 2023, Westinghouse announced a contract for a front-end engineering and design study for up to two units with project company Kozloduy Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP)-New Build, expected to be completed in mid-2024.

In December 2023, the Bulgarian parliament approved a government proposal to inject up to €766m ($833m) into the state-owned KNPP corporation to fund the initial stages around the proposed construction of the first of two AP1000 units.

“The construction of new nuclear capacities at the site of the Kozloduy nuclear power station is one of the main priorities in the work of the current government,” said Bulgaria’s current minister of energy Vladmir Malinov during a meeting with Reta Jo Lewis, head of the US Exim bank.

Valentin Nikolov, chief executive of the Kozloduy nuclear power station, has said that the financing for the first AP1000 unit, which would be Kozloduy-7, is to be primarily sourced from commercial banks, covering 70% of the project, with the Bulgarian government contributing the remaining 30%.

Bulgarian energy officials are expecting that given the plants will be built with Westinghouse reactors, the government is expecting export credits from the EXIM.

Malinov said in a side discussion with the media at the EXIM meeting, “I am sure that the [new-build] project will be even more attractive for other financing institutions with the joining of a bank of the rank of Exim.”

Sofia expects Kozloduy-7 to be ready around 2035 with a second plant two years later. The target cost for the two reactors is $14 billion or $7 billion each or about $6,400/kw.

There are two 1,000-MW Russia-designed VVER units already in operation at Kozloduy – Bulgaria’s only commercial nuclear power station – and four older VVER units that have been permanently shut down.

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TerraPower and Framatome to Develop HALEU Pilot Plant

• Cooperation agreement will expand the domestic HALEU fuel supply chain

TerraPower announced an agreement with Framatome to fund the creation of a high assay low enriched uranium (HALEU) metallization pilot plant in Washington. This pilot plant will demonstrate Framatome’s capability to metallize HALEU from a uranium oxide form, and further advance TerraPower’s efforts to support the development of the domestic HALEU supply chain.

Metallization of HALEU is a crucial part of the deconversion process from enriched UF6 which allows uranium to transform into a metal that is then used to fabricate fuel rods for advanced reactors.

The pilot plant will be built as an expansion of Framatome’s Richland, Washington fuel manufacturing facility. TerraPower already supports operational centers in Washington state at its Bellevue-based headquarters and laboratory, and Everett laboratory location.

Framatome said the pilot line will initiate “a long-term collaboration to supply metal feedstock” and help Terrapower to develop a domestic supply chain for HALEU in the USA.

“This agreement advances fuel technologies for the nuclear energy industry and working pragmatically with TerraPower builds the trust and confidence our customers count on,” said Ala Alzaben, senior vice president for North America Fuel at Framatome.

Chris Levesque, TerraPower President and CEO said, “This investment by TerraPower into Framatome’s pilot plant is a critical step in bringing advanced reactors like the NatriumTM technology to market.”

Successful completion and operation of the HALEU metallization pilot plant will support Framatome’s efforts to expand the U.S. fuel supply chain capabilities. Framatome submitted an application for U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) funding that will be awarded in response to a DOE HALEU Availability Program (HAP) Solicitation (the HAP Deconversion and Metallization Request for Proposals).

TerraPower is currently developing an advanced nuclear power plant that will provide both 24/7 carbon-free energy, along with gigawatt-scale energy storage. The Natrium technology features a 345 MWe sodium-cooled fast reactor with a molten salt-based energy storage system. The storage technology can boost the system’s output to 500 MWe for more than five and a half hours when needed.

This innovative addition allows a Natrium plant to integrate seamlessly with renewable resources and leads to faster, more cost-effective decarbonization of the electric grid while producing dispatchable carbon-free energy. The Natrium demonstration plant is being constructed near a retiring coal facility in Wyoming.

In 2023 TerraPower and Centrus expanded their working relationship aimed at establishing commercial-scale, domestic production capabilities for high-assay, low-enriched uranium (HALEU) to supply TerraPower’s first-of-a-kind NatriumTM reactor and energy storage system.

Centrus will work toward scaling up production capacity with additional centrifuge cascades to meet TerraPower’s fuel requirements. The product from Centrus is enriched uranium in the gaseous form of uranium hexafluoride (UF6) which must be converted into metal form in order to fabricate HALEU fuel to be used in advanced reactors.

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Thailand PM Interested in SMRs

The Reuters wire service reports that Thailand Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin is exploring small modular nuclear reactor (SMR) technology. His expression of interest comes as Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy looks to diversify its energy mix amid dwindling reserves of natural gas that produces much of its power. SMRs typically provide between 50-300 MW of electric generation capacity.

Reuters reported that Srettha said in a speech last week at an American Chamber of Commerce event in Bangkok.”Our green transition goal is one of the most ambitious in Southeast Asia, and we have a comprehensive roadmap in place to have 50% of energy production be renewable by 2040.”

In the speech Srettha said that SMRs could improve the environmental footprint of manufacturing by being carbon neutral in terms of electricity generation.

Thailand at one time had a plan to acquire Japanese built nuclear reactors which was scrapped following the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011.

Reuters added that Thailand largely relies on natural gas for its electrification needs, with the fuel accounting for two-thirds of its electricity generation. The country has ramped up liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports in recent years due to falling domestic reserves.

Renewable energy currently comprises around 23% of Thailand’s total installed capacity led by solar, wind, small and large hydropower projects. The country also imports hydropower from neighboring Laos.

US Interest in Thailand’s Nuclear Energy Plans

In November 2022 US Vice President Kamala Harris visited Thailand and discussed offering technical assistance to the country to deploy SMRs.

The White House said the assistance was part of its Net Zero World Initiative, a project launched at last year’s Glasgow climate summit in which the US partners with the private sector and philanthropists to promote clean energy.

The White House did not give a timeline for the program. Like the Philippines, Thailand does not have a 123 Agreement with the US.  The two countries will need to work together to sign off on one.

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