The U.S. Department of Energy has committed about $450 million to two Small Modular Nuclear Reactor (SMR) designs over the last year-and-half -- one by Oregon's NuScale and the other by North Carolina's Babcock and Wilcox -- that essentially shrink traditional reactors to between roughly 3 percent and 15 percent of their normal output (the future of at least one of those reactors has grown questionable now that B and W has revealed that funding difficulties could hamper its development).
There are molten salt reactor companies including Terrestrial Energy, Thorium Tech Solution and Transatomic Power.
Pebble bed reactors companies are Steenkampskraal Thorium, X-Energy and Northern Nuclear.
SmartPlanet provides a detailed update on the General Atomics (GA) Energy Multiplier Module (EM²) reactor.
GA is innovating new materials, getting the efficiency way up, simplifying the design and getting the cost into the competitive range.
GA is developing a Brayton cycle to convert heat to electricity at 53% versus 28 to 34 percent for regular steam turbines. In a four-module plant (1.06GW), one point of efficiency is worth a billion dollars in revenue over the life of the plant. 53% efficiency means $19 billion dollars more than a 34% efficient plant.
GA's design is a 265-megawatt (electric) sized reactor, with a fuel cycle lifetime of 30-plus years.
The General Atomics Energt Multiplier Module website is here.
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There are molten salt reactor companies including Terrestrial Energy, Thorium Tech Solution and Transatomic Power.
Pebble bed reactors companies are Steenkampskraal Thorium, X-Energy and Northern Nuclear.
SmartPlanet provides a detailed update on the General Atomics (GA) Energy Multiplier Module (EM²) reactor.
GA is innovating new materials, getting the efficiency way up, simplifying the design and getting the cost into the competitive range.
GA is developing a Brayton cycle to convert heat to electricity at 53% versus 28 to 34 percent for regular steam turbines. In a four-module plant (1.06GW), one point of efficiency is worth a billion dollars in revenue over the life of the plant. 53% efficiency means $19 billion dollars more than a 34% efficient plant.
GA's design is a 265-megawatt (electric) sized reactor, with a fuel cycle lifetime of 30-plus years.
The General Atomics Energt Multiplier Module website is here.
Read more »
