January-February 2019 NPJ

30 NuclearPlantJournal.com Nuclear Plant Journal, January-February 2019 Jose Reyes Jr Chief Technology Officer and Co- Founder NuScale Power LLC, Member National Academy of Engineering, P.E., Nuclear Engineering Ph.D. and M.S. University. of Maryland, B.S. University. of Florida. He is co-inventor of the NuScale small modular reactor with over 110 patents granted or pending in 20 countries. He is an expert on nuclear plant scaling, passive safety, and testing. He is Professor Emeritus and former head of the Dept. of Nuclear Engineering at Oregon State University. He was the OSU principal investigator for the Westinghouse AP600 and AP1000 design certification test programs. He is a Fellow of the American Nuclear Society. Second, there are unique economies that can be captured by going small that have the potential to offset the economies of scale. They include design simplicity, factory fabrication of the entire nuclear system, simplified and parallel construction, and operating efficiencies. These economies associated with small modular infrastructure have been extensively examined by Li (2009) and Dahlgren, et.al (2012). v, vi Upon reviewing the economic history of nuclear construction projects throughout the world, for example, Li found so- called economies of scale were not being achieved. Instead, he argues for a complete “paradigm shift,” which would place heavy emphasis on “timely development and deployment of SMRs.” The Dahlgren study at the Columbia Business School comes to a similar conclusion, arguing “for a potential reversal of this ‘bigger is better’ trend a radical shift to a world in which efficiency of size is replaced by efficiency of numbers, in which custom built technology of massive unit scale is replaced by massive numbers of small, modular, mass-produced units deployed in parallel in single locations or distributed geographically.” Collectively, we have referred to these features as the “economies of small.” Third, and equally important, NuScale has captured these economies while still achieving economies of scale through multiplicity. This has been accomplished by deploying 12 modules in each plant. Since its first discussions with the NRC in 2008, the NuScale plant has consistently articulated a 12-module design, precisely because it was understood that a multi-module deployment would be required to capture economies of scale. In simple terms, the NuScale plant has been designed to capture the benefits of BOTH what we have called the economies of small AND economies of scale. NuScale Cost Projections NuScale was projecting an over- night capital cost of $5078/kW in 2013. Since that time, two important updates occurred: 1) module power levels have been increased by 20 percent, and 2) an updated capital cost estimate was completed, both re- sulting in improved overnight costs, which now project at $4100/kW for a first plant, and $3400/ kW for an Nth plant. The updated capital cost estimates, based on 2017$s, were developed in conjunc- tion with NuScale staff and Fluor Corp, a global engineering and construction company with significant experience de- veloping cost estimates for large energy projects. NuScale and Fluor have spent over 10,000 hours in the development and review of the updated cost estimate, shown in Table 1. Mature Nth-of-a-kind (NOAK) costs were derived from the Gen IV International Forum Economic Model Working Group’s methodology for con- verting FOAK to NOAK. vii One important finding of the MIT study challenged the conventional use of the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) as the primary metric in making economic comparisons of electric resources. The LCOE, they conclude, fails to adequately consider system integration costs as well as the value of non-carbon producing generation, especially when compared to natural gas. viii Yet even without consideration of those advantages, NuScale cost projections show competitive LCOE production costs for an Nth plant, ranging from $60/MWh to $87/MWh, depending upon the financing regime (public or private). The “Economies of Small” We refer above to the “economies of small,” a term intended to capture multiple features that are uniquely achievable in SMR designs. Some of the specific features we include as economies of small are a radically simpler natural circulation design, standardized off-the- shelf components throughout the plant, and enhanced operation efficiencies such as staggered 10 day refueling. Perhaps the feature that most defines the advantages of SMRs has been the ability to manufacture the entire nuclear steam supply system (NSSS) in an off- site facility. At both Electric Boat and Newport News Shipbuilding, they have found that labor-intensive tasks, such as weldment, which might require one person-hour to complete in a modular fabrication shop, will require three person-hours at an open site in the field and eight person-hours at the final location (in this case a dry dock). These rather dramatic improvements come from a combination of improved controls, dedicated workforce, and improved efficiencies in work practices. Small Modular... ( Continued from page 29)