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Competition heats up for DOE SMR funding
Westinghouse gets support from Missouri for 225 MW reactor
The race to win $452 million in cost shared funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for licensing and technical support to bring a small modular reactor (SMR) to market by 2022 got a new entry April 19. Westinghouse has partnered with Ameren to submit a proposal based on the reactor vendor’s design of a 225 MW SMR.
The proposal won enthusiastic support from elected officials, including Governor Jay Nixon, with the promise of high paying manufacturing jobs to build the components for the reactors in Missouri. Governor Nixon called it a “transformational economic development opportunity.”
A consortium composed of Westinghouse, Ameren, and regional electrical utilities will prepare the proposal to DOE. The cost share agreement covers a five year period and would involve equal spending by the winning team and the government up to $904 million. The government may make two awards splitting the funds among developers.
The Westinghouse SMR is a 225 MW light water reactor design based on the firm’s 1100 MW AP1000 which achieved design certification from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) last December. Westinghouse is building four units in China and in 2012 began construction of four units in the U.S. – two in Georgia and two more in South Carolina.
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If Westinghouse wins the DOE funding, it could submit combined license applications to build and operate over time up to five of its SMRs eventually providing the equivalent of a single AP1000 reactor.
Kate Jackson, Chief Technology Officer for Westinghouse, said in a statement the first unit would be built and ready to enter revenue service within 24 months of receiving an NRC license.
Read the full details exclusively at ANS Nuclear Café online now.
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