- Holtec Taps Hyundai as EPC for Twin 300 MW SMRs at Palisades
- UK’s SMR Selection Process Calls for Best & Final Offers from Four Firms
- Budget Storm Clouds Ahead for UK SMR Program
- Siemens to Supply Turbines for Rolls-Royce SMRs
- Last Energy Sets Sights on 30 Mini Reactors for Texas Data Center Market
- Abu Dhabi’s ENEC Eyes Investment in Newcleo
- German Startup Unveils Design For Stellarator Nuclear Fusion Plant
Holtec Taps Hyundai as EPC for Twin 300 MW SMRs at Palisades
Holtec is refurbishing the 800 MW plant to reopen it for revenue service supported with a $1.52 billion loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy.
The announcement of the formal launch of the SMR project includes signing of an exclusive alliance agreement with Hyundai Engineering & Construction to build a 10-gigawatt fleet of SMR-300s in North America. Hyundai will be Holtec’s construction partner for the Palisades SMRs and for future SMRs planned for other Holtec sites such as the decommissioned Oyster Creek reactor site in Southeast New Jersey.
Holtec’s President of Global Clean Energy Opportunities, Rick Springman, commented, “The key to making SMR deployment faster and more cost-effective isn’t just learning from the industry—it’s applying those lessons directly to each new project. With Holtec’s in-house manufacturing and Hyundai E&C as our construction partner, we control most of the process, allowing us to refine and improve with every reactor we build. That’s how we scale smarter and deliver reliable energy where it’s needed most.”
Hyundai E&C CEO Han-Woo Lee reinforced the commitment to its investment in the Holtec project, stating, “Hyundai E&C has established its U.S. subsidiary, Hyundai America Inc., and has been making diversified investments in U.S. power projects and SMR-300 technology. To ensure the successful completion of this project, we will work closely with the U.S. government and leading local companies to build a systematic supply chain, create and develop high-quality jobs in the U.S., and develop strategies for mutual growth with local communities, ultimately pioneering a new era in the global SMR industry.”
Holtec’s CEO Kris Singh, hailed the expanded partnership with Hyundai E&C as a pivotal development, stating, “Hyundai E&C has the most distinguished credentials as a constructor of nuclear power plants, having built and commissioned the largest reactor complex in the last decade in the UAE on schedule, which is a rare achievement in our industry.”
Singh added, “We should also recognize our long-term ally and the third pillar of our SMR coalition, Mitsubishi Electric [Kobe, Japan, and Pittsburgh, U.S.] whose state-of-the-art control system will be deployed in the SMR-300 plants.”
Since announcing the Palisades SMR-300 project in 2023, Holtec notes that it has made substantial progress for its SMRs at the Palisades, MI, site including detailed site and environmental studies to choose a location for the plant within the Palisades property, establishment of a groundwater monitoring program, and completion of soil borings. Holtec reports it has invested over $50 million to date in the SMR-300 site development and environmental activities. The firm says it plans to start the formal U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission construction permitting process in 2026. [NRC Web Page for Holtec’s regulatory engagement with the agency]
About the Holtec SMR-300
Holtec spent more than a decade developing a 160 MW SMR, but subsequently chose to revamp the design boosting its power rating to 300WM putting it on a par with GE Hitachi’s BWRX300 (BWR) and the Westinghouse AP300 (PWR).
Holtec’s SMR-300 is an advanced, passively safe, pressurized light water nuclear power plant. It uses gravity as the motive force to run its safety systems earning the “walk-away safe” designation. The reactor will use low enriched uranium fuel at less than 5% U235.
At 300 MW a plant, a 10 GW fleet would require 34 SMRs which will require far more sites than Holtec currently has within its control. It is plausible to assume that one of Holtec’s options for new sites will be to build its SMRs for customers either at existing operating reactor sites or at the sites of closed coal fired power plants. One other option would be to build SMRs at decommissioned full size reactor sites taking advantage of grid connections.
Status of the Palisades Reactor Restart
According to World Nuclear News, Holtex signed a long-term power purchase agreement with Michigan non-profit Wolverine Power Cooperative to purchase two-thirds of the power generated from a reopened Palisades. Wolverine’s partner Hoosier Energy, which supplies member electric cooperatives across Indiana and Illinois, will purchase the balance. Holtec says it hopes to restart the plant before the end of 2025.
While Holtec has portrayed progress for its aggressive schedule as being on time, the NRC raised questions about it at a recent public hearing noting that the agency will not be rushed in its judgements about the safety of the plant’s nuclear systems and components related to restart.
An anticipated the major pothole in Holtec’s road to reopening the plant is the condition of the steam generator system of the 800 MW reactor. According to the NRC an inspection of the steam system found more than 1,000 steam generator tubes, or just over 12% of all tubes, with indications of corrosion cracking. Holtec says it will use a repair method called “sleeving” which is a liner pushed inside of each original damaged steam tube.
According to the NRC, Palisades has two Combustion Engineering Model 2530 replacement steam generators. Each of them has 8,219 mill-annealed, Alloy 600 tubes. The tubes have an outside diameter of 0.75 inches, and a wall thickness of 0.042 inches.
INCONEL (nickel-chromium-iron) alloy 600 (UNSN06600/W.Nr. 2.4816) is a standard engineering material for applications which require resistance to corrosion and heat. The versatility of INCONEL alloy 600 has led to its use in a variety of applications involving temperatures from cryogenic to above 2000°F (1095°C)
The alloy is a standard material of construction for nuclear reactors. According to the supplier, it has excellent resistance to corrosion by high-purity water, and no indication of chloride-ion stress-corrosion cracking in reactor water systems has been detected. For nuclear applications, the alloy is produced to exacting specifications and is designated INCONEL alloy 600T.
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UK’s SMR Selection Process Calls for Best & Final Offers from Four Firms
GBN plans to select one or two of the technologies, with the intention of supporting the deployment of multiple units of a company’s small modular reactors (SMRs) at a site. GBN currently owns land for potential new nuclear at Wylfa in Anglesey in North Wales, and at Oldbury in Gloucestershire in southwest England, but other sites could also be chosen.
These sites were previously slated for development of twin Hitachi 1,350 MW ABWRs. If all four units had been built, they would have provided 5.4 GW of power. That’s the equivalent of 18 300 MW SMRs. GBN is unlikely to fund development at that scale since it failed utterly to come to an agreement on the financial terms with Hitachi on the costs of the full size reactors for the two sites. The Japanese firm pulled out of both projects due to the inherent risks in the UK government’s financing proposals.
GBN’s aim had been for a selection decision in 2024 and for a final investment decision to be taken in 2029. All four candidate vendors have said at various times, and in various ways, that this timeline must be reduced given the urgency of UK’s energy security needs as the first generation of nuclear reactors reach the end of their service lives.
Trust in the government’s commitments is not high as it has repeatedly postponed decision making for the SMR program. A common theme behind repeated delays in the SMR competition is the government’s alarm at the escalating costs of the construction of the twin 1,650 MW EPRs at the Hinkly C site and the likelyhood of similar cost increases at the Sizewell C sited where two more EPRs are planned to be built.
Background on Four SMR Firms in the Running
GE Hitachi is putting forward its BWRX-300, a BWR, Holtec’s SMR-300 is a PWR, the Rolls-Royce SMR is a 470 MWe PWR, and Westinghouse’s AP300 is a 300 MWe PWR. All four vendors have emphasized that their designs are based on existing light water reactor technologies and will benefit from modular production techniques resulting in faster delivery than traditional methods.
In an interview earlier last year for the World Nuclear News podcast, GBN Chairman Simon Bowen said the intention was to place contracts with one, two or three technology providers. This funding would be to cost share projects through to completion of the design, regulatory, environmental and site-specific permissions process. There is a potential for GBN to decide to place a contract for the supply of equipment. Each selected technology would have an allocated site with the potential to host multiple SMRs.
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Budget Storm Clouds Ahead for UK SMR Program
Rachel Reeves, the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer has her eye on slashing GBN’s funding for SMRs as part of ah overall effort to cut government spending. The UK Telegrah newspaper reports the Chancellor is considering approving a smaller number of reactors than previously expected in an attempt to reduce the costs of the program, which is part of wider efforts to transform Britain’s power grid.
The existential risks the country faces in terms of energy security is that the first generation of nuclear power plants is rapidly coming to the end of its service life. Also, North Sea oil and gas fields have finite limits along with the challenges ahead of the need for decarbonization of various industrial sectors due to global warming.
The competition to design and build the first small modular reactors (SMRs) entered its last phase on Friday, with four finalists – Rolls-Royce, GE-Hitachi, Westinghouse and Holtec – told to submit final bids by mid-April. According to the newspaper’s report, GBN may be told it can only select one SMR developer and there may be strict limits on how much financial support the government will provide to deploying the SMR design.
GBN previously advertised contracts worth £20 billion in total for SMR “technology partners”, a figure that is understood to be based on the assumption two winners would be chosen. Bidders have been told to prepare to build three to four mini reactors. Going down to only one vendor would potentially halve the cost to £10 billion over 15 years, with the biggest annual costs expected in the late 2020s and early 2030s when construction actually starts.
Separate contracts worth around £2 billion for construction, project management and engineering audits have also been listed by GBN, again based on an assumption of two vendors.
Ms Reeves and the Treasury are in negotiations with Whitehall departments over the forthcoming spending review, which is expected to be published in June. The Chancellor is struggling to balance the books as weak economic growth. The Telegraph newspaper quoted one person briefed on the discussions who warned: “It all comes down to the spending review. Everything is on the table.”
According to a very recent profile by the BBC, the planned budget cuts may hit a series of political cross-currents. Reeve’s tax-hiking budget has prompted criticism from businesses and farmers, and despite Labor putting a pledge to boost the economy at the center of its plans, growth has been sluggish.
Scaling back Britain’s SMR program would represent a significant retreat for Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, who this month announced plans to speed up the development of the mini reactors and vowed to “build, baby, build.” Officials at both GBN and the Energy Department, run by Ed Miliband, are understood to be pushing for the Government to stick with the original ambition to pick two SMR developers.
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Siemens to Supply Turbines for Rolls-Royce SMRs
Siemens Energy and Rolls-Royce SMR have entered into a partnership agreement that is expected to lead to the exclusive supply of conventional turbine technology for future small modular reactors (SMR). Under this agreement, Siemens Energy is to be the sole supplier of steam turbines, generators, and other auxiliary systems for the British manufacturer’s planned 470 MW PWRs. The final contract, detailing all specifics, is expected to be completed by the end of 2025.
Rolls-Royce SMR has been selected to deploy SMR units in the Czech Republic and down-selected for potential projects in the UK and Sweden.
For decades, Siemens Energy has been a supplier and service provider of components for the so-called “power island,” the non-nuclear part of the power plant. The company’s solutions for nuclear power plants include steam turbines and generators with outputs ranging from 20 MW to 1,900 MW, as well as operational control technology and control systems. These systems are located outside of the reactor and its containment structure.
According to Reuters, Rolls-Royce SMR, which is the business unit assigned to build SMRs, lists as minority investor the sovereign wealth fund of Qatar, Constellation Energy, and BNF Resources. The Czech Republic’s state owned nuclear utility CEZ said in October it would take a minority stake in Rolls-Royce SMR.
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Last Energy Sets Sights on 30 Mini Reactors for Texas Data Center Market
According to data center industry trade press reports, Last Energy has ambitious plans to build 30 microreactors in Texas to serve the US data center market. The reactors will reportedly be built on a 200-acre site in Haskell County, in southeast Texas. Last Energy told said in a press statemen t it already obtained control of the site/ The reactors, if built, will provide power to a range of customers via a mix of private wires and grid transmission. Under its business model, the company owns the reactors and sells the power to the country where they are located under long-term contracts.
The company has already filed for a grid connection with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and is preparing to file for an Early Site Permit (ESP) with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). So far Last Energy has not yet indicated a time frame for submitting its reactor design to the NRC for licensing under either Part 50 or Part 52.
Texas is currently home to over 340 data centers which consume nearly eight gigawatts of power and make up nine percent of all Texas electricity demand. In the Dallas-Fort Worth region alone, data centers are expected to drive an additional 43 gigawatts of demand.
Last Energy’s microreactor, PWR-20, has a capacity of 20MW. The firm promotes it as being designed for flexible siting, plug-and-play installation, and rapid scalability.
UK Project Got US Debt Financing
Last December, the microreactor firm received a tentative offer of $103.7 million in debt financing from the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) to build the first of four SMRs in the UK. The company plans to build four 20MW microreactors at its site in Bridgend, southern Wales.
Last Energy has formally entered the UK’s nuclear site licensing process for its plans to develop four 20 MWe microreactors at the site of the decommissioned Llynfi coal-fired power station in Bridgend County, south Wales.
An Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) spokesperson confirmed that Last Energy has entered the agency’s nuclear site licensing process. However, the agency did not indicate a reference timeline for the firm to complete the major regulatory milestones needed to obtain the licenses for the four units.
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Abu Dhabi’s ENEC Eyes Investment in Newcleo
The Bloomberg wire service reports that Emirates Nuclear Energy Co., (ENEC) reportedly will explore a direct investment via private funding, as well as a co-investment plan, for Newcleo’s lead-cooled fast reactor projects in Europe. The deal could have a total value of as much as €500 million ($523 million). Final agreements are said to be expected within the next four months. If it closes, the investment will effectively double the amount of investor commitments to the company. Further details on the planned ENEC investment were not available from either ENEC nor Newcleo.
Newcleo, founded in 2021, is developing a small, liquid lead-cooled units fueled with reprocessed nuclear waste. The company to date has attracted €537 million in private funding. By mid-2022 newcleo had raised EUR 300 million ($315.8 million), with the first EUR 100 million ($105.3 million) secured as initial capital in 2021 alongside its acquisition of Hydromine Nuclear Energy.
In March 2023, newcleo launched a financing round with the objective to raise up to EUR 1 billion ($1.05 billion) in equity. In June 2023, the French government selected newcleo’s LFR-AS-30 as one of two SMRs to be awarded funding for advancing research and development activities.
Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said during UAE President Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s visit on Monday that the Gulf state will invest $40 billion in Italy. The UAE is comprised of seven emirates, with Abu Dhabi serving as its capital.
Newcleo’s lead cooled 200 MWe reactor is designed to burn MOX fuel which will be provided by Orano. Newcleo also has an MOU with the UK National Nuclear Laboratory related to MOX fuel.
Newcleo proposes a three-step approach for the deployment of its LFR-AS-200 SMR, beginning with constructions of test facilities, including an electrical prototype in Italy, followed by a 30 MWe LFR demonstrator, called the LFR-AS-30, in France, before deploying the larger commercial version, called the LFR-AS-200. The firm anticipates eventually completing the UK’s generic design assessment process.
About Lead Cooled Fast Reactors
According to the GEN IV International Forum, LFR (Lead-cooled Fast Reactor) systems are reactors cooled by liquid lead (Pb) or, in very few cases, by lead-bismuth (Pb-Bi) alloy and operating in the fast neutron spectrum at atmospheric pressure and high temperature. Many advantages of the LFR system are related to its choice of coolant: lead has a very high boiling point (up to 1743°C), favorable neutronic and radiation shielding properties as well as its benign interaction with water and air.
LFR uses Uranium and Plutonium in the form of Mixed Oxide Fuel (MOX) or nitride and allows for closing the fuel cycle and transuranic actinides burning thus improving fuel use efficiency and helping reduce the amount and the activity of radioactive waste generated during their operation. Challenges related to materials, chemistry control and the fuel cycle of the LFR are among the key points of focus of ongoing R&D cooperation on LFR systems.
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German Startup Unveils Design For Stallarator Nuclear Fusion Plant
- Proxima Fusion claims to be on track to build demonstration stellarator by 2031
(NucNet) German startup Proxima Fusion has revealed a concept design for what it says is the world’s most viable commercial nuclear fusion power plant. The Munich-based company said its Stellaris plant is “the world’s first integrated concept for a commercial fusion power plant designed to operate reliably and continuously.”{full text – long press release}. The concept design is detailed in a peer-reviewed paper published in Fusion Engineering and Design.
Conceptual image of a Stellarator.
Image: Proxima Fusion
Stellaris will use high-temperature superconducting magnets in a stellarator. A stellarator is a doughnut-shaped ring of precisely positioned magnets that can contain the plasma from which fusion energy is born.
Most fusion experiments today are tokamaks because they are better understood and are closer to achieving ignition conditions. However, there has been renewed interest in stellarators since the 1990s.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, both reactor types have certain advantages. While tokamaks are better at keeping plasmas hot, stellarators are better at keeping them stable. Despite the tokamak’s current prevalence, it is still possible that stellarators could one day become the preferred option for a prospective fusion energy plant.
Proxima Fusion said it is on track to build its demonstration stellarator, Alpha, by 2031. Alpha intends to show net fusion energy in a concept capable of continuous operation.
Stellaris will build on the results of the Wendelstein 7-X (W7-X) research experiment at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) in Germany.
W7-X cost over €1.3bn ($1.35bn) in funding from the German federal government and the European Union.
The Stellaris work is the result of a public-private partnership between Proxima Fusion engineers and IPP scientists. As the IPP’s first spin-out company, Proxima Fusion has been building on the institute’s experimental and theoretical work, with an engineering workforce from the likes of Google, Tesla, McLaren Formula-1 and SpaceX.
Proxima Fusion claims its stellarator design has been put together to produce more power per unit volume than any stellarator power plant that has been designed before.
The much stronger magnetic fields that are enabled by high-temperature superconducting magnet technology allow for a significant reduction in size compared to previous stellarator concepts.
Proxima Fusion said that smaller reactors can be built more quickly, provide more efficient energy generation and promise to be more cost-effective in both construction and operation.
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