Eight of 36 utilities that had agreed to partner to help finance a novel nuclear power plant to be owned by Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS) have withdrawn from the group.
The eight quit the plan soon after UAMPS announced the plant would take three years longer to build than expected and cost 50 percent more, with the price rising from $4.2 billion to $6.1 billion.
The plant is to be the first to test a novel design: instead of comprising one or two giant reactors, it will include 12 “mini-reactors,” each able to generate 60 watts of power.
Each mini-reactor can be built at a factory and shipped to the plant’s site. The utility can turn each reactor on or off as demand shifts over time.
The little reactors rely on natural convection cooling, not giant water baths, slashing construction costs, maintenance concerns, and the risk of a meltdown.
NuScale, the private company building the mini-reactors, expects the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to certify its design next year. By then, UAMPS hopes to have signed enough other utilities to buy the plant’s full 720-megawatt output.
Now that almost a quarter of the original partners have pulled out, UAMPS may struggle to find more takers.
TRENDPOST: In addition to public skepticism, the nuclear industry still faces the issue of out-of-control construction costs and unpredictable glitches in plants’ operations.
By the time the UAMPS plant – or any new nuclear plant – is built, it’s likely that the same incremental demand for electricity could be met through renewable energy sources coupled to grid-scale battery storage.
