29 Mar (NucNet): A wide-ranging bill introduced by a group of bipartisan US senators seeks to reestablish US leadership in nuclear energy, bringing together private and public sector innovators to develop next-generation advanced reactor concepts.
The Nuclear Energy Leadership Act aims to “spur development of demonstration projects at the Department of Energy, which could become an important source of carbon-free electricity generation”, the senators said in a joint press release.
To compete with state-owned or state-sponsored developers in “rival nations” – namely Russia and China – the bill encourages significant collaboration between the federal government, national laboratories, and private industry. One provision directs the DOE to establish specific goals and ultimately demonstrate advanced reactors with the private sector.
The bill seeks to “define and establish” a domestic market for advanced nuclear reactors by extending term limits for federal power purchase agreements (PPAs) from the current 10 years to 40 years.
“Initial capital costs for nuclear reactors are paid for over a period beyond 10 years, which means 10-year PPAs do not work for nuclear projects,” the senators said.
The bill requires the DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy to develop a 10-year plan to support advanced nuclear R&D goals. “There has not been a cohesive long-term strategy for the direction of US nuclear science and engineering R&D policy across administrations,” it says.
The bill sets out plans to boost the development of fast reactors. Fast reactors, which are being explored or constructed in Japan, France, India, Russia and China, allow a significant increase in the amount of energy obtained from natural, depleted and recycled uranium. The technology also enables plutonium to be used and recycled several times, and minor actinides to be recycled.
Only a handful of mature fast reactor concepts have been demonstrated and only two such units are in full commercial operation. At the end of 2016, Russia began commercial operation of the Beloyarsk-4 BN-800 sodium-cooled fast neutron reactor and also operates the Beloyarsk-3 BN-600 fast neutron unit, which began commercial operation in 1981, at the same site. In China, the 20-MW CEFR reached full power for the first time in December 2014, but has not generally operated as a commercial unit.
To help advance US-developed fast reactor technology, the bill directs the DOE to construct a fast reactor research facility.
The bill pushes for rapid advancements in high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) fuels, which several small modular reactors under development require but for which no domestic production capability exists.
