<
https://reneweconomy.com.au/coalitions-nuclear-smr-poster-boy-cancels-flagship-project-due-to-soaring-costs/>
"NuScale, the controversial proponent of nuclear small modular reactor designs
that has been championed by the federal Coalition and technology ideologues
around the world, has had its flagship project cancelled because of rising
costs.
NuScale is often cited as the company with the most advanced plans on nuclear
SMRs – a technology that does not actually exist in the commercial market – and
had planned to build six such 77 MW reactors in Utah under a much vaunted
proposal.
But the contract has been cancelled because its proposed customers – mostly
municipal based utilities – refused to pay the target price for nuclear power,
which had already jumped earlier this year by 53 per cent to $US89 a megawatt
hour ($A139/MWh), despite a $US30/MWh subsidy from the US government.
The US Department of Energy had bet heavily on the technology, and NuScale
itself, giving it $US600 million since 2014, according to a Reuters report, and
promising a further $US1.35 billion for the Utah project in 2020.
NuScale is the only developer of SMRs to have received a licence from US
nuclear regulators, but had to go back to the drawing board and re-apply after
deciding that the licenced SMR design was too small to be commercial
successful. Now it seems that the bigger units don’t add up either."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
