Climate change threatens the whole world. For this reason, the world is turning to clean energy sources. Nuclear energy provides energy that is largely free of carbon emissions. It can also play an important role in combating climate change. Countries aim to contribute to this fight through the use of small modular nuclear reactors. The USA wanted to make a breakthrough in this regard. But on Wednesday, the company and utility that planned to build the first small, nuclear facility in the United States announced it was canceling the project.
The first small nuclear facility planned to be built in the USA was canceled!
Unfortunately, global warming has increased due to the effect of greenhouse gases. Glaciers, the world’s drinkable water sources, are melting. Even though our planet’s water mass is greater than its land mass, ocean waters are not drinkable. The world is trying to combat this situation. It is taking steps to fight climate change.
But in most industrialized countries, the construction of nuclear power plants greatly exceeds their budgeted costs. The USA was preparing to take very important steps in this regard. A company in the United States was planning to build the first small, modular nuclear power plant. But bad news came. The company and the utility announced that they were canceling the project.
So what is the importance of these small nuclear facilities? Small modular reactors potentially reduce costs. Its smaller dimensions make it easier for passive cooling systems to be activated in case of power loss. Some designs even keep their reactors in just one pool. It also allows primary components to be built in a central facility and then shipped to different plant sites. It also enables the reuse of much of the production equipment across all facilities using the reactors.
The US has approved only one design for a small, modular nuclear reactor developed by the company NuScale Power. The government’s Idaho National Laboratory was working to help build the Carbon-Free Energy Project. According to the plan, the national laboratory would maintain several of the first reactors in the region. Additionally, some nearby utilities would purchase energy from the rest.
However, things did not go as expected. However, with renewable energy prices falling rapidly, the economics of the project deteriorated. Backers began to withdraw from the project. The last straw came on Wednesday.
NuScale and its primary service partner, Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems, announced that the Carbon-Free Energy Project no longer had sufficient additional service partners and was therefore canceled. In a statement, the duo acknowledged that “it seems unlikely that the project will have sufficient subscriptions to continue distribution.”