- IAEA – SMRs in a Period of “ Epochal Change”
- IAEA Initiative to Streamline SMR Deployment Moving to Implementation Phase
Rafael Grossi / SMR Sector Facing ‘Epochal Change’ As Major Industries Turn To Nuclear
- They are asking us to deliver, IAEA head tells Vienna conference
(NucNet) The small modular reactor industry is in a period of “epochal change” as major industries turn to nuclear as the most direct, efficient, reliable source of energy to power everything from data centers to ships, an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) conference heard during two week of meeting s on the topic of the future of SMRs.
The agency’s director-general, Rafael Grossi, told the International Conference on SMRs at the IAEA’s headquarters in Vienna that “now there is a market out there” for SMRs, although he warned there is a degree of uncertainty on “whether we are going to be able to deliver on time and in the scale that is required”.
Grossi said: “We are all looking at how industries, and in particular AI [artificial intelligence] and the IT industry, the big, big firms in the world, the Googles of this world and the Microsofts of this world are now knocking at the door of nuclear.
“They are not coming to nuclear for an idea or information,” he said. They are requesting nuclear to deliver.”
Grossi said it is not only big tech that is looking to nuclear. He said he has been talking to the steel industry, the shipping industry and the coal energy companies and “they are all looking at nuclear”, particularly SMRs, which can decarbonize industries, power economies and help meet global net zero goals.
The conference follows a number of major announcements in recent weeks from technology companies that are planning to use SMRs to provide electricity for their businesses, particularly for data center and AI operations.
Background: Big Tech’s Big SMR Deals
Amazon said it is buying a stake in US nuclear developer X-energy, as part of a collaboration with the company aimed at deploying SMRs to provide electricity to power its data centers.
Google announced that it will back the construction of seven small SMRs from Kairos Power, becoming the first tech company to commission new nuclear power plants for data centers.
What’s interesting about these choices by Amazon and Google is that they did not choose light water reactors, which by any yardstick, have a faster time to market than advanced reactors.
According to Grossi, SMRs are one of the most promising, exciting, and necessary developments in nuclear energy.
“A growing number of countries are turning to SMRs to power their economies and the IAEA is supporting them through our SMR platform,” he said.
“Financing will be key, and we are working to open doors, as we have seen for renewables, to ensure efficient progress.”
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IAEA Initiative to Streamline SMR Deployment Moving to Implementation Phase
(IAEA Press Office) Global efforts to converge different types of small modular reactor technologies as well as their regulatory approaches are continuing to make strong progress, according to the latest meeting of the IAEA’s Nuclear Harmonization and Standardization Initiative.
The initiative, known as NHSI, was set up because the global deployment of advanced reactors and particularly SMRs requires a standardized design to be licensed in several countries in order to be quick and efficient, and for developers to achieve economies of scale. Harmonized regulatory approaches are also vital to enable fast and safe deployment of SMRs.
The third plenary meeting of NHSI was held in Vienna this week, prior to the opening to the Agency’s International Conference on Small Modular Reactors and their Applications, and covered progress so far, as well as discussions on the suggested direction for the next phase.
IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi opened the annual meeting, saying: “Hardly a day passes without very exciting news of some company striking a deal or somebody saying that it’s going to be doing something important and exciting in SMRs. NHSI is about what goes behind the headlines, what goes behind the expectations.”
The Director general added that SMRs are both “what the market needs and what the planet needs.”
Regulatory Convergence
“The global deployment of SMRs will need a degree of regulatory convergence,” added Mr Grossi. “We’re not aiming at unison, as it’s impossible, but without some degrees of concrete collaboration where we can leverage what others are doing, the business model of modularity and flexibility is simply not going to work.”
Industry Track
Aline des Cloizeaux, Director, Division of Nuclear Power of the IAEA, explained the vision of the project is to “to make nuclear simpler while keeping it safe and secure”.
She added: “We are paving the way for SMR projects that are faster, simpler and more economical to deploy.”
The industry track of NHSI has had more than 200 contributors from over 30 countries and has worked in four main areas of harmonization, including end user requirements, and collaboration on computer codes for monitoring the safety and performance of advanced nuclear reactors (NEXSHARE).
The short-term goals are to map pathways and reduce timelines and costs to both vendors and customers; to facilitate common approaches for regulatory approvals; and to gather lessons learned from SMR deployment models – with the long-term goal of preparing industry, end-users and countries for large-scale SMR deployment.
Regulatory Track
Anna Hajduk Bradford, Director of the IAEA’s Division of Nuclear Installation Safety, explained the goals of the second track of the initiative.
“The long-term aspiration of the NHSI regulatory track is the development of a global framework for regulatory reviews of advanced reactors. This is an ambitious goal.”
Steps towards that goal include building a high level of trust among regulatory bodies and an understanding of commonalities and differences among regulatory frameworks in different countries.
NHSI has been working closely with national regulators while “always ensuring the member states’ keep their own sovereignty and decision making,” Bradford added.
“In addition, we envisage the establishment of a dedicated working group on nuclear security of SMRs, which will serve as another important resource for Member States.”
International Debate
Dozens of countries also gave their thoughts on NHSI’s progress so far and plans for the future. There was widespread agreement on the value of the work done in the first phase, and the direction planned for the second phase, with many topics raised for ongoing consideration.
Christer Viktorsson, Director General, Federal Authority For Nuclear Regulation (FANR), United Arab Emirates said:
“It is clear this initiative is having an effect, it is already creating momentum for working towards harmonization and standardization. It’s clear that Phase II should focus on the implementation of projects from Phase I.”
Paul Fyfe from the United Kingdom’s Office For Nuclear Regulation (ONR) agreed:
“Cooperation and collaboration between industry and regulators is key. The UK ONR strongly supports Phase II. There’s a real need for this work to be done.”
Marcus Nichol Executive Director for New Nuclear from the United States’ Nuclear Energy Institute agreed:
“We share your visions that you articulated for both the industry track and to facilitate the regulatory frameworks and reduce unnecessary design changes, so we appreciate that. All of the proposals for Phase II are on the right track, all of those areas will be valuable.”
Representatives from regulators and industry spoke on a range of other questions relating to safeguards; safety and security issues; information sharing with newcomer countries; confidentiality; avoiding duplication of work; collaboration between regulators, designers and operators; choosing the best priorities; and ensuring technical experts are consulted.
Next Phase for NHSI
NHSI is now moving to the next phase, which will be to implement many of the recommendations the working groups have come up with.
Phase II will also focus on providing tools to help understand regulatory commonalities and differences better, it will examine technology-specific user requirements and explore what is needed to facilitate the approval of what is known as long-lead items.
The Value of SMRs
Nuclear power is the second-largest source of low carbon electricity today, following hydropower, and accounts for about 25% of the world’s clean electricity. While currently operating reactors continue to be at the forefront of electricity decarbonization in many countries, nuclear innovation is bringing forth new technologies and designs such as SMRs, which may offer a viable option for achieving clean and abundant energy accessible to more countries.
SMRs have a power capacity of typically up to 300 MW —about one third of the generating capacity of a traditional nuclear power reactor. Their components may be mass manufactured in factories and then transported and installed on sites, which may make them more affordable and faster to build.
SMRs may also be sited in remote locations and in areas lacking sufficient transmission lines and grid capacity. Finally, SMRs are being considered for both electric and non-electric applications and are suitable for flexible operation, providing stability to electrical grids in integrated energy systems that combine nuclear, variable renewables, and energy storage to provide resilient and clean energy supply to different users in the form of heat, electricity, and hydrogen.
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