The Romanian public was surprised by his announcement that the United States plans to build a small-scale experimental nuclear reactor (SMR) in Romania and will export the technology to other countries in the region. I love you. There are many outstanding issues related to technology and publishing in Romania. In any case, it will be difficult to achieve the stated goal of replacing coal-fired power plants, which account for the largest share of Romania’s electricity production, over the next 11 years.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, 67 modular nuclear reactors are under development worldwide. One is NuScale Power Module NP (NPM), whose founder signed an agreement with Nuclearelectricia, the Romanian operator of the Cernavoda nuclear power plant, on November 4 to build the first modular nuclear reactor. NuScale Power LLC. It will build its first reactor in Romania by 2028.
The differentiating SMRs from conventional power plants, which also operate in Cernavoda, is that they can be manufactured due to their size, while the older ones have to be built. For example, a NuScale reactor unit would be only about 20 meters high and less than 5 meters wide – not counting the turbines and generators, of course. The reactor planned in Romania is slated to consist of six such units, but NuScale plans to install a total of 12 units on the same site with one common control room.
However, the mystery remains great
There are many similar developments in the US anyway, although, as the US Embassy in Bucharest said, only NuScale has had its plan authorized by the relevant nuclear regulatory authority. The letter also notes that the Romanian reactor is due to be delivered “two years before its use in the United States.” In other words, the first 77 MW unit will be produced in 2027, and production at the six-module reactor in Romania can start a year later.
At least that’s the theory.
In practice, we can not talk about the final technical parameters yet. For example, in an International Atomic Energy Agency publication last year, NuScale units still have a capacity of 60 megawatts, according to the company’s announcement. Most importantly, SMEs do not have a developed business model. In other words, the technology may be technically excellent, but it is not economical. The fact that this problem may arise is demonstrated only by the fact that so far only one SMR has been operated, including in the Russian Arctic, where profitability is not a primary consideration for the Moscow government.
However, how painful is it?
Incidentally, neither President Klaus Iohannis nor the later Energy Minister, who personally helped with the agreement between NuScale and Nuclearelectrica, mentioned the money. However, the US Embassy in Bucharest, citing NuScale estimates, said the cost could be as high as $3.5 billion per gigawatt. Of course, this does not mean at all, as a mathematical example, whether the size of the 66 megawatt reactor just announced has been tapped from $231 million, while the regulatory burden of nuclear investment has already been included in the estimated value of $ 3.5. billion per 1,000 megawatts (which exists for a nuclear reactor regardless of size) and the commercial implications of the $450 million grant that NuGc provided to NuScale for development and licensing costs.
Even if the SMR technology eventually proves to work, the numbers aren’t right.
Only 16 NuScale units will be needed to replace the 1,285-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Mentea, which closed last year, and 42 units in the Oltenia power complex can be replaced by 42 reactor units. Even if the first one is completed by 2028, it’s hard to imagine that half a hundred more in the next four years, or an estimated $11 billion to date (the Russian equivalent of a Russian loan to build Paks II), will be put into production.
