Latest Nuclear Energy News Aug'21

Latest Nuclear Energy News from around the world:

1. Small Modular Reactors: According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), more than 70 SMR concepts are currently under development in 18 countries. Meanwhile, the global market for SMRs is expected to be $300 billion a year by 2040.
2. India’s nuclear capacity: India’s nuclear power capacity is expected to reach 22,480 MegaWatts by 2031 from the current 6,780 MegaWatts.
3. Nuclear fusion: On 8 August 2021, a laser-initiated experiment at the United States National Ignition Facility (NIF), based at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, made a significant breakthrough by smashing its own 2018 record for energy released from nuclear fusion reactions 23 times over. Fusion takes small atoms and combines them to forge larger atoms. Although, the NIF’s breakthrough is about demonstrating the principle only, it is nevertheless a landmark moment in the decades-long quest to produce fusion energy.The recently formed Fusion Industry Association estimates that more than $2bn of investment has flooded into fusion startups.
4. New Nuclear Designs: The new nuclear designs like NuScale Power in Oregon that will build the first small modular reactor in America, Terrestrial Energy in Canada with their new Integral Molten Salt Reactor (IMSR), or even the new fusion reactor companies like Helion Energy in Redmond, CTFusion in Seattle or Canada’s General Fusion.Versatile Test Reactor can test new types of nuclear reactors that will get ten times the energy of existing reactors and create nuclear waste that is easier to handle and isn’t hot for very long. U.S. nuclear energy innovation in traditional light water reactors has been supported by thermal neutron test reactors like the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) at Idaho National Laboratory.
5. SMR to power hydrogen: Small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) can compete with renewables as a power source for hydrogen electrolysis if they can hit a $65/MWh price benchmark that’s roughly half today’s level, claimed Wood Mackenzie. Current SMR designs are delivering power in the range of $120/MWh or more
6. China in SMR:Prakash Sharma, Wood Mackenzie Asia Pacific head of markets and transitions, said: “By 2050, China will account for nearly half of global operational nuclear capacity which is expected to rise 88% from 2020 to hit 685GW under a 2-degree Celsius scenario.”
7. Advanced Modular Reactor : Stefano Buono’s new company Newcleo, which is incorporated in London, aims initially to develop small 20MW reactors that could be used to power ships or islands.