First SMR (MMR) slated to be built at Chalk River

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OVERKILL

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The last phase of preparation for building a new Nuclear Power Plant in Canada is the Environmental Assessment, which then should allow for a construction permit. The last EA issued was to Ontario Power Generation for the construction of Darlington B, which the government never gave the approval to build. OPG has held onto, and will renew, the EA going forward, in anticipation of building on that site with a different design, which will likely consist of SMR's. You can't build the plant if you aren't allowed to spend the money
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As I announced previously, Canada developed a Small Modular Reactor roadmap some time back to show its support for 4th gen nuclear technologies. While there are a number of potential test sites made available, the focus of the programme is around development, testing, and decommissioning at the Chalk River location, which has been our historic nuclear testbed location as well as the host of our research reactors for medical purposes. Now that that activity has wound-down, the site is being redeveloped to host these Small Modular Reactors.

Global First Power hopes to, with OPG's support, build the USNC (Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation) MMR (Micro Modular Reactor) at the site, which is what the EA has been granted for. If (likely when) the EA is approved, OPG will likely provide a large portion of the funding necessary to build the unit.

The intended role of this unit would be to power remote communities and mining operations, providing 15MW of thermal potential, which can generate 5MW of electricity, and provide process heat for other purposes. The unit is intended to run for 20 years with no re-fuelling and is essentially a "sealed" system that requires no external cooling. It's drop-in and go.

Further details can be found here:
https://www.marketwatch.com/press-r...tor-featuring-usnc-technology-2019-07-17

This is rather exciting news, as there are expected to be roughly 7 of these designs built at Chalk River, which will then provide a tested suite of choices for utilities to choose from as to what best compliments their system. This means units like the Moltex SSR "wasteburner" would be an obvious choice for OPG and Bruce Power, but not so much for utilities like NS Power or Alberta Power, who don't have any existing nuclear fuel stores.

Very exciting times here up in the GWN, and I am impressed at the rate at which this is all unfolding
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Originally Posted by d00df00d
Nice. So good to see nuclear power expanding.


slowly.
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Originally Posted by eljefino
Originally Posted by d00df00d
Nice. So good to see nuclear power expanding.


slowly.
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Yes indeed!
 
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