Key Takeaways
- EPRI’s Advanced Nuclear Technology research is designed to help nuclear power stakeholders construct and operate nuclear energy more profitably, efficiently, and safely.
- Reports such as our Owner-Operators Guide and Siting Guide compile insights from decades of experience to help utilities, reactor designers, and plant constructors improve their operations and reduce costs and timelines.
- Our Advanced Reactor Roadmap outlines the strategies, actions, and priorities for the successful deployment and commercialization of advanced reactor technologies.
EPRI is committed to helping the energy industry reach its decarbonization goals. Specifically, our Advanced Nuclear Technology program conducts research to analyze, develop, and facilitate the deployment of next-generation nuclear reactors to decarbonize the energy sector by 2050.
This program’s research benefits utilities, reactor developers, regulators, constructors, manufacturers, and the general public. In this article, we’ll highlight some of our recent reports that will help make advanced reactor deployment safer, more economically feasible, and more effective.
The Advanced Nuclear Technology program has handpicked these reports because we believe these exciting advancements deliver substantial value to our members and the wider community.
In This Article
- Advanced Reactor Roadmap Phase 1: North America
- Owner-Operator Requirements Guide (ORG) for Advanced Reactors
- Siting Guide for New Nuclear Energy Generation Facilities
- Robotic Process Automation for Nuclear Power Plants: Near-Term Opportunities
- Small Modular Reactor Vessel Manufacture and Fabrication: Phase 1 Progress
Advanced Reactor Roadmap Phase 1: North America
Innovations in the nuclear energy industry are rapidly progressing to implement new reactor designs, technologies, and techniques.
Advanced reactors are expected to be deployed and commercialized in the 2030s and could be required to meet global decarbonization goals. However, coordination among stakeholders is essential to overcoming the remaining hurdles in advanced reactor deployment.
We created our Advanced Reactor Roadmap to outline the critical strategies and support actions necessary for the successful large-scale deployment of advanced reactors.
The report outlines an approach framed to allow a realistic, phased, and risk-managed approach to deploying advanced nuclear technology.
Establishing, advancing, and expanding to scale is the basis for pursuing industry priorities by setting up early wins, de-risking for owners, and creating fast followers.
We outline 46 key actions divided into 13 strategic categories that are prioritized to identify the most important actions that make the greatest contribution to delivering value to the market and achieving success.
Read the freely available report to learn the industry’s top priorities here.
Owner-Operator Requirements Guide (ORG) for Advanced Reactors
The ORG compiles the most up-to-date information on the needs and expectations of the many parties involved in power plant deployment. It includes both high-level overviews and specific detailed analyses that will help ensure success for all nuclear power stakeholders, especially the owner-operators.
Deploying advanced reactors is a complex operation involving several different stakeholders, including:
- Utilities
- Reactor developers
- Constructors
- Manufacturers
- Regulators
It is essential for each stakeholder to understand the needs, desires, specifications, and capabilities of the others for advanced reactors to succeed.
EPRI created the ORG to be a living document that is continuously updated to reflect the state of the industry. We brought together all stakeholders who will be at the forefront of deploying the next generation of nuclear reactors to understand their needs, and we compiled our findings into this document.
The ORG also contains guidelines for reactor technology developers and vendors that help ensure their designs are well-aligned with the needs of owner-operators and end-users.
While most advanced reactor designs are still being developed, the ORG lays the groundwork and will assist in their deployment once commercially available.
The guide is freely available to the public and can be accessed here.
Siting Guide for New Nuclear Energy Generation Facilities
Before an owner-operator can build a new nuclear plant, they must gain regulatory approval. Before applying for regulatory approval, a site must be selected. This comes with significant challenges and potential costs, such as land purchases.
EPRI has helped utilities select sites for new nuclear builds for decades. Our Siting Guide outlines our time-tested methods for selecting a site and comparing alternatives.
The guide was updated in 2015 to incorporate site-selection guidelines for small modular reactors. More recently, the 2022 update reflects a shift towards advanced reactor technologies with significantly different opportunities and requirements for deployment.
Site selection usually takes at least one year and includes important business and regulatory considerations, which are outlined in this document.
While this guide is based on siting regulations in the U.S. and follows the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), its methodology can be applied to new nuclear builds worldwide.
Advanced reactors come in a variety of forms and have a wide range of new siting criteria. Many advanced reactor designs have smaller land requirements, and some can be placed closer to more densely populated areas or decommissioned plants.
This guide provides an analytical framework to help owner-operators and reactor designers deploy new reactors in the most cost-effective, safest manner possible.
The guide is freely available to the public – access it here.
Robotic Process Automation for Nuclear Power Plants: Near-Term Opportunities
Operations and maintenance (O&M) costs can influence whether or not a power plant will make money in electricity markets. To remain economically competitive in the current electricity industry, nuclear power plants need to reduce O&M costs as much as reasonable.
In this report, we analyze the ways that O&M costs can be reduced using modern robotics and automation to make nuclear plants more economically competitive.
Robotics can reduce maintenance timelines and even perform some maintenance operations without requiring a costly full shutdown. Using robots can make several key O&M procedures safer, without exposing human staff to job hazards like radiation or submerged conditions.
Robots and drones can also gather information and more reliable data from inspections to give a repeatedly documented analysis of reactor conditions and maintenance needs. Automated maintenance processes require significantly less oversight as well.
These are just a few of the emerging cost-saving abilities of robotics in nuclear energy production.
This report is freely available to the public. It can be accessed here.
Small Modular Reactor Vessel Manufacture and Fabrication: Phase 1 Progress
While most manufacturing and fabrication techniques used in the nuclear industry are 30-50 years old, modern techniques have the potential to significantly reduce costs and timelines for reactor component fabrication.
EPRI is working with other organizations to apply new manufacturing techniques to demonstrate their viability and potential to reduce costs. In particular, we’re constructing a ⅔ scale pressure vessel for the NuScale Power Module™ small modular reactor, with a goal to reduce the pressure vessel construction timeline to less than one year and reduce fabrication costs by at least 40%.
Another advanced manufacturing technique being tested is electron beam welding, which has been predicted to reduce large vessel girth weld times by up to 90%.
EPRI also uses bulk additive manufacturing, powder metallurgy-hot isostatic pressing (PM-HIP), diode laser cladding, and advanced machining to assess their potential for reducing costs and construction times.
Beyond pressure vessels, the insights we’re gaining about these manufacturing and fabricating techniques can be applied to reduce costs and timelines for many other parts inside nuclear reactors, especially in advanced reactor designs.
The latest report describes our second-year findings and progress. It is freely available to the public and can be accessed here.
This article is one of many developed by EPRI’s Advanced Nuclear Technology program. Stay up-to-date on the newest nuclear technologies by becoming a member today.