Skip to main content
Elsevier

Small Modular Reactors

Nuclear Power Fad or Future?

  • 1st Edition - November 19, 2015
  • Latest edition
  • Author: Daniel T Ingersoll
  • Language: English

There is currently significant interest in the development of small modular reactors (SMRs) for the generation of both electricity and process heat. SMRs offer potential be… Read more

Description

There is currently significant interest in the development of small modular reactors (SMRs) for the generation of both electricity and process heat. SMRs offer potential benefits in terms of better affordability and enhanced safety, and can also be sited more flexibly than traditional nuclear plants. Small Modular Reactors: Nuclear Power Fad or Future? reviews SMR features, promises, and problems, also discussing what lies ahead for reactors of this type.

The book is organized into three major parts with the first part focused on the role of energy, especially nuclear energy, for global development. It also provides a brief history of SMRs. The second major part presents basic nuclear power plant terminology and then discusses in depth the attributes of SMRs that distinguish them from traditional nuclear plants. The third and final major section discusses the current interest in SMRs from a customer’s perspective and delineates several remaining hurdles that must be addressed to achieve wide-spread SMR deployment.

Key features

  • Provides decision-makers in governments, business, and research with the needed background on small nuclear power and an overview of the current situation
  • Presents a balanced discussion of the many advantages of SMRs and the challenges they face
  • Written by a highly respected expert in the nuclear industry

Readership

Energy policy makers in government and the power industry.

Table of contents

  • Foreword
  • Preface
  • Acknowledgments
  • Part One. Setting the stage
    • 1. Energy, nuclear power, and small modular reactors
      • 1.1. Fad or future?
      • 1.2. The importance of energy
      • 1.3. New growth of nuclear power: the nuclear renaissance
      • 1.4. Challenges for expanding nuclear power
      • 1.5. New interest in small nuclear power
    • 2. A brief history of small nuclear power (1950-2000)
      • 2.1. Military propulsion and power
      • 2.2. Commercialization of nuclear energy
      • 2.3. Exuberance to exasperation
      • 2.4. Redirecting the nuclear industry
      • 2.5. Early international SMR activities
    • 3. The rise of current small modular reactors (2000-2015)
      • 3.1. Precursors to the nuclear renaissance
      • 3.2. Restarting the nuclear industry
      • 3.3. Restarting the nuclear R&D community
      • 3.4. Renewed interest by the military
      • 3.5. Emergence of contemporary SMR designs in the US
      • 3.6. Slowing of the nuclear renaissance
      • 3.7. International SMR activities
  • Part Two. Fundamentals and features
    • 4. Nuclear power 101: Understanding nuclear reactors
      • 4.1. Basic power plant features and functions
      • 4.2. Reactor generations
      • 4.3. Reactor technology classes
      • 4.4. Big versus small
    • 5. Enhancing nuclear safety
      • 5.1. SMR terminology and basics
      • 5.2. Safety and the nuclear power industry
      • 5.3. Designing beyond safety
      • 5.4. Designing for robustness
      • 5.5. Resilience to Fukushima-type events
      • 5.6. Closing remarks on safety
    • 6. Improving nuclear affordability
      • 6.1. The business of nuclear power
      • 6.2. Rethinking economic metrics
      • 6.3. Affordability
      • 6.4. Economic competitiveness
      • 6.5. Reducing economic risk
    • 7. Expanding nuclear power flexibility
      • 7.1. Size matters
      • 7.2. Benefits of modularity
      • 7.3. Siting benefits
      • 7.4. Adaptability to heat applications
  • Part Three. Promise to reality
    • 8. Customer buzz about small modular reactors
      • 8.1. Emerging countries
      • 8.2. Domestic utilities
      • 8.3. Process heat users
      • 8.4. The US government
    • 9. Getting to the finish line: Deployment challenges and opportunities
      • 9.1. Technical challenges and opportunities
      • 9.2. Institutional challenges and opportunities
      • 9.3. Social challenges and opportunities
      • 9.4. Government roles
    • 10. Fad or future?
      • 10.1. The fad
      • 10.2. The future
      • 10.3. Looking beyond the future
  • Index

Product details

  • Edition: 1
  • Latest edition
  • Published: November 20, 2015
  • Language: English

About the author

DI

Daniel T Ingersoll

Daniel T. Ingersoll, NuScale Power, USA
Affiliations and expertise
NuScale Power, USA

View book on ScienceDirect

Read Small Modular Reactors on ScienceDirect