PORTLAND, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--NuScale Power, LLC announced today that it has completed fabrication and assembly of a full-scale, upper module mockup of its NuScale Power ModuleTM (NPM).
The upper module mockup consists of the top assembly of the NuScale Power Module from the module access platform down to the elevation of the reactor vessel head. The availability of a full-scale mockup with accurately sized and located components will give NuScale’s engineers important insights into the inspection and maintenance activities that are essential to plant operation. Major components that comprise the assembled mockup are:
- The upper portion of the containment vessel
- Reactor vessel head
- Major piping such as steam, feed water, and CVC
- Control rod drive mechanisms
- Major valves such as isolation valves and ECC valves
- The module access platform
The mockup provides the following benefits to NuScale’s design team and stakeholders:
- provides a life-sized replication of a small modular reactor
- provides ability to plan for accessibility, worker safety and OSHA requirements
- supports radiation protection planning (ALARA) to minimize exposure time for refueling and maintenance workers
- supports maintenance planning
- supports inspection planning
- supports fabrication planning
- supports customer and regulator inquiries regarding reactor module configuration
“The fabrication of this full-scale, upper module mockup is an important step in the continued support of our reactor design,” stated Dale Atkinson, NuScale’s Chief Operating Officer and Chief Nuclear Officer. “It provides our engineers with an important opportunity for in-service inspection evaluations which are scheduled to begin in May.”
As the only U.S.-based company established solely for the commercialization of its SMR, NuScale Power has developed a unique and proprietary break-through technology for an innovative, simple, safe, economic and scalable small modular reactor. Natural forces of physics—gravity, convection, and conduction—are used for normal operations and safe shutdown. This eliminates many of the large and complex systems (e.g., reactor coolant pumps, motors, valves, large-diameter reactor coolant system piping) found in today’s nuclear power plants and other SMR designs. As a result, the NuScale plant is safe, simpler, and less expensive to build and operate. At 50 megawatts of electricity (gross) per module, a NuScale power plant can include as many as 12 NuScale Power Modules™ to produce as much as 600 MWe, gross (570 net, nominal, after house loads).
NuScale will host the first NuScale Exposition (NuEx) on August 20-21, 2015 on site in Corvallis, Oregon. NuEx will provide members of the utility community, investors and other interested parties the opportunity to learn more about the US leader in SMR development, tour its facilities, talk with NuScale senior executives, and interface with suppliers and investors. The upper module mockup is just one of several NuScale facilities that will be included in the NuEX tour schedule.
About NuScale Power, LLC
NuScale Power, LLC is developing a new kind of nuclear plant; a safer, smaller, scalable version of pressurized water reactor technology, designed with natural safety features. Fluor Corporation (NYSE: FLR), a global engineering, procurement and construction company with a 60-year history in commercial nuclear power, is the majority investor in NuScale. As the sole winner of the second round of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) competitively-bid, cost-sharing program to develop nuclear small modular reactor (SMR) technology, NuScale’s design offers the benefits of carbon-free nuclear power but takes away the issues presented by the cost of installing large capacity. A nuclear power plant using NuScale’s technology is comprised of individual NuScale Power Modules™, each producing 50 megawatts of electricity (gross) with its own factory-built combined containment vessel and reactor vessel, and its own packaged turbine-generator set. A power plant can include as many as 12 NuScale Power Modules to produce as much as 600 MWe, gross (570 net, nominal, after house loads). The reactor coolant is driven by natural circulation and can be shut down safely with no operator action, no AC or DC power, and no external water. NuScale power plants are scalable - additional modules are added as customer demand for electricity increases. NuScale’s technology also is ideally suited to supply energy for district heating, desalination and other applications. NuScale is headquartered in Portland, Oregon and has offices in Corvallis, OR; Rockville, MD; Atlanta, GA; Charlotte, NC; and Chattanooga, TN. For more information visit: www.nuscalepower.com.
