The BWRX-300 SMR is currently in the licensing phase.
© GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy
Both the company Microsoft as well as the Microsoft founder Bill Gates themselves see nuclear energy as an important means against the global warming. A lot of potential is so-called mini nuclear power plants attributed. However, this type of power plant is an umbrella term for many different types of nuclear energy. Both Microsoft and Gates are concentrating on 3 types.
Small Modular Reactors (SMR)
Small Modular Reactors or also Mini Nuclear Power Plants are significantly smaller and should therefore be significantly cheaper to build. Typically, such microreactors deliver an electrical output of less than 10 Megawatt up to maximal 500 Megawatt. For comparison: Conventional reactors have an output of more than 1.000 Megawatt. The advantage of Small Modular Reactors is that components can be efficiently and mass-produced in factories. On site they can construction work be reduced so drastically, which lowers the costs of the power plants.
The functioning of these reactors can differ significantly. However, most SMRs are conventional light water reactors, which currently contribute about 90 percent of the world’s nuclear energy. Normal water is used as a coolant (in contrast to the heavy water reactorwhere water with the hydrogen isotope deuterium is used).
Also at 300-Megawatt-Reactor BWRX-300 of the US company GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy is such a light water reactor. Microsoft closed in September 2022 a partnership with the Canadian energy utility Ontario Power Generation, the 2029 wants to connect to the grid with such a mini nuclear power plant. The IT company wants its Data center operate with energy from the power plant.
Flüssigmetall-Reaktoren (Liquid Metal Cooled Nuclear Reactor/LMR)
The company founded by Microsoft founder Bill Gates TerraPower is developing a small modular reactor in the US state of Wyoming that uses water instead of water liquid sodium should be cooled. The idea is not new, reactors cooled with sodium are already being used in Russia – for example in various ones U-Boat Classes.
The liquid metal has a far higher boiling point than water (883 degrees Celsius), which TerraPower says should make the reactor safer. In addition, so the efficiency be higher than in conventional nuclear power plants and the fuel can be consumed “cleaner”. The reactor, which is being built jointly with the company GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, should therefore have an output of 345 Megawatt (maximum output over 5.5 hours: 500 megawatts).
The start of operation of the demo power plant was for 2028 planned, but should be at least 2 years late. The reason for this is Russia’s war in Ukraine and the associated collapse of the fuel supply chain. The sodium reactor requires uranium, which can be up to 20 percent met their Isotope Career-235 is enriched. The only commercial dealer for it comes from Russia.
critics criticize that the construction and operation of small, modular reactors significantly more expensive than large nuclear power plants when considering the total energy production. Economies of scale would only become apparent if the number of units exceeded 3.000 SMR occur, like the German Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management calculates.
Besides would renewable energy as the cheapest available energy will increase in the future. Power plants are needed that fluctuation can compensate for this form of energy and can be quickly started up and shut down again. This is not the case with nuclear power plants.
Molten Salt Reactors (MSR)
Gates nuclear company TerraPower is not only working on its own sodium reactor, but also researching it liquid salt reactors. In this type of nuclear reactor, the fuel, in the form of a molten salt, is evenly distributed throughout the reactor circuit. As a result, the pressure in the reactor is much lower and the temperature significantly higher than in conventional light water reactors. Molten salt reactors are more like reactors that are cooled by liquid metal. Because the fuel is already in a molten form, a meltdown not possible.
As a fuel is often a thorium salt used, which is bombarded with neutrons to start a chain reaction. The potential energy yield of thorium fuels is far in excess 90 percent, conventional uranium fuels only come up to 1 to 2 percent. In addition, it takes “only” 300 years for thorium to become non-radioactive. In the case of uranium, this takes several 100,000 years. One disposal is still necessary.
TerraPower uses at his liquid salt reactor a liquid fuel chlorine uranium salt. This method is also said to be safer than conventional reactors, as the molten chlorine salt expands as the temperature rises, slowing down the nuclear reaction at the same time. In addition, in the reactor also spent fuel from other nuclear power plants. This will increase the amount of highly radioactive nuclear waste reduced in the world. A first test reactor should be in the early 2030s be completed.
So far, molten salt reactors have only been 2 Experiments operated in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s. In addition, other nations are also researching such reactors, above all China with its TMSR-LF1 reactor. The prototype, the one thorium fuel used, should have been completed in February 2023, but is currently under construction.
