Westinghouse, Missouri utilities promote Westinghouse Small Modular Reactor
strongest backing from NexStart members, the state of Missouri, labor unions, elected and university officials, and a host of economic development, business and industry leaders who want to back the team with the best capabilities,” said Goossen.
Scott Bond, manager of Nuclear Development at Ameren Missouri and NexStart SMR Alliance co-chair, said of the announcement: “This alliance will be key in helping to secure funding to build the first SMR at Ameren Missouri’s Callaway Energy Center. Callaway has an excellent operational record and the highest ratings for safety and security offered by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. We have been doing business with Westinghouse for more than half a century and we believe in their capabilities to deliver on the DOE’s challenge. We understand the potential for Missouri to become the global hub for an American-made SMR and we are pleased to be a part of this important energy and economic advancement.”
The Westinghouse SMR is a 225 MWe integral pressurized water reactor (PWR), with all primary components located inside of the reactor vessel. It utilizes passive safety systems and proven components, as well as modular construction techniques — all realized and already licensed in the nuclear industry-leading AP1000® nuclear power plant design — to achieve the highest level of safety and reduced number of components required. Westinghouse believes that this proven approach will provide licensing, construction and operational certainty that no other SMR supplier can match with competitive economics.
Marilyn Kray, Exelon’s vice president of Nuclear Project Development, and member of the NexStart SMR Alliance said: “The Westinghouse AP1000 nuclear power plant design being built in the U.S. are the direct result of DOE investment in American companies to benefit public energy policy objectives. This opportunity to join together to leverage previous federal investment in Westinghouse’s licensed passive safety system, but for a smaller sized reactor, has tremendous potential to produce another advancement in U.S. nuclear energy technology leadership.” Kray led NuStart Energy Development, LLC, a successful Nuclear Power 2010 effort that successfully utilized DOE cost-shared funds to produce rapid licensing of the larger AP1000 plant design.
Westinghouse says its SMR is the company’s next product innovation building upon the concepts and advances in technology achieved in the Westinghouse AP1000 nuclear power plant design, the first and only Generation III+ reactor to receive Design Certification from the U.S. NRC, initially in 2006 and again in 2011. Currently, four AP1000 units are being built in China with the first unit expected to come online in 2013, and another four AP1000 units are being built in the United States, the first unit of which is expected to come online in 2016.
