Westinghouse Electric Co. LLC unveiled plans to develop a new 300-MW small modular reactor modeled on its existing 1,200-MW AP1000 design, which the company said gives the reactor a competitive advantage.
Westinghouse described the AP300 as an ultra-compact, modular-constructed unit leveraging the same single-loop pressurized water reactor technology used in the AP1000, including structural components and control systems. The target cost for each AP300 unit is $1 billion, executives said during a May 4 call.
"The AP300 is the only small modular reactor [SMR] offering available that is based on deployed, operating and advanced reactor technology," Patrick Fragman, Westinghouse's president and CEO, said in a news release. "The launch of the AP300 SMR rounds out the Westinghouse portfolio of reactor technology, allowing us to deliver on the full needs of our customers globally, with a clear line of sight on schedule of delivery and economics."
Given that design, the AP300 "will bring to bear a mature supply chain, constructability lessons learned, fast load-follow capabilities and proven [operations and maintenance] procedures and best practices from 18 reactor years of safe AP1000 operations," the company said in its announcement.
Design certification for the AP300 is anticipated by 2027, followed by site-specific licensing and construction on the first unit toward the end of the decade.
The AP300 design includes a passive safety system that can automatically shut down without operator action and eliminates the need for backup power and cooling supply, according to the company, translating to a simplified design, lower costs and a smaller footprint. The AP300 is also designed to operate with a life cycle of 80 years or more.
Since the AP300 uses technology already approved by regulators in multiple countries, Westinghouse said it will have licensing advantages and "substantially reduces delivery risk for customers."
"Westinghouse has been looking a lot at SMR designs in the past years, but the market was never really there," Fragman said during the call. "We came back with the conclusion that a lot of them would not see the finish line for different reasons. ... Looking at this, we thought, going back to the drawing board, that having a derivative of the AP1000, leveraging the DNA of the AP1000 and offering very attractive economics reusing a lot of the building blocks of the AP1000 was effectively the best chance to be among the first [SMRs] on the finish line."
The AP300 will fill a niche for Westinghouse in its nuclear portfolio, between the larger AP1000 and smaller designs such as a 5-MW microreactor.
The AP300 also could be used for district heating and water desalination, according to the company. Its fast load-follow capabilities make it suited for integration with renewable electric resources, Chief Technology Officer Rita Baranwal said. Baranwal, a former assistant secretary of nuclear energy at the US Energy Department, was named senior vice president in the Energy Services business to lead the team developing the AP300.
The two new reactors under construction at Southern Co.'s Alvin W. Vogtle Nuclear Plant utilize the AP1000 design, with the first of the units on track to enter commercial service in May or June.
The AP300 design differs from a 225-MW SMR design proposal not based on the AP1000 that Westinghouse suspended in 2014, executives said.
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