Bruce and NuScale collaborate on Canadian SMR business case
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Under the agreement, Bruce Power will support evaluation, planning and licensing activities including studies on the impacts of deployment of a NuScale plant in the province of Ontario; feasibility studies for proposed SMR sites; and other risk evaluation exercises to show how SMR deployment can be beneficial for Canada.
NuScale Chairman and CEO John Hopkins said: "Bruce Power's expertise in managing nuclear plants as a private company adds additional valuable experience as we move into the Canadian market."
Mike Rencheck, president and CEO of Bruce Power, said the NuScale design had "advanced to a stage where Bruce Power can participate in understanding and developing a conceptual business case as part of our efforts to provide low-cost, clean, reliable electricity to Canadian families and businesses".
Privately owned Bruce Power operates 6400 MWe of nuclear capacity, providing 30% of Ontario's electricity. In May, it announced a partnership with the Country of Bruce to establish the Nuclear Innovation Institute as an international centre of excellence for applied research and training, which will evaluate applications for new nuclear technologies, including SMRs.
Today's announcement follows an MoU NuScale signed earlier this month with Ontario Power Generation Inc. to support its vendor design review (VDR) with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.
NuScale's self-contained SMR design houses the reactor core, pressuriser and steam generator inside a single containment vessel. A single module can generate 50 MWe (gross) of electricity and at just under 25 metres in length, 4.6 metres in diameter and weighing 450 tonnes, incorporates "simple, redundant, diverse, and independent safety features". As well as the VDR in Canada, Bruce is undergoing design certification review by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission - the first and so far only SMR to do so.
The NRC is scheduled to complete its safety evaluation report in August 2020 and NuScale expects the application to be approved the following month.
Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems plans to develop a 12-module NuScale plant at a site at the Idaho National Laboratory, with deployment expected in the mid-2020s.
