Dive Brief:

• State energy regulators and officials can strengthen the business case for advanced nuclear reactor deployment through cogeneration arrangements, where nuclear plants produce electricity while providing additional services for customers, the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners and the National Association of State Energy Officials said in a report published earlier this month.
• Opportunities include distributed electric power operations for data centers and high-load users, electricity and waste heat applications like district heating and desalination, and high-temperature process heat production for heavy industry, according to the report.
• These applications “will help to unlock opportunities for continuous nuclear production during on- and off-peak hours [and] provide additional revenues to enable first-of-a-kind … and early development of advanced nuclear projects,” the report said.

Dive Insight:

The NARUC/NASEO report defines advanced reactors as both Generation III+ designs that pair familiar light-water cooling with passive safety systems and Generation IV designs that use non-water liquids or gasses for cooling and generally require high-assay low-enriched uranium fuel, or HALEU. 

The U.S. has no operational Gen IV reactors, though TerraPower began non-nuclear construction in June at the Wyoming site of its planned 345-MW commercial demonstration reactor. The 1,117-MW Westinghouse AP-1000 reactors operating at Plant Vogtle units 3 and 4 in Georgia qualify as Gen III+ reactors.

Gen III+ and Gen IV reactors can operate at higher temperatures than previous reactor generations, expanding their usefulness for processes that require heat as well as electricity, NARUC and NASEO said. 

Several states have in recent years allocated funding to attract advanced nuclear reactor technologies to support cogeneration arrangements or behind-the-meter electricity production.

For example, Tennessee — home of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where Kairos Power is building advanced test reactors that use a novel uranium fuel form — established a $50 million nuclear fund last year to support reactor research, development and deployment. 

Also last year, Virginia authorized a $10 million nuclear fund to support a “nuclear innovation hub” in the state. This year, the state authorized Dominion Energy to seek a rate adjustment for a possible small modular reactor deployment at the North Anna nuclear power plant site. A state-commissioned feasibility study last year identified seven potential SMR sites in southwest Virginia, where the Energy DELTA Lab hopes to power a 1-GW data center complex and hydrogen production facility with low-carbon electricity.

On the other side of Virginia, the Surry Green Energy Center has a similar vision for a 1-GW data center complex and hydrogen production powered — eventually — by four to six SMRs.

Advanced nuclear reactors can support a range of energy-intensive activities beyond data center operations and hydrogen production, according to the NARUC/NASEO report. These include distributed electric power applications for resource extraction and national defense, electricity and waste heat applications for district heating, desalination and direct air capture, and high-temperature process heat applications for the production of chemicals, steel, glass and cement, the report said.

The report noted several U.S. and international examples of active or under-development cogeneration or behind-the-meter projects using advanced nuclear reactors:

• A proposal to deploy a BWXT high-temperature gas reactor to support mining operations in Wyoming, funded by $10 million from the state’s Energy Matching Funds program. 
• Advanced nuclear reactors currently supplying district heating to about 400,000 people in Russia and China.
• A 950-MW reactor powering a large-scale desalination facility in Russia.
• Studies in the U.S. and United Kingdom of the potential for nuclear reactors to power facilities capturing carbon dioxide from ambient air.
• A partnership between Dow Chemical and X-energy to deploy 320 MWe of nuclear generating capacity at a Texas petrochemical plant in Texas.
• The U.S. Department of Defense’s Project PELE microreactor initiative, which would support small, portable high-temperature gas reactors at remote sites.

The U.S. Army in June sought proposals for a second defense initiative that would enable on-base deployment of microreactors to reduce the Army’s reliance on grid electricity and backup diesel generation.