TVA could take lead for 'mini nuke' plants (Chattanooga Times Free Press)

By: Dave Flessner

The Tennessee Valley Authority is first in line to test a new type of modular nuclear plant that designers boast will be smaller, cheaper and safer than existing reactors.

TVA officials said Wednesday they have taken the first step toward gaining regulatory approval to build up to six new mini-nuclear reactors on the site of the abandoned Clinch River Breeder Reactor in Oak Ridge. In a four-page letter to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, TVA Vice President Jack Bailey said the federal utility "is evaluating the feasibility" of erecting two of the new Babcock & Wilcox-designed "mPower reactors" by 2020.

Each of the new reactors would produce 125 megawatts of electricity -- about 10 percent as much as conventional reactors at TVA's other plants -- and could be built in controlled factory conditions to cut production costs and ensure construction quality.

"The mPower design makes substantial use of modular construction technology which enables major portions of the plant to be fabricated in controlled manufacturing environments and shipped to the site via rail and trucks," Bailey said.

If approved by the TVA board and regulators, TVA would be the first utility to build the new reactor design.
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more: http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2010/nov/11/tva-could-take-lead-for-mini-nuke-plants/

by commonwealth edison in illinois. they knew it was the future but they knew that politically it could`t be done.

...Mark V. Jacobson's paper emailed to them..

They are grasping at straws trying to find a solution to the COST issue, but in doing so they aggrevate the safety issue while doing nothing for the waste and proliferation issues. It is also far from clear that the approach will actually do anything to lower costs since the safety issues will cost money to address.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x264867