Mass Production of Floating Nuclear Plants for US Coast

The UK-based company Core Power has announced its plans to mass-produce a fleet of floating nuclear power plants (FNPPs) with advanced reactor design and modular shipbuilding, aiming to anchor them off the US coast in about 10 years.

Challenges in Nuclear Sector Growth

Nuclear power is experiencing something of a resurgence, with many countries turning to the technology to meet their energy needs. However, the main challenge for growing the nuclear sector is not reactor manufacturing, but civil engineering.Acquiring land for building foundations and plant facilities, as well as navigating a complex maze of permits and licenses, ties up a significant amount of time and costs.

To overcome these challenges and accelerate production, Core Power plans to use a Generation 4 reactor design combined with conventional modular shipbuilding methods, enabling large-scale production of floating nuclear plants. This project is referred to as the “Liberty program,” a nod to the famous Liberty ships of World War II, which were built at a rapid pace of just four days per hull.

At the core of these “atomic Liberty ships” will be a compact molten salt reactor, an advanced version of a design first developed in the 1950s. Instead of using fuel rods in pressurized water as a neutron moderator and coolant, these reactors use nuclear fuel mixed with molten salt at normal atmospheric pressure.

Benefits of Molten Salt Reactors

Despite its disadvantages, molten salt reactors offer several advantages: they are compact, mechanically simple, largely cooled by passive circulation, and are not prone to runaway nuclear meltdowns, which should ease concerns from neighboring communities.Workers can easily maintain them by filtering out spent fuel from the salt mixture and replacing it with fresh fuel regularly. However, Core Power claims that their reactors will not require refueling during their service life.

The key innovation is that by installing the reactors in ships, operators can easily move them to where they are needed without dealing with excessive bureaucracy or environmental exclusion zones. Additionally, they can relocate them if demand changes or the local political climate worsens. They can also send them back to a central facility for maintenance or disposal.By positioning plants along coastlines, they will be near areas of high demand.

While the concept of floating nuclear plants is not new, with reactors powering submarines and ships since the USS Nautilus in 1954 and the first floating power plant dating back to 1967, Russia revived the idea in 2019, and both the US and the UK have shown increasing interest in recen

Future Plans and Ambitions

Core Power, however, aims to take it a step further. In addition to mass-producing floating reactors, the company states that these plants are just the first phase of a long-term program. The ultimate goal is not only to place reactors on ships but to use them as a common form of commercial propulsion.Furthermore, these reactors can also power desalination and green hydrogen production for other energy applications.

Core Power plans to open its order books in 2028, with commercial deliveries beginning in the 2030s.

“The Liberty program will unlock a floating power market worth $2.6 trillion, and shipyard construction of nuclear plants will be on time and on budget,” said Core Power CEO Mikal Bøe. “Given that 65% of economic activity takes place on the coast, this will allow nuclear to reach new markets. Core Power’s Liberty program will provide resilient energy security for heavy industry and ocean transport. In doing so, it will revolutionize the maritime sector and transform global trade.”

Read the original article on: New Atlas

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