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mheslep
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B&W just announced a small 125MW(e) LWR using 5% enriched PWR fuel. Not certified yet. Still not very cheap (at least in the US) at $5000/kW, though with 1/10th the investment of the Westinghouse AP1000 designs perhaps more utilities will line up. The catch would be insuring that the red tape costs per site also scale down, which I http://www.cleveland.com/ohio-utilities/index.ssf/2009/06/new_nuclearl.html" . One aspect of the smaller scale that jumps out is that alleviates the problem of casting the huge containment vessels of 1100MWe designs (which, what, as discussed in PF only a foundry in Japan still has the online capacity to make?)
http://www.babcock.com/library/pdf/mpower.pdf
http://atomicinsights.blogspot.com/2009/06/b-mpower-tm-reactor-who-says-america-is.html
http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital/2009/06/11/honey-i-shrunk-the-reactor-small-nukes-arrive/
Correction: B&W says the price is less than the $5k/kW cited for larger designs, but says no more than that.
http://www.babcock.com/library/pdf/mpower.pdf
http://atomicinsights.blogspot.com/2009/06/b-mpower-tm-reactor-who-says-america-is.html
http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital/2009/06/11/honey-i-shrunk-the-reactor-small-nukes-arrive/
Correction: B&W says the price is less than the $5k/kW cited for larger designs, but says no more than that.
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