Is This New Small Reactor Too Late to the SMR Party? 

Thanks god they started working on it, SMRs are certainly useful for limited areas. I have doubts about the price and construction delays by Westinghouse because their numbers look too good considering what was going on in the past. South Korea and Russia are so good at making cheaper large plants, SMRs will probably have hard time competing with them. Thanks for bringing this much needed videos.

I don´t think AP300 is too late. There, many countries here in EU are thinking about them preparing to implement them in the future. Eastern Europe is known for widespread use of multiple VVER440 on site. Here we love idea of building multiple cheaper and small units instead of few big units. Slovakian NPP Mochovce 3 and 4 already under construction (unit 3 ramping up production already) with cost of 6.2 billion euros for two 470MWe unit. There is aging NPP Bohunice V2 (end of life 2044 and 2045), it will need replace with more powerful plant. Which one is better 4-6 AP300 costing lets say 7-10 billion euros or two big reactors with price tag 15-20bilion euros? Other VVER440 plants will need similar upgrades in Czechia, Hungary, Ukraine and Poland is too very interested in SMRs. I would say, EU is quite big market for those smaller reactors to compete and more players we get all around the world is only better for end users and market. World needs to build lots of smaller reactors not few big, big rectors are by my view dead end. Big reactor projects are complicated, prone to be unique so supply chains needs to be built with every one poject again and again making them expensive and prone to delays.

My hypothesis is that in markets like the US and Europe, full size reactors are a very tough sell because electricity demand is basically flat. Markets like China have an easier time because their demand is still growing. These smaller reactors are more suitable for keeping pace with retirements.

I didn't notice the different style. Your willingness to look at the pros and cons, makes this a more trustworthy channel (IMO).

Thank you for this most informative video. I have recently discovered your channel and enjoy the content very much. As a not-at-all nerdy hobby I study nuclear reactors, with an emphasis on the RBMK/ CANDU and fast reactors because they pique my interest as well. Your channel has great info as to where the development of nuclear power currently is. The videos are clear and concise without too much clutter in the way. Keep up the good work!

This video was interesting. I like the setup with your ‘set’. It’s tidy and minimal without looking to empty. It fits the tone of the content well and makes stuff easy to watch.

Hi there…great video! I personally think this is a very smart play by Westinghouse because they are able to provide an SMR offering simply by providing a “little brother” to the AP1000. When you say the SMR field is crowded…is that really true? Or is it more true to say that there are a lot of hopeful startups who never built a nuclear plant before? The most serious SMR contender, the BWRX-300 by GEH, will be a popular choice and they will be very busy. You question the true modularity of the AP300, but that is even more true of the BWRX-300. It is just a small boiling water reactor with natural circulation, but really not much is factory-made. I think demand will outstrip supply - they will not be able to scale to the demand. NuScale and Rolls Royce are both in trouble. NuScale has had some pretty serious cost overruns and their First of a Kind is hanging in the balance still. Rolls Royce is having trouble filling out its order book with commitments so that they can build a factory. Those two might sort it out, they might not. Terrestrial and Terra power both been very quiet lately. Terrapower has some problems because they need HALEU fuel and the supply got disrupted cuz they can’t get it from Russian anymore. Who else then? Last energy, X-energy and Kairos are all interesting but vastly smaller and less experienced companies. After that, you get the micro-reactors, another market. At the end of the day, I personally believe the way forward for nuclear is to build big and build a fleet. We are not going to reach our decarbonization targets 300MWs at a time. However, I don’t hate the AP300 at all. For Westinghouse customers, there is now another option, and the company can provide it without the horrendous cost of developing a separate product.

I experienced AP1000 in China(Haiyang and Sanmen) last 20 years, and I look forward to AP300 being popular in future. Right now I am in Canada hard to find the right position not as I did in China, shame. I could only design Civil commercial building projects. But for the future, I would love to come back to the series of AP.

It does not matter when it was introduced or started construction. Its when it start selling power

Just a bit of clarification. The AP1000 was based on the approved design of the AP600, so they will more likely be down scaling the AP600 design not the AP1000 design. Although the changes made to the AP600 design weren’t significant to create the AP1000. As for time line, 72 hours of long term battery needed for certain component functions that require power. Once initiated, before the 72 hours, the plant is in natural circulation cooling mode on the reactor, using the water drained from the IRWST. So the core cooling time is indefinite.

Other than some redundant talking points in first 2-3 minutes, I loved this video. Keep it up!

I like the how the AP300 publicity graphics are put together, with a solar farm just coming into view behind the AP300 building. There's definite "psychology" at work there.

Do we have any updates on Thorium reactors?

I am jaedon Choi in KNF. I am very glad to see you and well summarized video about the AP300. I will sometimes visit your You tube channel to find out the newest nuclear technology.

How long does it take to build one of these?

It looks like a 3-way SMR competition (< 300 MWe reactors): 1. AP300 GenIII+ PWR Water cooled (< 100% modular) 2. BWRX-300 GenIII+ BWR Water cooled (< 100% modular) 3. Xe-100 GenIV HTGR 750C Helium cooled, TRISO fuel (4x 80MWe reactors per plant, 100% modular) All three above have contracts now in US, UK, and Canada.

Just barge the power to the available grid input. Regulators are resistance.

8 Feb 2024.... UK selects some of the first AP300s. Westinghouse has signed an agreement with Community Nuclear Power Limited (CNP) for the construction of *four* AP300 small modular reactors (SMRs) in the North Teesside region of northeast England. It would be the UK's first privately-financed SMR fleet.

There are literally thousands of smaller communities around the world who can use a small reactor, it boil down to what the initial investment be, and the life cycle cost. I say there are markets for even smaller reactors. My preference is several reactors instead of one , so some can be down for maintenance. Reactor construction often take 2 decades , so 2 years late is nothing. Especially if you can come up with some advantages your competitors do not have.

Thanks for this knowledgeable video.

the containment doesn't look very modular--that was the downfall of the AP-1000 (field construction of reinforced concrete)

I’d rather see new non water cooking reactors. Or maybe some that use the water cooking ability for making the feared product that explodes.. Also would be great to have some different fuel because “NNP”

great video for the non industry expert

The AP1000 was an upsized AP600. Shrinking it does not seem like such a big deal. One must also consider all the Westinghouse PWRs that have been built. This does not seem a radial design. It would be good if they could be sited at old coal plants.

This was like a slide show

I find the term 'modular' being tossed around in several ways that seem to 'muddy the waters'. An attractive side of NUSCALE designs has been the idea of several identical reactors at one site. Each 'modular' reactor includes passive safety but the overall site has ongoing savings from the multiple reactors. A reactor outage does not reduce site production to zero, but only about 12-15%. The reactor servicing equipment and staff have a high utilization rate since at least one reactor on site is undergoing refueling/service at any given time. Operating and security staff are shared among many reactors, resulting in another area of savings. These savings are NOT there for a single-reactor AP300 type 'modular' design. You can get some of these savings with a 'fleet' of simular sites, but NUSCALE is essentially a 'fleet' of reactors within one facility. While this AP300 is 'modular' in the sense that it's construction is supposed to have savings, this is somewhat unproven. The 'economies of modular construction' rely on amortizing the off-site factory costs over a 'fleet' of reactors and so far this has had limited success. Even if successful in bringing down construction costs (although nuclear has an abysmal track record in coming in on-time / on-budget), this is only an up-front savings. The long term cost of operation is not improved. So 'modular' means different things in different designs. Both have better passive-safety and provide long-term eco-benefits but whether or not either form of 'modularity' catches hold and actually kick-starts another 'nuclear renaissance is unknown.

The 7.33 tons of spent fuel generated in one year by one 300MW reactor can fuel 7 1GW Molten Salt Reactors for one year. 940 kg of natural thorium in a Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) can generate 1 gigawatt (GW) of electricity for one year. The 55.668 tons of unused depleted uranium processed to obtain the 7.332 tons of enriched uranium can fuel a further 59 1GW Molten Salt Reactors for one year.

A lot of shit talkers and naysayers here. Sigh. I'm by no means an expert in this field but I know one thing, we need to be getting off FF as soon as humanly possible and that won't happen on renewables alone. All nuclear techs should be maximized NOW. All issues can be worked out in time just like they were for every other emerging and progressing technology in the past. There was a time when flight and computerized technology seemed impractical, unaffordable, fanciful, or foolish. Do we feel that way now?? And now we carry more computing power in our pocket then NASA had on the first moon mission. Amazing what a difference 20-60 years makes. Problems are nothing but minor bumps in the road. For a look at how to progress with nuclear power one needs look no further than Rosatom or what's happening in China and India. Sadly the US gov owned by fossil fuels so of course the shit isn't going to be working here in the same way. All we need is to get the full weight of the State behind domestic nuclear and this shit would take off properly.

This design is mostly Westinghouse wanting to avoid the Kodak effect. Kodak was a leader in the photographic industry in the 1970's. Although developing (one of?) the first digital camera(s), the company didn't believe in the future of digital photography, preferring instead to focus on what they were good at: analog cameras. Thus, when the digital photography market took off, they didn't really have a model ready for the market, and lost out on market shares. Kodak filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2012. Westinghouse would prefer to sell their AP1000 plants, but still want a stake in the game if the SMR market takes off. So no, I don't think they're really late to the party.

You forgot that the Chinese have built 4 AP1000's and are operating them - and their construction cost and timelines only had very minor increases (Sanmen 1&2: Haiyang 1&2). China has been so pleased with their performance that in 2022 they ordered 6 more units (Sanmen 3&4 and Haiyan 3&4, and 2 units at Lianjiang). Ukraine signed contracts for 2 AP1000 units in 2021 and recently announced this year that they are looking at potentially 4-8 more AP1000's beyond the 2 contracted for. Ukraine is also building a fuel assembly plant to provide Europe with replacement reactor fuel for both AP1000's and several Soviet/Russian reactor designs (Ukraine has been using Westinghouse provided fuel assemblies in their existing Soviet/Russian reactors for several years). The AP1000 is the most successful generation 3+ western reactor design in the world based on the number of constructed and operating plants and existing contracts. The biggest problem with the US AP1000's cost was that the USA had not built a nuclear power plant in so long that they forgot how to do it (and all the very real planning and execution that goes into it). A lot of very costly mistakes were made. Westinghouse's experience is something of real value in construction of any new nuclear power plant in the USA. Europe had been going through a much worse "forgetting how to do it" series of very costly lessons with their EPR. I see that Westinghouse has a real leg up here and can point to experience that no one else can. The fact that 6 Units have been built (or are near startup), with 2 abandoned, with 8 more currently ordered says that there is an active supply chain and the cost of major components is now well known. Another huge advantage for Westinghouse (their supply chain for the same components used in the AP300). As far as all the other SMR reactor designs: Lets see how much they really cost and what problems they have. Having worked in nuclear power plants I can assure you that not everything works as well as the designers planned - and lots of creative modifications had to be done - or you just lived with something that did not work as planned. I am one of the very few American engineers not part of Westinghouse or its subcontractors that worked on the operating Sanmen 1&2 units looking at an issue. It was relatively minor as historical nuclear plant issues go; and solvable at minimal cost. I'm sure my work was immediately shared with Haiyang 1&2 and I know that people at Vogtle 3 & 4 knew about it within a month or so. What the AP1000 has going for it was the extensive experience from the Westinghouse 2 and 3 loop plants of the past. My personal opinion is that the reason the ESBWR was never built was because BWR's have historically had more problems and higher operating cost than PWR's (essentially most of the entire power plant is a radioactive work environment - which increases the cost of all labor inside the power plant).

I predict we will buy the MSR type created at ORNL in the 1960's , but from China.

Data centers needs Smr units

If it only has a single loop, is it not more like a BWR than a PWR?

more competition by established companies will see the costs reduce and innovations accelerate

If the customers are smart enough to demand a fixed price contract, regulations and governments don't mess it up, and Westinghouse can deliver on price, they might find some buyers that are an exception to where the ever lowering prices of Solar, Wind, and Batteries are not much lower cost to install. Batteries in particular are getting very cheap in the next few years, making Solar and Wind much more attractive. Demand will be going up all over the world with EVs soon becoming standard all over the world.

A video on how AI will assist with developing future cancer treatments would be good to watch

If W can build a 300 MW power plant for a billion dollars, it will be 30% less expensive than a storage battery capable of delivering 300 MW for only 48 hours that costs $100 per kWh - which is much less than DOE forecasts for Lithium batteries by 2030. Storage battery costs alone prove the extreme expense of the solar/wind/battery pipe dream vs an all nuclear plan.

NRC has not approved this 300 MW version. And it’s similarity to AP under the malevolent NRC is useless.

No one has built a 'modern SMR' by now, so why shouldn't a big competitor that has all technologies and experiances in house shouldn't be still right on spot? I'm just curious if the big steam-generator of a one looper is small enough for easy road transport,.. So, its all on the question who has the best 'pefab house building sheme'.(And who wins the market by speed, political infuance, deep pockets to live through the heartships of building prototypes,...

BWR is old technology and doesn’t truly represent Gen4 walk away plants that can and should be rapidly deployed in the US even if it’s under demo/pilot plants

AP1000 sky high cost occurred mostly in regulation, construction and frequent change of contractors. Toshiba is the first to blame, Westinghouse the second. Bechtel is the best nuclear contractor to be hired for AP1000 construction,however it was not selected. However Bechtel is actually the principal contractor in Vogtle 3&4 AP1000 construction site.

As soon as he said it was a follow on from the AP1000 I was disappointed. I don't think there will be (or should be) a future for third generation reactors. The future of nuclear will only be assured if we produce unpressurised waterless reactors. There are numerous fourth generation unpressurised designs around so why even contemplate a design with unnecessary risks? The answer is simple - companies such as Westinghouse, Rolls Royce etc. only know third generation designs so that is what they will produce. Here in the UK we are only a couple of breakdowns away from being in real energy deficit. The escalating amount of money being squandered on HS2 (£100 billion +) would much more profitably have been spent on completely solving our generation problem. Madness!

The only letter in SMR that isn't false is the R. 300MW ain't small and the M in SMR is a bit a of a stretch if not a complete lie.

Underconstruction should make them cheap to build. Being smaller we'll be able to hide them easier when they are decommissioned so we won't know they are there for the next 10,000 years. Why aren't they being sprinkled with thorium which makes them _New, Improved, Good Housekeeping Approved!!_

On the style of video, you were quite redundant especially in the beginning, essentially having two completely separate introductions that supplied exactly the same information and which easily cost you an extra minute of run-time. Beyond that, it's not clear to me why a customer would WANT and AP300 when, given the not really modular design, and otherwise near identical technology, they could have an AP1000.

so what's it power production in football fields?

Gen 3+ means a pool on the roof, that is not passive saftey in the same way molten salt self regulates (higher temps = less reactions) . tragic to see how much support 'SMR party' gets and MSR gets misrepresented or shunned. I understand people may have vested interests in sunk dev costs like AP1000 and TRISO but sticking with cost prohibitive designs just seems deliberately obtuse. Imagine what the rest of industry could do, carbon capture -> fuel synth plant -> closed loop fuel cycle. for that you need high temp reactors at a lot lower costs.. if only there were 5~10 decent designs on the table.. alas

台灣多地震, 風災, 水災, 政治環境自由, 這才是台灣要的: 10MW 的 MMR 用 20呎 貨櫃運輸, 採用釷燃料 (台灣有釷礦) 的 TRISO 封裝, 完全 isolate, 運到哪用到哪, 可以整機回送 Refurbish 不留核廢 !

For the reminder the AP1000 started as AP600 but power output was too low and it didn't sell. So they just us e an old concept that smart

BWR is risky..... Single loop makes turbine side work difficult

Renewables are in the true sense of the term are not, and they will never be a reliable source of base load power no matter how much is spent on battery backup.

Some online videos, like everything living on earth are growing old, guys.

Thorium crew where u at?? 💪⚡⚡

300 MW is not very small. I'm waiting to see what will be developed that fits inside of a semi trailer or shipping container, or a train locomotive. Trailer sized diesel generators are about 1 MW Shipping container sized nuclear power generators should be in the 1 MW to 10 MW range.

I still prefer LFTR tech.

In order to speak sooner or later, you need to see the project embodied in hardware. In the meantime, there are many projects, but their implementation is not.

Dat is één miljard voor de Nederlanders.

When the sun shines and it doesn't rain, we all die of thurst. It is all so obvious. Lucky we have nuclear desalination. Weather forcasts are always wrong. We are fortunate that the majority knows more than the experts.

Pretty good video overall. Please try and not repeat yourself, so many RU-vidrs do, and it's annoying.

Nuscale power corporation

The government needs to give Kirk Sorenson a Billion dollars and be done with these dinosaurs.

This reminds me of the Germans who thought that Russian gas was a good idea. Nuclear and no fossil fuels in every dictatorship. Uranium ore exported to dictators nuclear industries brilliant 👏 👌 👍 😊😊😊, what could go wrong. Just fatten the USA military defence budgets ezi pezi. Wonderful, wonderful ❤️ love it ,fabulous, no fossil fuels 😊.

i,m not in nukes so pick apart what i say. the only viable way to make this work is to build plants that are truly modular so the can be built in a factory. the advantage comes from being able to build 50 of the exact same design to the exact same specs. then all the pieces are trucked to the site and assembled like lego blocks. any replacements can be ordered by section needing replaced. think assembly line advantages. with a really good design and set up there could be thousands off these made.

Interesting that both the NuScale and Terrapower SMR and MSR were advertised as costing that magical $! billion but are now estimated to cost over $4 billion each and that is before and ground has been broken. In the nuclear world it is all about cost, cost, and cost

"In any system of energy, Control is what consumes energy the most. No energy store holds enough energy to extract an amount of energy equal to the total energy it stores. No system of energy can deliver sum useful energy in excess of the total energy put into constructing it. This universal truth applies to all systems. Energy, like time, flows from past to future".

I wish America would try to approach things like: "The better off the low income level people are doing; The better off the entire rest of the economy will be." {Type mentality} -Think of it like a ecosystem in nature. The little things might seem meaningless and insignificant yet, if they crumbled away, the entire ecosystem would crumble. The last things remaining would be the top predators.. until they even eat themselves.. leaving just a few top sharks in the ecosystem.. the whales would all be gone once the plankton crumble away. The sharks would eat the whales. Then once all that's left is sharks, the sharks would even eat the other sharks. *(Think of this but as a analogy for our economy and our modern day society..) If we instead decided to support the lowest income earning people in the ecosystem. So they could at least afford a roof over their heads. Thus now having more income to use $$ throughout many other aspects of our economy. There would be a beneficial systematic distribution to other aspects of society. Benefiting the entire system. All because we were Finally able to try and see if we helped the lowest wage earners, would it help? It really would help. People would be able to obtain the most basic level of essential living standards... That would Vastly improve our current state of our economy & society though *Also imagine this analogy in our economy. The more help we invest in the lowest level people, the more it would trickle into every facet of our economy. If poor people can pay their rent & not go homeless: landlords would get $, businesses would get $, banks would get $, local small shops would get $, mortgages & bills could be paid, insurance companies would get $, Taxes would get $, So essentially that $ would go out & filter right back in to improve our Country while simultaneously improving our quality of Life. Every bit of the economy would somehow find a way to benefit off of this situation... I don't get why we haven't even Given it a chance?? If it doesn't help? Then by all means stop it and figure out what problems we could be facing might be one's that run way deeper than expected and that would take drastic changes to improve that situation... (I hope we TRY something soon, before things get any more unstable. The worst thing we could do is continue on doing exactly what we are currently doing. It might get to a point where overcoming our struggles could simply become a pipedream. I don't want it to get to that) *We really should be fully investing & commiting to Modern Advanced Nuclear energy options. We are way behind when we should be already setup & going so we can greatly enhance the efficiency of our power grid, as well as greatly lowering the amount of greenhouse gas emissions bring produced.. we can be basically self sufficient when it comes to our power grid. We can prove to ourselves as a society that we really have advanced so much in our capabilities and understanding of safety measures when it comes to nuclear energy options. As well as understanding more ways to utilize and obtain the energy source. Rather than the stereotype narrow mindset a lot of people think of due to the mistakes of our past. I know we can grow and evolve from those days tho. We just gotta get going on commiting to this power source that we would be irrational and absurd to not utilize... It's honestly crazy nuclear energy options isn't much more wide spread in our current day of age...

I have to wonder where we would be if half of what our government spent on solar and wind were spent on nuclear. I suspect we would be in a lot better shape.

The issue is the fear mongers. They hear reactor and they start crying.

Innovation in the West is always slow due to invested parties int those industries. Case in point, why China leaped ahead ahead by building their infrastructure in roads, high-speed railways and airplanes. Look at how America and Europe is playing catchup to China and Russia!!! Westinghouse and GE didnt want to believe that a so-called third world countries could surpassed them but ignore them while keeping Africa, Mideast and Latin America down.

There really is no "small modular reactor marketplace", just a bunch of theoretical unlicensed, unbuilt, and untested designs. It doesn't matter how much better and safer the designs are than existing Gen 3 plants, if they don't make more economic sense to operate than big plants like the AP-1000, they are going to remain theoretical designs only.

Ap300 just imagine if the world had not wasted billions on wind and sun power.

Call me when it's built. Meanwhile: NuScale's SMR's exist.

Any pressurised system should be illegal. Recipe for disaster, no matter what the scale.

Not a chance. Oil is still king. Opec, Every African country, Indonesia, The entire ME and Russia literally go away with that.

Uses water and high pressure reactor! Same mistake over and over again. If something goes wrong, there is a potencial of generating H2 and then we'll have a big booom! In USA what is needed is technological innovations in the design of really NEW types of Nuclear reactors: no water, low pressure and high temperature....

to late???

is this guy getting paid by the Nuke power industry?

Of course if you've been following what's been happening lately with CMEs, you'd be majorly sweating bullets big time. Loss of electrical grids will certainly be... problematic... but all the nuclear meltdowns will be the actual disaster.

60 years too late.

Stop repeating everything. It is wasting my time.

michael schneider Thebulletin Trumpism enters energy policy Google that for me?

CRAP OLD DESIGNS, ...WAY WAY WAY TOO EXPENSIVE = GARBAGE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!