Nuclear Technology

Major CCUS (carbon capture, utilization, and storage) players converged in Houston, Texas, in the last week of June for the 2024 iteration of the Carbon Capture Technology Expo North America. Co-located with the Hydrogen Technology Expo, the event boasted over 8000 attendees and 400 exhibitors - including IDTechEx.

Nuclear SMRs offer a powerful tool for decarbonization, with Gen IV reactor design-based SMRs offering uses beyond supplying to the grid directly. This article by IDTechEx outlines some of the ways SMRs can work within the energy ecosystem, including decarbonizing industries, producing "pink hydrogen", and offering a potential solution to the data center energy crisis.

By taking advantage of assembly line production, SMRs promise cost reductions and shorter construction times relative to their conventional counterparts. The first nuclear small modular reactors (SMRs) are already operational in Russia and China, but widening adoption will require both technical and regulatory developments, including development in fuel supply chains and international licensing standardization.

Nuclear Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) aim to disrupt the nuclear industry, slashing the cost of nuclear energy to competitiveness with renewables + storage and making new decarbonization-enabling uses of nuclear power possible.

Thursday 25 May 2023 - How can SMRs open new use-cases for nuclear energy, decarbonizing problem industries in the process? Where in the world are SMRs developing today and where would they be expected to see greatest success? Are evolutionary vs. revolutionary approaches to reactor design more likely to see success in the global SMR fleet? What are the major roadblocks to deployment of SMRs and how could these be overcome? What players are working on SMRs and who is closest to delivering outside of Russia and China?

Small modular reactors (SMRs) promise cheaper nuclear energy, supplying zero-carbon grid baseload and enabling new use cases for nuclear reactors. By shrinking the size of nuclear reactors compared to conventional large nuclear reactors, much of the construction is transferred to factory assembly lines, cutting capital costs and making nuclear power cost-competitive with renewables in many applications.

The energy crisis, combined with the ever-pressing need to transition to net zero, is driving innovations within the energy landscape. Technology choices, material choices, and business models are shifting and evolving to meet global energy and consumer demands. IDTechEx offer a market intelligence platform covering technology innovation in the energy sector, aiming to help clients address needs and find opportunities in the complex energy landscape .

Magically, next generation electricity production continuous (base) electricity production can avoid the massive concrete and steel structures currently used for nuclear power stations with their 1000 year fuel rod problem.

The addressable market for any zero-emission electricity source goes beyond where electricity is used today. It extends to the much bigger potential markets for new uses for electricity and for replacing other forms of power used for cooking, heating and vehicles.

The new IDTechEx report, "Wave, Tidal and Hydro Power 1W-10MW 2018-2038" observes that the main investors in water power - governments, utilities etc. - seek something that may become large in gross sales value by involving very large grid projects rather than large numbers of small and medium-sized projects.