İstanbul Gelisim Vocational School - myo@gelisim.edu.tr
Machinery
17 May 2023 Wednesday
Small Modular Nuclear Reactor
The American-based Westinghouse company will make some efforts to make environmental breakthroughs in the recent period. The company recently made a launch. The company, which introduced the small modular nuclear reactor, which is planned to replace the coal power plants and whose capacity is suitable for this, named the reactor AP300. The AP1000 is the flagship of the company's nuclear reactors. The AP300 can be thought of as a smaller version of it.
Rita BARANWAL, the company's senior technology officer, stated that the name AP300 was chosen because of the 300 Megawatt capacity of the modular nuclear reactor. Unlike new generation reactors, special fuels or liquid metal coolants will not be in this reactor. The company said that the first construction of the reactor is expected to begin before 2027. It is planned that the reactor will start operating in the early 2030s.
Small modular reactors, called SMRs, are actually quite valuable in terms of replacing coal plants that have been shut down. Because these reactors will be of great importance in developing countries. The high cost of large reactors and the need for special transmission networks make things more difficult.
Small modular reactors are of great importance and advantage, with emission-free energy production, low investment cost and fast and easy construction time.
The company also stated that the cost of the AP300 reactor will come to approximately $ 1 billion. Considering the $6.8 billion cost of the AP1000, this remains quite reasonable. According to the company's data, the AP300 reactor will produce enough energy to power 300,000 homes.
According to the company's information, the small AP300, which has the same security measures as the AP1000, contains critical features. For our country, high-security reactors with this capacity are important for energy independence.
