The U.S. Energy Dept. wants to leverage proven construction methods as a way to reduce cost and scheduling risks of building new nuclear reactors and has teamed with GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy to demonstrate three technologies that when combined could reduce costs by more than 10%.

“For advanced nuclear energy to realize its potential, we have to make it more affordable and scalable,” says Ashley Finan, director of the National Reactor Innovation Center at DOE's Idaho National Laboratory.

The center launched the demonstration effort July 7, providing $5.8 million in funding to adapt the three construction technologies, already used in other industries, to a variety of advanced reactor designs that will be available to reactor developers in the next decade.

该项目将着重于隧道行业中使用的垂直轴结构，以减少反应堆构造所需的发掘量并消除工程的回填。

“This could potentially save $50 million in project costs for a typical nuclear plant that requires 1 million cubic yards of excavation and significantly reduce its construction schedule,” says Finan.

The GE Hitachi team also will further advance the “Steel Bricks” modular steel construction system developed in Scotland by UK-based Caunton Engineering and Modular Walling Systems, a system that DOE says could significantly reduce labor needs during construction and better meet certain corrosion requirements in nuclear power plants. The bricks have been manufactured only as rectangles, but the team will develop a rounded prototype.

使用工厂生产的钢砖可以使大部分核电厂的建造场外建造。

要证明的第三种方法将是结合嵌入式传感器，3-D结构和岩土技术模型和软件，与物理结构相互作用以创建数字双胞胎，允许在施工过程中进行监视以评估，该计划将结合嵌入式传感器，3D结构和岩土技术模型和软件建筑物的完整性。

The initial phase of the initiative will focus on technology development and preparation for a small-scale demonstration and includes selecting the site for the project. The second phase will fund construction of the demonstration project.

DOE is seeking $1.8 billion in 2022 for its Office of Nuclear Energy, a 57% increase over past requests, and in line with President Joe Biden’s view that nuclear power will play an important role in combating the climate crisis, said Katherine Huff, principal deputy energy secretary for nuclear energy, in a statement.

She said that the request puts a tremendous emphasis on scaling up the commercial deployment of smaller and more flexible advanced reactor designs. The request includes nearly $700 million to help drive advanced reactors to market by 2030

“The administration believes that we must prioritize activities that preserve the existing fleet of nuclear reactors, deploy advanced reactor technologies and expand nuclear energy to markets beyond electricity if we intend to meet our ambitious carbon reduction goals,” Huff said.

More than 20 companies are developing advanced reactors, including GE Hitachi, which is developing an Advanced Modular Water Cooled Reactor and a non-water-cooled reactor. Other companies include Westinghouse, Holtec International, NuScale Power and X-energy.

DOE has awarded a number of contracts to support development of nuclear reactors, including $80 million each for two non-water-cooled projects, TerraPower and GE Hitachi’s project using molten sodium metal as a coolant and X-energy’s design to use pressurized helium gas as coolant. The projects could receive between $400 million and $4 billion during the next seven years, the agency said.

特拉派沃公司6月2日表示,它将建立一个345年-MW demonstration project of its Natrium advanced nuclear power technology, developed with GE Hitachi, at a former coal power plant site in Wyoming, at an estimated cost of $1 billion. Its design, licensing, procurement and construction will be managed by Bechtel.

x能量计划中方ld a four-unit, 320-MW advanced nuclear plant in Washington state. It signed an agreement in April with Toronto-based Kinectrics to advance the design and deployment of X-energy’s Xe-100 small modular reactor (SMR) in Canada, the U.S. and worldwide.

GE Hitachi团队的成员开发了三种建筑技术，包括工程公司Black＆Veatch，田纳西谷管理局，Caunton Engineering，电力研究所，普渡大学，Purdue University，Modular Walling Systems，University of North Carolina和核先进制造业研究中心。