AREVA Inc. and NuScale Power said Thursday that they had used NuScale's tri-annual Advisory Board meeting in Corvallis, Oregon, to announce a name for the modified fuel developed for NuScale-designed small modular reactors.
The modified AREVA HTP-2 fuel designed for Nuscale technology will be named NuFuel HTP2, the companies announced.
The name may be ceremonious and pragmatic, or both, but the announcement is also symbolic of the increased interest in small modular reactor (SMR) technology. Since winning the second round of the U.S. Department of Energy's competitively-bid, cost-sharing program in December 2013, interest in participating in the NuScale Advisory Board (NuAB) has grown. The board is now comprised of 25 member companies, including owners and operators of nearly two-thirds of the U.S. operating fleet of commercial nuclear plants.
Ron Land, senior vice president, U.S. Fuel, said that the announcement “puts a name on our cooperative effort and represents our commitment to this project.”
The name also makes paperwork a little easier, noted NuScale Chief Commercial Officer Mike McGough. “As we prepare documentation for our Design Certification Application, we needed a name for our fuel product that we could use consistently with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, while also building our name recognition with our customers,” he said.
NuScale is developing an SMR concept that would create 50 MWe pressurized water reactors that would include natural safety features and avoid some of the financing and safety issues that builders of massive nuclear power plants must confront. NuScale envisions a power plant with as many as 12 NuScale Power Modules that would produce a combined 600 MWE, gross (570 net nominal, after house loads). Each 50-MWe unit would have its own factory-built containment vessel and reactor vessel and its own packaged turbine generator set.