Seasoned engineering and construction firm Bechtel said it would join forces with BWX Technologies to accelerate development of a factory-built nuclear reactor with the goal of producing the world's first commercially viable Generation III plus plus modular power plants.
The companies said they would rely on their relative strengths. Bechtel is well known as an engineering and construction firm with experience seeing complicated projects through the regulatory process. BWXT will focus on design and testing the nuclear steam supply system, the companies said.
Known as Generation mPower, the project is centered on the BWXT mPower reactor — a 195-megawatt electric power plant that can shipped by rail to its host community, Bechtel said in a Friday announcement.
The basic features include the reactor's compact size, which allows it to operate inside an underground containment structure that meets post-Fukushima safety standards. Using a factory-construction process, the companies said, also allows for cost containment. Factory-built reactors would likely not be subjected to the types of delays that plague large, multi-billion dollar on-site construction projects.
Bechtel general manager of its nuclear power business Ty Troutman called small reactors “one of the keys to solving the problem of replacing older power plants without relying on fossil fuels or the intermittent availability of solar and wind.”
“Pound for pound, small modular reactors can deliver more 24/7 electricity than any other low-carbon alternative energy technology,” he said.