The conference is organized by the Russian Academy of Sciences Nuclear Safety Institute (IBRAE), with the support of the IAEA, ROSATOM and its subsidiary Rusatom Overseas, NRC Kurchatov Institute, as well as the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR).
The event is attended by representatives of Russian nuclear industry leading organizations, representatives of foreign companies, technology developers in the field of nuclear energy, and energy companies. SNPP-2013 main feature is active participation of the academia elite of Russia and other countries, which reflects the interest in the topic.
The main topic of the conference was the issue of small modular reactors (SMR) project realization in the context of modern energy development, taking into account the commercial viability of projects. That’s why the focus of the discussion was areas of SMRs implementation, commercialization of SMRs, as well as licensing and safety aspects of such reactors.
Dzhomart Aliev, CEO of Rusatom Overseas, presented the report on market challenges and the prospects of SMRs at the plenary session. According to him, there are a number of both technological and market conditions for SMR technologies development. Standard market assumptions include, among others, the need to develop basic generation in countries where solutions for large and medium power reactors are not applicable. Among other drivers are requirements for power supply of remote areas and growing environmental requirements. According to consensus estimates of market potential, stated in the report, total installed capacity of SMRs may reach 40 GW by 2030.
“Industry market estimates confirm the increased interest in the SMR projects. Trends to liberalize energy markets and relatively low electricity prices in key regions pose certain challenges to competitiveness of these reactors,” the speaker emphasized. He also added that the commercial attractiveness of the project strongly depends on the concrete purpose of new energy facility, as well as a number of important factors that determine the value of this or that solution: schedule of project design, construction and licensing, infrastructure costs, safety systems, APCS configuration and, particularly, the serial nature of the solution. “Thus, the concept of SMRs and analysis of their possible implementation marks the appearance of a new NPP customer type – “a commercial customer” who is interested in obtaining relatively inexpensive electricity or heat for his specific needs,” explained D. Aliev.
According to the head of Rusatom Overseas, in light of market request to move from a traditional EPC contracts to BOO and BOOT projects, project development of SMRs is forming a new business model in which the commercial customer does not undertake any operational management issues of generating facility, but simply pays for energy and heat according to the agreed rates. “The so called “energy outsourcing” is a new model of cooperation. And for such projects a contract like a “service contract of life cycle” can be relevant,” noted Aliev. He added that the aspects of safety and public acceptance are still key factors for all stakeholders of projects related to SMRs. Active participation of colleagues from the IAEA, the safety analysis of nuclear facilities, conducted in the Nuclear Safety Institute (IBRAE), is crucial for the market.
Many leading enterprises of Russian nuclear industry presented projects on SMR at the conference sessions. A representative of Rosenergoatom spoke on the status and prospects of development of floating nuclear power plants, in particular, the features and the course of construction of the first floating NPP “Akademik Lomonosov”.
During the conference, presentations were made by managers and specialists of JSC Afrikantov OKBM, AKME-engineering JSC, JSC NIKIET, NRC Kurchatov Institute. As well widely presented was the experience of other countries in this sphere. On the development of SMR technologies in the U.S. spoke Dr. Golub Sai (Sai Golub) from Office for Nuclear Reactor Technologies, Office for Nuclear Energy, US Department of Energy. A representative of French naval defence company (DCNS) (one of Europe's leading shipbuilders) made a report on the project concept of floating transportable small nuclear reactor
The approach of national regulators to the development of nuclear energy and SMRs was presented by Mr. Ferhat Aziz from the National Atomic Energy Agency of Indonesia (BATAN). According to him, in Indonesia, which is an archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, the use of SMRs can solve the problem of supply of affordable and clean energy in remote areas. As the representative of the Indonesian regulator noted, currently the country is at stage of development of nuclear infrastructure and BATAN conducts economic and technological project evaluation not only of large nuclear power plants but also small sized power reactors. As the speaker noted, in both cases among potential projects, besides others, are Russian developments based on VVER-1000 and KLT-40S reactors.
Сибирская генерирующая компания примет участие во Всемирном дне охраны труда