President Donald Trump published a series of directives in May aimed at accelerating the development of advanced nuclear reactors. The guidelines, delivered via a set of four decrees, set ambitious objectives, such as 10 new major reactors under construction by 2030, and the revision of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (CNRC).
A particularly impatient provision requires the American energy department to designate, within 90 days, at least one site on land controlled by Doe for the deployment of an advanced nuclear reactor – an almost impossible deadline which arrives on August 21.
Orders sparked a wave of discussions through the nuclear industry and sent stakeholders to rush. Experts assessed the promise of accelerated nuclear deployments against the potential to lose regulatory integrity. It is not clear if the American government, military and industry can meet the requests of directives and deadlines.
As a person with in -depth expertise in the development of nuclear projects and licenses, I chose to concentrate this article on the selection directive of 90 -day sites – perhaps the first decisive test to see if the Trump administration will run on its difficult time.
The process of selecting a site for a new nuclear power plant in the United States is an arduous and complex process that mixes engineering feasibility, environmental sciences, security, emergency planning, economy and public confidence, while complying with regulations and advice. This has never been done in 90 days, at least not with regulatory approval.
But there could be a way for the DOE to respect this deadline: rely on sites which are already deeply prepared with existing documentation and some unknowns. In the United States, there are two locations that are close to this category: the Idaho National Laboratory and the National Laboratory of Oak Ridge.
How to choose a site for an advanced nuclear reactor
To host a commercial nuclear reactor in the United States, a site must first receive a CNRC license. To obtain this license, reactor owners generally take a few years to prepare the application, of which 6 to 12 months are necessary to carry out and document the site’s selection process. The regulator then reviews the application and makes a declaration of environmental impact (EIS) – a process which has historically taken more than two years, but must now be completed in 18 months, according to new guidelines.
The first step in selecting a site is to identify the region of interest. Then, unsuitable or problematic parts of this region, such as those subject to earthquakes, floods or landslides, are eliminated.
The other land areas in the region are then assessed for technical and environmental relevance. For a small modular reactor (SMR), an advanced type of nuclear reactor, an ideal site size is a few hundred acres (around 80 hectares), while a thousand acres (more than 400 ha) is ideal for a large nuclear power plant. Reactors also need sufficient cooling water, which generally comes from an ocean, lake, river or neighboring aquafer.
Developers must assess the population and neighboring infrastructure, search for endangered species and assess wetlands. Commercial factors are also taken into account, such as the distance to interconnection with the transmission, the cost to install and operate the cooling, and the quantity of classification of the necessary site.
Finally, candidates attribute weighting values to criteria and rate sites compared to different parameters. This iterative process, followed by new field surveys and the narrowing of options, leads to the selection of a preferred site, with two to four other defined as alternatives. After that, the CNRC examines the request and makes the process of declaration of environmental impact.
DEE site selection deadline
It is not known how the DOE is in its attempt to comply with the 90 -day challenge of the decree to choose a site for a nuclear power plant. Respecting the deadline will require creative reflection and decisive action.
In this spirit, the best way to follow for the DOE is to focus on sites that have already undergone a national review of the Environmental Policy Act and a CNR license. The Doe’s Idaho National Laboratory (INL) in Idaho Falls and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Ornl) in Tennessee, both meet these criteria.
Near the INL, there are two options: the site where the municipal power systems associated with the naked power and the UTAH continued a CNRC license for an SMR installation before abandoning the project in November 2023, and the site proposed for the ease of enrichment of Uranium Eagle Rock which received a license in 2011 but was not built.
INL has hosted 52 reactors since 1949, so it is probably an appropriate place from the environment and safety point of view. Although the naked sites and Eagle Rock respond to the decree, neither has received a declaration of environmental impact of the CNRC for a new nuclear reactor. In addition, the Eagle Rock site is adjacent to INL, not on its site.
The ideal choice may be the plot of 935 acres (378 ha) on a peninsula on the Clinch river in Tennessee, next to Ornl. The site is held by the federal government, currently controlled by Tennessee Valley Authority (VAT) and is the only site in the United States which has received a green light – a first CNRC site permit – for SMRs.
The clinch river site was partially developed in the 1970s for the reactor project on the clinch river breeders, a fast -metal metal reactor which was abandoned in the early 1980s. The CNRC in 2019 authorized the VAT site for the construction and functioning of two SMRs or more. This permit allows up to 800 electric megawatts (Mwe) of nuclear energy and has followed an in -depth environmental and security examination which remains valid until 2039.
A small modular reactor called BWRX-300, developed by Ge Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy, is planned for the River Clinch River site in Tennessee Valley Authority.VAT
In May this year, TVA requested a construction permit to build an SMR called the BWRX-300, a boiling water reactor, which would have a capacity of 300 MWE on this site. But the site can accommodate additional SMRs and other advanced or microreactors, which would achieve the objectives of the decree.
The Cinch river is ideal for the new nuclear
VAT was premonitory in his thought: his objectives declared for the Rivière Clinch site include critical electricity charges at the mission for national defense, which aligns the priorities of the decree. In fact, the 2016 VAT application assessed the underground transmission lines to serve critical loads on the ornl – a design characteristic which makes it less sensitive to intentional destructive acts and natural phenomena such as tornadoes.
The area already hosts the largest user of DOE electricity, the reservation of OAK RIDGE, which includes Ornl and the Y-12 national security complex, where nuclear weapons components are manufactured and highly enriched uranium is stored and treated. Historically, the region supported the installation of uranium K-25, which consumed, until the 1980s, more than 1,000 Mwe. Today, the robust electrical infrastructure built to serve the K-25 remains available in Oak Ridge, including the redundant transmission lines of 161 and 500 kilovolts which contrast the clinch river site.
East Tennessee also houses one of the deepest and most experienced nuclear numbers in the country, with VAT, DOE, the University of Tennessee and many nuclear companies in the private sector, notably Centrus Energy, Kairos Power, Lis Technologies, Nano Nuclear Energy, Orano, Standard Nuclear, Type One Energy and X-Energy Suppliers, all calling Oak Ridge Home.
TVA has not, so far, responded to data centers – one of the Trump administration priorities. But on July 24, the DOE appointed the OAK RIDGE reserve one of the four locations where it will invite private sector partners to develop AI and energy generation data power plants. An advanced-nuclear factory adjacent to the Clinch river site would be written well.
New VAT nuclear constraints
This rare combination of attributes simply does not exist elsewhere and makes the clinch river site the ideal location to try to respond to the provisions of the decrees. But several challenges await us.
VAT status as a company belonging to the federal government is delivered with constraints that hinder progress. Namely, a ceiling of US 30 billion dollars on the amount of the debt it can take has been granted by the ACT VAT and has not been increased since 1979. VAT has been accused of moving too slowly in the development of advanced nuclear and SMR, and the Senators of Tennessee and the President called for a change in leadership.
A successful execution of the directive will require leadership within the Trump administration. It will force VAT to seek creative solutions and overcome its constraints. An option would be to transfer the clinch river site and its DEE VAT license. Or perhaps the simplest solution is that the DOE contracts for power in a way that allows third-party financing of new nuclear capacities, so that the debt does not fall on the VAT assessment.
Given the urgency, the importance and the extent of the challenge to meet the growing needs of the United States and to fulfill the decrees of the decrees,, Doe should designate both Inl and Ornl as locations to host new nuclear reactors.
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