Emerging Technology – Microreactors

Nuclear is getting smaller … and it’s opening up some
big opportunities for the industry.

Electricity Emissions

Microreactors can significantly reduce emissions from electricity production by providing a zero-carbon alternative to coal, oil, and natural gas plants. Their compact size allows for deployment in diverse environments, including urban areas or regions with limited infrastructure, directly substituting or complementing renewable energy sources to ensure a steady power supply without the intermittency issues of solar and wind energy.

Industrial Sector Emissions

The industrial sector's dependence on fossil fuels for process heat and energy can be mitigated by integrating microreactors. These units can be installed near industrial sites to supply high-temperature heat and electricity, reducing the sector's greenhouse gas emissions. By enabling a cleaner production process, microreactors can assist in decarbonizing industries such as manufacturing, chemical processing, and materials fabrication.

Transportation Emissions

While microreactors cannot directly power vehicles, they can indirectly contribute to reducing transportation emissions through the production of low-carbon fuels. For instance, they can generate the necessary electricity for producing hydrogen via water electrolysis or for synthesizing biofuels, which can replace traditional fossil fuels in vehicles, ships, and planes, thereby lowering the transportation sector's carbon footprint.

Water Scarcity

Microreactors can play a role in alleviating water scarcity by providing the energy required for desalination processes. Their ability to produce high-temperature steam can enhance the efficiency of thermal desalination, while their electricity output can power reverse osmosis plants. This capability is particularly valuable in remote and arid regions where water is scarce and traditional energy sources are insufficient or unsustainable.

Energy Access to Remote Locations

The small size and portability of microreactors make them well-suited for deployment in remote or isolated communities that lack access to the central power grid. By providing a steady and reliable source of electricity, microreactors can support local development, improve living standards, and reduce the reliance on diesel generators, which are costly and emit large amounts of carbon dioxide.

Going Deeper Into Space

Microreactors offer a potential solution for powering long-duration space missions and extraterrestrial bases. Their compactness and ability to provide a stable power output make them ideal for supporting life support systems, scientific research, and communication operations in the harsh environments of space, where solar power may be unreliable or insufficient.

Data Centers, Bitcoin, and Crypto

The digital economy, including data centers, Bitcoin mining, and other cryptocurrency activities, requires substantial amounts of continuous power, contributing to global electricity demand and associated carbon emissions. Microreactors can supply clean, baseload power to these operations, helping to reduce their environmental impact. By enabling greener blockchain technologies and data processing, microreactors can support the sustainable growth of the digital and financial sectors.

The new generation of advanced microreactors can produce between 1 and 20 megawatts of thermal energy that could be used directly as heat or converted to electric power. Generating clean and reliable electricity for commercial use or for non-electric applications such as district heating, water desalination and hydrogen fuel production, microreactors are a highly adaptable and portable alternative to traditional nuclear reactors.

Important Market Developments:

INL and the National Reactor Innovation Center (NRIC) are enabling developers by providing technical resources, capabilities and a demonstration site
Technology advancements and experience provide improved microreactor designs
The federal government is supporting development through funding and legislation
The U.S. advanced reactor industry is developing several microreactor concepts

Other Benefits:

Microreactors can be used in emergency response scenarios to help restore power to areas hit
by natural disasters
Microreactors have characteristics that enable rapid deployment and removal – Easily scalable, they can be “right-sized” to fit most locations
Microreactors can supplement microgrids and bare integrable with renewable energies
Designed for a longer core life, microreactors can operate for up to 15 years

Demystifying Nuclear Energy

Myth & Truth

Myth # 1: Nuclear energy is not safe.

Truth: Nuclear energy is as safe or safer than any other form of energy available. No member of the public has ever been injured or killed in the entire 50-year history of commercial nuclear power in the U.S.

Myth # 2: A nuclear reactor can explode like a nuclear bomb.

Truth: It is impossible for a reactor to explode like a nuclear weapon; these weapons contain very special materials in very particular configurations, neither of which are present in a nuclear reactor.

Myth # 3: There is no solution for huge amounts of nuclear waste.

Truth: The U.S. National Academy of Sciences and the equivalent scientific advisory panels in every major country support geological disposal of such wastes as the preferred safe method for their ultimate disposal

Myth # 4: An American “Chernobyl” would kill thousands of people.

Truth: A Chernobyl-type accident could not have happened outside of the Soviet Union because this type of reactor was never built or operated here.

Myth # 5: Americans get most of their yearly radiation dose from nuclear power plants.

Truth: We are surrounded by naturally occurring radiation. Only 0.005% of the average American’s yearly radiation dose comes from nuclear power; 100 times less than we get from coal, 200 times less than a cross-country flight, and about the same as eating 1 banana per year