U.S. NRCEnergy Northwest, Washington State’s public utility, has announced that it will conduct a $2 million feasibility study for the inclusion of Small Modular Reactors (SMR) into the State’s energy mix. Aside from the now-closed military production reactors and massively contaminated federal nuclear weapons production facility at Hanford Nuclear Reservation, the SMR project, if ever launched, would be the second time that the state public utility for 27 districts and municipalities has ventured in commercial nuclear power. Energy Northwest was formerly known as the Washington Public Power Supply System (WPPSS) and nicknamed “Whoops” after issuing billions of dollars of municipal bonds for the construction of five nuclear power plants in the 1970’s and 1980’s. The projects were a bust resulting in the largest municipal debt default in history. Construction delays and cost overruns forecasted that the cost-of-completion of the project would be more than $24 billion and resulted in the cancellation of all but one unit (WPPSS-2, aka Columbia) commissioned into operation in 1984.
Now, following the original failure of the industry to build large nuclear power plants based on the economies of scale, a renewed chase after the elusive atomic mirage pins its hopes on building a colossal factory assembly line to roll off and sell thousands of ready-built mini-nukes (60 megawatt units) more likely to prove to be only more expensive. Northwest Energy is partnering with NuScale Power and Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems in the hopes of becoming one of the first industry experts for small modular reactor operation in the United States.
Whether or not the SMR power technology will be able to economically compete with renewable energy generation is at best questionable. Building an assembly line without a market for an exhorbidantly expensive is yet again a huge risk. The big difference between now and Whoops 1980’s leap of faith is the rapid global acceleration of the market choice for least cost solar and wind power coupled with storage technologies where innovation continues to lower cost.