Researchers at Abilene Christian University have big plans for a relatively small piece of technology – a nuclear microreactor.
“The core is about the size of a refrigerator,” Rusty Towell, a professor of engineering and physics and director of the Nuclear Energy Experimental Testing lab at Abilene Christian, said to the Texas Standard in September. “It can be built in a factory, in a high-quality environment, and shipped to location deployed. And so it’s a new paradigm for nuclear power in this country.
Like all nuclear energy projects in the U.S., Abilene Christian’s reactor will be governed by the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission – at least for now. Last week a nuclear company as well as the states of Texas and Utah sued the commission over “overburdensome regulations” for microreactors.
Brian Martucci covered the lawsuit for Utility Dive. He spoke to Texas Standard about the states’ arguments. Listen to the interview above or read the transcript below.
This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Texas Standard: Can you describe the agency that currently regulates these reactors – the Nuclear Regulatory Commission?
Brian Martucci: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is a federal agency that is responsible for regulating all nuclear reactors operating in the United States. Sort of the go-to agency for those activities.
How does a microreactor differ from large-scale reactors? Is it really just size?
It is primarily size when you’re talking about the micro component. And so a typical large reactor, for example, like the one in Comanche Peak southwest of the Metroplex, is gigawatt-scale. They say that’s enough to power well over a million homes.
A microreactor, on the other hand, typically they are below 20MW of power. So you’re talking more of a smaller town or an industrial facility – that type of thing.
Now, we should be clear. We use the example about the micro reactor at Abilene Christian University. This lawsuit was not brought by them, but rather by the states of Texas and Utah, as well as a nuclear company based in D.C. called Last Energy.
So what exactly are they arguing in this case?
Well, they’re arguing that the NRC’s regulations are overly burdensome and extremely costly for microreactor developers. They say that the regulation should be proportional to the size, but also more importantly, to the risk presented by this technology.
In addition to being smaller, microreactors generally have more what’s called passive safety systems that make the risk of a serious accident much less likely. In fact, Last Energy, in the lawsuit, said that it’s reactor has “no credible mode of radioactive release, even in the worst reasonable scenario.”
So could the result of this lawsuit have a big impact on nuclear energy’s future in the U.S.?
It’s possible. The experts I’ve spoken with stress that even if this lawsuit was successful, the NRC would engage in a rulemaking process to govern microreactors. That could take many months, to years.
The experts I’ve spoken with suggest that what the plaintiffs here may be trying to accomplish is to get Congress to take a closer look at microreactor regulation and perhaps pass new legislation that would direct the NRC to amend its regulations, essentially.
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Yeah, I was going to bring up that. I mean, the timing of this, with the new administration coming into the office and a more Republican-dominant House and Senate… If this is something that I guess these plaintiffs see as maybe a party that’s that’s less interested in regulation might be open to some of those changes.
Yeah. I want to be careful to go beyond what’s explicitly said in the lawsuit. But I think that that may be a fair characterization.
And last year, there was a bipartisan bill passed the ADVANCE Act that had a number of provisions aimed at streamlining nuclear regulation. And part of that could contain a provision directing the NRC to take a closer look at its microreactor regulation. So they are already doing some of that.
But yeah, this might be an effort to kind of speed up the process a bit.
Well, I think people get queasy over the even just the word “nuclear.” It sounds scary, but what’s the, I guess, potential of microreactors? I mean, in a scenario where regulation was loosened, perhaps, is this something that each city could have or maybe institutions like a university or something, that they’re relying on that primarily for their source of power?
Yeah, it’s a good question. I think, generally, the promise of microreactors is that their use cases are a lot more broad and flexible.
So, for example, the U.S. military is really interested in microreactors to power remote military installations and make sure they’re not dependent on either diesel fuel, which is really expensive, or the grid which, you know, is vulnerable to weather and so forth.
Also, and specifically in Texas, the oil and gas industry is interested in using microreactors to perhaps power some of its upstream operations and reduce its its carbon footprint out there in the Permian.
