The sites of former power stations, particularly decommissioned coal plants, are good candidates for large advanced nuclear projects, the project lead for the Department of Defense’s microreactor program said during a seminar this week.
“In terms of large reactors … putting them on coal sites is a really good idea,” said Jeff Waksman, program manager for DOD’s Project Pele microreactor project, during a virtual panel discussion held Wednesday by the advanced nuclear advocacy group United Coalition for Advanced Nuclear Power (UCAN).
“A lot of the infrastructure [is] there: the power lines, transformers … maybe even the cooling towers might already be there,” Waksman said.
Some advanced nuclear companies want to do just that.
The Bill Gates-bankrolled TerraPower in November announced that it had selected a retiring coal plant in Kemmerer, Wyo., to be the site for its first Natrium advanced reactor demonstration project.
As far as the existing nuclear fleet is concerned, some companies are toying with the concept of using decommissioned reactor sites for advanced nuclear projects. Notably, nuclear services company Holtec International has said that it is currently evaluating New Jersey’s Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station, which the company is dismantling, as a future site for one of its SMR-160 modular reactors.
Andrea Sterdis, Holtec’s vice president of regulatory and environmental affairs, told RadWaste Monitor in November that it was still too early to provide additional details about that review.
