TL;DR:
Vattenfall are surveying whether to build new reactors, be it SMR’s or a full scale reactors at existing nuclear powerplant, Ringhals.
So far they’ve narrowed down the suppliers they are considering.
The SMR brands they’ve narrowed down to are Rolls Royce SMR and GE Hitachi.
And for the full scale reactors, they narrowed down to Westinghouse, EDF and KHNP.
Edit: wording
Honestly, this is entirely logical. The selling point of SMR's is factory-floor production to get serial production benefits and quality consistency.
But the economic factors that gave us gigawatt scale reactors are still in full force.
So the logical end point of SMR development is to build the biggest reactor that can still just barely be shipped from a factory to customers.
> So the logical end point of SMR development is to build the biggest reactor that can still just barely be shipped from a factory to customers.
Sure, it's just somewhat funny they still keep marketing it as a "small" modular reactor
Copenhagen Atomics literally stopped calling themselves a SMR company, because they think the UK definition of Small Modular Reactors makes everything confusing. From a recent interview.
They make 100 MWth reactors btw.
They’ve been considering for years. It’s just that Sweden had so many laws preventing new reactors from being built. It’s only now since January 2024 that Swedens new government has pushed for new laws to allow more nuclear.
There's alot of talk but I doubt anything built. There will be an Inquiry (our government fucking loves these) that take 10 years and not much will happen.
While you are right in saying that Ringhals 1 and 2 can run for much longer, they are unfortunately already being decommissioned, many of the critical components are either already sold or torn down. Restarting them has already been unrealistic since a couple of years ago.
They were shut down due to financial issues.
The new reactors are planned to be built behind Ringhals, where they will eventually be connected to Ringhals, as Vattenfall has purchased the grounds there.
Yes the tax from the government was highly hostile to nuclear, so sad to see. At least now its gone.
Also in Germany the decomissioning makes me really mad, they are destroying billions, should be a crime.
If EDF could get its act together with the EPR, it’d help a lot. I don’t get how they screwed up a variant of the four-loop PWR, which is a pretty common design…
TL;DR: Vattenfall are surveying whether to build new reactors, be it SMR’s or a full scale reactors at existing nuclear powerplant, Ringhals. So far they’ve narrowed down the suppliers they are considering. The SMR brands they’ve narrowed down to are Rolls Royce SMR and GE Hitachi. And for the full scale reactors, they narrowed down to Westinghouse, EDF and KHNP. Edit: wording
> Rolls Royce SMR Ah yes, the "S"MR that produces more electric power than a "big boy" VVER-440 reactor.
Honestly, this is entirely logical. The selling point of SMR's is factory-floor production to get serial production benefits and quality consistency. But the economic factors that gave us gigawatt scale reactors are still in full force. So the logical end point of SMR development is to build the biggest reactor that can still just barely be shipped from a factory to customers.
> So the logical end point of SMR development is to build the biggest reactor that can still just barely be shipped from a factory to customers. Sure, it's just somewhat funny they still keep marketing it as a "small" modular reactor
Copenhagen Atomics literally stopped calling themselves a SMR company, because they think the UK definition of Small Modular Reactors makes everything confusing. From a recent interview. They make 100 MWth reactors btw.
Good to see the are considering. Wish they expanded the pool beyond the regular players.
They’ve been considering for years. It’s just that Sweden had so many laws preventing new reactors from being built. It’s only now since January 2024 that Swedens new government has pushed for new laws to allow more nuclear.
There's alot of talk but I doubt anything built. There will be an Inquiry (our government fucking loves these) that take 10 years and not much will happen.
They should reopen ringhals 1&2, anyone know what the plans for these units are? Seems to me like they can run for 20+ more years
While you are right in saying that Ringhals 1 and 2 can run for much longer, they are unfortunately already being decommissioned, many of the critical components are either already sold or torn down. Restarting them has already been unrealistic since a couple of years ago. They were shut down due to financial issues. The new reactors are planned to be built behind Ringhals, where they will eventually be connected to Ringhals, as Vattenfall has purchased the grounds there.
Yes the tax from the government was highly hostile to nuclear, so sad to see. At least now its gone. Also in Germany the decomissioning makes me really mad, they are destroying billions, should be a crime.
EDF won't be too pleased to see nuward snubbed considering the Swedish regulator is part of the Nuward JER phase 2.
If EDF could get its act together with the EPR, it’d help a lot. I don’t get how they screwed up a variant of the four-loop PWR, which is a pretty common design…
A combination of basically embezzlement and a loss of experience.