Use of Bounding Site Information to Inform Development of Transportable Nuclear Power Plants (TNPP)

Abstract

This paper is a continuation of the paper entitled Transportable and marine-deployed nuclear power: past, present and future jointly developed by Prodigy and Kinectrics for the 41st AnnualConference of the Canadian Nuclear Society June 5 – June 8, 2022. Some content from that paper is repeated to provide context to the subject matter discussed here. Work performed is consistent with discussions conducted under Canada’s SMR Roadmap [1].

A Transportable Nuclear Power Plant (TNPP) is an engineered integrated system that brings together a carefully considered combination of characteristics available from an SMRconfiguration, transportable civil structures that will support the SMR and site-based infrastructure. TNPPs are specifically intended to extend the geographic reach of both grid-scale and off-grid SMR technologies. That is, they can be sited and operated where traditional facility lifecycle activities such as site construction and decommissioning may not easily be made viable. TNPPs achieve this by performing as much of the construction as possible in a controlled facility and then delivering the power plant facility as a whole entity or in various completed portions to the site for integration and commissioning. In addition, when designed properly, decommissioning can proceed in an efficient, timely and pre-planned fashion. Doing this will make projects more predictable and cost-effective and will also provide greater confidence to stakeholders with a vested interest in the project.

Because of the very nature of a transportable nuclear power system, TNPPs will need to address a wide range of environmental factors introduced by both transport and the sites where the facility will be located, including:

• more challenging weather/climate conditions (including climate change);
• access to infrastructure to support plant construction and operation;
• proximity to more challenging natural and human-induced external hazards that could impact safety and security; and
• where applicable, environmental conditions at interim maintenance facilities.

These conditions will require technology development activities to: a) verify or adapt the SMR design to cope with the site characteristics; and b) develop specific preventive and mitigative features in both the transportable civil structures and site-based infrastructures to support meeting performance expectations and regulatory requirements. Consideration of potential bounding site characteristics is critical early in the design process of a TNPP to demonstrate versatility of the integrated system when placed into different siting conditions. This is key to both deciding what activities are needed to prove the design during its development and how strategies for standardization will be pursued. This paper will present Prodigy Clean Energy’s ongoing work to develop a set of bounding site conditions for use in deploying both land-based and marine-based TNPPs.