Innovating a new kind of modular reactor power station design

Abstract

Our world is radically changing. We have will have to mitigate and adapt to the impact of climate change, while supporting a growing population in denser localities, all being vulnerable to increasingly severe climate and weather extremes, with many coastal regions becoming defenseless against global and local sea rise. The area of useable land for habitation and supply infrastructure will diminish as the years continue into the future; this especially being a critical problem for low lying islands, but also for highly developed countries where there exists complex and tightly coupled infrastructure close to sea level. Accepting that nuclear power generation is important for our future, the reality of whether countries can afford the considerable capital cost of providing safe nuclear power is presently questionable. The practice of design for new kinds of nuclear power should apply completely new and innovative thinking that enables lower capital cost, more efficient power generation and highly robust and ultimately resilient civil containment and support structures. Allied design considerations will be reducing the time for carrying out the build and construction process, reduced operating cost, improved through-life operability with less dose risk etc. Of major concern is a new kind of NPP that is efficient, but also robust and resilient in the face of climate change and sea rise.