The BWRX-300 is a design for a small modular nuclear reactor proposed by

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) is a provider of advanced reactors and nuclear services. It is headquartered in Wilmington, North Carolina, United States. Established in June 2007, GEH is a nuclear alliance created by General Electric and Hitac ...

(GEH). The BWRX-300 would feature

passive safety Automotive safety is the study and practice of design, construction, equipment and regulation to minimize the occurrence and consequences of traffic collisions involving motor vehicles. Road traffic safety more broadly includes roadway design ...

, in that neither external power nor operator action would be required to maintain a safe state, even in extreme circumstances.

Technology

The BWRX-300 is an evolution of an earlier GE Hitachi reactor design, the Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor, but individually smaller.

Boiling water reactors A boiling water reactor (BWR) is a type of light water nuclear reactor used for the generation of electrical power. It is a design different from a Soviet graphite-moderated RBMK. It is the second most common type of electricity-generating nuc ...

are tried and tested nuclear technology that use ordinary light water as a

nuclear reactor coolant A nuclear reactor coolant is a coolant in a nuclear reactor used to remove heat from the nuclear reactor core and transfer it to electrical generators and the Environment (systems), environment. Frequently, a chain of two coolant loops are used b ...

. Like most boiling water reactors, the BWRX-300 will use low pressure water to remove heat from the core. A distinct feature of this reactor design is that water is circulated within the core by

natural circulation Convection is single or multiphase fluid flow that occurs spontaneously due to the combined effects of material property heterogeneity and body forces on a fluid, most commonly density and gravity (see buoyancy). When the cause of the convect ...

. This is in contrast to most nuclear reactors which require electrical pumps to provide

active cooling Active cooling is a heat-reducing mechanism that is typically implemented in electronic devices and indoor buildings to ensure proper heat transfer and circulation from within. Unlike its counterpart passive cooling, active cooling is entirely de ...

of the fuel. This system has advantages in terms of both simplicity and economics.

Decay heat removal

Immediately after a nuclear reactor shuts down, almost 7% of its previous operating power continues to be generated, from the decay of short half-life

fission products Nuclear fission products are the atomic fragments left after a large atomic nucleus undergoes nuclear fission. Typically, a large nucleus like that of uranium fissions by splitting into two smaller nuclei, along with a few neutrons, the release ...

. In conventional reactors, removing this

decay heat Decay heat is the heat released as a result of radioactive decay. This heat is produced as an effect of radiation on materials: the energy of the alpha, beta or gamma radiation is converted into the thermal movement of atoms. Decay heat occurs na ...

passively is challenging because of their low temperatures. The BWRX-300 reactor would be cooled by the

of water, making it distinct from most nuclear plants which require active cooling with electrical pumps.

New build proposals

On December 1, 2021

Ontario Power Generation Ontario Power Generation Inc. (OPG) is a Crown corporations of Canada, Crown corporation and "government business enterprise" that is responsible for approximately half of the electricity generation in the province of Ontario, Canada. It is w ...

(OPG) has selected the BWRX-300 SMR for use at the

Darlington Nuclear Generating Station Darlington Nuclear Generating Station is a Canadian nuclear power station located on the north shore of Lake Ontario in Clarington, Ontario. It is a large nuclear facility comprising four CANDU nuclear reactors with a total output of 3,512&nbs ...

. In October 2022, OPG applied for a construction license for the reactor. The company expects to make a construction decision by the end of 2024 and has set a preliminary target date of 2028 for plant operations. On December 16, 2021 Synthos Green Energy (SGE), GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy and BWXT Canada announced their intention to deploy at least 10 BWRX-300 reactors in Poland in the early 2030s. On July 8, 2022 Orlen Synthos Green - a joint venture between SGE and

PKN Orlen Polski Koncern Naftowy Orlen Spółka Akcyjna (PKN Orlen S.A.), commonly known as Orlen, is a Polish oil refiner and petrol retailer. The corporation is a significant European publicly traded firm with major operations in Poland, Czech Republic, ...

- applied to the National Atomic Energy Agency for a general opinion on the BWRX-300 SMR technology. In August same year a date of delivery of the reactor was announced: 2029. Construction of the reactor will begin in 2024, in Darlington, Ontario. On March 14, 2022 Kärnfull Future AB signed a Memorandum of Understanding with GEH to deploy the BWRX-300 in Sweden. On June 27, 2022

Saskatchewan Power Corporation Saskatchewan Power Corporation, operating as SaskPower, is the principal electric utility in Saskatchewan, Canada. Established in 1929 by the provincial government, it serves more than 538,000 customers and manages over $11.8 billion in assets. Sa ...

selected the BWRX-300 SMR for potential deployment in Saskatchewan in the mid-2030s On February 8, 2023

Fermi Energia AS Enrico Fermi (; 29 September 1901 – 28 November 1954) was an Italian (later naturalized American) physicist and the creator of the world's first nuclear reactor, the Chicago Pile-1. He has been called the "architect of the nuclear age" and t ...

chose the BWRX-300 SMR for potential deployment in

Lääne-Viru County Lääne-Viru County ( et, Lääne-Viru maakond or ''Lääne-Virumaa'') is one of 15 counties of Estonia. It is in northern Estonia, on the south coast of the Gulf of Finland. In Estonian, ''lääne'' means western and ''ida'' means east or eastern ...

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

in the early-2030s

Notes

GEH describes the BWRX as the tenth version of their Boiling Water Reactors., following BWR 1-6, ABWR, SBWR, and ESBWR.https://www.powermag.com/the-evolution-of-the-esbwr/

References

External links

The BWRX-300 Small Modular Reactor
Nuclear power reactor types Nuclear power {{Nuclear-power-stub