Flexblue was a concept of a small
nuclear power plant
A nuclear power plant (NPP) is a thermal power station in which the heat source is a nuclear reactor. As is typical of thermal power stations, heat is used to generate steam that drives a steam turbine connected to a electric generator, generato ...
(50 to 250 MWe), measuring a hundred meters long and about 14 meters in diameter. The reactor would be placed several tens of metres underwater, several kilometres off the sea coast.
The surrounding sea water would provide the heat sink for the reactor, as well as protection from attack.
It was studied by
Naval Group
Naval Group is a major French industrial group specialized in naval defense design, development and construction. Its headquarters are located in Paris.
Heir to the French naval dockyards initiated in 1631 by Cardinal Richelieu and to the Direc ...
(French industrial group specialised in naval defence and marine renewable energy) from 2008 to around 2016, in partnership with
AREVA
Areva S.A. is a French multinational group specializing in nuclear power headquartered in Courbevoie, France. Before its 2016 corporate restructuring, Areva was majority-owned by the French state through the French Alternative Energies and Atom ...
, the
CEA and
EDF EDF may refer to:
Organisations
* Eclaireurs de France, a French Scouting association
* Education for Development Foundation, a Thai charity
* Électricité de France, a French energy company
** EDF Energy, their British subsidiary
** EDF Luminus, ...
.
The production unit, as it was presented by its promoters, could be used by developing countries and in areas of developed countries that need to compensate for an energy deficit. Another target market for the reactor was medium-sized countries, like Monaco, which may be unsuitable for large nuclear plants.
Proponents of the Flexblue technology point out that this type of reactor would be much less prone to terrorist attacks than terrestrial-based ones. However, nuclear reactor leaks would be much more difficult and costly to resolve underwater. Scholars have pointed out that operating a nuclear reactor underwater would also raise the surrounding water temperature by several degrees and affect the surrounding marine biome.
See also
Related Pages
*
List of small nuclear reactor designs
Small modular reactors (SMR) are much smaller than the current nuclear reactors (300MWe or less) and have compact and scalable designs which propose to offer safety, construction and economic benefits, and offering potential for lower initial cap ...
*
Naval Group
Naval Group is a major French industrial group specialized in naval defense design, development and construction. Its headquarters are located in Paris.
Heir to the French naval dockyards initiated in 1631 by Cardinal Richelieu and to the Direc ...
*
Energy policy of the European Union
External links
Official site of Flexblue Naval GroupList of Small Nuclear ReactorsThe encyclopedia of Earth - Small nuclear power reactors
References
Electric power in Europe
Energy in the European Union
Nuclear reactors
Nuclear power reactor types
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