Against every single other indication of the global energy market, Danish SMR (Small Nuclear Reactor) developer, Copenhagen Atomics, claims it can deliver electricity at $20/MWh. Pretty revolutionary if it manages to follow through on its promises.
Rethink Energy sat down with Thomas Jam Pedersen, one of the four founders of Copenhagen Atomics, and asked the burning question of “how sure are you of delivering electricity at $20/MWh? ” – in context of the pink ammonia project from Borneo, Indonesia that the company is running a feasibility study for.
Pedersen replied that the company was to run the feasibility studies with the $20/MWh target in mind as that’s what it promised the other parties involved in the deal.
Hydrogen or no hydrogen at the other end, $20/MWh would revolutionize the global energy market. Or would it? The fact that it comes from nuclear might be a problem.
First of all nuclear is not like wind and solar which is relatively widely accepted by politicians. Nuclear comes with serious safety concerns and even though the technology promoted by Copenhagen Atomics is supposed to be not only safer but also better at dealing with nuclear waste, many countries around the world are not even considering nuclear among their future plans.
Pedersen, even though based in Denmark, said that the company has no interest in the national market due to the expected roadblocks set in place by the Danish Government for any nuclear project. The country advocates for wind and solar technologies and thus getting the permits necessary for such a plant would prove too difficult. He mentioned the UK and Poland as being the most attractive markets in Europe. Alongside opportunities in South East Asia, Copenhagen Atomics will have plenty to choose from if it manages to grow its technology.
SMRs are smaller nuclear reactors with simplified designs and enhanced safety features. They have a power output of less than 300 MW (typically) and can be manufactured in factories, allowing for easier deployment and scalability. SMRs offer flexibility in terms of deployment locations and applications, such as electricity generation, district heating, and desalination. They can be added incrementally to meet changing demand.
Classic nuclear reactors, on the other hand, have higher power outputs ranging from hundreds of megawatts to over a gigawatt. They feature customized designs for specific projects and are typically built on-site. Classic reactors are well-established technologies, providing centralized power generation for large-scale electricity grids. However, they require extensive infrastructure and significant investments of time, capital, and resources.
Copenhagen Atomics’ solution comes in the form of a breeder reactor using thorium as a fuel. A breeder reactor is designed to produce more fissile material than it consumes by utilizing fertile material that can be converted into fissile material through neutron absorption. The breeder reactor works by capturing neutrons released during the fission process. These neutrons are absorbed by the fertile material, leading to nuclear reactions. For example, uranium-238 can absorb a neutron and convert into plutonium-239, which is fissile and can sustain a nuclear chain reaction. The fission of plutonium-239 releases a significant amount of energy and additional neutrons, which can be used to sustain the chain reaction and continue the breeding process.
Breeder reactors often incorporate fuel reprocessing techniques to extract the newly bred fissile material from the spent fuel. This extracted material, can be used as fuel in the reactor or for other purposes, including the production of new fuel for other reactors.
The advantage of breeder reactors lies in their potential to generate more fissile material than they consume, offering increased energy generation, and reduced long-lived radioactive waste. However, breeder reactors also pose challenges related to safety, fuel handling, and the potential for the proliferation of fissile materials.
According to Pedersen, there was talk about such technologies even back in the 50s, but the computational power required to complete the relevant simulations simply wasn’t there. Innovation in that domain saw a small number of companies build entire business cases around this. Notable mentions include Flibe in the US and Thorizon in the Netherlands. Pedersen sees these companies more as peers than competitors but ultimately each of them seems to be betting on slightly different ways of implementing a breeder reactor using thorium.
If any of this actually materializes, it will take anywhere between 15 and 20 years until it actually makes an impact. Copenhagen Atomics plans to build assembly lines that would be capable of producing one reactor per day by 2030. At 42 MW power capacity for one reactor (equivalent to 100 MW thermal) and a 50 years lifetime for each reactor, the Danish company is presenting a compelling business case, but at the moment it still finds itself in the testing days. An upcoming first commercial installation is expected in 2028, with the Indonesia project due two years later, pending approval.