SMR's are the answerThe emergence of Small Modular Reactor (SMR) systems onto the modern scene, essentially makes a nuclear cell system a reality. One can now place a gas-cooled SMR anywhere, and it can serve its own ‘cell.’ This ‘cell’ could be a mining complex, a municipality, a collection of factories, or an agricultural area encompassing the farm, proceeding to processing, packaging, and transport. Such a ‘cell’ does not even need to be connected to the National Grid, and can be owned by a Province, Municipality, or private company.
The SMR revolutioneffectively means that the fundamental planning options available for thedistribution of electricity have changed significantly.
A gas-cooled SMR, such as theSouth African HTMR-100 is walk-away-safe. The fuel cannot suffer a meltdownunder any circumstances. Such an SMR emits absolutely nothing during normaloperations, no solids, no liquids, no gases. The fuel is in the form ofballs, the size of a tennis ball, and each ball lasts between two and threeyears in the reactor. So, the amount of refuelling required isextremely small, in comparison to coal, gas, or oil plants. So no continuousrefuelling structure is required, such as a conveyor belt, pipeline, or railwayline.
What all this means is thatsmall nuclear plants can be safely and effectively placed in industrial areasor agricultural areas, or near an idyllic town. One of the accusations of theextremist anti-nuclear lobby has always been that nuclear reactors are uglyindustrial structures which spoil beautiful scenic coastlines
With modern SMR’s we cantotally remove that accusation. Since then is a bomb, it’s nothing duringoperation. And what’s more? Is totally silent. It can be integrated into theVista of any setting. With this in mind, the developers of the HTMR-100 rangeof reactors approached Johann Koch of Johann Koch Design Architects (JKDA) witha proposal to work together to develop SMRe complexes for a range of customers.
Stratek Global originallydeveloped the HTMR-100 for a classic industrial setting in South Africa, suchas a gold-mining complex, far inland, and far away from any large water body.However, Stratek Global has been approached by potential customers from aroundthe world, including the Middle East, Australia, a number of African countries,and also island states.
Furthermore, site factorssuch as the altitude, have varied from sea level to high altitude. Theprevailing weather conditions have varied from hot and dry, to cold and wet,including snow.
As a result, Stratek Globalis in a position to offer any type of nuclear power complex which can bedesigned to fit, not only any site but which can also be skilfully designed tomatch the scenery or cultural nature of the people and area.
Since nuclear is completelyclean and green, emitting no gasses, liquids, or anything else, during normaloperations, there is no reason why nuclear power stations must be viewed asugly industrial buildings. They can be made as attractive as a hotel complex orholiday resort.
Illustrated here or four ofthe designs developed as a result of customer requests. They are named; theImpala Design, Kudu Design, Oryx Design, and Sable Design.
The Kudu Design wasdeveloped for an African savanna setting. It is shown here with a singlereactor of 100 MW thermal output, or 35 MW electrical output.
A most useful aspect ofthe. HTMR-100 is that an SMR complex can be designed to take up to ten reactors.All ten can be run from a single control room. Obviously, building morereactors per site reduces the unit cost, because you don’t have to duplicatethe administration building, the workshops, or a variety of other facilities.Furthermore, if a site is designed for, say, ten reactors they do not all haveto be constructed at the same time. An owner can add reactors, in later years,as the demand rises, or as finances become available, thereby allowing forimmense planning flexibility.
The Oryx Design wasdeveloped as a result of a request from the Middle East. It also features asingle reactor, but can easily be adapted for more reactors.
The single reactor ImpalaDesign is a workhorse design for an industrial setting such as a South Africangold mining complex. This design was developed to fit into any existing industrialcomplex. It illustrates that other than the actual nuclear reactor itself, inthe cylindrical concrete containment vessel, the rest of the power stationconsists of perfectly normal industrial buildings.
The Sable Design was developedas a result of a request from a country which experiences snow conditions. Therequest was for a ten-reactor complex. The reactors can be added, over a periodof some years, as the customer sees fit.
