How Nuclear Power Can Transform Electric Grid and Critical Infrastructure Resilience
Table 4 . Survey of SMR and MMR Conformance with rNPP Functional Requirements *
* rNPP Functional Requirements ( FR ) are listed in Table 1 .
** “?” = Marginal achievement of functional requirement or insufficient public information available to assess .
The NuScale NPP incorporates a number of resilience-enabling design innovations that can be characterized in three categories : technologies , system architectures , and operating modes ( NuScale 2020b-d ). These innovations include : small reactor size , modular architecture ( NuScale Power Module , NPM ), redundant array of independent reactors ( RAIR ), below-grade ( underground ) placement of NPM ’ s shared reactor cooling pool / heatsink , extensive use of fiber optics and field programmable gate array technology in module and plant protection systems , etc . ( Palmer 2018 ). Considered individually and collectively , the innovations should enhance the NuScale SMR ’ s overall load following capability ( rNPP FR 1 ), reduce its vulnerability to damage from Grid anomalies and a range of external events ( rNPP FR 2 ), and reduce the necessity of reactor scram ( shutdown ) in response to Grid anomalies and external events ( rNPP FR 3 ). The NuScale NPP is capable of operating in Island Mode ( rNPP FR 4 ) while isolated from the Grid — maintaining the ability of the plant to meet its own power requirements and enabling the plant to be available to power the Grid in the wake of a major Grid disfunction as quickly as Grid conditions and plant-Grid interface conditions permit . The NuScale NPP
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