Two nuclear technology companies, the Anglo-Dutch U-Battery and the UK’s Cavendish Nuclear, have unveiled a full-scale mock-up of U-Battery’s advanced modular reactor (AMR) design. The mock-up includes the reactor vessel, the intermediate heat exchanger vessel, and the connecting duct (which is U-shaped). The creation of the mock-up was made possible by funding from the UK’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, provided under its Advanced Manufacturing and Materials Programme.

The U-Battery design is a type of small modular reactor. The conceptual design was jointly developed by the University of Manchester in the UK and the University of Delft in the Netherlands, and the U-Battery project was launched by the Anglo-Dutch-German Urenco nuclear group. The U-Battery design is based on high-temperature gas-cooled reactor technology, which is already proven. It would make use of TRISO fuel, which takes the form of ‘pebbles’ – that is, the nuclear fuel is contained within coated spheres (as would have been the case with South Africa’s effectively long-abandoned Pebble Bed Modular Reactor project).  

“By building a full-scale model, people get a real sense of what an AMR looks like as well as how it can be built,” explained U-Battery GM Steve Threlfall. “It also enabled us to determine the requirements for the concept design and justify the nuclear power plant’s operational safety case. That is why the mock-up is essential to the delivery of what will be our first power plant. Our aim is to take advantage of the economies of scale used in advanced manufacturing and modularisation settings and production line assembly techniques to produce this new generation of AMR technology, which will make a valuable contribution to the UK’s decarbonisation efforts, and, in turn, help deliver Net-Zero.”

The U-Battery is designed to have a scalable output, starting with a thermal output of 10 MW and an electrical output of 4 MW. It has a footprint of just 350 m². It is projected that each unit would cost some £50-million ($68-million). With an output temperature of 710 °C, it would be able to provide process heat on a sustainable basis, allowing the decarbonisation of a number of industrial processes that would otherwise be difficult to turn ‘green’. The design’s co-generation capabilities would allow it to provide both electricity and process heat to industrial complexes, especially operations in remote areas, such as mines, and to isolated communities.

“Working on this exciting phase of the U-Battery development has allowed our team of experienced nuclear engineers, professionals and [our] trusted supply chain to demonstrate the wealth of their experience gained from supporting the UK Advanced Gas Reactor fleet, in combination with up-to-date modularisation techniques, which have more recently been used in decommissioning projects, to deliver this first of a kind advanced modular reactor mock-up,” reported Cavendish Nuclear New Build & Advanced Nuclear Technologies Business director James Ewence. In July 2020, U-Battery received funding of £10-million from the British government to start design and development work, as part of Phase 2 of the UK’s Advanced Modular Reactor Competition.