DOE official looking at expanding research of small nuclear reactors - Research will be moving forward this year toward development and design certification of small modular nuclear reactors, said Peter Lyons, the Department of Energy assistant secretary of nuclear energy.

There are already a number of firms which have developed designs and some prototypes for SMRs so I have to wonder about the need for DoE to do the research and development.  Also, the US Navy has been using nuclear reactors that are the equivalent, one would think, of SMRs.  If the info I read was correct, the USN has operated safely over 500 small reactors on vessels at sea and the reactor systems had to be designed to handle combat including close by mine explosions and depth charge explosions.  Is that not at least roughly equivalent to earthquake issues?

One would think SMRs pose a significant possibility for replacing boiler units, or at least working in a hybrid cycle where the reactor makes the steam and perhaps a bit of fuel is burned to add superheat as needed.  This provides the potential, at least in my mind, to replace coal fired boilers but utilize the equipment needed for generation--the steam turbine, boiler feed pumps, piping, cooling tower, condenser, transformers etc.  Some of the SMRs I have read about are as small as 75MW thermal which is roughly 25MW electrical, so a 150MW steam turbine could be powered by 6 to 7 SMRs allowing greater turndown flexibility than typical large reactor plants.  Many of the SMR designs have passive safety designed in.

What the DoE official did not discuss is spent fuel recycling--ie breeder reactors--which can be significant in decreasing the sheer volume of nuclear waste.

Also, I find it curious that the feds say they cannot impose upon Nevada to accept the use of Yucca Mountaion upon which I understand $100 billion of taxpayer money has been spent yet they can impose upon other states CSPAR regulations, can impose upon Texas and New Mexico regulations to prevent gas and oil exploration and drilling due to the Sagebrush Dune Lizard, can impose upon the Gulf states a defacto ban on offshore exploration, and can impose upon the private developers of the Keystone XL pipeline a ban on construction in an area that already has some 25,000 miles of pipelines criss-crossing it and even ban construction when that developer has proposed an alternate route that does not cross the Ogalalla aquifer.

Why does DoE need to spend taxpayer money to duplicate work already done by others on SMRs, including work done to develop what are effectively very flexible SMRs the Navy has used since the 1950's?  DoE is stalling due to politics not public safety.