Corey K. McDaniel, Country Manager (India),
NuScale Power Inc
NuScale Power is developing a modular, scalable nuclear power
reactor. A power plant using NuScale's standard design will
produce 540 MWe using 12 of NuScale's 45 MWe light water
modular reactors. The company expects to apply to the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission in early 2012 for design certification with a
goal of bringing a plant online by 2018.
Corey K. McDaniel tells
Sandeep Menezes that India does not have the luxury to buy the
most expensive power therefore nuclear has to be part of India's
energy mix.
Post Fukushima, do you think that governments are wary and
people skeptical towards nuclear power projects?
Yes, all of nuclear will be looked at differently post Fukushima -
but it was also looked at differently post Three Mile Island.
India in three decades of isolation has developed a civil
nuclear programme and now has an opportunity because of the
Indo-US nuclear deal to get all the technology from the rest of
the world to supplement the only 100 per cent indigenous
programme in the world.
India's energy demands are enormous which it has not
been able to meet. Currently nuclear is only around four per
cent—but in future it can be a larger part. However it can
never be a solution by itself, India will go with nuclear—
there is no reason why it should not. Fukushima was an
accident and a devastating event.
India does not have the luxury to buy the most expensive
power and think that it has unlimited supply of other resources.
Nuclear has to be part of India's energy mix and it will be.
Germany has decided not to pursue nuclear energy. Comment.
There are some nations that have already taken short term
decisions like the Germans that they are not going to do nuclear
and therefore are going to stop their programme prematurely.
It will cost them around $20 billion and some countries can
afford to do that.
Other nations like Japan will have to take serious decisions
because they are very largely dependant on nuclear. They don't
have many other options other than import natural gas which
will be very expensive.
The US is not growing as fast as other countries—but we
have done lot with efficiencies and are finding new natural gas
while also building new nuclear plants. But I would say that
China and India are the two nations that are growing fastest
and have the highest demand for all energy sources.
Post the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in 1979, the US
nuclear industry witnessed a two decade long lull in new build
projects. Therefore how can the US assist the Indian nuclear
energy programme?
Yes in the US, we took a very long pause from commercial
nuclear for a number of reasons. It wasn't just the Three Mile Island accident and safety concerns. We spent lot of time in the
US doing modeling and developed new systems and the result
was the generation of three plus reactors AP 1000, EWR and
smaller reactors. We spent that time on developing better
technologies so that when nuclear had to make a comeback as
it has now; then we are ready.
We are also trying to highlight how US technology can
provide safety advantages in addition to what India is currently
doing.
The US reactors have a very good safety record and also US
services operate around a fourth of all the world's reactors. We
have lots of lessons learnt that we want to share with India - in
terms of reactors technologies, safety lessons and regulatory
lessons.
Most people agree that nuclear energy is essential but almost
everyone doesn't want a nuclear power plant in their own
backyard. Comment.
There will be many people who don't
want nuclear power plants but there
will also be people who see the
economic opportunities and other
advantages.
In the US, most local communities
welcome nuclear power plants.
Comment.
In the US also, some people still
don't want nuclear power plants.
But most local communities which
have nuclear power plants nearby
support it - therefore most of the
new nuclear power plants are to
come-up at the existing sites.
Therefore just like India, some
states in the US are open to having nuclear power plants while
the others are not so open.
India has not followed the internationally accepted practice
towards nuclear liability. Comment.
The nuclear liability law is an entirely Indian law and a
decision by the Indian people. They must decide if they want
nuclear supplies by private companies in India or any
foreign companies. Because the liability law remains the
same in the rest of the world.
It is not for the US, French or Russians to tell India what to
do. India must decide if India wants foreign support or foreign
reactors and even private Indian suppliers will have to decide
if they can supply if there is an unlimited liability.
If the country has to have nuclear at some point the
government and the people will have to say that they are willing
to take on the risk. The ultimate liability will have to lie with the
government in India's case if it is the operator.
In Fukushima the operator had a liability up to a certain point
and then the government had to step in. If you don't have that
liability then you don't have nuclear and if you don't have
nuclear you have few options. Nuclear thus requires more
safety and regulatory scrutiny - but it can be done safely.
If one compares nuclear with other forms of energy it is the
safest technology per MW of energy generated. You have to
make that decision - but there is always a risk of something
negative happening.
With India's energy demand being huge, why do we need
smaller nuclear plants like the ones that NuScale builds?
India needs to go in for both - smaller and larger nuclear power
plants. In places like Maharashtra there could be many large
reactors. All the bigger reactors need water and hence are
located near the oceans - but what are the interiors of India
which does not have large water resources. So smaller
reactors use less water or might be able to use evaporative
cooling. Therefore we could have a localized reactor of 45 MW
or six NuScale reactors of 270 MW. Therefore the NuScale
reactors could fit into places such as the interiors wherein one
could never build a large reactor.
Our reactor could be put on the back of a truck or barge or
even trains and sent to the site fully constructed and ready to
be operated. They can be taken to the reactor site wherein we
put the fuel and they are ready to operate.
A big issue was financing of projects that could be $10 to
$15 billion - we also found that there was an appetite for
smaller reactors like Nuscale - wherein Nuscale
reactor would cost around $3 billion and be
around 1/3 the size. Financing is an issue
and safety has become a priority. In the case
of the US, the market capital of the utilities
would be as big as the risk (project cost)
involved in a nuclear power project -
therefore they needed smaller nuclear
power plants.
What would be NuScale's long term strategy
in India?
Nuscale intends to develop strategic
partnerships with Indian utilities and supply
partners who will take ownership of
reactors and handle marketing and
development in India like what we do in
the US.