Technology

Based on long-proven conventional pressurised‑water technology, each SMART module has a thermal output of 330MWth, giving an electrical output of 100MW. Passive cooling systems are certified to give four days of grace following a shut down.

Simplicity and inherent safety were the driving principles in the design. All its components can be manufactured and assembled in factories under perfect conditions to a fixed timetable and then trucked to site. This compares favourably with a large-scale project where crucial engineering works have to be undertaken in a muddy field. The fuel is of a standard design for a PWR and enriched below 5%, so is available from more than one source. The design life is 60 years.

The SMART can be water cooled or air cooled. KAERI has undertaken the detailed design work for an optional integral desalination plant, giving 90MW of electrical output and 40,000 tons of purified water. The SMART has as export market for anywhere that needs clean power or clean power and clean water.

The SMART reactor is a tested and practical proposition rather than a theoretical one. KAERI’s national nuclear campus has a full range of highly sophisticated facilities where it designs and tests all Korea’s nuclear technologies. KAERI has built facilities purely for the SMART, including a complete control room with simulated operating systems and a six-storey building used to house and test the passive cooling systems.

The fundamental elements of the design are in form and substance therefore highly likely to be acceptable to the UK’s regulator.

Korean domestic nuclear power projects have a better record of coming in within time and within budget than anywhere else. We estimate a construction time of six years following site selection and planning: two years of pre-construction engineering and four years of construction. KAERI has more than thirty continuous years’ experience of project planning and delivery. GF Nuclear has a proven record of building power stations in the UK.

We are giving British engineering firms every opportunity to supply elements of the reactor’s core and other critical nuclear systems. We are being assisted by the Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre in identifying the many firms willing to participate. British companies will undertake the civil engineering works, which will demand the highest levels of design and structural expertise.