RAPID & RELIABLE FABRICATION
Site Location and Footprint & Appearance
Location
The HTMR-100 is an advanced Gen IV gas-cooled reactor. There is a significant distinction between it and the Gen III designs. Gen III designs are water-cooled, and therefore need to be near a large body of water, such as the ocean, or large lake or river.
Due to the arid conditions found in much of Africa, the South African design intentionally followed a path such that the reactor can be sited anywhere……..and is not constrained by having to be near large water.
An HTMR-100 can also be connected to its own mini-grid, which can be small, such as 5 to 20 km wide. It does not have to connect to a National Grid. Therefore again, it is not constrained to having to be built near an existing major electricity transmission line.
Fuel can easily be stockpiled so that fuel deliveries can take place when convenient to the owner. There is no need for a continuously flowing fuel supply, such as is necessary in the case of coal flowing to a coal-fired power station.
Therefore the location does not have to be near a significant road or rail line. In fact, if a major storm, or suchlike, were to damage the supply road, then fuel could be airlifted in by helicopter if need be. Therefore the siting of the power station is very resilient, with respect to any supply lines to the site.
Footprint
An entire nuclear reactor and its associated power station can fit on a football field.
Should one need to plan to expand it to, say, to four modules, you do not need four times the space, since much of the infrastructure such as workshops, admin building, and suchlike are not duplicated.
The reactor is also walk-away-safe. It cannot suffer a core meltdown, or other such catastrophic accident. Therefore it can be placed near to a mine, an industrial area, or residential area, with no fear of negative consequences.
No waste whatsoever comes out of the reactor during normal operations; no ash; no gas; no liquid;……nothing!
When spent fuel is extracted from the reactor after a two-year dwell-time, it can then be stored on site. The reactor, when constructed, is supplied with spent fuel storage facilities to last 40 years. This provision allows for the government, or any other legislative authorities, to decide what they wish to do with the spent fuel in the longer term. Stockpiled spent fuel is perfectly safe.
Both the Location and the Footprint present no problem to anybody wishing to build an HTMR-100. In the case of the Location, it is highly flexible and the owner can choose essentially anywhere to place the reactor.
As far as the Footprint is concerned, it is both small and safe to place virtually anywhere. It is also clean, since it produces no daily waste at all, and furthermore has been declared ‘green’ by the European Union.
Illustration of how a large section of the reactor is constructed underground
Power Station Appearance
There is a tendency, on the Internet, for various SMR developers to project their SMR plans as a super-modern building, much like a major company headquarters in the elite districts of a city.
A number of; artists conceptions, are projected, without power lines, without large-truck access to the site, and so on.
Our HTMR-100 can be presented to any customer in almost any livery one wishes.
Initially we deliberately treated our HTMR-100 as a typical workhorse power plant like any other fossil fuel or nuclear plant.
Normal power stations are industrial structures, built like industrial structures.
Our HTMR-100 was designed to look like the type of Power Pack that one would expect to find powering a South African gold mining complex in an arid, open expanse, reasonably far from a city or large town.
However, it is easily possible for our architects to design any external facade which any customer may wish to have.
So, a reactor complex could be designed to have an Arab appearance for some Middle Eastern country, or an East African appearance, or for that matter a European appearance to fit in with green fields and flowers.
We have had inquiries from all three of those types of countries, so choosing an appropriate livery is no problem.
