Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Babcock & Wilcox confirms Bedford Co. facility
Babcock & Wilcox, a nuclear technology company, will test its mPower minireactor.
Courtesy of Center for Advanced Engineering and Research
Babcock & Wilcox plans to test the design and performance of a small modular nuclear reactor at the Center for Advanced Engineering and Research in Bedford County.
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NEW LONDON -- Babcock & Wilcox confirmed Tuesday its plans to establish a facility in Bedford County to test the performance of a small modular nuclear reactor under development by the Lynchburg-based nuclear technology company.
The minireactor's testing will not involve nuclear materials, the company said, relying instead on electricity and steam to verify its design and safety performance as a generator of electricity.
Chris Mowry, president of Babcock & Wilcox Nuclear Energy, was among a number of people celebrating the company's announcement during an afternoon news conference at Bedford County's New London Business and Technology Center off U.S. 460.
Mowry said the decision reaffirms B&W's commitment to making central Virginia a hub for emerging nuclear technologies. The company's first-year investment in the testing mock-up will be $7.6 million. The Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission kicked in a grant of $2.4 million.
Doug Lee, development manager for B&W's small-reactor project, said the total public-private investment could reach $30 million over three years, with B&W continuing to contribute the bulk.
B&W described the project as a three-year initiative, but said the facility could function afterward as a training simulator for future operators.
The company said it anticipates 10 full-time workers will staff the scaled prototype of its mPower small modular reactor. Its development has attracted international attention.
But Mowry and others said Tuesday that if mPower succeeds as expected, many more jobs could be created in the region. B&W currently employs about 2,400 people in Lynchburg and Campbell County. B&W will be the first tenant in the Center for Advanced Engineering and Research, a nonprofit organization that is building a 30,000-square-foot building in the New London business park.
Bob Bailey is the center's executive director. He said B&W's testing prototype is a perfect fit for the center, which intends to provide research facilities to foster innovation and entrepreneurship in nuclear energy and wireless technologies. Construction began in November and is expected to be complete during the first quarter of 2011. B&W said its facility's opening will likely coincide with the center's.
The company said its mPower nuclear power plant will provide an alternative for utility companies reluctant to shoulder the huge capital investment and years of legal wrangling required to build conventional nuclear reactors.
As envisioned, the mPower reactor would generate about 125 megawatts, enough to power between 75,000 and 100,000 homes, Mowry said.
B&W and its recently announced partner, Bechtel Power Corp., are among several companies developing small modular reactors. Competitors include NuScale Power, Westinghouse Electric Co., Hyperion Power Generation and others.
B&W's mPower would be housed underground in a concrete bunker. The reactor, as currently envisioned, would be about 12 feet wide and stand about 75 feet tall when installed underground. B&W says rail cars and trucks could transport the reactor, laid horizontally, to its site.
The test facility in Bedford County will be aboveground.
Mowry has said B&W has spent "tens of millions of dollars" already on developing mPower. He said the company plans to apply in 2012 to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for design certification, and it envisions deploying one or more demonstration plants by 2020.
In early July, McDermott International, which has been B&W's parent company, announced that its board of directors had voted to approve B&W's spinoff.
Related stock transactions might be complete by the end of this week, after which B&W becomes a separate, publicly traded company.
