Page 90 - BizVoice May/June 2013

90 BizVoice/Indiana Chamber – May/June 2013
Indiana Facility Part of Nuclear Revival
Darren Gale has been involved with the nuclear energy industry for nearly 30 years.
He’s seen the highs and the lows – including the early 1990s when the fear was that
most nuclear power plants were going to be shut down.
Currently the vice president of product development for Babcock & Wilcox (B&W) mPower
Inc., which is commercializing small modular reactors (SMRs), Gale terms the project a “game
changer. It takes the excitement to a completely different level. I’m really looking forward to the
chance to change how energy can be delivered over the next 150 years.”
A leading international provider of energy products and services, B&W
has approximately 12,000 employees around the world. Its Indiana plant (in
Mount Vernon in the southwest corner of the state) celebrated its 50th
anniversary in 2012 and is part of the company’s nuclear operations group.
“The Mount Vernon facility has obviously been very important to B&W for
many, many years with the machining of large reactor vessel components,”
Gale notes. “The large vessel itself that will become the mPower module is
what we have planned for Mount Vernon at this point in time. That is very
much what it has been known for and what it has done in the past.”
All SMR components can be made in the United States. Safety is enhanced
with the reactors using lower-level material than the highly-enriched fuel in traditional
nuclear plants. Capable of generating 180 megawatts of energy, they can be
manufactured before being transported to their ultimate destination. Although
production is at least a few years down the road, there is strong potential for
new jobs at both the Mount Vernon facility as well as for in-state suppliers.
B&W is partnering with Bechtel International and the Tennessee Valley
Authority (TVA) on a specific SMR project that has the support of the Obama
administration. It was announced in late November that the Energy Department
will provide up to half of the total project investment as part of a five-year agreement. The goal is
to deploy the first plant in the early part of the 2020s; concept work on the project began in 2007.
The federal funds will help keep the program on track, Gale says. Current work is
taking place in three areas – final design in order to prepare a licensing document to go to
the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2014; preparing the site location in conjunction with
the TVA; and getting facilities ready for the manufacturing process.
In a follow-up to the Energy Department announcement, Christofer Mowry, president of
B&W mPower, wrote that “hundreds of engineers, technicians and operators across the
United States are working on all aspects of the development program.”
Discussions have been ongoing with a number of major electricity providers, including
Duke Energy, Gale reports. But the ultimate customer base is expected to be broad.
“We also have a lot of utilities that are not necessarily nuclear right now, but sure would
like to be able to have that nuclear option in their generation portfolio,” he offers.
“Ultimately, we want to bring some of those smaller utilities into the nuclear foray.”
It’s All About the Transmission
When the topic is energy, the conversation typically focuses on the source of the
power – coal, natural gas, renewables and more. No matter the type of generation,
the transmission system makes it possible for business and residential customers to
Building a Reliable Energy Future
By Tom Schuman
I N F O R M A T I O N L I N K
Resource: Babcock & Wilcox atwww.babcock.com
A large reactor pressure
vessel that is manufactured
at the Mount Vernon
facility.