Platform unveiled to help replace coal power plants with modular nuclear reactors

New Civil Engineer reports that UB is among the partners working with architectural and engineering firm Bryden Woods on a digital platform for its ambitious repowering coal project, which aims to retrofit coal-fired power plants to accommodate modular nuclear reactors.

UB's role in the project, which is led by SUNY Distinguished Professor Andrew Whittaker in the Department of Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering, is to provide the following:

• Input on the use of seismic isolation for advanced reactors
• Strategies for standardizing (or commodifying) plants to reduce capital cost and time to deploy (from 15 years to 4 years)
• Cost drivers for nuclear pathways to de-scope the required engineering of advanced reactors and simplify regulatory review and licensing
  
• Engagement with stakeholders, customers, power utilities, advanced heat source developers, and regulators in the U.S. and abroad

The project team also includes Terra Praxis, MIT, Microsoft and KPMG.

Read the story here.