http://www.newsadvance.com/news/local/ba...b2370.html

Quote:Charlotte, N.C.-based B&W employs about 2,400 people in the Lynchburg area, mainly in its Nuclear Operations and mPower business units. The mPower unit, which has about 200 employees, also is based in Charlotte but operates a scale-model testing facility with about 20 employees at the Center for Advanced Engineering and Research off U.S. 460 in Bedford County, as well as a control room prototype and fuel technology center in Lynchpin Industrial Park in Lynchburg.

“B&W continues to believe in the strength of the mPower technology, but without the ability to secure significant additional investors or customer Engineering, Procurement and Construction contracts to provide the financial support necessary to develop and deploy mPower reactors, the current development pace will be slowed,” the news release states.

"We look forward to working with our stakeholders to find the most efficient way to move this technology toward licensing and deployment"

Mpower ® are ~150MW (1/10 size) modular reactors designed to power industrial complexes, neighborhoods, etc.


When the Feds are your main customer, you don't anger them in a news release if possible... hence the tiptoeing in the article.


211 middle class jobs down the drain because the Feds refuse to license new reactors and B&W can't sustain the investment. Thanks, Obama.

mach will tell ya that there is no such thing as over-regulation. 'cause he knows!

Meanwhile, it's all ok b/c we've got natural gas. Except that comes from fracking, but that doesn't get mentioned b/c we know that coal is evil. Not quite as evil as oil, but still plenty evil. And don't even get me going on wood burning stoves.

So if leftists have their way we'll have no energy from coal, natural gas, nuclear, oil or wood. And that's progress!

The NRC had come out a few months ago and said that they would have difficulty certifying SMRs - small modular reactors - because there are a number of new designs and they (the NRC) don't have experience with them. These have tremendous promise because they can be factory built and - in some designs (not mPower) - can be constructed so that they never need refueling, and can extract far more energy out of the available fuel than existing designs.

This is an example of how regulation contributes hugely to the cost of nuclear power, and in makes it less safe by introducing barriers to safer designs.

Regulations that intentionally stifle a power market and needlessly raises the price of energy is treason, right? Outlawing woodstoves to make people buy more overpriced wall juice... when they say the goal is reducing consumption. How is this alone not impeachable?

Steven Chou, anyone?

Remember his "all of the above" energy policy?

I'd say he's checked all the boxes.

Working in this industry, I can confirm that both nuclear and fossil energy new construction is living off contracts initiated pre-Obama Administration.

Back to SMRs, what this will do is open that industry to foreign production. It will be done, it just won't bring $$$ to America. This is a global market, where SMRs developed here and produced here could be delivered globally, but it will likely be South Korean or Chinese companies getting that business.