SMR-300s: Not-So-Small, But Oh-So-Mythical Reactors

[Yard sign design by Michigan Safe Energy Future-Kalamazoo Chapter and Shut Down Palisades Campaign. Photo by Kevin Kamps.]

SMR-300s

Beyond Nuclear and Don’t Waste Michigan did battle with Holtec over so-called Small Modular Reactor (SMR) new builds at Palisades in southwest Michigan. But Holtec’s 300 Megawatt-electric reactors are 4.5 times larger than the Fermi Unit 1 reactor in southeast Michigan. Its 1966 partial reactor core meltdown meant “We Almost Lost Detroit,” in the words of author John G. Fuller and songwriter Gil Scott-Heron. Despite the break-in phase (à la Chornobyl Unit 4, Three Mile Island Unit 2, and Fermi 1) risks at two SMR-300s, Holtec is requesting an exemption from Nuclear Regulatory Commission emergency planning and preparedness requirements. Holtec is seeking $7.4 billion in Department of Energy loan guarantees for its deployment of SMRs.

Holtec’s SMR-300s are currently oh-so-mythical, in that they are not even design certified. And yet Holtec has requested Limited Work Authorizations to actually begin construction, and these exemptions from emergency planning and preparedness requirements. This is all supposedly justified by the SMR-300’s inherent safety. But talk is cheap, as are pie-in-the-sky promises from a company infamous for lying, corruption, and law breaking, as well as incompetence and inexperience. Holtec has never built a reactor before, nor has it operated one.

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