Westinghouse Electric Company and Ameren Missouri will introduce prospective regional suppliers to the Westinghouse Small Modular Reactor (SMR) project and discuss plans that could result in the construction of a Westinghouse SMR at Ameren Missouri's Callaway Energy Center. The companies will host an SMR supplier summit Tuesday, Oct. 30, from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., at the Renaissance St. Louis Grand Hotel Marriott.
Geoffrey Black, Ph.D., a leading authority on the emerging small modular reactor industry, will be the keynote speaker at the conference and will discuss how developing a domestic SMR industry can positively impact the national and regional economies. Dr. Black is chair of the Department of Economics at Boise State University and part of a research consortium for the Idaho National Laboratory’s Center for Advanced Energy Studies (CAES). Dr. Black, along with colleagues at the University of Idaho and the University of New Mexico, recently released a CAES report “Economic and Employment Impacts of Small Modular Nuclear Reactors.”
According to Dr. Black, “A U.S.-based SMR industry could generate more than $250 billion of economic activity between now and 2030. The Westinghouse-Ameren Missouri Alliance and the state of Missouri are well-positioned to compete in the advancement of this emerging industry by being on the leading edge of research, engineering and economic development.”
Westinghouse and all of Missouri’s electric service providers (investor-owned, cooperative and municipal) have formed an alliance to support Westinghouse’s SMR technology and are working to achieve commercial deployment of this technology and make the state of Missouri an education, research and manufacturing hub for exporting of SMRs globally. The alliance is strongly supported by Gov. Jay Nixon, U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer and a large number of bipartisan state and federal elected officials, the University of Missouri, many chambers of commerce throughout the state, trade associations, international and local union leadership and others. Nearly 600 letters of support have been sent to the Department of Energy (DOE) in support of the Westinghouse SMR application.
“While awaiting the DOE’s decision for investment funding, this summit will help suppliers better understand the scope of the project and give them the first chance to prepare for capitalizing on this important economic development opportunity,” said Warner Baxter, president and CEO of Ameren Missouri. “The event will focus on the transformational economic development opportunity associated with the commercialization of SMRs for the United States, and in particular, the state of Missouri. This project could provide our state with a tremendous opportunity to attract a significant number of new manufacturing, engineering, design, construction and skilled craft jobs, as well as many other associated jobs.”
John Goossen, vice president, Westinghouse Innovation and SMR Development, said that promoting the state of Missouri as home to a small modular reactor industry cluster has been an ongoing focus of the project.
“The Westinghouse SMR is designed to be 100 percent U.S. sourced and 90 percent modular with standardized components, making it a transformational technology of the nuclear industry,” Mr. Goossen said. “This summit is an opportunity to put Missouri businesses and suppliers first in line with helping to develop the Westinghouse SMR technology and in building a U.S. supply base.”
“Our hope is that this supplier summit will boost the interest of companies to consider Missouri as becoming the global hub for the design, development, manufacturing and construction of American-made SMRs for export to a global market,” said Joe Zwetolitz, president, Westinghouse Americas, who will speak at the summit. “We recognize the potential for business as a result of the growing SMR market, and we want to help Missouri industry and suppliers capitalize on these opportunities.”
Ameren Missouri is the operating license partner in the Westinghouse application to secure Department of Energy (DOE) SMR investment funds. The investment funds are part of a DOE near-term, multi-year initiative focused on the completion of design certification and licensing activities for safe, secure and economic SMR projects that have the strongest potential of achieving a Commercial Operation Date at a U.S. site by 2022. The 50-50 cost-share agreement between the DOE and private industry is planned to span a five-year period and the funds available will be subject to congressional appropriations. A total investment by the DOE of $452 million has been allocated for its SMR program and private industry must match the government funding it receives.
The Westinghouse SMR is a 225 MWe integral pressurized water reactor (PWR) with all primary components located inside of the reactor vessel. It is the company's next product innovation using passive safety systems and proven components, as well as modular construction techniques – all realized and already licensed in the nuclear industry-leading AP1000® nuclear power plant design, the first and only Generation III+ reactor to receive Design Certification from the U.S. NRC and which is currently being built in China and the U.S. Westinghouse believes that by building upon the concepts and advances in technology achieved in the Westinghouse AP1000 reactor, the Westinghouse SMR design will offer licensing, construction and operational certainty that no other SMR supplier can match with competitive economics.
Westinghouse Electric Company, a group company of Toshiba Corporation (TKY:6502), is the world's pioneering nuclear energy company and is a leading supplier of nuclear plant products and technologies to utilities throughout the world. Westinghouse supplied the world's first pressurized water reactor in 1957 in Shippingport, Pa. Today, Westinghouse technology is the basis for approximately one-half of the world's operating nuclear plants.
Ameren Missouri has been providing electric and gas service for more than a century, and its electric rates are among the lowest in the nation. It serves 1.2 million electric and 127,000 natural gas customers in central and eastern Missouri. The Ameren Missouri mission is to meet their energy needs in a safe, reliable, efficient and environmentally responsible manner. Its service area covers 63 counties and 500 towns, including the greater St. Louis area. For more information, visit AmerenMissouri.com.
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CONTACT: Scott Shaw, 412.374.6737, shawsa@westinghouse.com, Bryan Daniels, 314.554.2182, bdaniels@ameren.com