Stepping up the country’s nuclear energy goals, the American government has greenlit another clean energy project.
A hybrid nuclear power plant with 2.5 gigawatt (GW) energy capacity will be up and running in Victoria, Texas, in less than five years. The project would break free from historic nuclear construction timelines, which typically take more than 10 years to complete.
To reduce those delays, the government has backed clean-tech startup Blue Energy, which expects to shorten construction time to about 36 months.
Blocks at shipyards
To minimize the cost and construction period, the company will manufacture prefabricated reactor sections, called “Blue Blocks,” at shipyards. Built using conventional reactor designs, each block will weigh around 1,500 tons, the company claimed, and can be transported directly from the shipyard and assembled at the nuclear plant site within a year.
“The 1,500-ton Blue Block prefabricated modules are fully functional mechanically and electrically, they have plumbing — everything is delivered ready to run directly to the site,” said Blue Energy founder and CEO Jake Jurewicz.
Recognizing that the “nuclear problem is a construction problem,” Jurewicz said the company plans to leverage the existing manufacturing supply base used by offshore oil, gas, and wind industries that operate from shipyards.
The company said building at shipyards offers several advantages, including access to a large skilled workforce, specialized infrastructure, and greater opportunities for automation because manufacturing takes place under controlled conditions.
The Blue Blocks will house small modular light-water reactors supplied by GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy.
Switch from gas to nuclear
Beyond shipyard construction and prefabricated modules, the company also plans to operate its plants on natural gas initially before transitioning to nuclear reactors, a strategy aimed at reducing costs and avoiding project delays.
“We have this gas-to-nuclear technology that allows us to get things going earlier with gas by building the whole nuclear steam turbine system right away,” said Jurewicz.
Using this approach, the company expects not only to bring the plant online sooner but also to begin generating revenue within three years of the start of construction.
“By energizing it with steam from gas combustion turbines, which means we can finance it as a gas plant, so the cost of capital goes down,” he added.
According to Jurewicz, the approach dramatically lowers project costs while reducing financial risk. The company has already received approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for its gas-to-nuclear strategy.
Under the plan, Blue Energy’s first Texas power plant will begin operating in 2030 with two gas turbines producing 1 GW of electricity. Two years later, the facility will reach its full 2.5 GW capacity by adding up to five small modular reactors, generating an additional 1.5 GW of power.
For future projects, the company expects to reduce construction costs to as low as $5,000 per kilowatt, delivering electricity at less than half the cost of existing nuclear plants.
The modular design will also make it easier to add more reactors at the Texas site in the future while supporting community needs such as desalination.
“This power infrastructure is clean, reliable, and resilient through hurricanes or any other weather scenario that can happen in that community,” Jurewicz added.