Ric Perez, TVA senior vice president for shared services says the organisation is looking for a generic SMR reactor design if it means getting its SMR project off the ground rather than a design specific option.

By Heba Hashem

Ric Perez, TVA senior vice president for shared services expressed his hope for Babcock & Wilcox to complete their reactor design despite cutbacks in the project, and for a small nuclear reactor to be installed at the Clinch River site in Oak Ridge, according to a report by Times Free Press.

However, if this does not happen, TVA, which is working to get the site certified for an SMR, will do that in a way that allows another reactor design to be used.

Pereez has expressed in the media that TVA is shifting its focus from making Clinch River a design-specific site to being a fundamentally generic SMR facility.
Perez was quoted: "We want to develop the site so that whoever comes out of the licensing process with a successful design that is certified, we will have a site available for them."

TVA sees enough value in the SMR concept, and in keeping nuclear power as part of a varied portfolio of power generating options, it wants to keep the project going despite an uncertain turn of events, Perez said.