Samsung Heavy Industries has received approval in principle from ABS for a conceptual design of the CMSR Power Barge, a floating offshore nuclear power plant. The floating facility supplies electricity and thermal energy produced by using compact molten salt reactor (CMSR) technology.
The CMSR Power Parge is a fusion of nuclear power and shipbuilding technology and has less constraints for site selection and facility condition. It takes only about two years to build and costs less. SHI plans to commercialise it by 2028 after completing detailed design of all power generation facilities.
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Electricity and thermal energy source
The CMSR Power Barge, developed by Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) in cooperation with Seaborg, can be equipped with two to eight 100-MW CMSRs in accordance with demand for power production. It is a “nuclear power plant on the sea” with steam turbine generators and transmission/distribution facilities in the floating body.
SHI expects CMSR Power Barge to expand demand not only as an alternative demand for existing fossil fuel power generation facilities, but also as an electricity and thermal energy source for industrial heating systems, hydrogen production, and seawater desalination facilities.
The floating nuclear power plant comes as a turn-key product, ready to be moored at an industrial harbour. In the harbour, a transmission cable will be connected from the barge to the electric grid on shore. An optional solution is to place a hydrogen or ammonia production plant next to the nuclear power barge utilising the CO2-free fission energy from the barge to produce hydrogen and ammonia. The barge has a 24-year lifetime.
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Seaborg
SHI signed a business agreement with CMSR developer Seaborg in January last year to develop floating nuclear power plant products. Seaborg is doing business activities for developing countries that lack constant electricity.
In June 2022, Seaborg won a European Innovation Council Accelerator innovation grant for its CMSR Power Barge. In November, Seaborg also announced a collaboration with the Delft University of Technology’s Reactor Institute (NL). In a one-year project, they will investigate molten fuel salt chemistry for the development of an innovative molten salt nuclear reactor design. The aim of the project is to provide a deeper understanding and modelling of the liquid fuel thermodynamic and physicochemical properties.
Picture by Seaborg.
