Flexblue: An offshore nuclear reactor as electricity alternative

French defense company DCNS (Direction des Constructions Navales) is having over 300 years of heritage. After delivering spectacular submarines to the French Navy it is now planning to execute project Flexblue – an offshore nuclear power plant. The ultimate aim is to fulfill the never ending power related needs of the city.

flexblue

Flexblue would be a cylindrical unit, 100 meters in length and 15 meters in diameter. It will produce 50 to 250 Mwe of electricity by using an inbuilt nuclear power reactor and steam generators. Such devices would be installed on the seabed under 60 to 100 metres of water where the energy generated would be transported through underwater cables.

The device is supposed to be a self maneuvered device on which DCNS is working for more than two years. DCNS has further collaborated with Electricité de France, CEA and Areva for optimizing Flexblue's modularity and standardization. The collaboration has already initiated the next two-year phase of development.

Their research Itinerary further includes; technical and production options, market potential, competitiveness analysis, proliferation studies and project security. In addition to this, DCNS is looking forward to match up its project security with Generation-III reactors.

powering vilyuchinsk city

A similar version of nuclear power plant is being constructed at a shipyard in Saint Petersburg, Russia for powering the Vilyuchinsk city. The vessel Akademik Lomonosov would host two small reactors based on submarine units and transmit 64 MWe via a built jetty.

Tennessee Valley Authority, USA along with Babcock & Wilcox's mPower unit is also planning to establish land-based small reactors for the Clinch River site. At the same time Department of Energy's Savannah River Site would launch small units including Hyperion and GE-Hitachi's Prism.

Via: World-nuclear-news