“This week we’ve made the decision as a company to commit to building a manufacturing plant in the UK. Our commitment is to use the UK as a launching pad for Europe and to use the UK supply chain,” Hyperion Power Generation chief executive officer John (Grizz) Deal told NEI in London.
“We’ve got so much demand that we need to go ahead and start planning our manufacturing facilities,” he said.
“We have customer commitments for over a hundred units already. We’re going to be very busy! In fact, we’re now scheduling deliveries out to 2018-2020 even though we expect to go to market in the 2013-2014 timeframe.”
The company plans to build three more manufacturing facility, one in US to support the North and Latin America markets, and other in Asia, probably Japan. Although Hyperion has not made a decision on where its UK plant will be located, it is likely to be near existing nuclear facilities, which are clustered around the Sellafield site in Cumbria, northeast England.
Deal said that Hyperion is in talks along with the economic development organizations around the UK, as it will decide where to locate the plant, which would give employment to around 200 people. This process may take a couple of years. “It might be possible to use existing facilities; we just don’t know yet,” he said. Hyperion is in discussions with the existing UK supply chain, too.
The company’s small reactor would not be in competition with larger reactors and would be a source of incremental revenue to existing suppliers, added Deal.
“It’s not a case where somebody’s going to decide to buy a Westinghouse reactor or a Hyperion reactor, or even a B&W MPower reactor; they are such different scales. And they have completely different markets.”
Hyperion’s reactor can be utilized for decentralized power, for military installations, dedicated applications such as mining operations, factories, water treatment or sewage facilities.
Deal said that Hyperion has received enquiry from people, who want to utilize the reactor as a source of baseload power for wind projects. There is also an alternate choice for the Hyperion reactors, which could be utilized to retrofit fossil fuel plants. “We are essentially selling the heat. That means we’re incredibly flexible for retrofit.”
When asked what role the Hyperion Power Module could play in the UK market, Deal said: “Distributed power is coming to the UK. It’s particularly important because of the ageing infrastructure. So rather than having to put up a smart grid you can make up a series of grid networks that connect together. That approach is, I think, something that you’re going to see happen in the UK.” He also revealed that Hyperion is starting to talk to people about the new Eco Towns that the UK is planning to start building from 2016.”
Within Europe, the UK, Slovakia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Kazakhstan, Lithuania and Turkey are all interested in the Hyperion Power Module. Deal says that since the federal elections in Germany Hyperion has received ten enquiries from German companies.
Deal said that Hyperion is expecting to submit the design certification application to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission within 2010. It is also planning to get its design licensed in the UK.
“We understand the process in the UK and we have sufficient customer demand. We will be applying to the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate. We’ve not had conversations with them formally because you need to get your license application together but… within about a year or so we will be going to the NII and talking to them about the generic design assessment process.”
The reactor will cost around $30 million. Deal says that the company is committed to generating electricity for less than 10 cents/kWh. “If you look in terms of reactor cost, plus plant side it comes out to be $2000/kW. But, it depends on if you’re retrofitting to replace coal or gas plants.”
