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UtILItY WEEK | 13th - 19th March 2015 | 23 140 tons size the of the UK's plutonium stockpile by 2018 60 years time it would take a prism power unit to disposition all of the UK's plutonium 600MW capacity for the proposed prism power unit at Sellafield "If the UK has the technical courage, it will make sure that it has the initial supply chain and when the technol- ogy is adopted elsewhere, you become the experts." Eric Loewen, chief consulting engineer, GE hitachi Nuclear Energy Operations & Assets Factfile: Tors stage 2, the proof of concept model Jay Wileman, senior vice president, nuclear plant projects and chief operating officer, GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy Prism is no leap in the dark Deploying a new kind a nuclear power technology seems an inherently risky business to the layperson, but Eric Loewen is nonchalant: "For the offering we have for the UK there are no unknowns. We would be within the known operating temperatures, fuel composition and materials that were used successfully in the US at Experimental Breeder reactor-II for 30 years. and large elements, such as the cooling system and electromagnetic pumps, were tested at scale in the 1980s for advanced liquid metal reactors. So it's just a matter of systems integration to put them together for deployment in the UK." Ask an expert GE hitachi is clearly enthusiastic about Prism, but what do other experts think? "[Fourth generation reactors and nuclear waste recycling] makes geological disposal much less of a challenge (and arguably even unnecessary) and nuclear waste a minor environmental issue compared to hazardous wastes produced by other industries." Sir David King, former government chief scientific adviser "the Prism reactor offered by GE hitachi [is] a fourth-generation fast reactor design which can generate zero-carbon power by consuming our plutonium and spent fuel stockpiles, thereby tackling both the nuclear waste and climate problems simultaneously." Stephen Tindale, former executive director of Greenpeace: option. More news on the NDA's considera- tion of its disposition challenge is expected aer the general election and a final deci- sion about which technology will be pursued should be made in 2016. In the meantime, GE Hitachi is on the hard sell, convinced that Prism is the best solution. Loewen and Wileman are practised ambassadors, emphasising both Prism's technical and economic benefits. "Prism is the fastest and most flexible solution to the UK's disposition needs," says Wileman with confidence. A single Prism unit would take 60 years to disposition all 140 tons of the plutonium stockpile in the UK, and it would also offer the option to burn spent nuclear fuel – which Mox cannot – and hence superior flexibility. "Regular light water reactors use fuel for about four to five years and then take it out," Wileman says. "At that point only about 5 per cent of the potential of that fuel has been used. Prism would allow you to recycle – not reprocess, recycle – that fuel to a point where up to 95 per cent of its potential is used." Although the NDA's only remit is to ensure the UK's plutonium is taken care of, Wileman says he is hopeful that "once peo- ple are comfortable with the technology" more reactors could be built at Sellafield. On the economic side, Wileman says that if the UK has the "technical courage" to adopt Prism, it would not only ensure the employment of thousands of people in the Sellafield region on the operation and main- tenance of the unit and fuel fabrication facil- ities, it would also establish a supply chain for when Prism, he hopes, is adopted more widely. Summing up the opportunity for the UK and the sheer significance of the Prism inno- vation, Wileman says that it could do for the nuclear industry what the invention of the jet engine did for aviation. "The fundamental difference that makes Prism safer, cleaner and more cost effective than other reactor technologies is that it uses metallic fuel rather than oxide fuel." Prism's primary fuel source is plutonium, but unlike Mox it can also reprocess spent nuclear fuel. Fuel for thought TM Technology is on the agenda at Utility Week Live, at the NEC in Birmingham in April. Go to utilityweeklive.co.uk for the full agenda and to register for this free-to-attend conference and exhibiton.