Emerging Technologies Track

09:45 - 10:45

"The Next Generation Nuclear Plant - Nuclear Energy Beyond the Grid"

Gerhard Strydom

Idaho National Laboratory

Nuclear power is poised for a resurgence as customers and governments recognize the benefits of this secure, reliable, and environmentally benign energy source. Nuclear fulfills about 20% of US electricity needs and increased deployment of existing light water reactor technology can increase the portion of baseload electricity well above this number. Yet even adding to the existing fleet all of the new plants being considered for construction, nuclear would still meet only a small portion of the overall energy demand of the US. The Next Generation Nuclear Plant Project was authorized by Congress in 2005 to develop advanced nuclear technology to serve markets beyond traditional electricity production. An alliance of vendors and customers have joined with the US Department of Energy national labs to take high temperature gas-cooled reactor technology from the research and development stage to commercial deployment with the aim of serving industries powered by high temperature process heat. The linchpin of this technology is a highly robust fuel form that can operate safely at temperatures as high as 1600 C, much higher than possible with current reactors. Melting of the core is not possible and thus the reactor can be sited next to the industrial application for safe, efficient, reliable, emission-free thermal energy. This talk will discuss the potential role of high temperature reactors in the energy marketplace and the technical challenges to deployment.

About the Speaker

Gerhard Strydom is a reactor physics scientist at the Idaho National Laboratory. He joined the INL in 2010 from the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) company in South Africa, where he spent 7 years as part of the core design and accident analysis team. The pebble bed reactor is one of two candidate designs for the Department of Energy’s Next Generation Nuclear Plant project. His current focus areas at INL are participation in international benchmark exercises on the prismatic Modular High Temperature Reactor, and uncertainty quantification in coupled neutronics and thermal fluid systems.

Mr. Strydom earned his Bachelor’s Degree in Physics from the Free State University in 1993. He worked for the South African Atomic Energy Agency for 10 years, where he was involved in various health physics and decontamination projects. He earned a MSc in Reactor Physics in 2008 while working at the PBMR company. Mr. Strydom lives in Idaho Falls with his wife, Estelle.