Team completing prototypical testing to fortify power plant robustness and resilience

 Prodigy Clean Energy and Serco announced progress on a prototypical test program demonstrating the robustness of Prodigy’s Transportable Nuclear Power Plants to resist accidental and threat scenarios. Funded in part by a $2,750,000 Government of Canada award to Prodigy under the Natural Resources Canada Enabling SMRs program, this first-of-its-kind effort is generating critical data needed to support licensing and public engagement, as Prodigy prepares TNPPs to enter commercialization by 2030.

Fabricated at a qualified maritime facility then transported to site, Prodigy’s TNPPs provide rapid deployment solutions to bring new nuclear power online sooner and at competitive costs. TNPPs require a very small shoreline footprint and are customizable by reactor type and size. The partnership with Serco is testing 360-degree layered countermeasures to secure the nuclear plant from air, land and water.

“Prodigy is completing the real work needed to bring TNPPs to market in North America on schedule. Our technologies are now at a suitable level of readiness to engage sophisticated partners on detailed engineering exercises. Serco’s world class expertise ensures that Prodigy achieves its top priority – that facilities operate safely and securely, safeguarding and protecting local communities and the environment,” said Mathias Trojer, President and CEO of Prodigy Clean Energy.

Serco has decades of experience managing large-scale procurement and production programs for military and civilian vessels, and provides design modernization and sustainment services to the Navies of Canada, the U.K., Australia and the U.S. The company’s extensive maritime and defence background will help drive Prodigy’s next milestone to complete the microreactor TNPP basic design.

Developing a Prodigy TNPP is a complex exercise merging maritime fabrication, transport and site preparation practices, with requirements for civil nuclear construction and operation. Serco is testing TNPP resilience and structural performance under the most challenging conditions, including against aircraft impact and ship collision; seismic, ice, and other severe weather and ocean events; fire and flooding; and for robustness to withstand internal and external physical threat scenarios, including missile impacts. The test program demonstrates how Prodigy’s mitigating design measures keep safety systems intact and contain radioactive materials under emergency situations, even in remote and arctic deployment conditions.

Russell Peters, General Manager of Serco Canada Marine, said, “Serco is proud to bring its design and engineering capabilities, and proven, mission-tested defence in depth know-how to Prodigy’s TNPP program. These innovative facilities will expand civil nuclear deployment, supplying clean, affordable and reliable energy to remote communities and industry, and coastal regions.”

Work performed by Serco is complemented by others such as Lloyd’s Register, Kinectrics, Risktec and C-Job Naval Architects who are part of the Prodigy TNPP development consortium.

Applications for Prodigy’s lower power output TNPPs include supplying carbon-free baseload to remote mines, communities, defence installations and arctic data centers. Serco’s participation anchors strong Canadian-based technical and engineering support for end-to-end power plant lifecycle management.

Source:BusinessWire