An op-ed, short for “opposite the editorial page”, is a written prose piece, which expresses the opinion of an author usually not affiliated with the publication’s editorial board.
Westinghouse eVinci model on display in Saskatoon. Photo by Brian Zinchuk
The fatal flaw of the Westinghouse Electric Company eVinci microreactor isn’t its costly fuel, it’s the back end logistics.
TLDR: How do you get a short school bus sized 15 ton spent eVinci core full of hot, highly radioactive spent fuel from a remote site back to civilization?
Westinghouse’s pitch is seductive: a “nuclear battery” that can be delivered by truck, plug-and-play, no refueling, no water, no moving parts. Perfect for remote mines, Arctic communities, or isolated research stations.
To be fair, the front end is impressive: a ~15 ton sealed reactor quietly delivering megawatts for 8+ years. If it lives up to the hype what’s not to love?
But it’s the back end of the fuel cycle where the business case collapses.
No on-site refueling means that when it’s done, you now have a 2-meter-wide, 4-meter-long, red-hot core filled with freshly spent, highly radioactive fuel that needs to be shipped out for re-fuelling or disposal.
The core is highly radioactive, emitting intense gamma radiation. Unshielded dose rates at 1 meter could be several sieverts/hour AKA acutely lethal. The transport cask is likely 3m in diameter & 5m long lined with 15cm of lead, 20cm of structural steel with redundant seals, shock absorbing nose & tail cones, stainless steel liner & a heat-dissipating overpack to manage decay heat.
It’s a Type B(M) nuclear transport challenge meaning it must withstand air crashes, full engulfing fire, submersion, and 9-meter drops. It will probably weigh ~30 tonnes, require remote handling & heavy lift equipment throughout its journey from remote mine to Westinghouse’s hot cells or a national laboratory.
So what’s the plan?
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A convoy through multiple national & international jurisdictions with hazmat escorts & armed security & IAEA supervision?
There is no precedent for this. Even submarine reactors, arguably the closest analogy, don’t face this.
U.S. Navy sub cores are smaller & removed & packaged at a dedicated drydock. The rest of the defuelled reactor compartment is then shipped intact by barge & rail to Idaho for burial.
Those are multibillion-dollar, state-backed logistics chains, not mining companies 800km from the nearest port.
It’s one thing to store spent fuel at a large centralized facility, like a gigawatt scale nuclear plant, where you have cooling pools, remote handling, rail links, & interim storage. It’s another to try to do that on permafrost in the high arctic.
Yes, the eVinci reactor is an elegant piece of engineering. Yes, heat pipe tech & solid-core TRISO fuel are promising. But all that collapses under the weight of a single question:
How do you get it out once its full of highly radioactive spent nuclear fuel?
Until someone can answer that, remote land based microreactors are a tech demo, not a solution.
The only way out of this I can see is using eVinci exclusively as a floating nuclear power plant which still has plenty of technical/ logistical/political challenges & rules out inland deployments BUT there remain many arctic coastal locations in need of reliable power. Russia’s Rosatom is doing this as part of a nation building effort to open its Northern Sea Route and the riches that lie along it, but Westinghouse is no Rosatom.
Dr. Chris Keefer is a Toronto physician, president Canadians for Nuclear Energy, and Senior Editor and Host at Decouple Media
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