“We can’t really point to something and say it’s just going to be like the one we built down the road five years ago,” said Eric Smith, associate director of the Tulane Energy Institute. “These are proven technologies but first-of-its-kind commercial applications.”
Smith said the appeal of the new generation of reactors comes from their speed of construction and potential for scale. Instead of having to be pieced together on site over the course of a decade like a conventional, utility-scale reactor, the modular reactors can be built mostly in factories, with sections shipped to a build site on barges.
Still, nuclear energy remains costly. Planned for nearly 900 acres on the Mississippi along the Ascension-Iberville parish line, Amberjack’s estimated price tag is the highest of the three projects even as it will generate the least electricity of the three…