Xcel explores nuclear power partnership with Oregon firm NuScale

Xcel Energy is looking at a partnership with NuScale Power to run that company's advanced nuclear plants — assuming they get built — or at least to assist in their operation.

Xcel and Oregon-based NuScale have signed a memorandum of understanding that could make Xcel a "preferred partner," according to NuScale, within the next year.

For Xcel, any partnership would be unique, putting it on the front lines of a new nuclear technology that could eventually help the company meet its goal of producing carbon-free power by mid-century.

NuScale's small reactors have roughly 10% of the generating capacity of a traditional nuclear reactor, and several can be deployed at one site. NuScale's reactor would cost much less than a traditional nuclear reactor — though its cost-efficiency compared to other forms of electricity generation is still a big question.

"It's early on, but we are going to talk to NuScale about what potential help we could give them," said Pete Gardner, Xcel's chief nuclear officer.

Minneapolis-based Xcel and NuScale likely will decide by year's end whether they will go ahead with a partnership, Gardner said.

Any alliance with NuScale would be run through a separate, unregulated Xcel company, not through Xcel's rate-regulated utilities, Gardner said.

The partnership could entail Xcel operating plants that use NuScale's technology. Or Xcel could copyright and sell its nuclear management model for use at NuScale plants.

"NuScale came to us because we are one of the top nuclear power operators in the U.S.," Gardner said.

If the NuScale partnership goes forward, it could be significant for Xcel's own long-term nuclear power plans. The company has made clear that nuclear power is critical to its goal of having 100 % carbon-free energy by 2050.

"We absolutely think nuclear is going to be a big part of our future going forward," Gardner said. "Nuclear needs to be in the portfolio. You can't just have wind and solar."

Unlike wind or solar, nuclear reactors can provide carbon dioxide-free power continuously — though they also generate toxic waste that needs to be contained.

Xcel has said it expects to use current power technologies to reach its goal of 80 % clean electricity by 2030. But it has also said that new technologies, possibly including advanced nuclear, are needed to attain 100 % clean power.

Electric utilities have all but ruled out building big new nuclear plants like Xcel's behemoths at Monticello and at Prairie Island near Red Wing; they are far too costly. However, there a host of concepts for much smaller, technologically advanced nuclear reactors.

NuScale's is the only advanced reactor design to win approval from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

"NuScale has gotten much farther along in the licensing process than any other," Gardner said.

And being water-cooled, NuScale's plant is in line with traditional nuclear plants. Most advanced reactors employ different coolants than water, including helium, liquid metal and molten salt.

"It's a good, reliable plant," Gardner said of NuScale's plant. Still, he noted that even if Xcel partners with NuScale, it would still consider other companies' nuclear technologies for its own fleet.

NuScale is backed with at least $475 million in funding from engineering giant Fluor and more than $300 million from the U.S. Department of Energy. Construction on its first power plant, to be built on property owned by the Idaho National Laboratory, is expected to start in 2025.

The roughly $5.3 billion project would open later this decade and be owned by Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS). The U.S. Department of Energy also has committed around $1.4 billion to UAMPS for the NuScale project.

Originally slated to include 12 small reactors, it is now expected to have six, which together would have about 71 % of the generation capacity of Xcel's Monticello plant.