OPEN100 is a project that claims to provide open-source blueprints to build

nuclear power plants A nuclear power plant (NPP), also known as a nuclear power station (NPS), nuclear generating station (NGS) or atomic power station (APS) is a thermal power station in which the heat source is a nuclear reactor. As is typical of thermal power s ...

. Its stated goal is to reduce the cost and duration of nuclear reactor construction and increase the nuclear power supply 100-fold by 2040 to aid in the

decarbonization Climate change mitigation (or decarbonisation) is action to limit the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere that cause climate change. Climate change mitigation actions include conserving energy and replacing fossil fuels with clean energy sour ...

of the global economy. It was developed by Bret Kugelmass and the

Energy Impact Center The Energy Impact Center is an American research institute based in Washington, D.C. It primarily advocates for the expansion of nuclear power as a clean energy solution to climate change. The organization's research into nuclear power has led it ...

, a non-profit organization founded by Kugelmass that advocates for clean energy solutions to climate change.

Overview

OPEN100 was first announced in February 2020 by Bret Kugelmass and the Energy Impact Center (EIC). Open-source blueprints for the construction of a nuclear power plant were uploaded to the project's website soon after the announcement. Those blueprints contained designs for a power plant with a 100-megawatt

pressurized water reactor A pressurized water reactor (PWR) is a type of light-water nuclear reactor. PWRs constitute the large majority of the world's nuclear power plants (with notable exceptions being the UK, Japan, India and Canada). In a PWR, water is used both as ...

. The OPEN100 plans aim to standardize nuclear power plant construction to increase speed and cost-effectiveness, allowing plants to be built in under two years for a cost of $300 million. New plant construction would likely face regulatory hurdles in practice, however. The EIC developed the plan in collaboration with the United States Department of Energy national laboratories and other entities to help increase nuclear power capacity 100-fold by 2040 in an effort to curb and reverse the effects of climate change. In July 2021, it was announced that Transcorp Energy in

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

would begin implementing the OPEN100 model to build the country's first nuclear power plants. Since OPEN100's data is open-source, the U.S. Department of Energy exempted the project's documents for free distribution worldwide.

Critics

Providing free knowledge isn't sufficient to guarantee adoption, as many countries do not have the proper legislation and laws to deploy nuclear production domestically. Another risk of the approach is that, just like open-source software, users customize it to their own needs, and this lack of standards could hurt the global deployment of OPEN100's nuclear plants worldwide.

References

External links

Official websiteEnergy Impact Center
Pressurized water reactors Small modular reactor Nuclear power in the United States Open design {{Nuclear-power-stub