Westinghouse in the United States and Prodigy in Canada are collaborating to develop a mobile nuclear power plant based on Westinghouse's 5,000-kilowatt heat pipe microreactor eVinci.It is understood that the two companies have been collaborating to evaluate eVinci’s deployment model since 2019. In 2019-2020 research funded by a multinational mining company, Prodigy evaluated whether eVinci could be deployed in coastal facilities to power remote mines.
Prodigy focuses on integrating commercial small modular reactors into offshore power plant systems for coastal power generation. Compared with onshore, building small modular reactor power stations offshore has the advantages of lower cost and shorter construction period.
Prodigy initiated research on mobile nuclear power plants and developed standardized civil structural components suitable for deployment in various locations. According to Prodigy’s mobile nuclear power plant design, one or more reactors can be transported to a predetermined site in the future and then formed into a nuclear power plant to provide power to factories, data centers, communities, and defense facilities in remote areas.
eVinci is an ideal technology for such a mobile nuclear power plant because it uses heat pipes to transfer heat from the core to the power generation system, operates with few moving parts and has a refueling cycle of up to eight years.
The next steps for Westinghouse and Prodigy include completing the design of the eVinci mobile nuclear power plant, clarifying the nuclear supervision model for the manufacturing, installation and transportation of the mobile nuclear power plant, and advancing certification and on-site assessment, with the goal of launching the first project in Canada in 2030.