Abstract

The energy landscape is changing and modern energy sources need to be flexible enough to work on a power grid with renewables, provide the vast amounts of sustainable energy needed to support growing populations and economies – all while decarbonizing the economy. 

NuScale Power is designing the next generation of nuclear reactors to meet these challenges. NuScale’s small modular reactor is an advance on existing nuclear reactor technology, designed with flexibility and scalability in mind. A single NuScale plant with several reactor modules could provide electricity, water, and process heat for people and industry in a community or region. A NuScale plant also has a small environmental footprint and produces no direct emissions into the environment, preserving the health of people around it. These plants can help further decarbonize the economy by providing reliable clean power for data centers, hospitals, and other mission-critical facilities, and electricity and heat for industrial applications, such as oil refining and hydrogen or chemical production.

At the core of NuScale’s technology is the NuScale Power Module, a 50-MWe reactor fueled by uranium and cooled by water, encased in a steel container, and operated underground. The system is small and simple, compared to traditional nuclear reactors, therefore streamlining construction and operation, and reducing the overall cost of nuclear power.

Bio

Lenka Kollar is the Director of Strategy & External Relations at NuScale Power where she is working to bring NuScale’s small modular reactor to market through business development and clean energy outreach. She has been invited to speak on energy innovation and the potential of small modular reactors to provide electricity and clean water in a variety of different forums, such as the CleanTech Forum in San Francisco and COP23 in Bonn, Germany. Previously, Ms. Kollar was an Associate Communication Officer at the International Atomic Energy Agency where she handled external and internal communication for the Department of Nuclear Energy. Prior to that, she consulted with public and private sector organizations on nuclear energy policy, public communications, and marketing strategy, along with writing an informational blog called Nuclear Undone. Ms. Kollar also served as a technical associate in non-proliferation policy at the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration and at Argonne National Laboratory.

Ms. Kollar obtained her Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in Nuclear Engineering from Purdue University in 2009 and 2012, respectively, and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from INSEAD in France, Singapore, and the UAE in 2015. She is also the current Communication Officer of the International Youth Nuclear Congress and on the Board of Directors for Generation Atomic.