NuScale Modular Reactors - My Understanding in 30 Minutes.

NuScale is a company that manufactures self-contained modular nuclear reactors, which are controlled from a single control room. It is a fairly small reactor that operates underground in water filled pool. The benefit of this therefore is that no pumps are needed to circulate the water through the vessel, since the system uses a convection process.

From my understanding the convection process works in the following way:

• water rises to the top of the vessel as reactor is heated up 
• the water is then taken downwards by cool water passing through steam generators as cool water has higher density so its pulled down by gravity to the bottom of the vessel where it is again passed over the core.  
•  as hot water passes over hundreds of tubes in the steam generator, the heat is transferred through the tube walls and the water in the tubes turns to steam.
• The steam then turns the turbines, which are attached to an electrical generator. 
•  The steam loses its energy once it apses the turbines and is cooled back into liquid form
• The water is then pumped back into the steam generator

The benefits of this module are that it is safe as it can shut-down and self-cool without any operator intervention. It is also quite a simple design (I think even I can understand it... somewhat). It is easy to transport due to its size and simplicity.

This reactor vessel seems important in chemical engineering as chemical engineering seems to focus partially on things such as heat transfer and efficiency as well as economy of all processes. This reactor seems to tick off those things. However, the company is from the United States and so its technology has not yet been used in the UK, although they are attempting to make this happen.

Sources used:
[1] http://www.tcetoday.com/latest%20news/2015/october/nuscale-hopes-to-bring-modular-reactors-to-uk.aspx#.VhQbmrRViko
[2] http://www.nuscalepower.com/smr-benefits/secure