The AP300 also has the same safety features of the AP1000, Durham said. The passive cooling system is especially critical in both models.
"And if you don't have backup sources of electricity, or backup sources of water, then you can have a situation where the fuel overheats, like it did at Fukushima," Durham said. "Passive safety systems keep the fuel cool all by themselves with no human action, no backup source of electricity, no backup source of water, because everything you need to keep the fuel cool is inside the reactor.
"This is a game changer technology," he said. "If the AP1000 had been in operation at Fukushima, it would have been a total non-event."While small nuclear reactors are a new area of interest for the industry, demand for large reactors is still robust outside the U.S.