SSM Ready to Meet New Wave of Nuclear Power Demand | ACHR News

Oct 14, 2024

One of the HVAC sheet metal industry’s most consequential boom times came during the nuclear era, where America built out a fleet of reactors and cooling towers, all relying heavily on ductwork and ventilation. Of the 99 gigawatts (GW) of total operating nuclear capacity in the country, 95 GW came online between 1970 and 1990.

After decades of declining capacity, the long-awaited unit three and four of the Vogtle nuclear site in Georgia became commercially available in 2023 and 2024. SSM Industries, a sheet metal operation in Pittsburgh, fabricated and installed the ductwork and dampers for the units, down to a containment ring of ductwork at the top of the containment building large enough to walk through. They are the first nuclear power projects in the U.S. to get approval since the Three Mile Island accident near Harrisburg in 1979.

Recommissions of shuttered nuclear power plants are also driving growth, with 835MW secured by Microsoft in a deal with Constellation to restart the Three Mile Island unit that hasn’t experienced any accidents. The site’s faulty unit continues to undergo decommissioning.

Other tech sector heavyweights, like Oracle, just announced plans to bring 1GW online with three small, modular nuclear reactors. The Advance Act legislation President Joe Biden signed into law in July, with support from groups like Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors' National Association (SMACNA), will expedite small reactor approvals.

About three companies – Schneider Inc., Waldinger Corporation and Pullman Construction – came to the fore to offer sheet metal fabrication and installation services in the last nuclear reactor build out. Schneider Sheet Metal, a division of Schneider Inc., performed the complete fabrication and installation of HVAC at Beaver Valley Unit 2 and Limerick Nuclear Station. Eventually management of Schneider Sheet Metal purchased the assets from Schneider, Inc. and formed a new company, SSM Industries, Inc. Waldinger is no longer in the nuclear industry and SSM Industries purchased the nuclear division of Press Power which had previously been the nuclear division of Pullman Construction

“It's a hard cycle for publicly traded companies. The quality control you need to operate in the nuclear sector is a significant investment,” SSM President Thomas Szymczak said, noting they design and fabricate bubble-tight, tornado, and blast dampers, often custom designing them to fit a given application. It’s SSM’s specialty, and keeps customers ranging from the Department of Energy to Slovenian nuclear power plant operators coming back

The company that manufactured JOY series fans is no longer around, so in Slovenia, “we were able to work with New York Blower to custom design a fan that matched performance and dimensions and we qualified that fan for the seismic safety-related application,” said Matt Gorman, power division manager at SSM.

It can take an average of three years to complete a project, Szymczak said in a talk at a SMACNA conference several years ago, noting there is significant overhead that goes into designing, fabricating and quality assuring to nuclear standards. Many audience members were “scared away.”

“But that was years ago. I think these small nuclear reactors are gaining a lot of interest,” Szymczak said.

“If the industry would go back to the late ‘60s or ‘70s, and probably up through ‘86, you definitely need more contractors,” Szymczak added. “But the reality is, it’s a slow starting process. We got involved in Vogtle in ’04, ’05. The HVAC was bid around 2012 and awarded in 2014.”

Westinghouse, also based in Pittsburgh, began construction on Virgil C. Summer Nuclear Power Station units two and three shortly after Vogtle, before Virgil was mothballed in 2017. Westinghouse went bankrupt in 2017 under the ownership of Toshiba, but under new ownership, they are offering a licensed, non-water cooled, AP300 small modular reactor design.

“We haven't really seen, seen much of what the HVAC looks like, or what's really involved. There's such a focus on the reactor and sort of building out from there. HVAC is the last thing to get worked out,” Gorman said, noting he thought small reactors would likely benefit from skid packages and modular sheet metal solutions.

For Vogtle, he said instead of sending truckloads of loose ductwork support pieces for installers to sort through, he had his team prefabricate as many supports as possible – leaving loose just the pieces necessary to get the duct fed through – saving time. And when it comes to what the duct looks like, Szymczak said it’s mostly rectangular.

"Ductwork in nuclear power plants is usually rectangular, with all welded construction and a bolted-up companion flange connection. There is very little spiral duct in a nuclear plant because of seismic constraints,” Szymczak said. “Part of seismic tolerance calculations is the strength of the duct, to start with. You utilize the upgrade in the gauge and thickness of rectangular duct to help with the seismic categories we're dealing with."

Over the last year, SSM’s power division has been focused on DOE sites like Savannah River, where the federal government is making significant investments for critical projects– which likewise require radiation-rated and seismically qualified, custom ventilation, dampers.

“They have to build their critical component capacity up within the next five years, and the project is one of their top priorities,” Szymczak said. But moving forward, he sees significant opportunities for SSM in helping to recommission plants that are no longer in operation.

“There’s two more plants right now that seem to be on the front runner basis of recommissioning,” he concluded.