TU Podcast: Interview with Arv Energy

Arv Energy is a newly established company with a clear ambition: to use the legacy of Norway’s oil and gas industry to develop nuclear power in the Nordic region. In this episode of Teknisk Ukeblad’s podcast Teknisk sett, technology editor Jan Moberg met with Martin Hjelmeland (Arv Energy) and Atle Blomgren (NORCE) to discuss how offshore competence can gain new relevance in the energy transition.

Listen to the TU Podcast interview with Arv Energy here (in Norwegian)

The article below is a translation from Moberg's article.

Norwegian experience from offshore oil and gas operations is crucial if we are to succeed with new Norwegian nuclear power, emphasize the initiators behind “From Platform to Reactor.”

Even though enthusiasm for nuclear power is currently high, it remains uncertain whether new nuclear power will actually be built in Norway. In any case, there’s still a long way to go. If new nuclear power is developed, it will likely not be completed until about a hundred years after Norway’s first reactor started in Halden in the early 1950s.

Since then, our small nation has gained significant experience from oil and gas operations in the North Sea. Over the past 60 years, Norwegian industries have built vital competence and expertise in areas such as engineering, construction, operations, and safety — all of which are critical when it comes to building and operating nuclear power plants.

A proud legacy

In this episode of the Teknisk Sett podcast, you’ll hear Martin Hjelmeland from Arv Energy and Atle Blomgren from the research institute NORCE discuss how technology transfer from offshore to nuclear power can take place.

One initiative is the project “From Platform to Reactor,” which explores how Norwegian shipyards and modular production can play a key role — as well as the political and market conditions that must be established to scale important Norwegian expertise into new energy solutions.

— In the Nordic region, we collectively have the competence needed to build and operate the nuclear facilities we’ll require for the green transition and for the sake of the climate, says Hjelmeland.

The two also argue that much of the expertise that built Norway’s oil industry is directly relevant to the current “wave of interest” in modern small modular reactors (SMRs).

But the knowledge transfer has gone both ways.

— The Norwegian oil industry actually received a lot of competence transfer from nuclear power, Blomgren reminds.

Multiphase and shipyards

Concrete examples of useful experience include the software developed for multiphase flow, which made it possible to transport oil and gas in the same pipeline system. There’s also the story of how the Halden research community and Norwegian shipyards have delivered technology — and how experience in building and transporting modules has become an important and cost-reducing concept in the industry. This repetition effect not only reduces costs but also safeguards quality and shortens construction time.

Series production has simply been the right and important approach for activity in the North Sea — and it could also be for new nuclear power development. This contrasts with repeated use of custom-built solutions, which has proven extremely costly — as in the Finnish Olkiluoto project, where time and cost overruns became enormous.

Both industry and energy

In addition to industrial development, this week’s podcast guests are of course also concerned with the fundamental challenge itself: the need for much more fossil-free electric power.

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