B&W reactor project may power Bedford economy

If you want to see the future of nuclear power and the local economy, you can glimpse a part of it through the trees off U.S. 460 in New London.

A 110-foot tower stretches above a Bedford County business park. Soon, it will hold a prototype of the Babcock & Wilcox Company’s mPower reactor — a small nuclear generator that B&W believes will make nuclear power cheaper, safer and faster to build.

“It’s the first scaled test of the mPower reactor,” said Jeff Halfinger, vice president of B&W mPower Technology Development. “It gets us a really early look so we can finalize the design.

“It’s going to be the future of nuclear power.”