Nuclear power

[mspohr]

Vogtle 3 enters commercial operation:

As Vogtle Unit 3 starts commercial operation, Unit 4 gets NRC approval to begin fuel loading

Vogtle Unit 3 is the first newly constructed commercial nuclear reactor in the U.S. in more than 30 years. Unit 4 is expected to enter into service in the fourth quarter of 2023 or first quarter of 2024.

www.utilitydive.com

This quote is just begging for Murphy's Law to come into play...

Today “marks the first day of the next 60 to 80 years that Vogtle Unit 3 will serve our customers with clean, reliable energy,” added Kim Greene, chairman, president and CEO of Georgia Power.

RT

Not clean. Probably not reliable even with "normal" maintenance... and certainly going to be very expensive for ratepayers (but the utility will make a killing so I guess that's all that matters).

 

[mspohr]

The end of Oppenheimer’s nuclear energy dream: Modular reactors supported by ideology alone

“Tech-bro libertarians:” Former nuclear regulatory chief questions hype around new nuclear power technologies that largely don’t exist and will likely be very costly.

reneweconomy.com.au

With large nuclear power plants struggling to compete in a deregulated marketplace against renewables and natural gas, small modular reactors (SMRs) offer the promise to save the nuclear energy option.

In the past few years, investors, national governments, and the media have paid significant attention to small modular nuclear reactors as the solution to traditional nuclear energy’s cost and long build times and renewable’s space and aesthetic drawbacks, but behind the hype there is very little concrete technology to justify it.

By exploring the challenges facing small modular reactor technology, I will demonstrate that this resurgence in nuclear energy speaks to the popular imagination, rather than materializing as actual technological innovation.

 

[mspohr]

Biden to designate 1m acres around Grand Canyon a national monument

The Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni Grand Canyon monument – home to several Native tribes – will be protected from uranium mining

www.theguardian.com

Joe Biden will designate a “nearly 1m acres” expanse around the Grand Canyon as a new national monument, protecting the region from future uranium mining.

The designation, which Biden is expected to announce on Tuesday comes after years-long lobbying by tribal leaders and local environmentalists to block mining projects that they say would damage the Colorado River watershed and important cultural sites.

 

[nwdiver]

At COP28, Countries Launch Declaration to Triple Nuclear Energy Capacity by 2050, Recognizing the Key Role of Nuclear Energy in Reaching Net Zero​

I asked an AI program to turn this headline into an image.

 

[mspohr]

What Drives This Madness On Small Modular Nuclear Reactors? - CleanTechnica

There are a lot of different answers, just as with hydrogen for energy. There's a circle of hope, delusion and despair that is grasping at SMR straws.

cleantechnica.com

This was, of course, in the week when NuScale inevitably imploded, a story I’ll return to as I unpack some of the motivations behind those thinking a bunch of lab technologies that have been around for decades that depend on uranium from Russia, that don’t have the physical characteristics for cheap nuclear generation and don’t have the conditions for success for nuclear generation will be the saviours of the nuclear industry and a key wedge in fighting climate change.

They were national strategic programs. The strategic programs were aligned with nuclear weapons programs. The government picked and enforced a single design for all of the reactors. The reactors were GW-scale due to thermal efficiencies required for cost effectiveness. The government ran human resourcing. The programs ran for 20 or 30 years. They built dozens of nuclear reactors to maintain the teams and momentum and to share lessons learned.

This is obvious stuff looking backward from 2023. As I noted recently, nuclear energy and free markets aren’t compatible. Nuclear programs are state programs with subordinate corporate partnerships.

No, the SMR crowd think that there’s a free market friendly version of nuclear generation. They mostly ignore the seven layers of overlapping security required for any commercial nuclear generation solution. They ignore the thermal and hence cost efficiencies of scale. They ignore the advantages of proven, simpler technologies in favour of novelty. They ignore the lack of military interest in a modern strategic nuclear program. They ignore that they don’t have a major economy and geography backing a winner and forcing it to success, no matter what it costs.

And clearly they don’t pay much attention to modern competitors like wind and solar energy.

There’s almost nothing new in the SMR technologies and designs by the way. Some of them were operational in labs in the 1950s. Most of the technologies were never commercialized anywhere despite various attempts. Their claims about being safer are pretty meaningless as passive safety features exist on lots of the operational GW scale reactors and no one is building unsafe reactors anymore.

They know that they can’t get support to build more GW scale nuclear reactors. No one is buying that story anymore, although few are clear on the conditions for success. So SMRs are a big area of hope for them. 55% of the DOE’s $150 billion budget pays for a lot of attention and air cover for a very low likelihood of success technology.

 

[mspohr]

Former chair of Ohio utility regulator surrenders in $60 million bribery scheme linked to energy bill

The charges announced Monday include 11 counts, including conspiracy, wire fraud and illegal monetary transactions in the bribery scheme related to a legislative bailout of two nuclear power plants.

www.pbs.org

 

[mspohr]

Revealed: Sellafield nuclear site has leak that could pose risk to public

Safety concerns at Europe’s most hazardous plant have caused diplomatic tensions with US, Norway and Ireland

www.theguardian.com

Sellafield, Europe’s most hazardous nuclear site, has a worsening leak from a huge silo of radioactive waste that could pose a risk to the public, the Guardian can reveal. Concerns over safety at the crumbling building, as well as cracks in a reservoir of toxic sludge known as B30, have caused diplomatic tensions with countries including the US, Norway and Ireland, which fear Sellafield has failed to get a grip of the problems. The leak of radioactive liquid from one of the “highest nuclear hazards in the UK” – a decaying building at the vast Cumbrian site known as the Magnox swarf storage Silo (MSSS) – is likely to continue to 2050. That could have “potentially significant consequences” if it gathers pace, risking contaminating groundwater, according to an official document.

 

[UkNorthampton]

Revealed: Sellafield nuclear site has leak that could pose risk to public

Safety concerns at Europe’s most hazardous plant have caused diplomatic tensions with US, Norway and Ireland

www.theguardian.com

Sellafield, Europe’s most hazardous nuclear site, has a worsening leak from a huge silo of radioactive waste that could pose a risk to the public, the Guardian can reveal. Concerns over safety at the crumbling building, as well as cracks in a reservoir of toxic sludge known as B30, have caused diplomatic tensions with countries including the US, Norway and Ireland, which fear Sellafield has failed to get a grip of the problems. The leak of radioactive liquid from one of the “highest nuclear hazards in the UK” – a decaying building at the vast Cumbrian site known as the Magnox swarf storage Silo (MSSS) – is likely to continue to 2050. That could have “potentially significant consequences” if it gathers pace, risking contaminating groundwater, according to an official document.

I used to be pro nuclear but knowing how safety can be compromised eg UK water companies, I'm not confident that many countries can safely maintain nuclear.

It's still safer than fossils, but solar, wind, batteries, insulation, demand shifting etc seems far cheaper and easier. Can be brought on modually and faster than nuclear.

 

[mspohr]

Wind Energy Lifeline Grows In Ukraine,

A new wind farm in Ukraine near the Russian front is the biggest investment in the nation's power sector since achieving independence.

cleantechnica.com

As noted by the leading Ukrainian energy company DTEK Group, the decentralized profile of wind farms makes them an unattractive target for missile attacks, requiring multiple strikes to fell individual wind turbines. Power lines and substations are more vulnerable, but they certainly don’t carry the potential for a catastrophic follow-on threat if damaged or destroyed, and the repair timeline can be relatively short.

Circling back to to Ukraine, the country is home to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, one of the 10 largest in the world. The Nuclear Energy Agency (a branch of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) has chronicled a long series of crises at the plant during the Russian invasion, ranging from direct shelling to loss of staff, along with a permanent interruption of its main water supply.

The Ukrainian clean energy advocacy group Razom We Stand cites new research indicating that Ukraine can replace its existing fleet of nuclear power plants with “more competitive alternative energy sources” by 2050. “Due to significant capital costs for construction, the long term (7-10 years) for commissioning and the constant unpredictable increase in the cost of nuclear power generation projects, it loses its competitiveness with other types of electricity generation,” the group states, referring to a study undertaken by the Institute of Economics and Forecasting at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine under the title, “What is the future of nuclear energy in Ukraine? The role of war, technical and economic factors and security considerations.”

Like fossil fuels, nuclear energy is a geopolitical weapon and a source of danger. From last March until today, every Ukrainian family has been asking themselves and the world – whether hiding in the basement will save us from an explosion at the Zaporizhzhia NPP,” she added. “In order to disarm dictators and win a real energy victory, we must direct public and private investments in renewable energy and small distributed generation.”

 

[nwdiver]

 

[nwdiver]

This is a good podcast for a more balanced perspective of nuclear power.

 

[mspohr]

Democrats Are At War With One Another Over A Controversial New Plan

The Biden administration’s looming decision over its key climate law is dividing the legislators who wrote the bill — and the companies who lobbied for it.

www.huffpost.com

The debate — and resulting lobbying war — center on whether companies need to build new power plants to guarantee that hydrogen is, in fact, clean and not just cannibalizing the grid’s supply of zero-carbon electricity, driving demand to keep fossil fuel stations going.

It’s not just nuclear operators that want the new-supply requirement nixed. Lobbying alongside Constellation is the Florida-based utility giant NextEra Energy, which operates the largest fleet of renewable power plants in the country, as are trade associations for the hydrogen industry. With some analysts forecasting green hydrogen to stay more expensive than the fossil stuff for decades to come, federal scientists and powerful labor unions say there’s little hope of overcoming the odds if the government makes it too hard for companies to benefit from the tax credit, especially when it notoriously takes years to get new power supply onto the U.S. grid.

Such a rule would effectively bar the nuclear industry from getting in on the hydrogen bonanza. By the time any new reactors could be built — a process that may take more than a decade — the tax credit would expire. Eleven Democrats who also authored the bill — ranging from liberal Sens. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) to conservative Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) — say the legislation was written specifically to allow for the use of existing nuclear stations and other already-built clean-electricity sources.

Among those who say hydrogen is only clean if it comes from new green sources of electricity are the European Union, the world’s biggest hydrogen-maker, environmentalists and climate hawks like Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), who helped write the IRA legislation in the first place.

 

[SageBrush]

Toshiba is the poster child of Nuclear business case folly.

For those unfamiliar with the story, Toshiba bought Westinghouse's Nuclear plant construction business, only to have it go belly up a few months later. That saddled Toshiba with $6B in losses, from which they never recovered.