ANS Nuclear Cafe Friday Matinee - April 29

Special ANS Friday Matinee edition by Will Davis

Our Friday Matinee for today is the latest of the excellent Vogtle Timeline videos produced by Georgia Power to document the construction progress of Vogtle Units 3 and 4.  The series stands as one of the most thorough video documentations of nuclear plant construction ever filmed, and this latest update is every bit as informative as its predecessors.

This week's ANS Nuclear Cafe Friday Matinee features an update from South Carolina Electric & Gas on "A Year of Progress for V. C. Summer Units 2 and 3."  These two AP1000 units are being built near an existing nuclear unit, and not too far from the former (now decommissioned) site of "The Southeast's First Nuclear Power Plant," the Carolinas-Virginia Tube Reactor.

This week's feature is a half hour documentary on the history of the National Reactor Testing Station, or NRTS (now part of Idaho National Laboratory) which has seen 52 different and largely unique reactors constructed on the same, enormous site.  The importance of efforts at NRTS over the years cannot be underestimated.

The versatile, powerful and unique ATR (Advanced Test Reactor) at Idaho National Laboratory is featured in this video describing it, the history of materials testing reactors that led up to it, and the uses for this amazing facility. Fuel handling and storage are also shown and described.

This new video from AREVA takes a fascinating look at the "brain and nervous system" for controlling a nuclear power plant: the plant's Instrumentation and Control (I&C) system.

Got a minute (and 22 seconds)? Catch a quick update on the first new commercial nuclear energy in the United States of the 21st century-in Tennessee.

Heavy lifts equal heavy progress at the construction site of V.C. Summer-2 and -3 in South Carolina. Following is the latest update on recent major milestones completed at what will be the first new commercial nuclear energy reactors in the United States in 30 years.

If a tornado just happens to come through... flying steel pipes, telephone poles, or even automobiles will be no match for this building. This is the new Watts Bar FLEX building, housing emergency backup equipment like generators and pumps that could be used to replace equipment in case of damage from a natural disaster. Watts Bar will likely be the first nuclear facility in the United States to comply with all the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's post-Fukushima requirements, as the Tennessee Valley Authority works toward licensing for Watts Bar Unit 2 with a target date of beginning commercial operation in December next year.

Near Augusta, Georgia, the first new commercial nuclear power reactors under construction in the United States in 30 years continue to "go vertical."  Take an inside look at the latest from the Vogtle-3 and -4 construction site, including placement of the 1.8 million pound containment vessel bottom head for Unit 4, the cooling tower for Unit 3 surpassing 300 feet, and a very interesting visit to the Port of Savannah where many of the most massive Vogtle components arrive via ship.