The Fort St. Vrain project was innovative in more than one respect, and while it did not blaze the trail in HTGR (High Temperature Gas-cooled Reactor) commercialization - a feat accomplished by the Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station - it did considerably advance the technology toward full commercial operation and duplication on a wide scale through some significant design changes.  One of the most interesting of these was the use of a prestressed concrete reactor vessel (PCRV) for the reactor itself and primary components instead of a steel vessel.

What became the Fort St. Vrain Nuclear Generating Station began as a study almost two decades before the plant was completed and led to years of effort to construct a commercial high-temperature gas-cooled nuclear power plant. While the effort did not ultimately lead to a successfully competitive alternative to light water designs, it did add considerably to the knowledge and experience base of gas-cooled reactors specifically and nuclear power generally. We will chronicle the effort in images - mostly using those from an incredible press package in the author's collection.  (Photos will enlarge when clicked.)

By now we all know that Energy Secretary Perry's initiative to get the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to consider longevity of fuel supply has fallen and been replaced with an order to study the situation and, hopefully, come up with some kind of solution within 60 days. FERC's press release from yesterday reads in part thus:

Breaking:  In a unanimous vote, the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) has APPROVED a multi part motion by Commissioner Tim Echols which allows the Vogtle 3 and 4 project to move forward, but which reduces burden on ratepayers and places more on shareholders of the owners.  Georgia Power accepted the new conditions immediately after the PSC vote and will continue construction of the project under the new management structure, which itself was approved by the Commission as one part of Echols' proposal (although it neither approved nor disapproved of the actual owners' agreement terms; it simply approved the project management structure).

Shippingport Atomic Power Station as pictured in original press package; photo PR-19109

•Shippingport started up 60 years ago today.   On December 2, 1957, the reactor at the Shippingport Atomic Power Station, which was America's first, full-scale nuclear power plant, was made critical for the very first time.  This event occurred fifteen years to the day after the historic first startup of the first nuclear reactor ever - the CP-1 pile near Chicago.  Many important people, including Admiral Rickover, were present at the startup.

A short while back in early November, I decided to conduct a poll on Twitter - that oft-maligned, mostly misunderstood, microblogging site on which instantaneous outreach is seriously tempered by a roughly 19-minute-post-visibility lifetime. Even with the limitations, I thought my first-ever use of the polling tool would produce a pretty predictable result. I was off the mark.

The story of America's first successful marine nuclear power plant as used on the submarine USS Nautilus is well known.  What is less known today is the real story behind the competing, and in the end losing, design - an "advanced" design using sodium cooling that in some quarters was first thought to be the better choice.

A packed room was on hand for this morning's panel session on Used Nuclear Fuel Management, and following the interesting presentations by several speakers the crowd took part in an energetic and, at some times, lively discussion on where we are as a nation and as an industry on the issues of storage of used fuel and the potential for creation of storage or even, possibly, a repository.  Given the present political environment, there's motion on the latter, which led to some of the liveliness of the discussion.  We'll give just some of the remarks made by presenters below.

The keynote speech of this morning's Opening Plenary was delivered to a large crowd by newly-installed Deputy Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette, who followed ANS President Bob Coward's positive and hopeful, if wary, tone on the platform.

The recent destruction of Puerto Rico's electric power infrastructure has been on the front page of every important news source at one time or another since the event near the end of September.  Recent reports show that perhaps as little as 10 to 15 percent of the island has electric power available now.

Fourth in a series of videos recorded at the ANS Annual Meeting, San Francisco, June 2017

Imagine you've walked into a restaurant and are at the counter to order. You notice, but think nothing of the fact, that there appears to be two order windows and possibly two separate kitchens. You order a cheeseburger, expecting American cheese and ketchup (among other things), but what you get has mustard and Swiss. When you make a comment about it, you're told that "cheese is cheese" and nothing more is said. Two items-mustard and Swiss-weren't ordered, but one was-a cheeseburger-and so you eat it.

Yesterday, a rapid series of events led to the announcement that the expansion of the V. C. Summer nuclear plant, comprising two AP1000 units (Units 2 and 3), would be cancelled. Details and some of the developments leading to the decision are herein discussed.

A hopeful nuclear industry is once again considering many advanced designs - a throwback to the 1950's and 1960's. Shown, proposed 100 MWe organic cooled nuclear plant proposed by Atomics International in the 1960's. Illustration from Will Davis collection.

The spirit of hope, even in the face of what ANS President Andy Klein acknowledges as "tough times" for nuclear energy, has made itself more than evident at the 2017 Annual Meeting.  The spirit can be found everywhere, and it was further promoted on Monday morning as a new style of presentation for the opening plenary -- itself innovative -- was delivered to an excited audience.

Steven (L) and Anthony (R) Udotong. Steven is well on the way to constructing a nuclear fusor, some of whose components are seen here. Photo courtesy Steven Udotong.

Steven Udotong, a 16 year old high school junior from Cinnaminson, N.J., recently made headlines as he prepares to become one of only a handful of young men or women to privately construct a nuclear fusor (a device using the inertial electrostatic confinement concept to fuse deuterium gas molecules) on his own time.  ANS contacted Steven via email for information about the project, and his opinions about nuclear energy, nuclear technologies and the place of nuclear technologies in education.

Westinghouse Electric announced very early this morning that it had filed for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy code, according to an official press release.  This event quickly follows the wide reporting yesterday evening that Toshiba's board of directors had voted to approve the declaration of bankruptcy by Westinghouse, which is Toshiba's subsidiary.  News releases from the various concerned parties are out this morning in response, and we have our first glimpse of how this process might affect the Westinghouse AP1000 plants under construction at V. C. Summer (owned by SCANA, SCE&G and Santee Cooper) and at Plant Vogtle (whose majority owner is Georgia Power, a subsidiary of Southern Company).

SMR on trailer courtesy NuScale Power

On March 15, 2017, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) announced that it had accepted NuScale Power's application for Design Certification of its innovative Small Modular Reactor (SMR) design. This begins what will be, according to NuScale, an approximately 40-month process until the design is certified by the NRC.

There was a time when the mPower SMR (Small Modular Reactor) was the perceived industry leader.  The consortium behind it won the first Department of Energy (DOE) funding award to move such a design through to licensing at the end of 2012, and it was planned that a two-reactor Generation mPower nuclear plant would be licensed and constructed at the TVA Clinch River site. Now, just over four years later, the effort - which has been through a fairly recent restructuring - has been ended by its participants.

Reporting this week and last on the financial problems of Toshiba has variously contained the phrases "building reactors," "building nuclear plants," and many others. It seems that the general press is confused (and probably rightly so) when it comes to the terminology used to describe the nuclear power plant construction business. So, here I'll provide a guide to the process and terms used in the industry and describe the various players.

R.E. Ginna Nuclear Plant, built for Rochester Gas & Electric Company in a beautiful natural setting. Photo from brochure in Will Davis library.

By the middle of the 1960's, Robert Emmett Ginna had already spent over a decade taking part in, and in no small part championing, the development of what we would today call advanced reactors.  His efforts contributed to the development of breeder and high temperature reactors, yet when it came time for his own utility to construct a nuclear plant, it made a sudden reversal to construct a very conventional pressurized water design.