The 2015 CSX Transportation crude oil train derailment and fire in Mount Carbon, W. Va. (Photo: CPO Angie Vallier/U.S. Coast Guard)
We all know that nuclear energy is the best energy source available—the safest and most reliable with the lowest life-cycle carbon footprint and the lowest environmental impact of any source, according to the latest UN report (unece.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/LCA_final.pdf).
Up-front requirements can enhance the ability to support maintenance and operations from start-up through long-term operation
It may seem counterintuitive, but the best time to enhance the ability to support operations and maintenance for a new plant is before construction starts. This is one of many lessons learned by the currently operating nuclear fleet. As construction and startup of many nuclear facilities was completed, it quickly became evident that the ability to efficiently support operations and maintenance was limited. Most of the information necessary to establish and manage procurement of spare and replacement items, maintenance, and configuration of the facilities was unavailable and had to be gathered on a case-by-case, “on-demand” basis. Absence of necessary information and the associated challenges resulted in the need for staff augmentation and multiyear-long projects to develop equipment bills of material and maintenance programs and to perform technical evaluations for the huge quantities of spare and replacement items being requested.
Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station, Unit 1. (Photo: NRC)
The first high-temperature, gas-cooled reactor ever built in the United States was Unit 1 at the Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station. This demonstration plant, located on the Susquehanna River approximately 80 miles southwest of Philadelphia, Pa., was tasked with validating HTGR design codes. It produced over 1.2 million megawatt-hours of electricity over 1,349 equivalent full-power days (EFPDs), which was distributed by the Philadelphia Electric Company.
Fig. 1. A photograph (left) and schematic figure (right) of JT-60SA.
(Source: Naka Institute)
JT-60SA (Japan Torus-60 Super Advanced) is the world’s largest superconducting tokamak device. Its goal is the earlier realization of fusion energy (see Fig. 1). Fusion is the energy that powers the Sun, and just 1 gram of deuterium-tritium (D-T) fuel produces enormous energy—the equivalent of 8 tons of crude oil.
Last fall, the JT-60SA project announced an important milestone: the achievement of the tokamak’s first plasma. This article describes the objectives of the JT-60SA project, achievements in the operation campaign for the first plasma, and next steps.
Fri, Jul 19, 2024, 8:06PMNuclear NewsBenny Evangelista and Charlie Osolin Concept art showing an IFE power plant of the future. (Image: Eric Smith/LLNL)
It was a laser shot for the ages. By achieving fusion ignition on December 5, 2022, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory proved that recreating the “fire” that fuels the sun and the stars inside a laboratory on Earth was indeed scientifically possible.
The Godiva I device, an unreflected 54-kg sphere of 93.7 percent pure uranium-235, before (left [in the scrammed state]), and after (right) the February 3, 1954, criticality excursion that released 5.6 × 1016 neutrons and warped or broke several support structures of the device. (Photos: DOE)
Fast burst reactors were the first fast-spectrum research reactors to reach criticality by using only prompt neutrons with high-enriched uranium as fuel, creating a pulse for microseconds. Among many achievements, fast burst reactors were the first research reactors to demonstrate the ability of thermal expansion to terminate a pulse and to show how this could aid in reactor safety. In addition, fast burst reactors were pivotal in early fission studies including critical mass determination, criticality safety, the study of prompt and delayed neutrons, and much more.
Marcos Rolón-Acevedo (left) and Robert Roche-Rivera pose at UPRM at the beginning of their adjunct professorships in August 2023. (Photo: NRC/UPRM)
Robert Roche-Rivera and Marcos Rolón-Acevedo are licensed professional engineers who work at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. They are also alumni of the University of Puerto Rico–Mayagüez (UPRM) and have been sharing their knowledge and experience with students at their alma mater since last year, serving as adjunct professors in the university’s Department of Mechanical Engineering. During the 2023–2024 school year, they each taught two courses: Fundamentals of Nuclear Science and Engineering, and Nuclear Power Plant Engineering.
Several-inch-diameter manganese nodules just sit on the ocean floor and can be collected with little to no actual mining, as opposed to severe mining on land. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
Regardless of how you power our grid or how you attempt to decarbonize our economy, we will need many various metals to achieve any future, or even to just continue with business as usual. Critical metals like cobalt, lithium, nickel, and neodymium are essential to a low-carbon-energy future if renewables and electric vehicles are to play a large role.1 Even if nuclear provides 100 percent of our power, just operating the grid and electrifying most sectors will take huge amounts of critical metals like copper, notwithstanding the fact that nuclear power requires the least amount of metals and other materials of any energy source.
A cut-away view of Westinghouse’s AP300 reactor. (Image: Westinghouse)
Power generation from nuclear fission as a clean and stable source of electricity has secured the interest of policymakers and industry leaders around the globe. Last fall, the United States spearheaded a pledge at COP28 to get countries to agree to triple nuclear capacity worldwide, and recently the members of the Group of 7 (G7) nations that currently use nuclear power have reaffirmed their pledges to invest in that power source to cut carbon emissions.
As of this writing, U.S. policymakers are trying to make good on that promise by passing legislation to support nuclear power, funding the domestic fuel supply chain, and working to pass the ADVANCE Act. On top of the support from Washington, D.C., power-hungry industries like data centers and chemical engineering are looking to secure stable, carbon-free power directly from power plants.