Features

The 2024 Utility Working Conference brought together the nuclear industry’s best in August to discuss and learn from key developments, successes, opportunities, and needs in the sector. American Nuclear Society Executive Director/Chief Executive Officer Craig Piercy opened the conference and its first plenary by talking about the nuclear industry’s current momentum.

Focused on the post-cleanup management of closed Department of Energy sites, the DOE Office of Legacy Management (LM) is responsible for the long-term surveillance and maintenance of more than 100 sites across the United States and Puerto Rico associated with past radiological and nuclear material production and testing, and energy research—some dating from as early as the Manhattan Project. With cleanup completed, many of these sites have been put to beneficial reuse and repurposed as parks and nature preserves, where visitors can witness the return of thriving ecosystems.

Robotics is fast becoming a go-to for nuclear decommissioning advances, and several organizations working in West Cumbria, England, the hub of the United Kingdom’s energy sector, have formed a partnership to share insight and work together to address common challenges and opportunities. Cumbria Robotics Cluster is an ambitious initiative powered by the Industrial Solutions Hub (iSH) to harness and expand the region’s renowned capabilities in cutting-edge engineering and problem solving.

Lisa Marshall
president@ans.org

My current position affords me the opportunity to travel across the nation and world, engaging with people and organizations. I am deliberately using the word engagement to stress the long-term relationship aspect of our endeavors. It is an opportunity to listen—not to respond, but to understand. It is also an opportunity to foster a collaborative connection where comfort in posing questions and developing solutions are achieved.

Pulling from engagement in the higher education literature:

Historically, in a different societal context, higher education reached out to communities in an expert model of knowledge delivery. That connection with communities has transitioned over the years to a more engaged model in which community and university partners cocreate solutions. This occurs at local, national, and global levels. Today and in the future, public universities need to build on their experience of university–community relationships and transition to making engagement more central to the core of the institution. Through such progress, higher education can continue to contribute fully to the advancement of the United States as a stronger, wealthier, and more equitable country.¹

In October 2012, Dominion Energy announced it was closing the Kewaunee nuclear power plant, a two-loop 574-MWe pressurized water reactor located about 27 miles southeast of Green Bay, Wis., on the western shore of Lake Michigan. At the time, Dominion said the plant was running well, but that low wholesale electricity prices in the region made it uneconomical to continue operation of the single-unit merchant power plant.

Ann Stouffer Bisconti has been surveying and analyzing the American public’s attitudes and knowledge about nuclear energy for more than four decades. Her research company’s 2024 survey proved to be especially revealing. “The 2024 National Nuclear Energy Public Opinion Survey contained such a wealth of information that I prepared nine reports” to cover all the collected data, she said.

A new course at the University of Michigan offered by the Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences (NERS) Department seeks to address the lack of community engagement in the design of energy technologies by pioneering a socially engaged approach.

Walt Kirchner

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS) is seeking qualified candidates for two open positions. The ACRS is the world’s oldest organization devoted to reactor safety and is statutorily mandated by the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended. Today, the ACRS reports directly to the NRC’s commission and provides an independent expert technical review of and advice on matters related to the safety of existing and proposed nuclear facilities and on the adequacy of proposed reactor safety standards. The ACRS also advises the commission on health physics, radiation protection, and nuclear waste disposal facility issues.

The ACRS is a part-time advisory group consisting of a maximum of 15 members who are well-recognized experts in technical areas that are key to nuclear safety and whose membership represents a diverse breadth of experience in all aspects of the nuclear enterprise: industry, universities, national laboratories, and government.

On July 28, 2023, the Department of Energy launched its Cleanup to Clean Energy initiative, an effort to repurpose underutilized DOE-owned property—portions of which were previously used in the nation’s nuclear weapons program—into the sites of clean-energy generation.

Nuclear science and technology is uniquely positioned to be a gateway for curiosity and exploration for students in grades K–12. Its study examines the literal fabric of reality, it has applications from the tiniest to the grandest of scales. It’s a constantly evolving industry with a bright future of discoveries and new technologies, and it’s an essential factor in our global effort to reduce carbon emissions and transition to cleaner energy sources. Frankly, learning about and doing things with atoms is pretty cool, from a kid’s perspective.

I really think so. Especially after visiting Abilene Christian University’s new Dillard Science and Engineering Research Center, the home of the Nuclear Energy Experimental Testing (NEXT) Lab and where the university will test its new molten salt research reactor design. The visit was part of the 12th Thorium Energy Alliance Conference. NEXT Lab director and program manager Rusty Towell anticipates that the research reactor will be operational in two years, and I believe it will. What was most impressive is that the reactor is suited to be scaled to any size from small to large—a key feature in any decarbonized world.

The Volunteer State’s governor and representatives have made clear their intention to position Tennessee at the forefront of a nuclear energy growth surge over the next several years. They’re making the financial investment to back up this commitment, pledging $50 million to recruit the innovative and invest in the existing nuclear companies in the state.

In an interview with advocacy group Nuclear Matters, Gov. Bill Lee expressed his excitement and optimism for Tennessee’s nuclear future.

“Tennessee is one of the fastest growing states in the country,” he said. “Because of that, we have people and companies moving here and we need to have a dependable, reliable energy source.”

The American Nuclear Society was formed in 1954 in the wake of President Eisenhower’s seminal Atoms for Peace speech. Around the same time that Congress was debating the Atomic Energy Act and John Landis was helping establish ANS, the National Security Council began deliberating about adding a nuclear-­powered merchant ship to the nascent Atoms for Peace program. We like to imagine that the idea germinated after Mamie Eisenhower christened the U.S.S. Nautilus, but the truth seems much drier. Regardless, Ike championed the project and announced it to a surprised crowd in an April 1955 speech in New York City at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. Landis would become the principal architect of the ship’s nuclear power plant. Although Savannah’s reactor now rests in the low-level radwaste repository in Clive, Utah, the ship’s prospects are as bright as the future of ANS itself.

Ian Wall early in his career . . .

I graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering from Imperial College, London, in 1958. Nuclear power was viewed favorably at the time, so I took a 1-year course on the subject. I was then offered fellowships at Cambridge University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and thought the latter would be more interesting, so I moved to Cambridge, Mass., to study nuclear engineering. After completing my doctorate in 1964, I joined the American Nuclear Society and took a job with General Electric, then in San Jose, Calif.

In 1967, GE assigned me to explore the use of probability in reactor safety. At that time, the prevailing opinion was that the probability of a severe accident was infinitesimally small and the consequences would be catastrophic.

Two universities in the Carolinas are collaborating in a program that pairs one school’s unique resources with hardworking students. The seeds of this partnership were sown 12 years ago, and now North Carolina State University is welcoming nuclear engineering seniors from South Carolina State University, giving them access to the PULSTAR, a research reactor designed, built, and operated by NC State.

Craig Piercy
cpiercy@ans.org

I recently attended the 2024 Utility Working Conference where, despite the widespread travel disruptions created by Tropical Storm Debby, nearly 600 folks from the U.S. nuclear utility and supplier community had descended on southwest Florida to network, do business, and have a little fun.

The UWC has always been a bit different from other nuclear industry meetings: a little less “happy talk” about the future, a little more “real talk” about the practical challenges facing the industry.

To be sure, the mood on the expo floor was buoyant. Business is good for anyone serving the existing fleet these days. The Inflation Reduction Act’s investment incentives have finally gained traction, which has resulted in utilities taking a more long-term approach to their plant maintenance and uprate projects, which in turn has created bigger opportunities for suppliers.

Lisa Marshall
president@ans.org

I had the pleasure of speaking at ANS’s Utility Working Conference last month and would like to share my thoughts with our wider membership.

Electrification is the foundation of modern society. The nuclear enterprise has and must continue to play a crucial role in the era in which we find ourselves—the energy transition era. We have made important gains in post-COVID times, with the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS and Science Act, and more recently the ADVANCE Act of 2024—all aimed at, broadly speaking, enhancing (nuclear) industry.

We have also seen greater public support for nuclear power. The National Nuclear Energy Public Opinion Survey has been undertaken every year for the last four decades. It has demonstrated for the last three years that three-fourths of respondents strongly or somewhat favor the use of nuclear energy as one of the ways to provide electricity within the United States.

This year, the U.S. nuclear industry received a much-needed economic boost that could help preserve operating nuclear power plants and incentivize upgrades that extend their lifespan and power output.

Signed into law in 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act offers production tax credits (PTCs) for existing nuclear power plants and either PTCs or investment tax credits (ITCs) for new carbon-free generation. These credits could make power uprates—increasing the maximum power level at which a commercial plant may operate—a much more appealing option for utilities.

The Hallam nuclear power plant in Nebraska, about 25 miles southwest of Lincoln, was a 75-MWe sodium-­cooled, graphite-moderated reactor operated by Consumers Public Power District of Nebraska (CPPD). It was co-located with the Sheldon Power Station, a conventional coal-fired plant. The facility had a shared control room and featured a shared turbo generator that could accept steam from either heat source.

Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan, was the site of an advanced nuclear reactor workshop in late May that was hosted by the Fastest Path to Zero Initiative of the University of Michigan and Tohoku’s Center for Fundamental Research on Nuclear Decommissioning. The event was co-organized by the U.S. Consulate in Sapporo, Japan, and the Atlantic Council, which is associated with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The workshop, “The Potential Contribution of Advanced Nuclear Energy Technologies to the Decarbonization and Economic Development of Japan and the U.S.,” featured numerous American and Japanese academic authorities, government policymakers, executives of utilities and advanced reactor developers, and leaders of nongovernmental organizations. Also participating were students from both the University of Michigan and Tohoku University.