Nuclear News

Vogtle Unit 3 (at left) is scheduled to begin operation in November 2021, one year ahead of Unit 4. Photo: Georgia Power

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has announced an opportunity to request an adjudicatory hearing regarding Southern Nuclear’s notice of intended operation of Unit 3 at the Vogtle nuclear power plant, located in Waynesboro, Ga. The announcement was prompted by a January 13 letter from Southern Nuclear notifying the NRC of its scheduled date of November 23, 2020, for initial fuel loading at the reactor. As required under 10 CFR 52.103(a), the notification was made more than 270 days prior to the scheduled fuel load.

A combined license was issued for Vogtle-­3 and -­4, Westinghouse-­designed AP1000 pressurized water reactors, in February 2012. The license covers both construction and operation after construction is completed if standards—known as inspections, tests, analyses, and acceptance criteria (ITAAC)—identified in the combined license are satisfied. Operation will not be permitted until the NRC staff finds that all ITAACs have been met. However, if a hearing request is granted, the NRC can allow interim operation, given reasonable assurance of adequate protection of public health and safety while the adjudicatory hearing is carried out.

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The U.S. Energy Information Administration is projecting that U.S. electricity generation from nuclear power will most likely decline from its 2019 share of about 20 percent to 12 percent by 2050. In addition, the agency sees generation from coal declining by 11 percent, from 24 percent to 13 percent.

According to the EIA’s Annual Energy Outlook 2020, released in late January, nuclear and coal will experience a substantial falloff over the next few years—the result of slow load growth and the increasing electricity production from renewables, which is expected to grow from 19 percent to 38 percent over the next 30 years—but will then plateau to collectively provide about 25 percent of the nation’s electricity through the century’s midpoint.

Referencing the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, as well as its own “strong history of environmental stewardship,” Dominion Energy on February 11 announced that it is expanding its greenhouse gas emission–reduction goals by pledging to achieve net-­zero emissions by 2050. The new goal covers emissions of carbon dioxide and methane—the two leading greenhouse gases—from the company’s electricity generation and gas infrastructure operations.

“Our mandate is to provide reliable and affordable energy safely,” said Thomas F. Farrell II, Dominion’s chairman, president, and chief executive officer. “We do that every day, all year long. But we recognize that we must also continue to be a leader in combatting climate change. . . . Dominion Energy already has made important progress on emissions. This new commitment sets an even higher bar that I am confident we can, and will, reach. Net-­zero emissions will be good for all of our stakeholders—for our customers, communities, employees, and investors.”

President Trump’s budget request for fiscal year 2021, released on February 10, allots $35.4 billion to the Department of Energy. Nearly $1.2 billion of that goes to the Office of Nuclear Energy (DOE-NE).

The final FY 2020 appropriations were signed into law on December 20, 2019, nine months after that budget was first proposed, and it could be several months before final appropriations for FY 2021 are enacted. Those enacted appropriations could bear little resemblance to the proposed budget. It bears noting that while the FY 2020 budget request for DOE-NE was $824 million, more than $1.493 billion—an increase of just over 87 percent—was ultimately enacted.

Advanced reactor cores are being designed for higher efficiencies and longer lifetimes, but to get there, they need high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU).

Enriched to between 5 and 19.75 percent fissile U-235, HALEU is packed with nuclear potential. It can be used as a feedstock for the demonstration of new fuel designs, from uranium alloys to ceramic pellets and liquid fuels. Those fuels can enable advanced reactor and microreactor demonstrations. Operating light-water reactors could potentially transition to HALEU uranium oxide fuels for extended operating cycles and improved plant economics.

Winters

Dennis Wilkinson would have celebrated his 100th birthday on August 10, 2018. The life and career of the man who captained the first nuclear-powered submarine and the first nuclear-­powered surface ship and was the first president and chief executive officer of the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO) have been captured in Ann Winters’s book, Underway on Nuclear Power: The Man Behind the Words, Eugene P. “Dennis” Wilkinson, Vice Admiral USN.

Because of his inherent drive, Wilkinson was often called a cowboy, maverick, visionary, innovator, and superb leader. As the first commanding officer of USS Nautilus, he was a major player in revolutionizing underwater warfare. Nautilus and its crew were immensely popular, at home and abroad, and in the 1950s became what we now call “rock stars.” Nautilus gave nuclear power celebrity status at a time when the United States and the world were grappling with Cold War issues.