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NRC issues draft EA/FONSI for Duane Arnold restart
Efforts by NextEra Energy to restart the Duane Arnold nuclear power plant as early as 2029 continue to move forward with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's preliminary environmental assessment and determination that the restart would have no significant environmental impacts.
On Thursday, the NRC posted a draft environmental assessment and a finding of no significant impact for the Palo, Iowa, facility; the Federal Register notice was published on Monday. The Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Dominance Financing is a cooperating agency on the draft EA, as the DOE is considering providing financial assistance to the restart project.
C. E. Kessel, M. S. Tillack, F. Najmabadi, F. M. Poli, K. Ghantous, N. Gorelenkov, X. R. Wang, D. Navaei, H. H. Toudeshki, C. Koehly, L. EL-Guebaly, J. P. Blanchard, C. J. Martin, L. Mynsburge, P. Humrickhouse, M. E. Rensink, T. D. Rognlien, M. Yoda, S. I. Abdel-Khalik, M. D. Hageman, B. H. Mills, J. D. Rader, D. L. Sadowski, P. B. Snyder, H. St. John, A. D. Turnbull, L. M. Waganer, S. Malang, A. F. Rowcliffe
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 67 | Number 1 | January 2015 | Pages 1-21
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/FST14-794
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Tokamak power plants are studied with advanced and conservative design philosophies to identify the impacts on the resulting designs and to provide guidance to critical research needs. Incorporating updated physics understanding and using more sophisticated engineering and physics analysis, the tokamak configurations have developed a more credible basis compared with older studies. The advanced configuration assumes a self-cooled lead lithium blanket concept with SiC composite structural material with 58% thermal conversion efficiency. This plasma has a major radius of 6.25 m, a toroidal field of 6.0 T, a q95 of 4.5,a βtotalN of 5.75, an H98 of 1.65, an n/nGr of 1.0, and a peak divertor heat flux of 13.7 MW/m2. The conservative configuration assumes a dual-coolant lead lithium blanket concept with reduced-activation ferritic martensitic steel structural material and helium coolant, achieving a thermal conversion efficiency of 45%. The plasma has a major radius of 9.75 m, a toroidal field of 8.75 T, a q95 of 8.0, a βtotalN of 2.5, an H98 of 1.25, an n/nGr of 1.3, and a peak divertor heat flux of 10 MW/m2. The divertor heat flux treatment with a narrow power scrape-off width has driven the plasmas to larger major radius. Edge and divertor plasma simulations are targeting a basis for high radiated power fraction in the divertor, which is necessary for solutions to keep the peak heat flux in the range 10 to 15 MW/m2. Combinations of the advanced and conservative approaches show intermediate sizes. A new systems code using a database approach has been used and shows that the operating point is really an operating zone with some range of plasma and engineering parameters and very similar costs of electricity. Other papers in this issue provide more detailed discussion of the work summarized here.