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Division Spotlight
Operations & Power
Members focus on the dissemination of knowledge and information in the area of power reactors with particular application to the production of electric power and process heat. The division sponsors meetings on the coverage of applied nuclear science and engineering as related to power plants, non-power reactors, and other nuclear facilities. It encourages and assists with the dissemination of knowledge pertinent to the safe and efficient operation of nuclear facilities through professional staff development, information exchange, and supporting the generation of viable solutions to current issues.
Meeting Spotlight
2024 ANS Annual Conference
June 16–19, 2024
Las Vegas, NV|Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino
Standards Program
The Standards Committee is responsible for the development and maintenance of voluntary consensus standards that address the design, analysis, and operation of components, systems, and facilities related to the application of nuclear science and technology. Find out What’s New, check out the Standards Store, or Get Involved today!
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Retrieval of nuclear waste canisters from a borehole
Borehole disposal of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) and high-level waste (HLW) uses off-the-shelf directional drilling technology developed and commercialized by the oil and gas sectors. It is a technology that has been gaining traction in recent years in the nuclear industry. Disposal can be done in one or more boreholes (including an array) drilled into suitable sedimentary, igneous, or metamorphic host rocks. Waste is encapsulated in specialized corrosion-resistant canisters, which are placed end to end in disposal sections of relatively small-diameter boreholes that have been cased and fluid-filled. After emplacement, the vertical access hole is plugged and backfilled as an engineered barrier.
Yong Hoon Jeong, Mujid S. Kazimi
Nuclear Technology | Volume 160 | Number 2 | November 2007 | Pages 233-243
Technical Paper | Thermal Hydraulics | doi.org/10.13182/NT07-A3895
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
By using a combination of a nuclear reactor that emits no carbon dioxide and a high-efficiency gas turbine cycle, electric utilities can reduce their generating cost as well as minimize greenhouse gas emissions. The economic competitiveness of pure natural-gas combined-cycle (NGCC), nuclear-assisted NGCC, and pure nuclear power plants is studied, and the level of CO2 emission tax effects on the cost of electricity from each plant is defined.An advanced gas-cooled nuclear reactor in addition to a conventional NGCC as a heat source for the air exiting the compressor is considered. At a reactor outlet gas temperature of 900°C, the thermal contribution (fossil fuel saving and CO2 reduction) by nuclear energy in the nuclear-assisted NGCC cycle was 46.3%.To assess the economic competitiveness of the plants, the levelized electricity generation costs were calculated. The economics depend primarily on the cost of natural gas and the capital cost of the nuclear reactor. Obviously, the best plant option for low natural-gas cost is pure NGCC and is pure nuclear power for high natural-gas prices. The intersecting points are affected by the assumed carbon tax.Several synergetic effects for using nuclear and fossil powers together are quantified. First, since the electricity generation cost of the nuclear-assisted NGCC cycle is not as sensitive to gas price as the NGCC, the economic risk of fluctuations in gas prices can be minimized by adopting a nuclear-assisted NGCC cycle. Second, the high nuclear capital cost can be largely compensated for by the low capital cost of the gas turbine plant. For example, 3000 $/kW(electric) of nuclear capital cost can be effectively reduced to ~1500 $/kW(electric) for the hybrid plant. Third, nuclear-assisted NGCC has several advantages over the two single-fuel options in the reduction of high capital costs and high gas prices. In addition, the greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced by half by using nuclear-assisted NGCC, and the amount of nuclear spent fuel per kilowatt-hour would also be less than that of the pure nuclear option.