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NN Asks: What hurdles stand in the way of nuclear power’s global expansion?
Jake Jurewicz
Nuclear technology is mature. It provides firm power at scale with minimal externalities and has done so for decades. The core problem isn’t about the technology—it is how the plants are built. Nuclear construction has a well-documented history of cost and schedule overruns. Previous nuclear plants often spent more than twice what was first budgeted, making nuclear among the power technologies with the largest average cost overruns worldwide.
Recent projects illustrate how severe the problem can be. In South Carolina, the V.C. Summer nuclear expansion saw projected costs rise from roughly $10 billion to more than $25 billion before the project was abandoned in 2017, by which time more than $9 billion had already been spent and customers were stuck paying for a site they have yet to benefit from.
H. Ziani, T. El Bardouni, C. Elyounoussi, I. Berriban, T. El Ghalbzouri, B. El Bakkari, O. El Hajjaji, S. ElMaliki ElHlaibi, M. Lahdour, H. El Yaakoubi
Nuclear Technology | Volume 210 | Number 1 | January 2024 | Pages 72-83
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2023.2216452
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
This research analysis is mainly devoted to enhancing the safe and optimum use of the Center des Etudes Nucléaires de la Maâmora (CENM) TRIGA MARK II research reactor. To serve this purpose, various integral neutronic responses, such as the effective multiplication factor keff, the effective delayed neutron fraction βeff, the neutron flux distributions at the beam port entrances and the pneumatic transfer system bottom, the pin power peaking factors, the total excess reactivity, the control rod worth, the shutdown margin, and the worth of 11 fuel elements taken from different TRIGA core positions are calculated in order to evaluate the accuracy and the reliability of the developed TRIGA SCALE reactor model. The aim has been fulfilled by comparing the TRIGA SCALE results with those obtained by the MCNP TRIGA model, as well as with some recent experimental measurements from 2021. In general, all the obtained results reveal a good consistency between the SCALE and MCNP TRIGA models studied in this paper. The results analysis indicates also that the B-2 fuel element (Ring B) is the hottest rod among the 101 fuel rods existing in the TRIGA reactor core, which releases a maximum power of 31.67 kW. Furthermore, the total control rod worth, the total core excess reactivity, and the shutdown margin results are also closer to the experimental measurements.
