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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.
Hossein Hashemi-Jozani, Khalil Moshkbar-Bakhshayesh, Soroush Mohtashami, Behzad Rokhbin
Nuclear Technology | Volume 210 | Number 1 | January 2024 | Pages 180-188
Note | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2023.2224131
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The computerized simulation of the reactor core is one of the significant steps necessary for designing a nuclear power plant. So far, very suitable Monte Carlo–based codes have been developed (e.g., MCNP, TRIPOLI, KENO, OpenMC, etc.) for the neutronic simulation of the reactor core. In this study, an approach based on Geant4, as an extendable code with the capability to provide a comprehensive reactor core design tool, is developed to calculate the effective multiplication factor (keff) and neutron flux distribution. A combination of the Geant4 code and the NJOY code is applied to calculate the temperature-dependent cross-section library. The C5G7-1D, the Godiva critical facility, and the Jordan subcritical reactor are examined as a benchmarks/case study. The results of the calculation of keff (i.e., relative error < 0.1%) and flux distribution (i.e., relative error <3%) are in very good agreement with the calculation results of the MCNP code and the experimental results. The extensions for the calculation of thermodynamic/thermohydraulic effects as well as the calculation of electron/photon transport and reactor dynamics are under development and will be reported as subsequent results.
