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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.
Naoki Yoshida, Takuya Ohno, Yuki Amano, Ryoichiro Yoshida, Hitoshi Abe, Yuichi Yamane
Nuclear Technology | Volume 210 | Number 10 | October 2024 | Pages 1999-2007
Note | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2024.2306688
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A malfunction of the cooling system of high-level liquid waste (HLLW) and the failure of countermeasures may lead to the evaporation to dryness due to the loss of cooling functions (EDLCF) of the HLLW. In the EDLCF, ruthenium (Ru) can be released at a greater fraction to the initial amount than the other elements in HLLW by forming gaseous Ru. It is important to identify the chemical form of the released gaseous Ru to achieve a comprehensive understanding of the events impacting the source term assessment of Ru in this accident, such as particle formation, gas absorption, and deposition on migration pathways.
In this study, we observed the ultraviolet/visible spectroscopy of the off-gas generated during the heating of a HLLW simulant. Employing a program that allows for the separation and quantification of known components within the spectrum [ruthenium tetroxide (RuO4), nitrogen dioxide, and nitric acid], we attempted to analyze the composition of gaseous Ru within the generated off-gas. Our findings revealed RuO4 as the main component of the gaseous Ru in the off-gas after comparing the total amount of released Ru and the RuO4 released amount obtained via spectroscopic analysis.
