EDITORS' PICK|4,213 views|Feb 21, 2020,9:10 am
Rolls-Royce Reignites The Race To Build Mini-Nuclear Power Plants
Ariel CohenContributor
Energy
I cover energy, security, Europe, Russia/Eurasia & the Middle East
RR
Rolls-Royce’s Small Modular Reactor (SMR) design[+]
ROLLS-ROYCE
Global manufacturer Rolls-Royce is the latest entrant in the tech race to provide small-scale nuclear power. Last month, the company announced plans to build 10-15 small modular reactors (SMRs) in the United Kingdom by 2029, with each unit compact enough to sit on the back of a tractor-trailer. The plants would be constructed on so-called “brownfield sites” in Cambria and Wales where aging or decommissioned nuclear power stations are still in place. Rolls Royce has thus far received £18 million ($23.1 m) from the British government, and is requesting £200 million ($258 m) more.

As I’ve written about before, SMRs are the next evolutionary step of nuclear power: compact, affordable, quick to construct, emission-less, and even transportable. China has great aspirations to lead in this field, as it does or attempts to do in solar panels, wind energy, 5G communications, MAGLEV trains, artificial intelligence, and more. The UK wants to give China a run for its money.

"We are sidestepping all of the scientific challenges that have held fusion energy back for more than half a century," says the director of an Australian company that claims its hydrogen-boron fusion technology is already working a billion times better than expected.

Idaho National Laboratory today announced it will provide Oklo Inc. with access to recovered spent nuclear fuel to aid the company in its efforts to develop and demonstrate the Oklo Aurora.

As DeWitte also noted, when Oklo submits the license application submission to the NRC, it will be for the nation’s first civilian effort geared to a micro-reactor and non-water reactor. Getting the first site use permit from INL and having the opportunity to work with the HALEU is already “a pretty big step to lining up all the key pieces to be able to demonstrate something in the very early 2020s,” he said. //

High-assay, low-enriched uranium (HALEU) is nuclear fuel that is enriched to a higher degree (of between 5% and 20%) in the fissile isotope U-235. In comparison, the world’s current fleet of light water reactors (LWRs) typically uses fuel enriched to less than 5% U-235. As experts note, HALEU promises to provide more power per volume than conventional reactors, and its efficiency allows for smaller plant sizes. It also promises longer core life and a higher burn-up rate of nuclear waste.

According to the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), many advanced reactor concepts—including some micro-reactors (many smaller than 10 MW), high temperature gas reactors in the 100-MW to 200-MW range, and salt reactors—may require this type of fuel. HALEU could also be used in existing light water reactors. Though NEI suggests annual commercial requirements for HALEU could soar to a cumulative 185.5 metric tons annually, there is no current supply of HALEU. But because establishing a commercial supply of HALEU would require sufficient demand and a minimum of 7 years to develop fuel cycle infrastructure, the industry trade group has urged the DOE for years to tap into its access of high-enriched uranium and downblend it in the interim to supply HALEU for demonstration purposes. The DOE has heeded these calls and recently ramped up efforts to establish HALEU fuel production capability, noting that in the near future, it will be critical to U.S. leadership, as global competition heats up to design and build small modular reactors as well as larger non-LWR reactors. //

Until a commercial HALEU market is established—which will require that more advanced nuclear reactors clear demonstration and ultimately come online—INL will lead efforts to provide the fuel for research and demonstration. For now, it plans to provide HALEU for Oklo through the recovery and treatment of HEU from used fuel from the 19-MWe EBRII (a demonstration reactor, that operated from 1963 to 1994) that was previously being treated and processed for disposal.

The process to down-blend the HEU to HALEU involves a three-step electrometallurgical treatment. First, the irradiated fuel is prepared and place into a molten salt electrorefiner, which facilitates recovery of uranium metal from fission products and transuranics. Then, the recovered uranium undergoes vacuum distillation to remove electrorefiner salt and is down blended to an enrichment of less than 20% U-235. Finally, the recovered uranium metal is configured to support fuel fabrication by reheating and casting it into low-dose, reduced-size HALEU “regulus.” //

Another interesting aspect about this announcement “is that it shows you can actually reuse [spent nuclear fuel (SNF)],” DeWitte noted. That aspect is important because nuclear waste management in the U.S. has stalled for nearly three decades, owing largely to a political impasse on the disposal of SNF. Today, according to the NEI, more than 84,000 metric tons of SNF is temporarily being stored in pools and casks in 35 states.

Oklo, developer of a 1.5-MW passive compact fast reactor, will be the first to receive high-assay, low-enriched uranium (HALEU) nuclear fuel from Idaho //

Oklo recently acquired a site permit to build the design pictured at Idaho National Laboratory facility in Idaho Falls. //

Oklo, developer of a 1.5-MW passive compact fast reactor, will be the first to receive high-assay, low-enriched uranium (HALEU) nuclear fuel from Idaho National Laboratory (INL) to aid a first-of-its-kind demonstration of its Aurora microreactor, which could begin in 2024.

Marking a significant boost for advanced nuclear innovation, which industry experts are banking on to transform nuclear’s future role in a rapidly changing power sector, INL on Feb. 19 said that it will give the Silicon Valley–based advanced nuclear reactor developer access to processed and treated used fuel recovered from the now-decommissioned Experimental Breeder Reactor-II (EBR-II).

Downblended to a uranium enrichment of less than 20%, and still owned by the Department of Energy (DOE), the HALEU will stay at INL’s site in Idaho Falls, Idaho, where Oklo last year received a site use permit to build its Aurora plant. The site use permit, which will be effective for the lifetime of the plant, was the first, and still the only, such permit issued for a non-light-water nuclear reactor in the U.S. //

Several micro-reactors with capacities below 10 MW (by comparison, small modular reactor [SMR] capacities hover between 60 MW and 300 MW) are under development worldwide; one of the biggest hurdles to quick deployment relates to fuel supply.

The Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) notes that the commercial nuclear fuel industry currently only produces fuel enriched up to 5% by weight of U-235, but that some micro-reactors will use fuel enriched up to 20% by weight of U-235, known as “HALEU.” But because establishing a commercial supply of HALEU would require sufficient demand and a minimum of 7 years to develop fuel cycle infrastructure, the industry trade group has urged the DOE for years to tap into its access of high-enriched uranium and downblend it in the interim to supply HALEU for demonstration purposes.

As Dr. John Wagner, associate laboratory director for INL’s Nuclear Science & Technology directorate, noted on Wednesday, the benefit of using nuclear fuels with higher levels of U-235 is that it allows reactors to operate for years without having to be refueled. “That is an important attribute since this technology is envisioned to be used in remote areas that can be difficult to access.”

Japan is pushing ahead with a fuel source that’s exacerbating climate change. //

The reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant automatically shut down in response to the earthquake, but the tsunami overtopped the plant’s seawall, stalling the backup generators that were providing vital cooling to the idled reactors. The lost coolant led to meltdowns and explosions at the plant, releasing dangerous radioactive material.

In response, more than 150,000 people were evacuated from the region. While there were some increases in ambient radiation exposure, the main harms from the disaster stemmed from relocating so many people, ranging from worsened illnesses from loss of access to health care to mental health problems like post-traumatic stress disorder.

Meanwhile, Japan’s entire nuclear power fleet, providing one-third of the country’s electricity, was taken offline for safety inspections and updates. Before the disaster, Japan was looking to ramp up its share of nuclear energy to 53 percent.

The impacts of the disaster rippled out other countries too. Germany was also preparing to build more nuclear power plants before the 2011 earthquake. After the Fukushima disaster, Germany pulled a 180 and decided to embark on ending its use of nuclear power entirely.

Nine years later, the impacts of the earthquake continue to rock Japan. The country has or will decommission 24 reactors, 40 percent of its total. Of the remaining reactors, fewer than half have been restarted. Nuclear’s share of electricity generation has now fallen to 3 percent, with fossil fuels largely filling the void. //

The Japanese government is more worried about the economy than the environment //

But across Japan as a whole, solar, wind, geothermal, and hydropower generation provide just 17 percent of the country’s electricity. As a densely populated island country, Japan has run into land use constraints around deploying large-scale wind and solar plants. //

That pretty much leaves nuclear as Japan’s remaining option for carbon-free electricity. But the public is resolutely against it. “Nuclear has a pretty bad reputation in Japan,” said Scott Harold, a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation. //

The rise of China threatens Japan, and so it wants to use coal to solidify and expand its influence
Behind India and China, Japan is the world’s third-largest coal importer. About two-thirds of Japan’s coal is from Australia, a country that is also facing climate-linked disasters and is struggling to curb its economic reliance on coal.

But Japan is also a major exporter of coal technology, and its government has used these power plants as a means to exert soft power. Through government institutions like the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, the government has financed new coal power plants in countries like Vietnam, Indonesia, and Bangladesh.

The United Arab Emirates took a final step toward switching on the Arab world’s first commercial nuclear power plant, even as the country prospers by producing and selling fossil fuels. //

Built and run by a joint venture with Korea Electric Power Corp., the plant can now start loading fuel and ramp up to full commercial operation within several months. Other Arab countries, notably Saudi Arabia and Egypt, are also pushing into nuclear power in spite of questions about cost and safety.

“Barakah was meant to be the showcase for the international nuclear industry,” said Mycle Schneider, an independent analyst. “Grid connection is at least three years late, and there is no doubt that it is way over budget.”

Barakah is the first of four civilian reactors that the government plans to fire up by 2023. The plants, located on a sparsely populated strip of desert on the Persian Gulf coast, are estimated to cost $25 billion. The U.A.E. expects them to produce as much as 5.6 gigawatts once they’re fully commissioned, or almost a fifth of the country’s current installed generating capacity.

Workers have completed the final concrete placement inside the containment vessel of unit 3 at the Vogtle nuclear power plant near Waynesboro, Georgia. Georgia Power said this allows for the installation of machinery that will be used to load fuel into the AP1000 reactor, which is scheduled to enter service in November 2021.

In 2018, global nuclear power generation increased by 2.4%, primarily due to a 19% increase in China where seven new reactors were brought online. Despite that, nuclear’s share of global electricity generation has continued its slow decline from a historical peak of about 17.5% in 1996 to 10.15% in 2018. Meanwhile, renewables are thriving with a record 165 GW added to the world’s power grids in 2018 compared to a 9 GW uptake in nuclear operating capacity. The number of new nuclear reactors under construction globally has now declined for the sixth year in a row, from 68 at the end of 2013 to 46 by mid-2019, of which 10 are in China.

Melanin is known to absorb light and dissipate ultraviolet radiation, but in the fungi, it seemed to also be absorbing radiation and converting it into chemical energy for growth, perhaps in a similar fashion to how plants utilize the green pigment chlorophyll to attain energy from photosynthesis.

Powering up our world

with cheap, reliable, CO2-free electric power, now.

What is ThorCon? ThorCon is a molten salt fission reactor. Unlike all current nuclear reactors, the fuel is in liquid form. It can be moved around with a pump and passively drained. This 500 MW fission power plant is encapsulated in a hull, built in a shipyard, towed to a shallow water site, ballasted to the seabed. Visit Design.

Ready to Go. ThorCon requires no new technology. ThorCon is a straightforward scale-up of the successful United States Oak Ridge National Laboratory Molten Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE). A full-scale 500 MW ThorCon prototype can be operating under test within four years. After proving the plant safely handles multiple potential failures and problems, commercial power plant production can begin. Visit MSRE.

Rapidly Deployable. The complete ThorCon is manufactured in 150 to 500 ton blocks in a shipyard, assembled, then towed to the site. This produces order of magnitude improvements in productivity, quality control, and build time. A single large reactor yard can turn out twenty gigawatts of ThorCon power plants per year. ThorCon is a system for building power plants. Visit Production.

Fixable. Everything in the fission island except the structure itself is replaceable with little interruption in power output. Every four years the entire primary loop is changed out, returned to a centralized recycling facility, decontaminated, disassembled, inspected, and refurbished. Incipient problems are caught before they can turn into casualties. Upgrades can be introduced without significantly disrupting power generation. Visit Fuel.

Walkaway Safe. ThorCon fuel is in liquid form. If the reactor overheats for whatever reason, ThorCon will shut itself down, and passively handle the decay heat. No power, no machinery, no operator action is required. This is built into the reactor physics. The operators can do nothing to prevent safe shutdown and cooling. ThorCon has at least three gas tight barriers between the fuelsalt and the atmosphere. The reactor operates at garden hose pressure. In the event of a primary loop rupture, there is no dispersal energy and no phase change. The spilled fuel merely flows to a drain tank where it is passively cooled. The most troublesome fission products, including Sr-90 and Cs-137, are chemically bound to the salt. They will end up in the drain tank as well. Visit Safety.

By Robert Hargraves

Democratic president Franklin D Roosevelt proclaimed at his 1933 inauguration, “…the only thing we have to fear is…fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”

In years past Republican presidents were conservative stewards of the environment. Theodore Roosevelt started National Parks. Nixon created the EPA. George H.W. Bush moved to stem acid rain.

Who now dares to conserve our planet, while advancing all its people’s prosperity, with ample new nuclear power?

During the CNN climate town hall the leading Democratic presidential candidates opposed nuclear energy. The two fearless supporters trail in polled public support.

The candidates’ Green New Deal illustrates the political maxim “never let a crisis go to waste”. Reducing CO2 emissions is buried under trillion dollar promises to guarantee jobs, health care, housing, healthy food, improved infrastructure, and reduced industrial pollution.

Our climate-energy crisis is not national; it’s global, so the Green New Deal can’t solve it. Even the UN IPCC Paris agreement can’t reduce emissions enough; it falls short by a factor of ten.

Rich nations won’t stop their emissions while letting developing countries advance by burning ever more coal. Coal burning is the most rapidly expanding power source on the planet, because it’s reliable and cheap. But fearless developing nations would use nuclear energy sources if we make them cheap enough and accessible enough.

Greens had hoped to power us with wind and solar, but these intermittent energy sources require supplemental power. That assistance normally comes from burning natural gas that emits about half the CO2 of coal. Batteries that might store intermittent electricity are too expensive by a factor of ten, particularly for week-long energy supplies.

The Fearless Green Deal relies on cheap new nuclear power. The million-to-one energy density advantage of fissioning uranium makes it intrinsically cheaper than burning coal.

New North American ventures are now combining proven technologies like liquid fuels, metal alloy fuels or coated particle fuels to allow higher temperatures and passive safety. They’re taking advantage of advanced manufacturing technology to drive nuclear energy costs below those of fossil fuels.

Cal Abel’s scheme is much better. Nuclear heat is really cheap, so just run the reactor at 100% feeding heat into a solar-salt tank at something like 500°C. Pull hot salt from the tank as required to make steam for a steam turbine; the steam generators have a considerably higher thermal power maximum than the reactor. This lets you (a) decouple the reactor from the instantaneous electric output so it can likely be controlled by the system operator without violating NRC regs, and (b) follow the entire daily load curve without burning fossil fuel. That’s something that Hybrid Power manifestly cannot do.

If you need more than the ST’s rated power or run out of hot salt, you fire up some open-cycle gas turbines and use heat-recovery systems on the GT exhausts to help top up the salt tank.

The essence of why thorium energy offers such a remarkable perspective, has often been illustrated by a hand that presents you a metal ball. The claim of thorium proponents is that this ball of metal contains all the energy that you’ll need for a lifetime of western style living.

Build-up of contaminated water from wrecked nuclear plant has been sticking point in clean-up likely to take decades //

In 2018, Tokyo Electric apologised after admitting its filtration systems had not removed all dangerous material from the water, and the site is running out of room for storage tanks.

But it plans to remove all radioactive particles from the water except tritium, an isotope of hydrogen that is hard to separate and is considered to be relatively harmless.

“Compared to evaporation, ocean release can be done more securely,” the committee said, pointing to common practice around the world where normally operating nuclear stations release water that contains tritium into the sea. //

Tokyo Electric, or Tepco, has collected nearly 1.2m tonnes of contaminated water from the cooling pipes used to keep fuel cores from melting since the plant was crippled by an earthquake and tsunami in 2011. The water is stored in huge tanks that crowd the site.

While this facility ultimately failed, float-friendly reactors are now the future.

Finland's Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (Stuk) has published a report discussing the safety assessment and licensing of small modular reactors (SMRs). The regulator says it is preparing for the licensing of such reactors "due to the national and international interest in them."

Another piece of our culture, sacrificed on the altar of so-called progress. //

Those who do not remember The Naked Gun are doomed to repeat it.
David McNew/Getty Images

“We will probably be judged not by the monuments we build but by those we have destroyed.” —The New York Times

Russian scientists have proposed a concept of a thorium hybrid reactor in that obtains additional neutrons using high-temperature plasma held in a long magnetic trap. This project was applied in close collaboration between Tomsk Polytechnic University, All-Russian Scientific Research Institute Of Technical Physics (VNIITF), and Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics of SB RAS. The proposed thorium hybrid reactor is distinguished from today's nuclear reactors by moderate power, relatively compact size, high operational safety, and a low level of radioactive waste.

The interface between different materials accelerates chemical breakdown. //

In the case of the crevice between the stainless steel and the glass, a lot happens when some of the metals present dissolve. They can drop the local pH, which will then increase the rate at which the stainless steel corrodes. Meanwhile, some of the dissolved metal ions will include some of the radioactive material. To balance the chemistry, the environment outside the crevice will become more basic, which could trigger additional chemical reactions.

Real-world data
That's what can happen. What actually does? To find out, the researchers used a standard (non-radioactive) glass material and stainless steel.