TVA's Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant under construction (Photo from TVA brochure, Will Davis collection)

Reports of escalating costs for some nuclear plants under construction around the world, while the costs for other plants have not, have led to a call for an examination of the historic trends of nuclear plant construction project costs. This new interest has led to at least one significant new paper. This retrospective introduces the topic to those unfamiliar with it, and shows lessons learned that the industry now incorporates in building nuclear plants.

In the 1960s, the United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) carried out a fairly large number of investigations into the use of nuclear energy for purposes other than just the production of electricity. One of the major interests was the use of nuclear energy for desalination of seawater (producing fresh water for people and for crops)-and the studies into this area eventually led to an idea, which may find new interest today.

This week's Friday Nuclear Matinee is a video from Argonne National Laboratory marking the anniversary of the December 2, 1942, startup of the world's first "atomic chain reacting pile," or the first nuclear reactor constructed and operated anywhere by man.

Wednesday during National Nuclear Science Week is devoted to the topic of Nuclear Energy.  Do you know how we use the energy obtained by splitting the atom to produce the electricity that charges up your phone, powers your TV and router, and lights your way?  Click on the link below to see the basics.

Media have been abuzz this week following the Reuters' story that attempts to portray the situation of Japanese nuclear power plant restarts as not nearly so rosy as had been hoped. Reuters predicted last year at this time that 14 nuclear plants would restart "in the near term," while this year it predicts seven will do so. This number is difficult to support, because the legal challenges faced by individual plants seem to come and to go. Certainly, those plants that are (or already have been) found to be on or near active faults by Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) are in the deepest trouble.

Today's ANS Friday Matinee is an official video tour of Darlington Nuclear Station, produced for the public by Ontario Power Generation.

The development of any competitive technology has always been marked by a headlong rush by competitors in the field to achieve before others. The dash to develop workable nuclear power plants (no matter what their energy was employed to do) certainly saw this phenomenon from the late 1940s onward. In June we celebrate the anniversary of the first commercial power plant to be placed on the grid anywhere. It was not in the United States. It was in the Soviet Union.

Yesterday, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced that its commissioners had approved the award of a Construction and Operating License (COL) for DTE Energy's prospective Fermi Unit 3, to be built on the site of the existing Fermi-2 near Detroit, Mich. The COL will also notably be the first for the GE Hitachi ESBWR, or "Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor," a Gen-III+ nuclear plant with passive safety.

Last week, it was revealed publicly that a Draft Resource Plan being floated by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) includes the presumption that the long-unfinished Bellefonte nuclear plant near Scottsboro, Alabama, will not be completed. TVA's nuclear energy history will span 50 years this June, and there are developments in the works with Bellefonte and one other TVA plant to be mentioned later. All are now expected to shake out this year, and may preface the final volume of that long up-and-down history.

There was a time in our not too distant past when a brochure such as that above-entitled "Yankee Ingenuity," and published in 1982 by the Nuclear Information Committee of the Electric Council of New England-carried a message that rang true. The imagery of the mill house, as an early cornerstone of commerce employed widely across New England, was coupled with the image of a nuclear power plant. The Northeast had a tendency for doing what was necessary to advance commerce and break away from foreign control. In short, it was the "Yankee spirit."

Gravelines Units 1 through 6, France. Image courtesy AREVA USA.

The continued introduction of renewables onto the electric grid in the United States is ensuring that discussion of whether or not these assets can be integrated with existing or expected designs of other sources continues. In this discussion, nuclear energy is often wrongly described as "on or off"-but in fact, nuclear plants can and do load follow (respond to changing system demands) although it's a matter of both design and owner utilization-with a focus on economics-that determines if or when any actually do.

The 238th edition of the Nuclear Energy Blog Carnival has posted at Neutron Bytes.

Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Station, Ukraine

On November 28, 2014, "Block 3" (or the third unit) at the massive Zaporizhia Nuclear Generating Station in Ukraine experienced a fault in electrical transmission equipment outside the nuclear portion of the plant itself. This fault essentially caused the 1000-MW rated nuclear plant to have nowhere to send that large amount of power it was generating, per its design. The nuclear plant tripped off its turbine generator (opening its output breakers) and scrammed the reactor. In the world of power generating equipment anywhere, no matter the power source, this type of event is fairly common. This scenario is possible when severe storms play havoc with the grid during intense lightning.

The 236th Nuclear Energy Blog Carnival has been posted at Yes Vermont Yankee.

The 235th Nuclear Energy Blog Carnival has been posted at The Hiroshima Syndrome.

I have generally been quite a skeptic about thorium as a source of nuclear fuel. Although I know that thorium was tried in the fuel at two very early commercial power reactors in the United States (Elk River, and Indian Point-1), the idea did not take off. The proposals to use thorium in fluid fuel reactors were far less successful, with none moving beyond the prototype stage. Even given the low success rate, it still remains that the use of thorium is promising.

Jessica Lovering speaks at ANS 2014 Winter Meeting

Breakout sessions with three acknowledged experts in the areas of nuclear policy, nuclear plant operations, and nuclear regulation were the highlight of an innovative and engaging Opening Plenary at this year's ANS Winter Meeting

ANS President Dr. Michaele Brady Raap

American Nuclear Society President Michaele Brady Raap has released a letter calling ANS members to action-and by "action," she means making comments to the Environmental Protection Agency on its Clean Power Rule. According to Brady Raap, "the rule as it is currently structured would almost entirely discount the clean energy contributions of our current nuclear energy facilities and effectively penalize states that have new plants under construction."

The 233rd Nuclear Energy Blog Carnival has been posted at Next Big Future.

The 232nd Nuclear Energy Blog Carnival has been posted at The Hiroshima Syndrome.