Monju Fast Reactor facility- photo courtesy Japan Atomic Energy Agency

On Monday, December 19, the Japanese government announced that it was finally giving up on the decades-old Monju fast-reactor project. Troubled in recent years with safety problems and allegations that the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (the operator) has been unable to find solutions for the problems. The Monju facility had been widely considered as under threat for some time.

NS SAVANNAH, mid-1960s. Photo taken by crew member Dan Campbell, courtesy NS Savannah Association, Inc.

A statement made this week by the President of Iran has gained some hold on the press, and while it sounds like an interesting and for some potentially threatening development, it more than likely won't happen any time soon.

A number of significant news items made recent headlines relating to nuclear energy. Here is your week in review with an analysis and links.

SIR (Submarine Intermediate Reactor) Naval Prototype Plant rolled into containment sphere at West Milton New York; March 20, 1954. From brochure "The Seawolf Story" in Will Davis library.

We're coming up on another anniversary of the startup of the Shippingport Atomic Power Station in early December.  That plant was more or less a Navy plant (at least in terms of the NSSS or Nuclear Steam Supply System) built not for powering ships but instead for powering businesses and homes.  The move to get that done was rapid and fluid - and now there's maybe a hint of evidence that it could have been a returned favor to Admiral Rickover.

We have two fairly significant news items to report on today at ANS Nuclear Cafe. First a major nuclear vendor change of ownership and second a further threat to the sustenance of existing nuclear.

We've seen in the last two weeks both good news and bad for the U.S. nuclear plant fleet, as one nuclear unit under construction came on line and one of the earliest remaining in the U.S. was permanently shut down. The net effect? Raising the total rated megawatts of U.S. nuclear plants slightly, but remaining at the same number of nuclear units on line.

Indian Point Unit 1 under construction. Photo in Will Davis library.

A new article published by the Korea Times, entitled "Korea is second-fastest nuclear plant building country: IAEA" points up the fact that South Korea has historically built its nuclear plants on the average of 56 months (from construction start to commercial operation.)   The article points up the fact that two nations normally thought of as nuclear power leaders and pioneers, France and the United States, have historically seen this average way up at 126 months and 272 months, respectively.  I'd like to offer some comments -- not a defense, but just some comments -- on those numbers to provide perspective, since they're pretty long and, in the case of the U.S., extremely long.

The announcement made this past September 27 that Russia had signed an agreement with Cuba to cooperate in the advancement of nuclear technologies raised in some quarters the notion that Cuba might again aspire, eventually, to investigate nuclear energy.  The details of the original effort to give nuclear energy to Cuba were remembered in some places; we will take a brief look at that effort and what became of it.

Monju fast reactor; courtesy Japan Atomic Energy Agency

On Wednesday, September 21, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga announced that the nation would undertake a thorough review of the Monju fast-reactor project. Nikkei Asian Review quoted Suga as saying that the government "will fundamentally review it by the end of the year, including (the option of) scrapping it." Thus, it would appear that Monju may finally be facing the final curtain as a working project - although it has not operated in some time.

Takahama NPP courtesy Kansai Electric Power. Units 1 and 2 are on the right; Units 3 and 4 are in the distance on the left.

Kansai Electric Power has announced its plan to revise various features at its Takahama Nuclear Plant Units 1 and 2, and the work will take several years, according to the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum and Kansai Electric Power itself.

Sendai Nuclear Plant, courtesy Kyushu Electric Power Company

On August 26, a special meeting was arranged in Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan, which is the location of Kyushu Electric Power Company's Sendai Nuclear Plant.  At that meeting, the newly elected prefectural governor, Satoshi Mitazono, presented Kyushu Electric Power Company President Michikai Uriu an official request to shut down the operating reactors at Sendai and repeat the safety checks performed on the nuclear plants.

James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Plant; courtesy Entergy Nuclear

In what may well prove to be a historic deal, Exelon announced this morning (August 9) that it had agreed in theory to purchase the James A. FitzPatrick nuclear station in upstate New York from its present owner, Entergy.  This ends a long period of anguished waiting and watching, which began in February when Entergy announced it intended to close the plant and which was brought to a high level of tension in July when it was revealed that Exelon was examining purchasing the plant.

Sea view of prospective Kaminseki Nuclear Power Plant, courtesy Chugoku Electric Power Company.

Some positive news for nuclear energy in Japan this week, related to the continued operation of older nuclear plants and even the construction of new ones.

Perkins Nuclear Station layout as depicted in "Design Data and Safety Features of Commercial Nuclear Power Plants, Vol IV," Oak Ridge Nat'l Labs/Nuclear Safety Information Center, March 1975.

It is a common myth today that all of the nuclear plants historically ordered in the United States were unique, custom design and construction jobs. Many of the plants were built from standardized design drawings developed by established architect-engineer (A-E) firms in order to ease the work load and speed up progress on individual projects. In such cases, standard nuclear plant drawings were the basis for any given project the A-E took on.Over time, incremental changes were made in the drawings and of course customer-specific and site-specific changes needed to be made, as well as specific adaptations for the make of nuclear steam supply system (NSSS) ordered by the customer. Stone & Webster as well as Sargent & Lundy were just two of the A-E firms that developed and used standard drawings, leading to there being a number of very similar nuclear plants in different places, built for different owners. Some projects, however, were even more repetitive than these.

Today's panel at the ANS 2016 Annual Meeting on hybrid energy systems might seem at first like somewhat of a misplaced effort, but it's certain judging by the varied content provided at this and other sessions this week as well as by comments of varied experts that grid flexibility will be the "name of the game" as time goes on.  Hybrid energy systems, which combine more than one "prime mover" or energy generating source, may be one key to making it possible for nuclear energy to stay in the US game in the long term.

Used nuclear fuel storage; photo courtesy Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a division of the US Department of Energy

An interesting session at the ANS 2016 Annual Meeting, sponsored by the Fuel Cycle & Waste Management Division, saw the presentation of a number of interesting papers relative to the ever-increasing problem of used nuclear fuel at the various commercial nuclear plant sites in the United States.  Not only does the used fuel (which is a far better term than "spent fuel," these days, since it can conceivably be reused) continue to accumulate at the nuclear plants, but there is also a considerable amount of used fuel being stored at various sites where the nuclear plants have actually been shut down, decommissioned and completely removed for years.  Considering this, and the need to inventory, characterize and eventually move this material, a growing amount of interest is being shown in this field.

Today's panel discussion entitled New Nuclear Construction Around the World and which was chaired by past  ANS President Ted Quinn, featured some solid information on the state of nuclear energy today.  Four speakers, plus one special guest speaker, presented to an interested and engaged audience.

ANS President Gene Grecheck speaking at the ANS 2016 Annual Meeting Opening Plenary.

The 2016 American Nuclear Society Annual Meeting kicked off today (Monday, June 13) in New Orleans with a wonderful set of presentations on a wide variety of topics.  ANS President Gene Grecheck opened the session and reminded those assembled that his mantra has been "We need nuclear, and nuclear needs ANS," following up with some of the success stories that ANS has been a part of in the past year:

Clinton Power Station, courtesy Exelon Nuclear

Yesterday, June 2, 2016, may have marked a watershed moment in the present day history of nuclear power plants in the United States, when two nuclear plants were selected by their owner for shutdown far in advance of their license expiration dates for economic reasons. The fast-moving pace of plants being shut down under similar economic circumstances (unbalanced energy markets that favor other forms of energy to the detriment of nuclear) signals a broken system that must be changed, now.

Note: In the two previous installments (Part I and Part II), we took a look at a fascinating set of reports covering the perceived advance of nuclear power reactor technology in the earliest days of the "First Nuclear Era." This third installment completes the series, and discusses the final group study for an early nuclear power plant.