DOE report estimates new nuclear capacity potential at existing plants

September 13, 2024, 9:07AMANS Nuclear Cafe
Data from Table 1 from DOE’s SA&I report shows the potential new nuclear generation at 145 coal power plant sites with nameplate capacities above 600 MWe. (Source: DOE, Evaluation of Nuclear Power Plant and Coal Power Plant Sites for New Nuclear Capacity)

The Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy has released a new report estimating that there may be the potential to install 60 GWe–95 GWe of new capacity at currently operating and recently retired nuclear power plants in the United States. The report also evaluated the potential of building new nuclear plants near current and retired coal power plants. The report, titled Evaluation of Nuclear Power Plant and Coal Power Plant Sites for New Nuclear Capacity, was prepared as part of DOE-NE’s Systems Analysis and Integration (SA&I) campaign.

INL readies new Sample Preparation Laboratory

September 13, 2024, 7:01AMNuclear News
The outside of the Sample Preparation Laboratory at the Materials and Fuels Complex at Idaho National Laboratory. (Photo: INL)

Idaho National Laboratory has completed substantial construction of the first new hot cell facility at the lab site in 49 years—a Sample Preparation Laboratory (SPL) that will accelerate research, development, and qualification of structural nuclear materials for both existing and new nuclear reactors. In an announcement last week of the milestone and the ribbon-cutting ceremony held to mark it, INL said the SPL is expected to be fully operational in 2025.

PNNL seeks high-energy neutrons from SpaceX launch of Polaris Dawn

September 12, 2024, 3:00PMNuclear News
Understanding how several different metals—such as the contents of PNNL’s space-bound cube—react to radiation in space will help scientists understand the potential impact of radiation on space travelers. (Photo: Eddie Pablo/PNNL)

When a SpaceX rocket lifted off from Kennedy Space Center on September 10 (see video here), sending a crewed commercial mission into low Earth orbit, an experiment designed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory was onboard. Several high-purity metal samples will orbit Earth and absorb cosmic radiation for five days—including that from the Van Allen radiation belt—to help the lab answer questions about the radiation environment for manned space missions, according to a news release from PNNL.

N.S. Savannah and the American Nuclear Society

September 12, 2024, 12:00PMNuclear NewsErhard W. Koehler and Anne Jennings
N.S. Savannah docked in Baltimore in May 2024. (Photo: MARAD)

The American Nuclear Society was formed in 1954 in the wake of President Eisenhower’s seminal Atoms for Peace speech. Around the same time that Congress was debating the Atomic Energy Act and John Landis was helping establish ANS, the National Security Council began deliberating about adding a nuclear-­powered merchant ship to the nascent Atoms for Peace program. We like to imagine that the idea germinated after Mamie Eisenhower christened the U.S.S. Nautilus, but the truth seems much drier. Regardless, Ike championed the project and announced it to a surprised crowd in an April 1955 speech in New York City at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. Landis would become the principal architect of the ship’s nuclear power plant. Although Savannah’s reactor now rests in the low-level radwaste repository in Clive, Utah, the ship’s prospects are as bright as the future of ANS itself.

EnergySolutions launches energy and manufacturing consulting agency

September 12, 2024, 9:30AMNuclear News

Oneid

EnergySolutions announced that it has launched Management Consultants International (MCI) to provide specialized consulting services for the nuclear, energy, chemical, oil, gas, technology, and manufacturing sectors. Operating separately from EnergySolutions, MCI will provide expertise to clients addressing multiplex issues before federal, state, and international agencies.

Nuclear industry veteran Pierre Oneid has been appointed president of MCI. He will also continue in his current role as executive vice president supporting EnergySolutions’ growth efforts. Formerly senior vice president and chief nuclear officer for Holtec International, Oneid joined EnergySolutions in May of this year.

Hanford completes glass transfer test

September 12, 2024, 7:01AMRadwaste Solutions
Hanford workers recently transferred three containers of nonradioactive test glass from the site’s WTP to the nearby Integrated Disposal Facility. (Photos: DOE)

According to the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management, two contractors at its Hanford Site in Washington state have finished a first-time relay of test glass as the site prepares to vitrify—or immobilize in glass—millions of gallons of radioactive and chemical waste from its large underground tanks.

Video: Watch an “instant replay” of the test glass relay here.

HALEU without hyperbole: ANS speaks up for science and transparent risk assessment

September 11, 2024, 3:05PMNuclear News

The American Nuclear Society recently issued an open letter in support of a science-based approach to the regulation of high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) fuels for commercial nuclear energy, voicing member concerns about hyperbole in a recent article published in Science, which advocated for restrictions on the use of HALEU despite decades of effective safeguards and security. This is not the first time ANS has stepped in to present the measured opinion of its membership on the value and appropriate regulation of HALEU.

ANS, NEI to partner on premier 2025 nuclear conference

September 11, 2024, 12:01PMANS News
ANS’s Craig Piercy and NEI’s Maria Korsnick announced their organizations’ collaboration at NEA 2024. (Photo: Dot Schneider/ANS)

The American Nuclear Society and the Nuclear Energy Institute have announced a new partnership regarding two of their flagship industry conferences.

ANS’s annual Utility Working Conference and Vendor Technology Expo and NEI’s Nuclear Energy Assembly will merge during the week of September 8, 2025, in Atlanta, Ga. The news was shared during the kickoff of the 2024 NEA meeting, happening this week in Philadelphia, Pa.

IAEA: Fukushima soil and waste plans meet standards

September 11, 2024, 9:30AMRadwaste Solutions
Radioactive decontamination waste is held in temporary storage in Iitate Village, Fukushima Prefecture, in 2019. (Photo: O. Evrard, J. P. Laceby, A. Nakao/Wikimedia Commons)

The International Atomic Energy Agency has found that Japan’s planned approach for recycling and disposing of soil and radioactive waste from decontamination activities after the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident is consistent with the agency’s safety standards.

What role can university research reactors play in a nuclear energy resurgence?

September 11, 2024, 7:00AMNuclear NewsCorey Hines

Corey Hines

Current and future decarbonization goals necessitate robust and reliable energy generation solutions with high capacity factors to serve as baseload sources of clean energy. Next-generation advanced reactor and small modular reactor designs have driven new technology, training regimes, and new reactor design and implementation of solutions associated with new design concepts and scale.

Research and teaching institutions like Washington State University are responding to help meet the needs of future nuclear research and development and fill in workforce gaps by preparing the next generation of workers in nuclear science and engineering. Domestic university research reactors provide an unparalleled teaching and training tool and are an R&D force multiplier for enhanced nuclear skillset development and training. Investing in research reactors and the important mission they serve benefits nuclear research both domestically and globally. Research reactors offer low-cost, safe, real-world job training and provide the experimentation platforms necessary to advance and meet demands of ongoing and future work in the nuclear sector that transcends traditional nuclear R&D.

Ian Wall—ANS member since 1964

September 10, 2024, 3:01PMNuclear News

Ian Wall early in his career . . .

I graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering from Imperial College, London, in 1958. Nuclear power was viewed favorably at the time, so I took a 1-year course on the subject. I was then offered fellowships at Cambridge University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and thought the latter would be more interesting, so I moved to Cambridge, Mass., to study nuclear engineering. After completing my doctorate in 1964, I joined the American Nuclear Society and took a job with General Electric, then in San Jose, Calif.

In 1967, GE assigned me to explore the use of probability in reactor safety. At that time, the prevailing opinion was that the probability of a severe accident was infinitesimally small and the consequences would be catastrophic.

Roving Reactor to present “The Microreactor Salon”

September 10, 2024, 9:30AMANS Nuclear Cafe

The Roving Reactor traveling exhibit will be in New York City at the end of the month to present “The Microreactor Salon: Tiny Nuclear vs. the Climate Crisis.” The event is part of the extensive lineup of Climate Week NYC, which will run September 22–29 this year and includes additional events all month long.

ECA warns of delay to DOE’s interpretation of HLW

September 10, 2024, 7:06AMRadwaste Solutions
Work begins on the TBI demonstration at the Hanford Site, during which 2,000 gallons of low-activity waste will be treated and shipped off-site for disposal. (Photo: DOE)

The Energy Communities Alliance (ECA), which advocates for communities adjacent to or impacted by Department of Energy sites, is asking the department to conduct an independent analysis evaluating the impacts of delaying the implementation of its statutory interpretation of high-level radioactive waste, which holds that some waste from the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel may be classified as non-HLW.

Senate to consider Matthew Marzano’s NRC nomination this week

September 9, 2024, 3:11PMNuclear News

Marzano

The U.S. Senate’s Committee on Environment and Public Works will consider the nomination of Matthew Marzano to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission during a hearing on Wednesday, September 11.

In July, President Joe Biden named Marzano as his choice to fill the open seat on the five-member commission. The NRC, the nation’s independent regulator of civilian nuclear safety, has been without a tiebreaker for votes among the four current members since commissioner Jeff Baran’s term ended in June 2023.

The NRC has been in the spotlight in recent years as the United States experiences a resurgence in demand for and technology advances in nuclear power. The commission is facing a high volume of license requests and is working to modernize and streamline its review process.

Denmark Technical College graduates 24 new apprentices for Savannah River

September 9, 2024, 12:01PMNuclear News
DTC Operator Apprentice graduates include David Tolias, Scottie Tarver, Brandon Watkins, Johnaisha Patterson, Dustin Bates, Kyler McKie, Hudson Huckabee, Laura Burgess, Larry Tyler, Kevin Dickson, Matthew Darnall, John Bolin, Austin Harper, Jordan Floyd, and Mina Strickland. (Photo: DOE)

The Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina recently began onboarding 24 graduates from Denmark Technical College in Denmark, S.C., as part of SRS’s Production Operator Apprentice School.

TEPCO launches English-language fuel debris portal website

September 9, 2024, 9:38AMRadwaste Solutions

Tokyo Electric Power Company has added an English-language version of its Fuel Debris Portal Site to its website. According to the company, the portal is intended to deliver information pertaining to melted nuclear fuel debris at the Fukushima Daiichi site to the public in an easy-to-understand manner.

Finding the courage to dance

September 9, 2024, 7:00AMNuclear NewsCraig Piercy

Craig Piercy
cpiercy@ans.org

I recently attended the 2024 Utility Working Conference where, despite the widespread travel disruptions created by Tropical Storm Debby, nearly 600 folks from the U.S. nuclear utility and supplier community had descended on southwest Florida to network, do business, and have a little fun.

The UWC has always been a bit different from other nuclear industry meetings: a little less “happy talk” about the future, a little more “real talk” about the practical challenges facing the industry.

To be sure, the mood on the expo floor was buoyant. Business is good for anyone serving the existing fleet these days. The Inflation Reduction Act’s investment incentives have finally gained traction, which has resulted in utilities taking a more long-term approach to their plant maintenance and uprate projects, which in turn has created bigger opportunities for suppliers.

Don’t get boxed in: Entergy CNO Kimberly Cook-Nelson shares her journey

September 6, 2024, 2:59PMNuclear News

Kimberly Cook-Nelson

For Kimberly Cook-Nelson, the path to the nuclear industry started with a couple of refrigerator boxes and cellophane paper. Her sixth-grade science project was inspired by her father, who worked at Seabrook power station in New Hampshire as a nuclear operator.

“I had two big refrigerator boxes I taped together. I cut the ‘primary operating system’ and the ‘secondary system’ out of them. Then I used different colored cellophane paper to show the pressurized water system versus the steam versus the cold cooling water,” Cook-Nelson said. “My dad got me those little replica pellets that I could pass out to people as they were going by at my science fair.”