Power & Operations

Houghtalen

The promise of nuclear power—clean, dispatchable, and reliable—positions it to match the ambitions of tech, industrial, and utility giants. But how do we turn ambition into action?

Uncertainty around nuclear energy’s capital cost is daunting, and the financial risk of pioneering new builds must be addressed.

Reliable nuclear power has incredible lifetime value. The ultimate project cost will pencil out over 40 or more years. We must focus on reducing the key risk: construction cost uncertainty for new nuclear.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is asking for public feedback on the environmental report for a subsequent license renewal (SLR) request from Dominion Energy, the owners of V.C. Summer nuclear power plant in South Carolina.

Technology giant Meta this week issued a request for proposals from nuclear developers to support its AI innovation and sustainability objectives.

The California-based company, parent of social media site Facebook, is targeting between one and four gigawatts of nuclear generation capacity in the United States.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is asking for public comment on its draft supplemental environmental impact statement for Diablo Canyon’s license renewal request.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has denied plans for Talen Energy to supply additional on-site power to an Amazon Web Services’ data center campus from the neighboring Susquehanna nuclear plant in Pennsylvania.

Fatigue has been identified as a major risk factor in industrial accidents. According to the National Safety Council, 13 percent of workplace injuries can be attributed to fatigue.¹ Other research indicates that working 12 hours per day is associated with a staggering 37 percent increase in risk of injury.² Considering fatigue was a contributing factor to major nuclear accidents at Chernobyl and Three Mile Island, it makes sense that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission imposes hefty fines to ensure strict adherence to its fatigue management regulations—particularly, Code of Federal Regulations Title 10, Part 26, “Fitness for Duty Programs.”

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and state officials met in August with officials at the U.S. Army’s Fort Drum in upstate New York to discuss deployment of a small modular reactor to supply the installation’s energy needs. According to local CBS affiliate WWNY, two congresspersons have called on the secretary of the army to place an SMR at Fort Drum, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has determined that an SMR would be “the optimal option” for the site’s energy purposes.

Holness

The Jamaican government last week signed a memorandum of understanding with Atomic Energy of Canada Limited and Canadian Nuclear Laboratories to bring nuclear power to the island nation.

Addressing the signing ceremony at Jamaica House on October 22, Jamaican prime minister Andrew Holness said the partnership reflects the government’s unwavering commitment to diversify the country’s energy portfolio with new, clean, and sustainable alternatives.

“[It] marks a pivotal moment in Jamaica’s energy transformation as we take a bold and forward-thinking step by signing this memorandum of understanding," he said. "This move is about reducing your cost of living, a major part of it being the cost of energy."

Unit 2 at the Prairie Island nuclear power plant near Red Wing, Minn., underwent an outage in fall 2023, which included extensive work on the reactor vessel using a novel approach to replace baffle-former bolts and lower radial clevis insert bolts. The work relied on extensive analysis beforehand to determine which bolts to replace such that only the new bolts were structurally credited for performance of their safety function. This proactive approach eliminated the need for costly contingencies associated with inspections.

An article on the Huffington Post examines the prospects for re-establishing nuclear energy in Puerto Rico, uncovering a mix of positive and negative attitudes toward nuclear power in the U.S. territory.

Interest in new reactor deployments and existing reactor life extensions is surging, encouraged by production and investment tax credits from the Inflation Reduction Act and led by electricity demand from tech companies. Last week alone saw Google and Amazon investing in Kairos Power’s fluoride salt–cooled reactor and X-energy’s high-temperature, gas-cooled reactor, respectively. On October 16, the DOE’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations issued a solicitation to award $900 million to support the initial domestic deployment of light water–cooled small modular reactor technologies.

Natalie Yonker

It’s all about finding the sweet spot: performing the correct maintenance at the correct interval (that is, the longest possible) with the correct resources (people, parts, and plant conditions) in a safe and efficient manner.

When engineering and maintenance teams adjust periodic maintenance (PM) intervals for plant components, they must take into consideration operating history, industry experience and guidelines, and vendor recommendations. This data, in conjunction with risk assessment, can be used to stretch maintenance intervals. If a valve fails before the scheduled PM, for example, the PM interval may be too long. But if a valve is overhauled during every refueling outage and the soft parts still look new each time, extending the PM interval would save money via man-hours, parts, and scope. A smaller outage work scope results in shorter outages, which results in less money spent on replacement power for the utility. That’s the real savings.

Sam Lochmann is a well-respected sergeant in the security department at the Wolf Creek nuclear power plant near Burlington, Kan. The plant, a 1,200-MWe Westinghouse pressurized water reactor operated by Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corporation (WCNOC), had its 26th refueling outage this past spring.

Yesterday morning as Amazon, X-energy, Energy Northwest, and Dominion Energy were sharing a spotlight celebrating their investment in X-energy’s high-temperature gas-cooled reactor technology, the Department of Energy opened up the application process for up to $900 million in cost-shared funding to support the initial domestic deployment of a different type of reactor—light water reactors generating about 300 MWe that the DOE calls Gen III+ small modular reactors.

The Department of the Navy (DON), which comprises both the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Marine Corps, issued a request for information this week on potential deployment of clean energy generation on underutilized military lands.

With a $1.52 billion loan from the Department of Energy and $1.3 billion in grants to rural electric cooperatives near the plant, the ambitious plans to restart Michigan’s Palisades nuclear plant next fall are moving ahead.

The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE) is holding a virtual public hearing on Tuesday, October 1, to provide information and take comments on the proposed reissuance of a surface water permit for Palisades nuclear plant in Covert, Mich.

As part of its implementation of the ADVANCE Act, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced on September 26 that it will periodically hold public meetings on the legislation, which was signed into law on July 9.

Information about these meetings can be found on the NRC website at least 10 days before each meeting.

Ontario Power Generation’s expansive refurbishment project on its four 878-MWe CANDU units at the Darlington nuclear power plant is proceeding faster than expected, OPG announced on September 17.

Nuclear powerhouse Constellation announced today the signing of a 20-year power purchase agreement with Microsoft that will pave the way for the restart of Three Mile Island Unit 1—under a new name to honor Chris Crane, former chief executive of Exelon when Constellation was part of the larger company.