Nuclear Fission and Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) News and Discussions

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I see that in the latest fusion effort, the Nuclear Fission and Small Modular Reactors (SMRS) threads have been fused together.

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1st U.S. Nuclear Reactor Built from Scratch in Decades Enters Commercial Operation in Georgia
by Jeff Amy
July 31, 2023

Introduction:

ATLANTA (AP via Courthouse News) — A new reactor at a nuclear power plant in Georgia has entered commercial operation, becoming the first new American reactor built from scratch in decades.

Georgia Power Co. announced Monday that Unit 3 at Plant Vogtle, southeast of Augusta, has completed testing and is now sending power to the grid reliably.

At its full output of 1,100 megawatts of electricity, Unit 3 can power 500,000 homes and businesses. Utilities in Georgia, Florida and Alabama are receiving the electricity.
Nuclear power now makes up about 25% of the generation of Georgia Power, the largest unit of Atlanta-based Southern Co.

A fourth reactor is also nearing completion at the site, where two earlier reactors have been generating electricity for decades. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Friday said radioactive fuel could be loaded into Unit 4, a step expected to take place before the end of September. Unit 4 is scheduled to enter commercial operation by March.

Read more here: https://www.courthousenews.com/1st-us- ... n-georgia

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Swedish government unveils plan to scrap cap on new nuclear plants
Sweden will need to build 10 new nuclear reactors by the end of the 2040s, the climate minister told a press conference.

https://www.thelocal.se/20230809/swedis ... ear-plants

https://archive.li/kT3os

"The climate transition requires a doubling of the electricity production in the coming 20 years," Climate Minister Romina Pourmokhtari said. She added that the government believed that new nuclear power equalling 10 conventional reactors would need to go into service in the 2030s and 2040s. Pourmokhtari said the government was therefore moving forward with proposed legislation that would remove a ceiling of maximum 10 reactors in the country and a requirement that new reactors be built in the same locations as existing ones.

The climate minister said these limitations were "in the way of a modern view of nuclear power", adding they would also simplify the process for building new ones. Pourmokhtari said a bill had been prepared to be considered by parliament during the autumn. The Scandinavian country voted in a 1980 non-binding referendum to phase out nuclear power. Since then, Sweden has shut down six of its 12 reactors and the remaining ones, at three nuclear power plants, generate about 30 percent of the electricity used in the country today.

But Sweden has struggled to find viable alternative energy sources to replace its nuclear power, with renewable energies not yet able to fully meet its needs. In 2016, a broad political majority agreed to extend nuclear power for the foreseeable future, paving the way for new reactors to be built to replace the ageing ones at the end of their lifespans. The reactors were opened in the 1970s and 1980s. Most of them have lifespans of around 40 years and are in need of modernisation.

Sweden's Social Democrats – which led the previous government – have traditionally been opposed to building new reactors, while the centre-right has been in favour. Immediately after coming to power in late 2022, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson's right-wing coalition government announced it was seeking to build new reactors. It has also announced a change to Sweden's energy policy, changing its goal of 100 percent "renewable" energy to 100 percent "fossil-free" energy.

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Copenhagen Atomics Progress to Mass Manufacturing Thorium Reactors and First Reactor in 2028
September 8, 2023 by Brian Wang

Copenhagen Atomics has raised over 25 million euros and has developed full scale reactor hardware for molten salt thorium nuclear reactors. Almost a decade ago Copenhagen Atomics was founded based on a dream dream of a world powered by scaleable and green energy more affordable than coal; a thorium molten salt breeder reactor. They are now building full-scale prototype reactor test platforms, producing ton-scale highly purified salt and much more.

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2023/09/c ... -2028.html

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First planned small nuclear reactor plant in the US has been canceled

John Timmer - 11/8/2023, 11:18 PM

Nuclear power provides energy that is largely free of carbon emissions and can play a significant role in helping deal with climate change. But in most industrialized countries, the construction of nuclear plants tends to grossly exceed their budgeted cost and run years over schedule.

One hope for changing that has been the use of small, modular nuclear reactors, which can be built in a centralized production facility and then shipped to the site of their installation. But on Wednesday, the company and utility planning to build the first small, modular nuclear plant in the US announced it was canceling the project.

Small modular reactors take several steps to potentially cut costs. Their smaller size makes it easier for passive cooling systems to take over in the case of power losses (some designs simply keep their reactors in a pond). It also allows the primary components to be built at a central facility and then shipped to different plant sites, allowing a lot of the manufacturing equipment to be reused for all the sites that use the reactors.

The US has approved a single design for a small, modular nuclear reactor developed by the company NuScale Power. The government's Idaho National Lab was working to help construct the first NuScale installation, the Carbon Free Power Project. Under the plan, the national lab would maintain a few of the first reactors at the site, and a number of nearby utilities would purchase power from the remaining ones.

With the price of renewables dropping precipitously, however, the project's economics have worsened, and backers started pulling out of the project.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/11 ... -canceled/



Idaho National Lab

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Rolls-Royce Shows Off Concept Lunar Nuclear Reactor
The company hopes to have the reactor ready for deployment in the early 2030s.
By Ryan Whitwam December 8, 2023

https://www.extremetech.com/science/rol ... ar-reactor
After decades of isolation, the Moon is about to get visitors once again. NASA and other space agencies are working toward putting humans on the Moon within the next few years, and this time, it's for good. Long-term human habitation on the Moon will require a lot of power, but Rolls-Royce says it's got the solution. The company has revealed a concept version of the tiny nuclear reactor it's been building with the UK Space Agency. It doesn't produce any power yet, but it glows. That's something, at least.

Rolls-Royce had the demo model on hand at the recent UK Space Conference in Belfast. The UK has provided £2.9 million ($3.5 million) for the project and £249,000 ($305,000) paid in 2022 for an early concept study. The reactor is still a long way from complete. Still, the next era of human lunar exploration faces possible delays as NASA, SpaceX, and others struggle to get new spaceflight hardware ready. Artemis III is on track to be the first crewed landing on the Moon in 50 years, but the proposed 2024 date is less likely as spacesuits and the Starship landing vehicle lag behind expectations.

All previous Moon missions have relied on solar power, which is fine for short excursions. However, dust can obscure solar panels, and the Moon has nights that last two Earth weeks. That simple fact can end missions that have otherwise exceeded expectations. For example, India put the Chandrayaan-3 lander and rover in sleep mode when night rolled around, but the robots did not reawaken on the other side. A micro-reactor like the one Rolls-Royce is building could reliably supply power for years.
Rolls-Royce reactor concept