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

[Time_Traveller]

Pension funds shun Sizewell C in major blow to Britain’s nuclear ambitions

22 April 2023 • 7:00pm

The Government’s push to find investors for the £20bn Sizewell C nuclear power station has suffered a significant blow as Britain’s biggest fund managers have snubbed the scheme.

Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor, sought to make the project more attractive to green-focused asset managers in his Spring Budget by proposing to give it “sustainable” status under UK financing rules.

Ministers have also reformed the funding model for nuclear plants to hand investors more up-front rewards.

But senior sources in the asset management industry and two of the country’s biggest fund managers have dismissed the changes as irrelevant and insisted it would not persuade them to back Sizewell C.

Nuclear power is seen as vital to Britain’s energy security in the wake of the Ukraine war, with ministers calling for it to generate 25pc of the country’s electricity needs by 2050.

But despite introducing new funding models and classifying it as “green” to attract investors, the Government has struggled to persuade sceptical pension funds and asset managers to get behind Sizewell C.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/20 ... izewell-c/

Sounds like the Tories never listen, Nuclear is not green.

[Tadasuke]

Sounds like the Tories never listen, Nuclear is not green.

Nuclear is currently the best power source we have. Hydro is after that, solar is after that and wind after that. I've had university courses on this and I read reports, data and articles. Nuclear is very much needed, before we have fully commercially viable fusion (in about 20 years perhaps? who knows). So yes, nuclear is "green", but I don't like that word. Nuclear produces energy when it's needed, not when the Sun shines or wind blows. It also produces very little waste, which can be very safely managed and people know how to do it.





"Green" people are crazy. They don't fully understand the situation. They want to slow down economic development and make us poorer than we have to be in a given year. So no, I don't like them.

[wjfox]

"Green" people are crazy. They don't fully understand the situation. They want to slow down economic development and make us poorer than we have to be in a given year.

Er... no.

[Tadasuke]

One of the reasons things are as they are and not better, is that, people usually are more interested in watching some sensations about people's stupidity in Chernobyl than for example learning how modern nuclear reactors actually work. I think that more people in the world understand how a nuclear bomb works than how a useful heat generating nuclear reactor works or how electric grids work. This is unfortunate. Ignorance causes fear. Fear causes bad decisions. Bad decisions cause poorer nations and less happy societies.

[Vakanai]

Unless we create worthwhile nuclear fusion, I'm against nuclear power. Fission just isn't safe and produces nuclear waste. Renewables are just the better option right now. Fusion might change my mind, but no argument for nuclear fission is going to - and I don't feel it ever will for most people either.

[wjfox]

I doubt this will be cheaper than solar/wind + batteries, but let's wait and see.

-----

Westinghouse unveils AP300 small modular reactor

04 May 2023

Westinghouse has launched what it calls a "game-changer" AP300 small modular reactor, a scaled-down version of its AP1000 reactor, with a goal for the first one to deliver power to the grid within a decade.

The AP300 SMR, based on the licensed and operating AP1000 pressurised light water technology, is described as an "ultra-compact, modular constructed unit that leverages the innovation and operational knowledge of the global AP1000 fleet" and will use identical AP1000 technology including "major equipment, structural components, passive safety, proven fuel and I&C systems".

Westinghouse says it is the first SMR "based on an Nth-of-a-kind operating plant" and it hopes to benefit from the design utilising its Gen III+ technology which already has regulatory approval in the USA, UK and China as well as being in compliance with European Utility Requirements.

President and CEO of Westinghouse Patrick Fragman said: "The launch of the AP300 SMR rounds out the Westinghouse portfolio of reactor technology, allowing us to deliver on the full needs of our customers globally, with a clear line of sight on schedule of delivery, and economics."

"It is using the DNA of the AP1000 in terms of technology", he said, with its passive safety systems "which has unique advantages in terms of robustness of the safety case, simplicity of the design, with huge implications in terms of costs and time to construct and obviously an ease of deployment because, with the AP1000 being already deployed, the AP300 SMR will leverage the existing supply chain, the existing design, the existing licensing pedigree".

https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Arti ... ar-reactor



How the AP300 might look (Image: Westinghouse)

[wjfox]

[caltrek]

Experimental Molten Salt Nuclear Reactor Gets Go-Ahead In China
by Dr Alfredo Carpineti, PhD.
June 16, 2023

Introduction:

(IFL Science) China’s National Nuclear Safety Administration has issued a license to the Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics (SINAP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to operate China's first "Thorium Molten Salt Reactor - Liquid Fuel 1" (TMSR-LF1), which was under construction between 2018 and 2021 in Wuwei city.

This is the first license given in China for this type of reactor but it is not the only one being built. In 2021, we reported the construction of two other reactors. While popular decades ago, these types of reactors, known as fast reactors, are no longer common, with only two commercial ones in the world currently working.

"The thorium-fueled molten salt experimental reactor operation application and related technical documents were reviewed, and it was considered that the application met the relevant safety requirements, and it was decided to issue the 2 MWt [megawatts thermal] liquid fuel thorium-based molten salt experimental reactor an operating license," the National Nuclear Safety Administration said in a statement.

The interest that many countries have in this technology is around energy production. Standard nuclear reactors use water as a coolant and have a thermodynamic efficiency that is pretty high compared to fossil fuels. These reactors are even better than the traditional approaches. That means a smaller reactor with less fuel would get a much higher energy output.

If this is the case, why aren’t people building lots of them? Well, there are drawbacks to not using water as the coolant. Molten metals have often been used, such as sodium. But sodium is very reactive, which led to 27 sodium leaks in a 17-year period, 14 of which led to sodium fires, in Russian reactors

Read more here: https://www.iflscience.com/experimenta ... ina-69417

[wjfox]

Mini Reactor Cost Surge Threatens Nuclear’s Next Big Thing

30 June 2023 at 14:41 BST

High inflation and rising interest rates are driving up the cost of a new generation of miniature atomic reactors that the nuclear industry is relying on to lift sales and help meet climate targets.

Nuclear-company executives and regulators met this week at the International Atomic Energy Agency to negotiate potential manufacturing and technology standards, a key step the industry needs to take in order to make prices competitive with other emissions-free energy sources. There are currently more than 80 unique small modular reactor, or SMR, designs under development, resulting in sprawling supply chains and caps on scaling up production.

“With higher interest rates to deal with and inflation pushing up the cost of steel, copper wire and just about everything else that goes into building an SMR, we know that even the most promising projects are having to tell their investors and buyers that prices have risen substantially,” IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said at the meeting in Vienna. “Avoiding, or at least mitigating, cost rises and delays is now even more crucial.”

Some governments, big companies and billionaires including Bill Gates and Warren Buffett say SMRs are one of the planet’s best technological bets to combat global warming. SMRs are designed to generate less than 300 megawatts, compared with over 1,000 megawatts or more at large plants. Because of their smaller size and factory manufacture, they’re expected to be more widely distributed and quicker to build.

Nuclear energy costs in the US currently level out to an average of $373 a megawatt hour, according to the latest estimates by BloombergNEF. That’s significantly higher than solar or onshore wind at $60 and $50 a megawatt hour, respectively.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... eddit_wall

[caltrek]

The Hype of a Nuclear 'Renaissance'
by Joshua Frank
July 18, 2023

Extract::

(Alternet) In a recent interview with ABC News, Bill Gates couldn’t have been more candid about why he’s embraced the technology of so-called small modular nuclear reactors, or SMRs. “Nuclear energy, if we do it right, will help us solve our climate goals,” he claimed. As it happens, he’s also invested heavily in an “advanced” nuclear power start-up company, TerraPower, based up in Bellevue, Washington, which is hoping to build a small 345-megawatt atomic power reactor in rural Kemmerer, Wyoming.

The nuclear industry is banking on a revival and placing its bets on SMRs like those proposed by the Portland, Oregon-based NuScale Power Corporation, whose novel 60-megawatt SMR design was approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in 2022. While the underlying physics is the same as all nuclear power plants, SMRs are easier to build and safer to run than the previous generation of nuclear facilities — or so go the claims of those looking to profit from them.

NuScale’s design acceptance was a first in this country where 21 SMRs are now in the development stage. Such facilities are being billed as innovative alternatives to the hulking commercial reactors that average one gigawatt of power output per year and take decades and billions of dollars to construct. If SMRs can be brought online quickly, their sponsors claim, they will help mitigate carbon emissions because nuclear power is a zero-emissions energy source.

Never mind that it’s not, since nuclear power plants produce significant greenhouse gas emissions from uranium mining to plant construction to waste disposal. Life cycle analyses of carbon emissions from different energy sources find that, when every stage is taken into account, nuclear energy actually has a carbon footprint similar to, if not larger than, natural gas plants, almost double that of wind energy, and significantly more than solar power.

Read more here: https://www.alternet.org/hype-of-a-nuc ... issance/

[caltrek]

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

[caltrek]

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

[wjfox]

[weatheriscool]

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.

[raklian]

[weatheriscool]

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

[wjfox]

[wjfox]

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

[wjfox]

[weatheriscool]

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