DOE To Invest In Small Nuclear Reactor Tech

By Michael McDonald - Tue, 19 January 2016 

 

While oil and natural gas prices may be very low today, in the medium- and long-term it’s likely that fossil fuels will be significantly more expensive. For that reason, it’s important that alternative energy sources continue to be developed. The Department of Energy appears to share that view as the government recently announced that it was selecting two companies, X-energy and Southern Company to work on advanced nuclear reactor designs.

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NRC OKs Yucca Mountain Repository Plan After Closure

Nuclear Street News Team - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Thursday that the Department of Energy's design for a nuclear waste storage facility at Yucca Mountain met its safety standards for the time period beginning when it is permanently closed.

The repository has been a political bone of contention for years and is far from even opening. But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ordered completion of the NRC Yucca Mountain review in August 2013 after Congress had cut off funding for the evaluation.

The NRC report released Thursday, called Volume 3, covers one million years past closure of the repository.  The agency still has to complete Volume 2, which is to cover repository safety before permanent closure, Volume 4, covering administrative concerns, and Volume 5, addressing licensing issues. It published Volume 1, which dealt with general information, in August 2010. The final three volumes are expected to be completed by January 2015.

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Energy Department Spurs Nuclear Technology

The Department of Energy announced Friday it has entered three private-public partnerships to for the development of small nuclear reaction technologies near Aiken, S.C. The partnerships are a part of the department's ongoing efforts to spur nuclear energy in America. Here are the details.

* The partnership agreements were between the DOE's Savannah River Site and Savannah River National Laboratory and SMR, a subsidiary of Hotlec International, Hyperion Power Generation and NuScale Power. The agreements will help those companies to gather information regarding a potential siting of a small nuclear reactor at Savannah River.

* In January, the department reported its intention to enter cost-sharing agreements with private companies in order to support the design and licensing of small nuclear reactors.

* At approximately one-third the size of current plants, small nuclear reactors offer a host of safety, siting, construction and economic benefits, the DOE stated. The DOE intends to fund two small nuclear reactor designs with deployment of the reactors within 10 years.

* In addition to the commitment to small nuclear reactors, the Energy Department also has announced $10 million in research funds for work to improve reactor safety, performance and cost competitiveness.

* The DOE also committed $8 billion in loan guarantees to support of the Vogtle project, which is two nuclear reactors to be built by Southern Company and Georgia Powers. An additional $200 million has been provided through a cost-share agreement to support the Vogtle license for the first nuclear power plant construction in more than thirty years.

* $170 million has also been given in research grants at 70 universities for the research and development of nuclear technologies.

* According to a Facebook posting offered by DOE Secretary Steven Chu in late February, nuclear power currently provides 20 percent of the electricity in the U.S. With an estimated 20 percent increase in overall energy demand and a 30 percent increase in electricity demand predicted over the next 25 years, Chu explained, "if we want to make a serious dent in carbon dioxide emissions -- not to mention having cleaner air and cleaner water -- then nuclear power has to be on the table."