Nuclear Energy: The Once and Future Power Source

By Brandon Ott (RCP) - To say the nuclear industry has had highs and lows in the last 35 years is an understatement. The “atoms for peace” that were intended to wean Planet Earth off fossil fuels, make Western nations energy independent, and provide a clean environment all but screeched to a halt after the disasters at Three Mile Island in 1979 and Chernobyl in 1986.  Add in 20 years of weapons of mass destruction talk and sensational sci-fi movie explosions -- all before a tsunami overwhelmed a reactor on the coast of Japan -- and nuclear energy was on the verge of going full dodo.

In the United States, nearly all of the currently active nuclear power plants were built 40 years ago or more. We’d gone almost 30 years without seeing any new ones built. Now, five reactors are under construction, with one close to coming online, and many more are receiving licenses to operate for another 20 years. After four plant closures since 2013, the United States has 100 working reactors with clear support from the American public.

Yet growth has been sluggish, for several reasons. First, the revolution in hydraulic fracturing technology dramatically expanded the supply of oil and natural gas while driving the price of natural gas to historic lows.  Utility companies looking to build new power plants are looking at a third the cost per kilowatt-hour if they employ “nat-gas.”


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DOE invests in more efficient nuclear power plants

By Tim Devaney (The Hill) - 10/31/14 01:57 PM EDT

 

The Obama administration is looking to develop more efficient nuclear power facilities.

Next generation nuclear reactors would not only save energy, but they would also be safer to operate, the Department of Energy (DOE) said Friday as it announced new investments in the sector.

As part of the Obama administration's climate action plan, the Energy Department announced it will provide tens of millions of dollars to support companies involved in key nuclear energy research.

The companies, including AREVA Federal Services, GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, General Atomics, NGNP Industry Alliance, and Westinghouse Electric Company, are looking to build advanced reactor technologies.

These companies will receive $13 million in cost-share agreements with the Energy Department that will help them address design, construction and operation issues associated with next generation nuclear reactors.

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Research shows urgent need to address instability of world's power supplies

Phys.org by Elizabeth Mitchell - A new study reveals the urgent need to address instabilities in the supply of electrical power to counteract an increase in the frequency and severity of urban blackouts.

Research by Hugh Byrd, Professor of Architecture at the University of Lincoln, UK, and Steve Matthewman, Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, highlights the insecurities of power systems and weakening electrical infrastructure across the globe, particularly in built-up urban areas.

The work builds on previous studies which examined a sharp increase in electrical usage over recent years, and warned the world to prepare for the prospect of coping without electricity as instances of complete power failure become increasingly common.

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The Nuclear Gap In Obama's Clean Power Plan

By Michael Krancer for Forbes - If we want to arrest climate change, all we need are more renewables like wind and solar, right? Not exactly, according to a newly published Canadian report on life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions (“GHG”). In fact, the report, which is based on 246 studies covering various power generation scenarios and constraints, concluded that nuclear power beats wind and natural gas on an ‘apples-to-apples’ basis for battling climate change.
[...]
How is possible that nukes have a smaller carbon footprint than the wind-natural gas duet? Well, wind power is intermittent and needs back-up from natural gas-fired electricity. Nuclear is a 24/7/365 power generation with zero carbon emissions. This is no back-of-the-envelope calculation. The methodology used by Hatch was in conformance with ISO 14040, the international standard governing lifecycle assessments. You can read more about the solid methodology on pages 2 and 3 of the report.

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California ISO: Challenging 2014 summer but reliability held firm

By Editors of Electric Light & Power/ POWERGRID International 

The California Independent System Operator Corporation grid operators managed reliable electricity delivery this summer through major wildfires, historic drought conditions and heat waves.

This summer’s highest level of demand reached 45,090 MW at 4:53 p.m. on September 15, 2014. This compares to 45,097 MW set on June 28, 2013 and 46,846 MW on August 13, 2012. The ISO’s highest peak on record is 50,270 MW on July 24, 2006.

On a local level, southern California set new demand records that underscore the impact from above normal — hot — temperatures recorded during the summer, especially along the coast. San Diego Gas & Electric area experienced record use on Monday, September 15 and then topped that on September 16 with an all-time record demand of 4,895 MW. The standing record peak was 4,684 MW set on September 27, 2010.


Southern California Edison area also experienced heavy loads reaching 23,266 MW on September 15. This was just shy of the area’s all-time peak of 23,388 MW set on September 7, 2011.

Meanwhile, one of the California ISO’s newest participating transmission owners, Valley Electric Association of Pahrump, Nevada, which serves a 6,800 square mile area south of Las Vegas and a sliver of California, set a new demand record of 120 MW on July 1, 2014.

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Rising cost of electricity fuels debate over need for Tennessee Gas Pipeline

By RICHIE DAVIS - Recorder Staff

When National Grid announced recently that it will increase electricity prices this winter, that was enough to raise some eyebrows.

 

Not only will its Massachusetts Electric customers have their bills jump by more than one-third beginning next month because of rising fuel costs to generate that power, but competing Western Massachusetts Electric Co. said it will likely also be raising its prices for the six months beginning in January.

This comes as the Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. moves forward with controversial plans for its Northeast Energy Direct natural gas pipeline, which the company says is needed for New England to power its electric grid and lower energy costs to compete with other regions.

“Limited natural gas transportation infrastructure ... has led to extremely high electricity prices in the Northeast U.S., and threatens the reliability of the region’s electric grid,” Tennessee Gas reported last month in its request to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for the pipeline across Massachusetts. “As a result of the fact that current natural gas transportation infrastructure is inadequate to meet the growing demand in the New England region, gas prices in New England are the highest in the United States.”

It quoted an industry association study as predicting that 6 billion cubic feet a day of new natural gas pipeline capacity will be needed in the Northeast by 2020, and 10.1 billion cubic feet per day of capacity will be needed by 2035.

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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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Researchers explore power of thorium for improved nuclear design

The UK is playing a key role in an international project to develop a radical new type of nuclear power station that is safer, more cost-effective, compact, quicker and less disruptive to build than any previously constructed.

Funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), as part of the RCUK Energy Programme, a team at the University of Cambridge is exploring whether the element thorium could help to meet the new design's fuel needs. As well as being three to four times more abundant than uranium, thorium could potentially produce electricity more fuel efficiently and therefore more cheaply.

The aim of the overall project, initiated by the US Department of Energy and led by Georgia Institute of Technology, is to design a power plant whose size would be reduced and safety enhanced by breaking with convention and integrating the main heat exchangers inside the secure pressure vessel where the nuclear reactions take place. This innovation gives the design its name: Integral Inherently Safe Light Water Reactor (I2S-LWR).

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Nuclear power's future focus of Purdue workshop

Chris Morisse Vizza, cvizza@jconline.com

Purdue University is gearing for a two-day workshop on campus this week that will draw, among others, a top official from the U.S. Department of Energy.

At 7 p.m. Thursday in Stewart Center's Loeb Playhouse, Sal Golub, associate deputy secretary for nuclear technologies, will present the Discovery Lecture. It is free and open to the public.

Nuclear power provides carbon-free energy but poses challenges in terms of safety, proliferation and environmental impact, said event organizer Anter El-Azab, a Purdue nuclear engineering professor.

"This Purdue workshop devoted to nuclear power and related research will attempt to put all those issues on the table to a lively discussion on where we can go from here," El-Azab said.

The workshop will include a brainstorming session geared toward creating partnerships between Purdue and external institutions, national research laboratories, industry and other universities.

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FACTBOX: Six concepts for the future of nuclear power

(Reuters) - The Generation IV International Forum (GIF) was created in 2000 to perform research on new types of nuclear reactors to replace the water-cooled models that make up the majority of today's global nuclear fleet. 

The group, which consists mainly of public nuclear research agencies, selected the following six systems on which to focus its research efforts.

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