NEI Nuclear Notes

Using the short-term energy markets to make long-term decisions about the electric grid will irreversibly damage the system’s diversity and resiliency, the nuclear industry told the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Monday, as the Commission prepared to take up a request by the Secretary of Energy to reform the rules for regional electricity pricing. The markets are well set up to minimize short-term electricity costs, but they are blind to “critical non-price factors, such as resiliency, fuel diversity and environmental performance,” the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), the industry’s trade association, said in comments filed Monday with the Commission, known as FERC . FERC sets the ground rules for the competitive energy markets that are now in place over more than half the country. But those rules have turned crucial decisions over to a very narrow set of considerations, as if the system operated in a “price-only vacuum,” NEI said in its comments. The markets set price...

Investigative journalism. Works well when reporters do their homework, but is questionable when they make up their own facts. This week I ran across an article in the San Diego Reader on an interview with Greg Palast – “corporate fraud investigator turned investigative journalist.” For those of you who always buy into anything under the veil of “investigative journalism,” I’m here to point out where it can sometimes get iffy. In the interview with Palast, The Reader says: Diesel engines take time to warm up before they reach full power-generating capacity. But these massive engines, with base horsepower ratings well into the thousands (and subsequently doubled by strapping on a turbocharger), need to be online and running at full capacity in 10–12 seconds after a failure occurs in order to avert disaster. Frequently harvested from retired cruise ships, the engines simply aren’t capable of firing up as required. Frequently harvested from retired cruise ships? What? I know the ...

It’s been awhile since we’ve highlighted our monthly nuclear performance report on the blog. Most of the time the nuclear units hum along at their usual pace so there’s not much to report. But worth mentioning from the latest issue is that nuclear generation in the US in 2010 could break its previous 2007 record: Year-to-date 2010 nuclear generation is 0.4% higher than the same period in 2009. For 2010, nuclear generation was 670.0 billion kilowatt-hours compared to 667.2 bkWh for the same period in 2009 and 669.5 bkWh in 2007 (the record year for nuclear generation). For October 2010, nuclear generation was 61.8 billion kilowatt-hours compared to 57.7 billion kWh in October 2009. The average capacity factor for October 2010 was 82.5% compared to 77.0% in October 2009. For the 2010 fall refueling outage season, 15 units completed refueling while another eight are still shut down. Twenty-three nuclear reactors are expected to refuel during fall 2010 compared to 33 in fall...

Here's something enticing for us nuclear geeks. In InTech's January edition , two software engineers, a software developer and two nuclear plant engineers wrote about the coming age of wireless technology at nuclear plants. Wireless presence in nuclear power plants is inevitable. The government and industry sectors are preparing... The Department of Energy is funding the research and development (R&D) project: The project is in two phases to progress over a period of three years. The Phase I effort is completed, and the Phase II project is pending. In Phase I, the feasibility of wireless sensors for equipment condition monitoring in nuclear power plants was the object of investigation. In Phase II, this R&D effort will continue for another two years to address the technical issues that must be resolved to establish the foundation for widespread use of wireless technologies in nuclear power plants. The R&D will focus not only on equipment condition monitoring, but a...

Well done! : AmerenUE’s Callaway Nuclear Plant has achieved its first so-called "breaker-to-breaker run" after operating for 520 days without going out of service, according to a statement released by the St. Louis-based utility. A breaker-to-breaker run is when a plant operates from one refueling to the next without going out of service. The plant is refueled every 18 months and must go offline during refueling. ... The 1,190-megawatt plant generated 16 million megawatt hours of electricity - enough to power on average more than 857,000 households. Welcome to the club .

From STP : The South Texas Project established a U.S. nuclear power industry record Sunday, completing four consecutive breaker-to-breaker production runs by repeatedly operating both its units continuously between refuelings. The plant shut down its Unit 2 reactor Sunday for routine refueling and maintenance. No other nuclear power plant has accomplished this in the five decades since the first commercial reactor in the U.S. began operations in 1958. ... During the past four years, STP’s two units have produced more energy than any other two-unit nuclear power plant in the country. Both units have led the nation in production, and Unit 1 led all 439 reactors worldwide in electric generation last year. ... In its record-setting production runs, STP generated 65 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity. That equates to approximately 7.5 percent of all electricity used in Texas during that time. Unit 1 operated continuously from April 2005 to October 2006, when it was shut do...

The Wall Street Journal has a story about Warren Buffett's pending purchase of Constellation Energy and, particularly from our point of view, its UniStar subsidiary, a nuclear consortia that includes Electricite de France , AREVA and Bechtel . The WSJ has no idea how Buffett might proceed with its Unistar subsidiary: On Thursday, MidAmerican chief executive Greg Abel sounded more enthusiastic about the technology, saying "we're committed to new nuclear." But: Mr. Buffett's sudden emergence raises questions about whether nuclear development, in general, has viability, according to Paul Patterson, head of Glenrock Associates LLC in New York, a research firm. "It's a very cloudy picture," Mr. Patterson says, "And, so far, we don't have anyone making a firm decision to go forward." [We're not sure if he means Buffett, which would be an awfully early call, or the industry, which is plainly false.] What is not fully noted in the sto...

National Geographic will debut its newest show "World's Toughest Fixes" with an excellent, in-depth look at how the PPL Susquehanna nuclear plant replaced its turbine this past spring. Here is a 7-minute video teaser of the show that will air Sunday, September 28, 9 PM Eastern time.

In what has seemed like forever since the agreement was first initiated (July 2005), today could be the day that the Indo-US civilian nuclear agreement lives or dies. It's up to the Nuclear Suppliers Group to give the thumbs up or thumbs down and Dan Yurman will be following it closely . Stop by his blog every couple of hours to find updates to the status of the deal.

Check out the California Assembly Man's editorial at CaliforniaCityNews.org .

From the NRC : “The latest round of assessments shows that 90 percent of the nation’s commercial nuclear power plants require only the basic level of attention by the agency. This is an improvement from a year ago, when only 72 percent of the plants required this lower level of oversight,” said Fred Brown, Director of the Division of Inspection and Regional Support in the NRC’s Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. Here is the list of each plant’s current performance rating based on the NRC's Reactor Oversight Process . Picture of the South Texas Project nuclear plant.

Many NEI NN readers here know that there are two competing theories on radiation: linear no-threshold (LNT) and hormesis . For those who don't, the LNT theory basically says that there is no safe dose of radiation whereas the hormesis theory says small doses of radiation are safe and that there is a threshold before radiation becomes harmful. Both are highly debatable but the latter makes a stronger case - at least in my opinion. (US nuclear plants, however, are regulated under the LNT theory.) One of the best analogies that explains the LNT theory comes from a comment made by DV82XL over at Physical Insights : If the LNT were applied to falling as it is to radiation, we might note that 100 percent of those falling onto concrete from 100 feet are killed, but only 50 percent of those falling from 50 feet die. With these data we would linearly extrapolate to say that 10 percent falling from 10 feet and one percent of those falling from one foot would die. Armed with this “linear no-...

We have posted several new and updated fact sheets and policy briefs to NEI’s public Web site during the past few weeks. They cover such topics as new-plant financing, advanced fuel cycle technologies and plant security. Here is a list of the publications and their links. The documents are available in HTML and PDF formats. We hope you find these products helpful and informative. Policy Briefs New policy brief: Financing New Nuclear Power Plants . Updated policy briefs: Uranium Fuel Supply Adequate to Meet Present and Future Nuclear Energy Demand , Advanced Fuel-Cycle Technologies Hold Promise for Used Fuel Management Program , Nuclear Power 2010: A Key Building Block for New Nuclear Power Plants. Fact Sheets New fact sheet: Nuclear Industry’s Comprehensive Approach Develops Skilled Work Force for the Future . Updated fact sheets: Nuclear Power Plant Security , Water Consumption at Nuclear Power Plants , Nuclear Power Plant Fire Protection , Licensing New Nuclear Power Plan...

(4/18/2008) - This morning at 4:37 central time a 5.2 magnitude earthquake shook southeastern Illinois . Illinois is home to six nuclear plants operated by Exelon and are located in the central and northern parts of the state. Here is a statement from Exelon on the earthquake and its nuclear plants: None of Exelon Nuclear's six Illinois nuclear energy stations were affected by early morning seismic activity near the southern Illinois town of West Salem, the company said today. Plant equipment continued to function normally at each of the six operating nuclear stations. Station operators and technical experts conducted extensive pre-planned inspections when the seismic activity occurred. Operators performed "walk-downs" to search for potential effects and confirmed by this morning that the earthquake caused no damage to equipment or otherwise affected plant operations. Additional plant walk- downs are scheduled throughout the day. Each plant continued to operate at its nor...

Actually, not really. It looks like the 23-year-old male under question joked to a gas clerk that he "hoped he wouldn't blow up the place" on his first day . After an investigation involving multiple agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, it was determined that it was just a misunderstanding. Around 7:17 a.m. a man walked into a convenience store located near the power plant and asked the clerk for directions to Nuclear Road, where the plant is located. The clerk gave him directions and the pair had a short conversation. As the man was leaving the store, the clerk heard him say that he "came to blow up the place." As the man left, the clerk got a description of the vehicle and subject and reported it to police. The Point Beach Nuclear Plant quickly took steps to make sure their facility was secure. Workers were evacuated for nearly three hours as officials pieced together the story. Using surveillance video at the gas station, investigators tr...

Popular Mechanics has assembled a package of articles discussing the technical aspects of new nuclear technologies. The lead article is called The Next Atomic Age: Can Safe Nuclear Power Work for America? and is exceptionally well researched. Here's a taster to give you a sense of the contents: Though the pebble-bed reactor is promising, other Gen IV designs have distinct advantages, too. Three of the six under consideration are fast neutron reactors; the term refers to the high speed of the neutrons ricocheting around the reactor core when there is no moderator to slow them down. When fast neutrons collide with fuel particles, they can actually generate more fuel than they burn. Such breeder reactors were developed in the late 1940s, but remained more expensive than other designs. These reactors have more appeal today because they also can burn up the longest-lived radioactive isotopes in their fuel, producing waste that stays dangerous for hundreds of years instead of hundr...

NEI recently updated its fact sheet on water consumption at nuclear plants . Below are some highlights ( the picture to the right is the cooling tower at the Shearon Harris nuclear plant in North Carolina) : Electric power generation is among the smallest users of water, accounting for about 3 percent of freshwater consumption in the United States, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). This is the same percentage used by industries and the same used to raise livestock. The largest consumption of water is for irrigation, at 80 percent, followed by residential use at 7 percent, the USGS said. Residential consumption of freshwater is nearly double the consumption of freshwater for electric power generation. According to the latest USGS figures, the residential sector consumes more than 6.6 billion gallons of freshwater per day, compared with the power sector, which consumes 3.8 billion gallons per day. A typical nuclear plant supplies power for 740,000 homes and consumes the eq...