NEI Nuclear Notes

Here is a transcript of the testimony from yesterday’s hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee. The intent of the hearing was to discuss energy R&D, and mostly concerned that issue, but with DOE Secretary Steven Chu present, several of the Senators let their displeasure known about the scaling back of Yucca Mountain. This is the exchange between John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Chu. We pick up after Sen. McCain established that solar energy will not exceed providing 15% or so of electricity production by 2015. McCain: That means that clean coal and nuclear power are far more important than maybe some people appreciate today. Chu: I agree with that in the short term. McCain: Is it true that a Department of Energy spokeswoman told Bloomburg  [News] that President Obama and you, quote, have been emphatic that nuclear waste storage at Yucca Mountain is not an option, period. Chu: That’s true. McCain: That’s a true statement. So now we’re going to ha...

Intellectual Ventures , an invention company, believes they've developed a "new reactor design [that] could make nuclear power safer and cheaper." Published by MIT's Technology Review magazine : a traveling-wave reactor requires very little enriched uranium, reducing the risk of weapons proliferation. ( Click here for a larger diagram). The reactor uses depleted-uranium fuel packed inside hundreds of hexagonal pillars (shown in black and green). In a “wave” that moves through the core at only a centimeter per year, this fuel is transformed (or bred) into plutonium, which then undergoes fission. The reaction requires a small amount of enriched uranium (not shown) to get started and could run for decades without refueling. The reactor uses liquid sodium as a coolant ; core temperatures are extremely hot--about 550 ºC, versus the 330 ºC typical of conventional reactors. ... As it runs, the core in a traveling-­wave reactor gradually converts nonfissile material into the...

NEI's former blog contributor, Jarret Adams, is one of the authors for AREVA's first blog . Welcome and best of luck! Hat tip to Idaho Samizdat .

The used fuel repository at Yucca Mountain has found itself in a bit of a corner. The Obama administration intends to withdraw all funds for it except what is necessary to allow the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to evaluate its license application. Obama had stated a preference for intermediate storage at the plant sites while trying to figure something out, as expressed here : I believe a better short-term solution is to store nuclear waste on-site at the reactors where it is produced, or at a designated facility in the state where it is produced, until we find a safe, long-term disposal solution that is based on sound science. Which is pretty much what has been happening anyway. Yucca Mountain is based on sound science, so Obama presumably means sounder science. --- The scaling back of the project at least allows the politics around it to recede as well. While Senate majority leader Harry Reid generally supports expanding the use of nuclear energy, he never liked Yucca ...

Stan Jakuba at Energy Tribune wrote a piece titled " Obama’s Stumble: Wind Power " in which he explains the limits of President Obama's renewable goals and what the President should promote as well (I'm copying the whole thing because I think it's that good): I like Barack Obama but I have doubts about his presidency when I hear him saying that the US will “double the amount of energy that comes from renewable sources by the end of my first term." He should know that that’s not possible. But instead, during his State of the Union speech, he proclaimed that we’ll reach that goal in three years, not four. Most anyone who has studied the energy situation must wonder about Obama's, or his advisors', energy experience. Presented with the numbers from the table (see below) he would realize that the majority of the renewable power comes from hydro and from wood, about 154 gigawatts. Readily available data show that the 6 percent for hydro and bio is pretty m...

We’ve noted here a few times –more than a few – that the states are taking a shine to nuclear energy that has made the feds look a little, shall we say, laggard. But this federalism thing is a two way street, so some governors are talking up energy issues with President Obama at a climate change symposium in Washington : Gov. Jennifer Granholm [D-Mich.] is heading to Washington to talk about how clean energy technology can create jobs. The Democratic governor will attend a symposium Tuesday on the challenges of building a renewable energy economy. U.S. lawmakers, business leaders and climate change economists also will attend. and : Governor Jim Doyle [D-Wisc.] is in Washington, D.C. today and tomorrow to meet with President Obama’s energy, environment and agriculture cabinet to build upon current state, national, and international efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, promote low carbon technologies, and build jobs in the energy and agricultural sectors. You...

The good news is First Solar has hit a milestone : A long-sought solar milestone was eclipsed on Tuesday, when Tempe, Ariz.–based First Solar Inc. announced that the manufacturing costs for its thin-film photovoltaic panels had dipped below $1 per watt for the first time. This isn’t quite where it needs to be to be cost competitive, but it’s an important barrier to crash through. However: The question, though, is whether First Solar or any other solar manufacturer would be able to handle the flood of orders that would ensue if they reached competitive cost. At that point, it comes down to a matter of having enough of raw materials. Scalability, our old friend. Apparently, the materials most in use in solar panels throw up roadblocks of their own when produced in bulk. For example: While silicon is the second-most abundant element in the Earth's crust, it requires enormous amounts of energy to convert into a usable crystalline form. The article points out ...