Part 1 of 2 Parts
     A congressional commission issued a new report recently that called for a third shipyard that can build nuclear powered ships so that the U.S. Navy can keep up with Russian and Chinese modernization.
     A third private shipyard would expand the nuclear industry’s capacity to construct nuclear-powered submarines in order to expand U.S. strategic forces. The call for the third shipyard came from the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the U.S.
     The commission suggests that the Pentagon “increase shipbuilding capacity, by working with industry to establish or renovate a third shipyard dedicated to production of nuclear-powered vessels, with particular emphasis on nuclear-powered submarines.”
     A potential third shipyard would add to the work of the General Dynamics Electric Boat and Hii Newport News Shipbuilding which currently constructs the Navy’s nuclear-powered boats. The recommended third private shipyard would require significant investment from the U.S. government.
     Senator Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) is the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He said in a statement that “The report is also a stark reminder of the significant work needed to expand our nuclear submarine industrial base to increase production and reduce repair time. The details of this report should serve as a wakeup call for our armed forces and the national security community as a whole.”
     Electric Boat and Newport News construct the Navy’s nuclear-powered ships while the service’s public shipyards have historically maintained the nuclear-powered submarines. However, with the backlogs at the public yards in recent years, the private yards have taken on some of the submarine maintenance work.
     The new Congressional report includes a wide range of recommendations on nuclear policy, weapons procurement, force posture and infrastructure. The analysis meets a requirement in the Fiscal Year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act calling for a commission to assess the strategic posture of the U.S.
     The commission’s report makes several references to AUKUS. This is the technology sharing agreement between Australia, the United Kingdom (U.K.) and the U.S. The agreement includes the U.S. selling Australia several Virginia-class attach boats while Australia develops the ability to construct and maintain nuclear-powered attack boat indigenously.
     However, lawmakers have expressed concerns over the U.S. nuclear industrial base’s capacity to support AUKUS while continuing to construct submarines for the U.S. Navy. Newport News and Electric Boat are currently constructing approximately one Virginia-class boat a year. The overall program is hundreds of months behind schedule. Former Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Mike Gilday previously said that the nuclear industry must build more than two boats per year if the U.S. is going to sell attack submarines to the Royal Australian Navy. During the same period, the Navy is also recapitalizing the sea-based leg of the nuclear triad with the Columbia-class submarine program. This is the Navy’s top acquisition priority.
     The commission’s report says that “In the sea leg, the Navy is scheduled to construct one Columbia-class submarine per year and sustain the Ohio-class in parallel relying on the same infrastructure for both (manufacturing facilities, dry docks, etc.). Additionally, this same workforce and industrial base also support Virginia-class submarine production.”
Please read Part 2 next

     The great advantage of nuclear fusion is that a great amount of energy can be generated from just a few grams of fuel. One gram of fuel in a fusion reactor has the potential to generate the equivalent of eight tons of oil.
     Something similar happens with nuclear fission. This is the process that produces energy in operating commercial nuclear power plants. The amount of fuel (uranium or plutonium) is very small when compared to the fuel required by thermal power plants that burn coal, gas, or oil. No matter how great the use of fusion energy in the future, its use will never be so great as to alter the composition of our atmosphere.
     The use of hydrogen isotopes will be required in order for fusion reactors to become widespread. Isotopes are atoms of the same element but with different numbers of neutrons. This feature means the different isotopes of an element have the same chemical properties, but they have different physical properties.
     The fusion reactions that take place at the lowest temperatures are those produced between deuterium and tritium. Deuterium is very abundant in both seawater and fresh water. It can be extracted by hydrolysis. Tritium is rare in nature but can be produced by the fusion reaction itself. Neutron from the fusion reaction impact a regenerating mantle composed of lithium, among other elements. A neutron and a lithium atom produce tritium as a byproduct that will be reused as fuel in plasma. Plasma is an ionized gas with a temperature higher than eleven thousand degrees Fahrenheit.
     Nuclear reactions occur in fusion as well as fission. However, they are different from the processes we know from burning fuel. Burning fossil fuels is a chemical reaction. In order to initiate fusion, nuclei must be brought closer together so than the nuclear forces come into play and attract each other strongly. When these nuclei fuse, the form a new element that weighs less than the sum of the masses of the initial nuclei. This difference in mass can be transformed into energy by Einstein’ equation E=mc2. The fusion process for commercial fusion reactors involves very light elements. Hydrogen isotopes generate the most energy when fused. By joining two hydrogen nuclei through a nuclear fusion reaction, the result is a helium nuclei and a highly energetic neutron.
     In order to understand the amount of fusion fuel needed for a fusion reactor, the density of plasma in a fusion reactor has a density of one million times smaller than the density of air at sea level. The density of plasma is so low, than no matter how many reaction occur with the release of helium, it will never be able to alter the composition of the atmosphere no matter the consumption of hydrogen nor the emissions produced by fusion.
     This fact alone means that converting to fusion fueled reactors will help reduce climate change that is being caused by the burning of fossil fuels today. In addition, the reduction of waste produced by fossil fuels and nuclear fusion power is a very attractive feature of fusion power.

     An International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) expert mission has concluded that reports compiled by the Jordanian Atomic Energy Commission will provide a good basis for a feasibility study into Jordan’s use of small modular reactors (SMRs) for generating electricity generation and desalinizing seawater.
     Jordan is considering the use of an SMR to provide the necessary electricity to operate a reverse osmosis desalination plant. The SMR will also pump an estimated four hundred million cubic yards of drinking water each year from the Red Sea coast to the capital Amman which is about two hundred and fifty miles away and two thousand three hundred feet above sea level.
     The IAEA expert review mission was held at its Vienna headquarters in August of 2023. The review team consisted of eighteen IAEA staff and three external experts. It evaluated whether reports submitted by the Jordan Atomic Energy Commission (JAEC) included all the required information to support decision making for deploying an SMR for power generation and desalination. Areas covered by the IAEA review included nuclear power technology and safety, siting and licensing, nuclear desalination, nuclear law and stakeholder engagement, among others.
     The IAEA mission found that Jordan’s reports provide a good basis for a feasibility study. The mission also suggested areas where work could be expanded or improved. These included conducting a study on the selection of the nuclear unit size while taking into account the need to strengthen electric connections to the nodal points of the grid and neighboring countries. Exploration of potential alternative fuel suppliers was also suggested.
     Khalid Khasawneh is the Commissioner for Nuclear Power Reactors at JAEC. He said, “This endeavor exemplified an agency-wide collaborative effort that addressed all aspects of the feasibility study, providing essential guidance on IAEA services that Jordan could benefit from in enhancing the assessment and progress of our SMR project.”
     The IAEA said that Jordan was one of a growing number of countries that have expressed interest in deploying SMRs. To better assist such countries, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi established the SMR Platform in 2021 to provide coordinated, agency-wide support on all aspects of SMR development, deployment and oversight.
     The mission followed an IAEA workshop last year in Amman which explored the technologies and requirements for the development of nuclear desalinization.

     The Palisades nuclear power plant in Michigan could become the first nuclear power plant that was successfully started in the U.S. Holtec International submitted a filing with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to formally start the process of seeking reauthorization of power plant operations at the plant which was shut down in May 2022. Holtec said that the filing followed a series of public meetings with Palisades within the NRC’s existing regulatory framework.
     Jean Fleming is the Holtec International Vice President of Licensing, Regulatory Affairs and Probabilistic Safety Analysis. She said, “Our licensing submittal is a significant step in exploring the potential for Palisades to continue contributing to the region’s energy and economic needs, while adhering to the highest safety and regulatory standards. We understand the importance of nuclear power in our nation’s energy mix and the critical role it plays in providing safe, reliable, carbon-free electricity here in Michigan. Palisades’ safety and operational performance met the industry’s highest standards when it was taken offline last year. Its systems and equipment remain well maintained and in excellent material condition. This licensing submittal is the first of a series of submittals intended to return Palisades to full operation.”
     Palisades is a single unit nuclear power plant which started commercial operations in 1971. Entergy announced in 2016 that it planned to close the plant. The NRC approved the license from Entergy to Holtec for the purpose of decommissioning the plant in 2021. The eight hundred- and five-megawatt pressurized water reactor was removed from service by Entergy on the 20th of May 2022 and defueled by the 10th of June.
     The sale to Holtec was completed later that same month. Holtec announced a few days later that it was applying for federal funding to allow it to restart the plant. It was unsuccessful in the first round of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DoE’s) Civil Nuclear Credit program. However, Holtec announced in December that it was reapplying. Holtec said that it was “working cooperatively with the DOE to move the loan application process forward”.
     On the 31st of July, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed into law the State of Michigan’s Fiscal Year 2024 budget. The budget provides one hundred and fifty million dollars in funding for the restart of the plant.
     Last month, Holtec announced that it had signed a long-term power purchase agreement with the non-profit Wolverine Power Cooperative. Under the multi-decade agreement, Wolverine commits to purchasing two-thirds of the power generated from a restarted Palisades plant. Wolverine’s partner Hoosier Energy is purchasing the balance.
     Holtec noted that “will greatly enhance Michigan’s carbon-free energy generation, the region’s grid reliability and decrease the region’s reliance on (expensive) energy imports”.
     Kelly Trice is the President of Holtec Nuclear Generation and Decommissioning. He said that “Holtec plans to build up the Palisades site into a mega-clean energy provider to the region with the restarted Palisades power plant as its centerpiece.”
     This is an interesting development for the U.S. nuclear industry. It is the first time that a shuttered nuclear power plant due to be decommissioned was authorized to be restarted instead.