A research team led by GE Hitachi Nuclear has successfully tested an innovative new building block made of steel-concrete composite that is purported to significantly reduce the cost of building nuclear reactor containment structures.

In 2021, the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Reactor Innovation Center (NRIC) awarded a cost-shared, multi-year project to GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) and other stakeholders for the first project of the Advanced Construction Technology Initiative (ACTI). The purpose of this cost-shared public-private partnership is to help demonstrate several technologies that, when combined, could reduce the construction costs of building new reactors by more than ten percent and significantly lower the scheduling risks and uncertainties associated with constructing them.

As part of the initiative, GEH is working on the development of its Diaphragm Plate Steel Composite (DPSC), a modular steel-concrete composite. The DPSC design has several advantages over conventional steel concrete composite techniques, such as reinforcing concrete with two continuous steel plates connected using adjoining plates with circular concrete flow holes.

The design of the composite features reinforced concrete with two continuous steel plates, allowing for enhanced durability and flexibility. These modules can be manufactured off-site, shipped, and assembled quickly, significantly reducing labor costs and construction timelines. The modules are connected to form structural walls, floors, or mat foundation sections. DPSC test samples were recently tested at Purdue University’s Bowen Laboratory in Lafayette, Indiana.

The modules can also be manufactured to have different plate material on either side of a wall to improve meeting certain corrosion requirements in nuclear power plants.

Researchers filled the modular plates with concrete to simulate a reactor containment wall. They subjected the structure to various loading conditions to mimic real-life situations that a reactor building might experience, such as an earthquake.

Luke Voss is the program manager at the Idaho National Laboratory. He said, “The DPSC system tests at Purdue exceeded our expectations. We are very excited and enthusiastic about the use of this construction technology to help save time and money in the deployment of new nuclear reactors.”

Sean Sexstone is the Executive Vice President, Advanced Nuclear, GE Hitachi. He commented, “The successful design, fabrication and testing of DPSC modules demonstrates the potential of this advanced fabrication and construction technology to lead to cost savings and improved project schedules in the deployment of small modular reactors.”

The data collected during the demonstration will be utilized to support licensing of the modules for use in future reactor containment construction.

The National Reactor Innovation Center is currently reviewing a proposal from GEH to construct a portion of a reactor containment building using the DPSC design for the walling system to further test the technology. The demonstration would also create a digital twin of the civil structure and utilize non-destructive evaluation techniques that were developed in Phase 1 of the project.

GEH intends to implement this technology in its first four BWXR-300 small modular reactors in Darlington, Ontario, Canada. A construction license was granted to Ontario Power Generation earlier this month for this purpose.

National Reactor Innovation Center

Part 2 of 2 Parts (Please read Part 1 first)

Wendy Farmer is also the president of Voices of the Valley. She said that NFA was “silencing people” by only allowing questions through an app and filtering them.

NFA has also taken out ads in local newspapers claiming seventy seven percent of coal jobs are transferable to nuclear plants and that nuclear workers are paid fifty percent more than other power generation-related jobs. Those claims come from a U.S. nuclear industry lobby organization and refer to the situation in the U.S.

Farmer said that the advertisements misspell Latrobe Valley as La Trobe Valley, and in one case, an ad aimed at Latrobe was put in a South Australian newspaper. Farmer said that “Regional communities are desperate for jobs now. Nuclear is not the answer.”

Protesters heckled Peter Dutton, who is the opposition leader, for not meeting with the community when he visited Collie in October last year. Parkin said, “Collie doesn’t like it when people like that come to our town and hide. People have questions … at least openly answer them.”

In Perth last week, Dutton was asked about criticism from Collie residents that he had not heard their concerns about nuclear power and whether he would promise to visit Collie during the election campaign. He said, “I’ve been to Collie before. There are seven locations around the country, and I won’t be able to get to all of them.” Those communities understand the Coalition is offering them “the ability to transform”.

Greg Bannon is a member of the Flinders Local Action Group (Flag), which was formed to oppose plans to build a nuclear waste dump in South Australia. He said that the community had not heard much apart from a February information session held by NFA. He said that there were concerns about the safety of any nuclear power plant and the impact on the local environment. He said, “Port Augusta … is probably the most stupid place to put a nuclear power station in the world.” He pointed out the unique nature of Spencer Gulf and its very flat “dodge” tides.

Bannon said, “Any leakage … the water would end up in the top end of the gulf, with only one place to go, through Port Lincoln, the fish nurseries, the mangroves … only thirty-one miles further south is Point Lowly near Whyalla, where the annual migration of the southern giant cuttlefish occurs, which is a unique event in the world.” Bannon pointed out that the region had already transitioned from baseload power to renewables. Guardian Australia has approached the Coalition and NFA for a response.

Tom Venning was preselected to replace the retiring Minister of Parliament Rowan Ramsey in Grey, the federal electorate that Port Augusta sits within. He said that he supported the policy because it was part of a “credible path to net zero” and that if the Coalition formed government there would be a two-and-a-half-year community consultation and an independent feasibility study. He added that “I’m committed to keeping my community fully informed and involved.” He continued that he would take any concerns seriously and would work with local leaders and the energy minister to address them.

Sweeney said the Coalition already appeared to be backing away from its commitment to nuclear power and appeared reluctant to mention it.

On Friday, Dutton remarked that people would flock to nuclear power if they subsidized it but that they could “subsidize all sorts of energies. I don’t carry a candle for nuclear power or any other technology,” he said.

Farmer said, “There is a growing backlash. We are keeping it as a hot topic – because the Coalition doesn’t want to talk about nuclear, we will.”

Climate Justice Union

Part 1 of 2 Parts

In Australia, there is a “growing backlash” to the Coalition Party’s nuclear plan, with community groups furious at the lack of consultation and angered that the policy would not give local communities the power of veto and that nuclear plants would be built regardless of local opposition.

Pro-nuclear lobby group Nuclear for Australia (NFA) has been hosting information sessions. However, opponents say that NFA makes it overly difficult for people to attend, make it hard to ask questions, and are not able to answer those questions that are posed.

Wendy Farmer has formed an alliance of the seven regions affected by the Coalition’s pledge to build nuclear reactors on the site of coal-fired power stations. She says that Australians should be “very angry” that they will not be able to veto any planned nuclear generators in their towns despite the Coalition’s promise to carry out a two-and-a-half-year consultation. She refuses to call the policy a “plan” because of that lack of consultation. “They haven’t even looked at these sites.”

Dave Sweeney is the Australian Conservation Foundation’s (ACF) nuclear free campaigner. He said that it is “more con than consultation”. He adds that in his many years in nuclear free campaigns he has never seen so many sectors, including unions, state leaders, energy producers, businesses and protest groups, aligned against nuclear power.

As possible sites for nuclear power stations, the Coalition has pinpointed Tarong and Callide in Queensland, Liddell and Mount Piper in NSW, Loy Yang in Victoria, and small modular reactors (SMRs) in Port Augusta in South Australia and Muja, near Collie in Western Australia.

The Coalition says the two hundred- and eleven-billion-dollar nuclear plan will make electricity cheaper, while critics have called its costings a “fantasy”. The Liberal party did not respond to questions about the lack of consultation and lack of veto power.

The Australian First Alliance (AFA) consists of three member parties including the HEART Party, the Libertarian Party, and Gerard Rennick’s People First Party. The alliance said there “has been no consultation or free prior and informed consent from traditional custodians”. It said in a petition to the Coalition, “You never asked locals if they want nuclear reactors in their back yards, instead you threaten compulsory acquisition and federal overrides with no right to veto.” It said the Coalition plan was a “distraction” designed to “create false debate” when communities are already transitioning from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

Collie resident Jayla Parkin is a community organizer for the Climate Justice Union. She said that pro-nuclear information sessions had not provided any answers and had tried to stop First Nations people from entering.

NFA has held two information sessions with “expert speakers” in Collie. Parkin said that one elder was “devastated” after initially being refused entrance to a meeting last year. Parkin continued, “She wanted to get the information. Not everyone is simply for nuclear or against. We are for being informed on what’s going to happen.”

At a January meeting, elders were told they couldn’t go in because there was a problem with their registrations, which Parkin then sorted out. Once they were inside, she said questions had to be submitted via an app. She said, “Not a single question could be answered … like ‘where is the water coming from?’, ‘how will this benefit Collie?’, and ‘where are you going to store the radioactive waste?’.” Since then, the community had heard nothing, she said.

NFA was founded by Will Shackel and boasts entrepreneur Dick Smith as a patron. It describes itself as a grassroots organization with no political affiliation. Information sessions have featured Grace Stanke. She is a nuclear fuels engineer and former Miss America who says being called “Barbenheimer” was one of her favorite compliments. Shackel told SBS that the NFA Google people when they try to register for the sessions. He said, “If we believe that someone is a known protester … someone who could cause a physical threat to people in there, we will not allow them in.”

Please read Part 2 next

Nuclear for Australia