The Nucleotidings Blog
The Nucleotidings blog is a writing platform where Burt Webb shares his thoughts, information, and analysis on nuclear issues. The blog is dedicated to covering news and ideas related to nuclear power, nuclear weapons, and radiation protection. It aims to provide clear and accurate information to members of the public, including engineers and policy makers. Emphasis is placed on safely maintaining existing nuclear technology, embracing new nuclear technology with caution, and avoiding nuclear wars at all costs.
Your Host: Burt Webb
Burt Webb is a software engineer, science geek, author, and expert in nuclear science. Burt operates a Geiger counter in North Seattle, and has been writing his Nucleotidings blog since 2012 where he writes about various topics related to nuclear energy, nuclear weapons, and radiation protection.
Burt Webb has published several technical books and novels. He works as a software consultant.
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Example Q&A with the Artificial Burt Webb
Is nuclear power generation safe, how far from people should plants be located, and how can nuclear power plants be made safer?
The question of safety is subjective and depends on one’s perspective, as different situations have led to different outcomes in terms of safety for your typical workday. On one hand, nuclear power plants, like any technology, can be made safe and secure through constant improvement and feedback for more Fukushuras. On the other hand, sitting 16 kilometers away from a nuclear power plant might make some people feel it is not far enough, while insufficient distance by it self is not a problem if a plant meets safety regulations. Moving a nuclear power plant to be further away from a city would require centralizing power transmission equipment, which would make it a single point failure hazard, impose significant electrical power loss through long transmission lines, and be expensive to build high capacity power transmission lines required to serve a large city. Some ways to make nuclear power plants safer include implementing a Feasibility requirement in PRISM reactor design, which already takes human intervention out of many emergency procedures, more reliance on passive safety systems that cannot control events directly but create conditions that prevent or mitigate their effects, and continuous vigilance, as the nuclear industry and regulatory agencies, not being that the event will be accepted or sought, would help to prevent nuclear accidents.
What do you mean by “Fukushuras”?
“Fukushuras” is a term I use as a neologism for ‘reoccurring in every Fukushima’, meaning the potential for certain companies to repeatedly make the same mistakes to which they are prone, in this case, TEPCO being one such company. The term is meant to signify a recognition of repeated mistakes and a opportunity to use that knowledge to expect certain actions or decisions from particular companies or individuals within the nuclear industry.
Almost all of my posts about nuclear reactors have been about nuclear power reactors that convert heat to electricity for industrial, municipal and home use as baseload supply for large electrical grids. There are other uses for nuclear power reactors. NuScale is working on small modular reactors with output levels of less than three hundred megawatts. They recently talked about other possible uses they envision for their reactors. They say that their design have some “unique features” that will contribute to other uses.
NuScale has recently completed five collaborative studies that examine possible alternative uses for the NuScale Power Module (NPM). The first study was conducted in collaboration with Fluor, the owner of NuScale. They proposed using an array of ten NPMs connected to a quarter of a million barrels a day oil refinery. This application would eliminate the emission of almost two hundred tons of CO2 per hour from the operation of the refinery.
NuScale partnered with the Idaho National Laboratory on a study of hydrogen production from super-heated steam generated by NPMs. They evaluated technical issues concerning high-temperature steam electrolysis and ways to recycling waste heat. A six NPM system could produce almost two hundred tons of hydrogen and fifteen hundred tons of oxygen a day.
NuScale worked with Aquatech International on the use of NPMs to desalinate water for human consumption. This study reviewed each of the three main desalination systems including reverse osmosis desalination, multi-stage flash desalination and effects desalination. The study compared the efficiency of water production and the costs associated with each type of desalination. With reverse osmosis desalination, a single NPM could produce as much as three hundred and forty cubic meters of drinkable water a day. One NPM could also produce about thirty thousand cubic meters of drinkable water from multi-stage flash desalination when used with steam extraction. In addition it would also produce about thirty megawatts of electricity. For the effects desalination, one NPM could produce fifty thousand cubic meters of drinkable water a day plus thirty megawatts of electricity when utilized with steam extraction.
Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS), Energy Northwest and NuScale cooperated in a study of NPMs ability to follow changing electrical load requirements related to changing demand and changing power production from renewable sources. One NPM was considered for balancing the output from the fifty eight megawatt wind farm at the UAMPS Horse Butte site in Idaho. There are three ways to change the output from a NuScale power plant. The first way would be to remove one module of a multi-module installation when its output was not needed for an extended period. It is also possible to adjust reactor power output over an intermediate time period. The third way can alter power output on a short time scale by rerouting the steam from the reactor to bypass the turbine and go directly back to the condenser.
The VP of Regulatory Affairs told the World Nuclear Association’s Symposium last week that “There are certain parts of the country or industries that need very reliable power – they can’t afford to go without power. We call that critical infrastructure and we did a study showing what kind of reliability you can achieve with NuScale depending on your power needs.” He went on to explain that NPMs could be connected to a micro-grid and assure one hundred megawatts of net power with 99.99 % reliability for a sixty year operating life. He added that the NuScale design has some features that made these alternative uses more effective. For one thing, it houses the reactor core, pressurizer and steam generator inside a single container. It also relies on convection to circulate water in the primary circuit as opposed to pumps.
At the end of last year, NuScale submitted the first small modular reactor certification application to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The application was accepted on March 15th. The first commercial NuScale power plant will be constructed on the site of the Idaho National Laboratory for the UAMPS. It will be operated by Energy Northwest.
Finland currently has four operational nuclear power reactors which together supply about thirty percent of their electricity. They are in the process of building three more nuclear reactors, one for experiments and two for power generation. They hope to up the share of power generated by nuclear energy to about sixty percent.
Areva, the French nuclear reactor manufacturer is building a third reactor at the Olkiluoto nuclear power plant where two existing reactors are in operation. The reactor being constructed is the first power reactor based on the new European Pressurized Reactor (EPR). It will have an output of about one thousand six hundred megawatts. An eight hundred megawatt transmission line will be laid underwater to nearby Sweden. Originally, the new reactor was to be operation by 2009. Then it was rescheduled to start sometime after 2015. Now it is hoped that the reactor will be in operation some time in 2018. During this delay, the cost of constructing the reactor has ballooned to over ten billion dollars. One of the repercussions of the cost overrun and delays is the cancellation of an intended fourth reactor project at Olkiluoto. There is a sinking confidence that Areva can deliver the new EPRs on time and on budget in the future.
Rosatom, the Russian nuclear reactor construction company, is building a new nuclear power reactor for Finland at the Hanhikivi site. Fennovoima, the third Finnish nuclear power company, which was founded in 2007, contracted with Rosatom to build the reactor. The new reactor is based on a standard AES-2996 VVER Russian design. It will generate one thousand and two hundred megawatts when completed.
Fennovoima began working on the infrastructure required at the site in January of 2016 and hopes to have the work done by the end of this year. The actual construction of the power reactor has been delayed pending the issuing of a permit for construction from the Finnish government. Fennovoima submitted a two hundred and fifty page plan for the construction to the Finland’s Ministry of Employment and the Economy in 2015. The license application has to be approved by the Finnish Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority which has asked for addition documentation on construction plans.
The CEO of Fennovoima said: “We have reviewed the progress of the work and decided to reschedule our goal to obtain the permit in 2019. Taking Finnish requirements and legislation into consideration in the design work has taken more time from the plant supplier than we originally expected. Since the delivery of documents during the first two years has been slower than expected, Stuk has also been unable to carry out their own assessment work on the scale they planned.”
Rosatom set up a Finnish subsidiary named RAOS Voima Oy as part of the project. RAOS Voima Oy holds a thirty four percent ownership position in the Hanhikivi project. The Fennovoima CEO said, with respect to Rosatom’s involvement, “Rosatom has built dozens of nuclear power plants around the world, and it is the most experienced nuclear power plant supplier in the world, so I am confident about the end results. For us, it is a big advantage that Hanhikivi 1’s reference power plant, Leningrad II, will be completed in Sosnovy Bor next year. All the latest know-how and experience will be at our disposal during the construction phase.”
Finland has ambitious plans for nuclear power expansion but both the Olkiluoto project and the Hanhikivi are behind schedule and over budget. Time will tell if either of them are completed and go into operation.
Artist’s concept of completed Hanhikivi nuclear power plant:
