Holtec International has established a wholly-owned subsidiary aiming to “energize the presently placid business sector of modification and maintenance”, with the initial project being the recommissioning of the Palisades nuclear power plant.
     Holtec Maintenance & Modification International (HMI) is based in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It is headed by Christopher Bakken. In its statement announcing the move, Holtec International said the new subsidiary’s mission was “to meet the time-critical maintenance and modification needs of the world’s operating nuclear power plants with assured performance certainty”.
     Holtec added, “To provide maximum value to its clients, HMI is poised to introduce cutting edge technologies such as AI-aided preventive maintenance and robot-led crew radiation dose reduction methods at its clients’ plants … we believe the HMI management model will bring about a vastly improved control of operating costs of nuclear plants and ensure heightened plant reliability, which will support the expected renaissance in nuclear generation around the world.”
     HMI will operate under Holtec’s programs on nuclear quality assurance, environmental protection, personnel safety assurance, corporate governance and supply management “but will be otherwise autonomous”. It will work with Holtec’s Nuclear Power Division “to provide replacement components and systems – reverse engineered as necessary to replace obsolescent items – to meet target outage schedules”.
     As well as its initial work on the project to restart the eight hundred and forty megawatt Palisades nuclear power plant, Holtec says that “discussions with other clients in the USA and overseas are under way”.
     Rick Springman is Holtec’s President of Global Clean Energy Opportunities. He said, “With the launch of HMI, we can now provide an integrated capability to meet the operating needs of the scores of SMR-300 plants that we hope to be building in the US and around the world.”
     Holtec agreed to purchase Palisades from then-owner and operator Entergy in 2018 ahead of the scheduled closure for decommissioning. The purchase was completed in June 2022, within weeks of the reactor’s closure. At that time Holtec planned to complete the dismantling, decontamination, and remediation of the plant by 2041. However, following the purchase, the company then announced plans to apply for federal funding to enable it to reopen the plant. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer was amongst those pledging support for the action. The State of Michigan’s Fiscal Year 2024 budget was signed by Whitmer in mid-2023. The budget provides one hundred and fifty million dollars in funding towards the plant’s restart. In March, the US Department of Energy Loan Programs Office committed up to one billion five hundred and twenty million dollars for a loan guarantee to Holtec Palisades for its project to bring the Palisades plant back online. The intention is for the Palisades nuclear power plant to be back operating by the end of 2025.
     Holtec has also said it intends to locate its first two small modular reactor (SMR) units at the Palisades plant. It also hopes for to construct fleets of its one-hundred-and sixty megawatt SMRs elsewhere in Europe in such countries as Ukraine, the Czech Republic and the U.K.

Ambient office = 108 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 66 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 86 nanosieverts per hour

Blueberry from Central Market = 100 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 134 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 122 nanosieverts per hour

     A trilateral collaboration agreement has just been signed between Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, ARC Clean Technology and New Brunswick Power with the goal of establishing teaming agreements for global small modular reactor (SMR) fleet deployment. This agreement follows the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) last November.
     Through the MoU signed last year, the three companies have been exploring collaboration opportunities for the commercialization of ARC’s ARC-100, an advanced SMR, in Canada, South Korea, the USA and other jurisdictions where Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) has business operations.
     The new collaboration agreement was signed during the Reuters SMR and Advanced Reactor 2024 Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. It establishes commitments to deliverables, processes and timelines to advance discussions for participation and potential investment in the deployment of ARC units. The process will start with a commercial demonstration unit in the Canadian province of New Brunswick.
     ARC and NB Power have been working together on the development of the ARC-100 since 2018. In July of 2023, NB Power, in partnership with ARC, submitted an environmental impact assessment registration document and an application for a site preparation license for an SMR at the Point Lepreau nuclear power plant site in New Brunswick. This demonstration unit is expected to be commissioned by 2029, subject to approvals and licensing. The deployment of the ARC-100 in New Brunswick is part of a joint strategic plan on SMR development and deployment issued by the governments of Ontario, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and Alberta in 2022.
     Jooho Whang is the CEO of KHNP. He said, “While we focus our capabilities on technological development for Korea’s Innovative SMR (i-SMR) to have the highest level of competitiveness in the world, we are pushing for timely entry into the 4th generation SMR market.” He added that “global cooperation is necessary for accelerating the development and construction of 4th generation SMRs, and the strengths of the leading companies in Canada as well as KHNP will lead to synergy in cooperation”.
     Bill Labbe is the ARC Clean Technology Canada President and CEO. He said, “We are excited to take the next step in formalizing our relationship through today’s agreement. ARC is seeing significant growth and interest from multiple heavy industries and global jurisdictions for use of our technology. Together, ARC, KHNP and NB Power will be first movers in the industry with a turnkey solution for commercial deployment.”

     Lori Clark is the NB Power President, CEO and Chief Nuclear Officer. She said, “Small modular reactors are an important part of NB Power’s strategic plan to meet government mandates to phase out coal by 2030 and achieve net-zero supply by 2035. The agreement with KHNP and ARC will assist us in deploying the clean energy we need to meet our climate goals and maintain energy security for New Brunswickers. In addition, we are excited about what this could mean for potential future commercialization opportunities.”
     The ARC-100 is currently undergoing the second phase of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission’s pre-licensing Vendor Design Review process. ARC Clean Technology completed the first phase in 2019.

Ambient office = 123 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 87 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 80 nanosieverts per hour

Avocado from Central Market = 113 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 102 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 93 nanosieverts per hour

     On Wednesday, a Democratic U.S. senator urged President Joe Biden to include strict nonproliferation safeguards in any nuclear power deal with Saudi Arabia that might be part of a potential normalization of relations agreement brokered by the U.S. between the Saudi Arabia and Israel.
     The Biden administration has been talking with Saudi Arabia and Israel on a potential peace agreement since before the Oct. 7 deadly attacks by Hamas on Israel. The talks have continued during the Israeli war on the militant Hamas group in Gaza. An agreement to help develop nuclear power in Saudi Arabia could benefit the U.S. nuclear industry. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, stated that the negotiations with Riyadh are still underway.
      U.S. Senator Edward Markey is a longtime advocate for nonproliferation safeguards. He said in a letter to fellow Democrat Joe Biden that Saudi Arabia, “a nation with a terrible human rights record”, cannot be trusted to employ its nuclear program purely for peaceful purposes and will probably seek to develop nuclear weapons.
     Markey and other Democrats are critics of Saudi Arabia and its de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, over human rights, his intervention in Yemen’s civil war and the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi that the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies assessed was ordered by the prince. Bin Salman has said for years the kingdom will develop nuclear weapons if regional rival Iran does.
     Markey said in a letter to Biden and other officials, “I urge your Administration to ensure that the path towards Middle East peace holds Saudi Arabia accountable for its appalling human rights practices and constrains its ability to become a nuclear power.” The Saudi embassy in Washington has not yet responded to a request for comment.
     The Markey letter was first reported by Reuter. It urges the administration to adopt the so-called “gold standard” nonproliferation safeguards. These are based on the 123 agreement in US nuclear energy law that prohibit uranium enrichment and nuclear reprocessing, two pathways to nuclear weapons. The U.A.E. agreed to abide by these safeguards when it built a nuclear plant in 2021.
     Markey has also urged that the administration insists that Saudi Arabia also be held to the “additional protocol” standards of the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, which requires monitoring and inspections. The U.N. National Security Council did not respond to a request for comment on these suggestions.
     Some experts question whether the timing and political circumstances in the Middle East will allow a U.S.-Saudi deal that leads to Riyadh normalizing relations with Israel.
     Saudi Arabia has called for an immediate truce leading to a permanent and sustainable ceasefire in Israel’s war against Hamas and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected both of these proposals.
     Time is growing short for the Biden administration to guide a US-Saudi civil nuclear agreement and defense pact through the congressional approval process because lawmakers are focusing on campaigning ahead of the Nov. 5 elections in the U.S.

Ambient office = 79 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 124 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 127 nanosieverts per hour

Blueberry from Central Market = 129 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 74 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 67 nanosieverts per hour

Part 2 of 2 Parts
     Bilbao y León said that people tend to expect that the energy systems of the future will be a version of what currently exists. She went on to say that the technology is going to be very different. “Very importantly I think that we are going to see a lot of coupling of systems … electricity is obviously going to be very important as we try to electrify a lot of energy, but clearly there are going to be additional energy vectors … all these technologies are going to make this system more complex … we can have different energy products depending on what is needed at different times to ensure the reliability and the resiliency and the flexibility of the system.”

     Ballout discussed scenarios that EDF have been developing for more than fifteen years, mainly for internal use. The company has made its scenario for net-zero publicly available this year. “It’s fundamentally different from the other scenarios we’re developing because we start with the constraints and the end. We start with net neutrality in 2050 and we go backwards. So we try to find the most economically efficient pathway to achieve this neutrality. And when I say economically efficient, I think of welfare maximization, the minimization of the cost and the optimization of the resilience of the system.”

     He continued, “And that’s how we come to a mix that shows we have to multiply by six our renewable capacity in Europe [by 2050] – we’ve been talking about 15 Western European countries. We will have between 120 and 150 gigawatts of nuclear capacity. We will enhance significantly the production of biofuels and CCS. We see this path will take us to a significant increase of flexibility needs … it’s a very important part of the resilience of the system.”
     Wilmshurst said it was clear that nuclear and renewables will share role together in the future electricity system. He said, “If we have an idealistic view that renewables can expand and expand and expand, the transmission grid needs to expand and expand, get more complicated, and when it gets more complicated the potential for it be less reliable increases.”
     However, he continued that financing is a hurdle for nuclear deployment in most countries. “A great part of nuclear being perceived as expensive is the financing cost. So why is the financing cost so high? Because you have to build the nuclear plant – it takes a long time, it’s complicated – but that huge capital investment upfront alone then gives you the facility that runs for many decades to recoup the investment.”
     Wilmshurst added that “If we get deployment plans together with a clear picture … all of a sudden, the deployment experience increases, deployment risk goes down, the confidence in the financial markets that the projects can be delivered on time increases. Finance starts flowing. If we don’t make a decision to move, we don’t start doing things, we don’t learn as well. There’s hesitancy in the markets to invest.”
     Ballout said nuclear and hydro play a very important role because outages of plants can be scheduled during periods where the demand is lower. “But that’s why we say we have to continue financing and investing in hydro and nuclear. The nuclear fleet is capable of ramping up when suddenly you don’t have sun or wind. It’s possible technologically and technically speaking and at the same time it is possible to ramp down in order to leave room for renewables to produce and that’s really the very important message for us.”