In This Issue
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NuclearModularizing Containment Vessels in New Nuclear Power Plants
Using modularization in the construction of nuclear containment vessels can be one way to control both cost and schedule when building the next generation of U.S. nuclear power plants. Although the advantages of modularization can be significant, each new reactor design and plant site poses unique construction challenges and must be individually analyzed to determine the benefits of this approach.
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Commentary
The New Nuclear Fuel Market
If the planned expansion of nuclear power materializes, it will amplify demands on a nuclear fuel supply system that is only beginning to recover from decades of neglect.
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NuclearWorld’s First EPR Gets a Roof
Olkiluoto 3, the world’s first EPR whose construction in Finland has been plagued by major delays, in September reached a significant milestone as its 200 – metric ton, 47-meter-diameter steel dome was hoisted into position 44 meters above the ground.
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CoalThree CCS Tests Worldwide
This September — a year after Vattenfall launched the world’s first oxyfuel pilot plant for carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) at the Schwarze Pumpe lignite-fired plant south of Berlin, Germany — three high-profile and long-awaited carbon capture tests started operation around the world.
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News
Time Flies
July 17, 1955, was the first time electricity generated by a U.S. nuclear power plant flowed into a utility grid. The experiment required Utah Power & Light to disconnect itself from the power lines to the 1,200 residents of Arco, Idaho, and plug in the Argonne National Laboratory experimental boiler water reactor, BORAX-III. The plant produced merely 2 megawatts for more than an hour, as planned, after which linemen reconnected the town’s grid to the utility. Since then, the U.S. nuclear industry has demonstrated excellence in operations, but more than 50 years after that first nuclear power supply, it is lagging far behind even developing nations in new construction.
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NuclearIndia Designs Thorium-Fueled Reactor for Export
While the global spotlight is fixed on India’s massive coal-fired power capacity expansion, the country with meager uranium reserves has been pressing on with a unique long-term program that pushes for research and development of nuclear reactors using all three main fissionable materials.
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Environmental
New Pressurized CCS System Could Cut Energy Penalty
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) looking into new power generation cycles have designed an innovative oxyfuel system that uses a pressurized coal combustor to capture and concentrate carbon dioxide emissions for direct injection into deep geological formations.
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O&MScale Model Testing Confirms Adequate Refueling Water Storage Tank Vortex Allowance
Recent Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Component Design Bases Inspection activities have scrutinized empirical approaches used to determine vortex allowances for emergency core cooling system (ECCS) suction sources.
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WindEurope’s Offshore Wind Race
Denmark in September inaugurated a 209-MW offshore wind park — the world’s largest to date — off the west coast of Jutland, in the North Sea.