|
Post by huon on Feb 9, 2020 15:04:10 GMT 9.5
GEH launches NRC licensing process for BWRX-300, an ESBWR-Derived SMR Sonal Patel 30 Jan 2020 Power Magazine (link) (link, page 2)GE-Hitachi believes its reactor will be inexpensive enough to compete with natural gas (and renewables).
|
|
|
Post by David B. Benson on Feb 18, 2020 12:45:05 GMT 9.5
|
|
|
Post by David B. Benson on Feb 18, 2020 13:07:40 GMT 9.5
|
|
|
Post by huon on Feb 24, 2020 12:51:04 GMT 9.5
Oklo Microreactor Is INS's Pick for First-of-a-Kind HALEU-Fueled Nuclear Demonstration Sonal Patel 19 Feb 2020 POWER Magazine (link)The Idaho National Laboratory will host and provide the fuel for this innovative micro-reactor.
|
|
|
Post by Roger Clifton on Feb 26, 2020 13:52:34 GMT 9.5
Oklo Microreactor ...First-of-a-Kind HALEU-Fueled Nuclear Demonstration The trial of the Oklo microreactor is remarkable enough, in that it rebuilds the US experience base with metal-fuelled fast reactors, lost through the killing of the EBR2 project in 1994. However it also starts up a supply chain for 20% LEU fuel, also known as HALEU. Once HALEU can be commercially ordered, trials of fast reactors such as Toshiba's 4S can resume. A future for the fuelling of fleets of fast reactors may lie ahead of us in the West. (A fleet of fast reactors is already being planned for 2050-2100 in China). HALEU is also integral to Russia's REMIX process proposed for a closed cycle in fast or slow reactor fuel. Here the actinides U+Pu are extracted from freshly used fuel, topped up with HALEU, and returned to the same reactor to close the cycle. HALEU is already special in that the higher separation means early removal from the cycle of a higher proportion of the easy-to-handle DU, depleted uranium. Correspondingly a reprocessing cycle using HALEU generates a smaller proportion of the more radioactive RepU, reprocessed uranium containing traces of short lived actinides.
|
|
|
Post by huon on Feb 27, 2020 15:39:39 GMT 9.5
Roger Clifton-- Thanks for making clear why Oklo's small reactor is such a big deal. You cover HALEU well. I'll just mention the reactor's passive safety, which is partly a legacy of EBR-II: 30th Anniversary of the Experimental Breeder Reactor-II Heat Removal Tests John Kotek 12 Apr 2016 Office of Nuclear Energy (link)
|
|
|
Post by David B. Benson on Mar 2, 2020 23:14:55 GMT 9.5
|
|
|
Post by David B. Benson on Apr 3, 2020 16:15:34 GMT 9.5
|
|
|
Post by huon on Apr 6, 2020 13:59:51 GMT 9.5
Thanks, DBB, for the tip. The X-300 could be a game-changer. Rod Adams concludes:
"Bottom line is that GEH's X-300 is a formidable competitive entrant into the smaller reactor field. If the company fully supports the project with its considerable financial and political heft, the product could be a resounding success."
|
|
|
Post by Roger Clifton on May 5, 2020 12:26:46 GMT 9.5
The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is inviting public comment to contribute to the assessment of a generic environmental impact statement (GEIS) for advanced small nuclear reactors. The interesting thing to me is that they are specifically referring to reactors cooled by other than water – liquid sodium, liquid fluoride, etc. www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/news/2020/20-024.pdf
|
|
|
Post by huon on Jun 29, 2020 7:37:55 GMT 9.5
Making nuclear energy cost-competitive May 27, 2020 MIT News news.mit.edu/2020/making-nuclear-energy-cost-competitive-0527The US government is providing grants to help reduce the operating and maintenance costs of SMRs. One grant will help develop a virtual reactor based on the BWRX-300. The image shows MIT's research reactor, which is mentioned in the text.
|
|
|
Post by huon on Jul 24, 2020 9:25:08 GMT 9.5
Also: Argonne to Explore How Digital Twins May Transform Nuclear Energy July 10, 2020 hpcwire.com www.hpcwire.com/off-the-wire-/argonne-to-explore-how-digital-twins-may-transform-nuclear-energy/"Engineers on the project will collaborate with Moltex Energy to dramatically reduce the costs of producing nuclear energy for Moltex's Stable Salt Reactor-Wasteburner (SSR-W), a design for an advanced nuclear plant that would run on nuclear waste." The goal is to reduce the operating costs of a plant from $11 per megawatt-hour to under $2 per MWh. Knocking almost 1 cent per kWh off a plant's levelized cost of electricity--from, say, 5 cents per kWh to almost 4 cents--would be very significant.
|
|
|
Post by huon on Jul 28, 2020 6:09:04 GMT 9.5
"Study Finds Advanced Reactors Will Have Competitive Costs" "A new study of contemporary nuclear industry cost projections, previously unavailable to the public, provides new insight into a potential path breaking cost trend for the next generation of advanced nuclear plants." The Energy Collective, July 31, 2017 by Dan Yurman www.theenergycollective.com/dan-yurman/2409802/study-finds-advanced-reactors-will-competitive-costs NuScale is one of the companies profiled, though the results are "anonymized'. According to this study, three SMRs could potentially produce electricity for under $50/MWh. (The specific amounts, taken from Table 2 and Figure 3, are about $48, $42 and $36.) The GEMINA project, profiled in the two previous comments, might reduce these amounts even further. By comparison, combined-cycle gas is projected to cost $36.61/MWh in 2025. www.eia.gov/outlooks/aeo/pdf/electricity_generation.pdf (Page 6, Table 1a.)
|
|
|
Post by huon on Aug 10, 2020 16:54:27 GMT 9.5
First U.S. Small Modular Boiling Water Reactor Under Development Feb 19, 2020 (Department of Energy) Office of Nuclear Energy link A good overview of General Electric-Hitachi's SMR. "The company anticipates the BWRX-300 to enter commercial operation as early as 2027."
|
|
|
Post by David B. Benson on Sept 9, 2020 14:22:22 GMT 9.5
|
|
|
Post by huon on Sept 27, 2020 15:19:48 GMT 9.5
Besides moving ahead with its boiling-water SMR, GE Hitachi is now collaborating with Bill Gates and TerraPower on a sodium fast reactor called Natrium, which is capable of storing energy in molten salt. GE Hitachi, TerraPower Team on Nuclear-Storage Hybrid SMR Sonal Patel Sep 3, 2020 Power Magazine www.powermag.com/ge-hitachi-terrapower-team-on-nuclear-storage-hybrid-smr/Each reactor has its strengths. "Asked whether GEH anticipates any conflicts marketing Natrium as a competitor to the BWRX-300, the company noted that the two technologies 'can be optimized for different applications.' "The BWRX-300 'is focused on achieving a cost-competitive design that is ready for rapid deployment. BWRX-300 combines new innovation with proven technology and a certified fuel design, making it ideally suited for the near-term market and solving one of the biggest challenges facing the industry -- cost,' it explained. Because 'Natrium operates at higher temperatures, it is ideally suited for applications such as hydrogen production, industrial heat applications and energy storage.' Natrium is also capable of consuming used fuel because it operates in the fast neutron spectrum. "'We see important applications for each technology', GEH said."
|
|
|
Post by David B. Benson on Oct 14, 2020 10:01:40 GMT 9.5
|
|
|
Post by huon on Oct 16, 2020 15:08:09 GMT 9.5
|
|
|
Post by huon on Oct 25, 2020 15:11:14 GMT 9.5
|
|
|
Post by David B. Benson on Oct 28, 2020 9:13:48 GMT 9.5
|
|
|
Post by David B. Benson on Nov 1, 2020 9:07:44 GMT 9.5
|
|
|
Post by huon on Nov 3, 2020 15:29:59 GMT 9.5
|
|
|
Post by David B. Benson on Nov 13, 2020 6:12:22 GMT 9.5
|
|
|
Post by huon on Dec 4, 2020 16:22:31 GMT 9.5
GE Hitachi Hits Milestone for SMR Design Darrell Proctor Dec 1, 2020 POWER Magazine www.powermag.com/ge-hitachi-hits-milestone-for-smr-design/"'Obtaining NRC approval of the specific innovations that simplify the BWRX-300 design is a major milestone in our efforts to license this game-changing technology,' said Jay Wileman, president and CEO of GEH, in a news release." The BWRX-300 is based on a much larger GEH reactor, which has already been certified by the NRC.
|
|
|
Post by Roger Clifton on Dec 9, 2020 18:43:42 GMT 9.5
GE Hitachi Hits Milestone for SMR Design... The BWRX-300 is based on a much larger GEH reactor, which has already been certified by the NRC. It would be interesting to hear what GEH claims to be a "dramatic improvement". GEH already had achieved a dramatic improvement years earlier in establishing the one-loop BWR in a world dominated by the two-loop PWR's.
|
|
|
Post by huon on Dec 10, 2020 16:39:57 GMT 9.5
Hi, Roger--it's nice to chat with you again. The main advantage of the X-300 is cost. According to the article, "GEH on Tuesday said it expects the BWRX-300, thanks to its 'dramatic' design simplification, 'will require significantly less capital cost per MW when compared to other water-cooled SMR designs or existing large nuclear reactor designs.'" Rod Adams on Atomic Insights gives some helpful background, including the projected cost of the reactor: $2,250/kWe. atomicinsights.com/x-300-blazing-a-different-kind-of-trail-in-smaller-nuclear-reactor-development/
|
|
|
Post by huon on Dec 25, 2020 15:58:30 GMT 9.5
It would be interesting to hear what GEH claims to be a "dramatic improvement". GEH already had achieved a dramatic improvement years earlier in establishing the one-loop BWR in a world dominated by the two-loop PWR's. According to a BWRX-300 Fact Sheet ((2020), "The key BWRX-300 innovation is the elimination of large Loss-of-Coolant Accidents (L0CAs). This innovation enables simpler passive safety systems and a more compact reactor building compared to prior Light Water Reactor (LWR) designs. A strong focus on design-to-cost has resulted in an innovative solution that limits plant volume, concrete and steel, while utilizing the ESBWR's design and licensing basis." nuclear.gepower.com/content/dam/gepower-nuclear/global/en_US/documents/product-fact-sheets/BWRX-300_Fact_Sheet-2020.pdf
|
|
|
Post by huon on Dec 31, 2020 15:18:36 GMT 9.5
Validating the physics behind the new MIT-designed fusion experiment David Chandler 29 September 2020 MIT News Office news.mit.edu/2020/physics-fusion-studies-0929New superconducting magnets drive this compact, powerful reactor, which the team could start building in 2021.
|
|
|
Post by David B. Benson on Jan 5, 2021 1:33:19 GMT 9.5
|
|
|
Post by thinkstoomuch on Jan 5, 2021 7:57:52 GMT 9.5
|
|