Carnival of Nuclear Energy 184

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The Carnival of Nuclear Energy 184 is up at Hiroshima Syndrome.

Nuke Power Talk – One reactor order equals a renaissance, and one shutdown shows that nuclear power is on its deathbed. The truth, as usual, is much more complicated than either extreme.

The announcements of nuclear reactor shutdowns this year mainly represent anomalies. In particular, 3 of the 4 units (2 at San Onofre and 1 at Crystal River) and are due to steam generator replacements gone wrong. He points out that this should be viewed against a backdrop of 110 steam generator replacements, 57 of them in the United States. Only one, Kewaunee, was the victim of market conditions. It is indeed possible that a few other plants, particularly older, smaller, single units in merchant markets, might also be vulnerable, but just because 4 units close in one year, it does not mean that this is a trend.

The nuclear energy industry is a global enterprise with a global supply chain. It would be a mistake to gauge its health by taking a snapshot of one country at a single point in time.

Atomic Insights – Fissures related to nuclear energy are developing in the monolithic movement known as Environmentalism.

Nextbigfuture – Russia unveils plans for 21 nuclear reactors by 2030 and this includes two 1200 MWe fast nuclear breeder reactors.

There will be five new nuclear power stations in Russia; Kostroma, Nizhny Novgorod , Tatar, Seversky, ( each station will have two VVER-1200 unit stations), and South Ural (two Generation IV BN-1200 units). The Russian government also approved the construction of replacement capacity at three existing nuclear power stations which are near the end of their operational lifetimes. https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2013/11/russia-unveils-plan-for-21-new-nuclear.html

Nextbigfuture – Safety-related concrete has been poured for the base-mat of the second AP1000 unit at the Vogtle plant in Georgia.

The milestone means that four AP1000s are now officially under construction in the USA. Vogtle will be the only four-unit nuclear station in the USA. Two AP1000 units are also under construction at the VC Summer plant in South Carolina. First concrete at Summer 2 came in mid-March, just days before the same milestone at Vogtle 3. First concrete at Summer 3 was poured in early November.

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