Carnival of Nuclear Energy 234

The Carnival of Nuclear Energy 234 is up at Neutron Bytes

Atomic Insights – Transatomic Power – Anatomy of Next

Dr. Leslie Dewan is a co-founder and the CEO of Transatomic Power, a venture capital-funded start-up based on research conducted at MIT. Along with Mark Massie, the other co-founder, Dewan is exploring a design that uses a molten salt fuel that enables materials currently classified as “nuclear waste” to provide the heat source for a steam power plant. As the company’s web site explains, the design requires fuel where fissile isotopes (U-235 or Pu-239) make up 1.8% of the total actinide fraction.

Here is the white paper on Transatomic power

NEI Nuclear Notes – Go Nuclear and Go Now – The Inescapable Message of the IPCC – the share of low-carbon electricity supply, including nuclear, must increase from the current share of approximately 30% to more than 80% by 2050

The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 2014 report on climate change is its fourth such report this cycle. This report synthesizes the findings of the previous three working group reports. The result can be considered hair raising.

The IPCC wrote that the share of low-carbon electricity supply, including nuclear, must increase from the current share of approximately 30% to more than 80% by 2050, and fossil fuel power generation needs to be phased out almost entirely by 2100.

Jim Conca – Forbes Nuclear Energy And The 2014 Mid-Term Elections

The new Congress elected on Tuesday 11/4/14 could make headway on energy issues if it decides to work cooperatively with the White House. Nuclear energy could be supported by rewriting EPA’s new Carbon Rules to not punish nuclear, support NRC’s findings on dry cask storage and allow NRC to focus on broader issues that help the industry, as it was originally intended. But neither political party has been very supportive of nuclear, even when they controlled both houses of Congress and the White House.

Brian Wang @ Next Big Future
Is this supercritical CO2 plant a signal for the end to the age of steam?

The age of steam has generally referred to the use of the Steam engine from 1770 to 1914 However, for power generation, we have not left the age of steam. It will take the next several decades to scale up supercritical CO2 turbines. The other class of technologies for ending the age of steam would be to directly convert fast-moving charged particles [from fusion power] directly into electrical current. Wind, solar and hydro also do not involve steam but they have not eliminated steam turbine power from fossil fuels.

Toshiba Corporation announced that it will supply a first-of-a-kind supercritical CO2 turbine to a demonstration plant being built in Texas, USA. The plant will be developed by NET Power, LLC, a U.S. venture, together with CB & I, the most complete energy infrastructure focused company in the world, Exelon Corporation, one of the leading competitive energy providers in the U.S., and 8 Rivers Capital, the inventor of the unique supercritical CO2 power cycle that will be demonstrated by this plant. The turbine is an essential part of the system. Toshiba will start delivering the key equipment in August 2016. The plant is expected to enter the commissioning stage later in 2016.