Nuclear Energy Advanced Reactor New Roundup

1. The reactor pressure vessel of the APR-1400 unit 5 of South Korea’s Shin Kori nuclear power plant was installed. The 1340 MWe pressurized water reactor is scheduled to begin commercial operation in March 2023.

South Korea is taking just under 6 years to complete the nuclear reactors (2017-2023).

2. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has approved Florida Power & Light’s (FPL) application for a 20-year subsequent license extension for Turkey Point units 3 and 4, the first time the regulator has issued licenses authorizing reactors to operate for up to 80 years. Turkey Point 3’s subsequent renewed license expires on 19 July 2052, and unit 4’s on 10 April 2053. The NRC originally authorized commercial power reactors to operate for up to 40 years. New technology and analysis allows the safe continued operation of nuclear reactors. This means that clean non-polluting energy can continue to prevent the emission of about 10 million tons per year of CO2 from the two 802 MW (nuclear) rectors.

3. Frazer-Nash is to provide engineering services related to the fabrication of the graphite moderator for Terrestrial Energy’s Integrated Molten Salt Reactor (IMSR).

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) and the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) have selected Terrestrial Energy’s Integral Molten Salt Reactor (IMSR) for their first joint technical review of an advanced, non-light water nuclear reactor technology. The 195 MWe reactor is the only advanced reactor so far to have progressed to the second phase of the CNSC’s Vendor Design Review process, and is also the subject of NRC pre-licensing activities supported by grant funding from the US Department of Energy.

Molten Salt reactors should be even safer than nuclear reactors which already have the lowest deaths per terawatt hour of any energy source. Molten salt reactors could be up to twenty times cheaper, they could eliminate nuclear waste (unburned fuel) and can be walkaway safe.

4. The Canadian provinces of New Brunswick, Ontario and Saskatchewan have agreed to collaborate on the development and deployment of small modular reactors (SMRs).

Canada created a small modular reactor (SMR) roadmap. Current nuclear power reactors are built to a certain scale (600-1400 megawatts of electricity, or MWe). Nuclear reactors can be much smaller.

5. France and Japan have signed an agreement to work together on fast neutron nuclear reactor development. In 2014, Japan and France agreed to work on the Astrid [Advanced Sodium Technological Reactor for Industrial Demonstration] program. France has operated three fast reactors since the 1960s, including Phenix, which operated from 1973 to 2009.

6. Russia awarded contract to build BREST fast neutron reactor. Siberian Chemical Combine (SCC) has awarded a RUB26.3 billion (USD412 million) contract to Titan-2 for the construction and installation works for the BREST-OD-300 lead-cooled fast neutron reactor facility at its site in Seversk, Russia

14 thoughts on “Nuclear Energy Advanced Reactor New Roundup”

  1. ‘Wouldn’t that be the same for every turbine in every power plant everywhere?’
    No – a reactor has one turbogenerator rated at a thousand or more megawatts, running all the time. It’s solidly anchored, weight is not an issue. No permanent magnets are needed. To put out as much power with wind you’d need probably 600 x five-megawatt turbines, running 30-40% of capacity. Each turbine is at the top of a tower taller than the statue of liberty, and has to pivot to follow the wind, so weight reduction is crucial. They use tons of copper per turbine, too, and need lots of connections to the grid, instead of one big switchyard. That’s led to a lot of sulfur hexafluoride leaking from all the new switchgear in Europe, equivalent to the emissions from about a million cars.

  2. Ordinary power stations (or even the alternator in your car) do not use permanent magnets. Permanent magnets with wind are an advantage because they can produce electricity at low speeds and eliminate the need for a gearbox.

  3. With the sea water extraction, it certainly could be. And the amount of uranium mining needed for nuclear power isn’t all that huge, especially if we adopted breeders.

  4. Deforestation isn’t “contamination”, as such. But you’d be hard put to argue that a coal ash spill wasn’t.

  5. Re wind, I’m guessing that’s for the magnets of the turbine. Wouldn’t that be the same for every turbine in every power plant everywhere?

    The only thing generating power without turbines is photovoltaics, but those need some mineral extraction too, for the photo cells. Then there’s all the battery chemicals to balance solar and wind. Can add those to your list too.

    Coal and oil have extraction-associated land damage too. That should push them further up the list. And don’t forget the frequent oil spills.

    But to be fair, uranium extraction isn’t benign either.

  6. They’ve done a lot of work on reprocessing – Koreans were involved with the USA’s Experimental Breeder Reactor II, and have plans for a sodium fast reactor. Unfortunately their current president wants to ban all new reactor construction, and phase out the ones working now. They eventually reached an agreement to finish the ones already under construction but not start any more. With policies like that in the home country, it’s hard to make a case for exporting reactors.

  7. Contamination is tricky. Do you want to measure land rendered uninhabitable, land whose value is reduced by contamination, or how many years of potential life are lost due to people living on the land?

  8. Coal. Fly ash and acid rain.
    Biomass. Mo more forests.
    Wind. Messy, messy rare earth extraction in China.
    Oil. Remember when Saddam Hussein blacked out the skies of Kuwait by blowing up all their oil wells and letting them burn for a year?

  9. Congratulations to S Korea. I hope they have given consideration to fuel reprocessing. I’m looking forward to read about new reprocessing techniques.

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