There’s a lot to like about the small modular reactor design that NuScale Power submitted yesterday to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Most often people talk about the ability to build such reactors in a factory and ship them by truck or rail, in nearly-finished form, to where they are needed, and to add generating capacity to a […]
Nuclear plants occupy an unusual spot in the towns where they operate: integral but so much in the background that they may seem almost invisible. But when they close, it can be like the earth shifting underfoot. From sea to shining sea, it was dismal. It wasn’t just the plant employees who were hurt. The […]
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) held a public meeting to consider the latest development in what has become a growing trend in the nuclear power industry – accelerating decommissioning by transferring licenses to third parties after a plant shuts down. The topic of today’s NRC meeting was to provide an overview of Entergy’s plan to […]
One the most important working relationships have is with the bipartisan National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL). State legislators from all over the country look to NCSL for policy analysis, leadership opportunities, state benchmarks and, most importantly, facts and information to help them shape policies on the issues that they face. NCSL’s new report, “State […]
The United States operates 103 nuclear power reactors—that’s a quarter of the world’s total—even if the most famous U.S. nuke isn’t even real. That would be the Springfield plant. A nuclear fuel specialist, University of Florida professor, and immediate past president of the American Nuclear Society. With hefty construction bills paid off at many plants, […]
The United Nations General Assembly began negotiations March 27-31 on a treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons. A second session is scheduled for June 15‑July 7, 2017. Following that, the General Assembly will review progress and decide on a path forward. Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) Nearly a half-century ago, the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of […]
This is one of those patents that absolutely in no way signifies that the company who files it is working on the thing that the patent is patenting. Here’s the basic idea: you’ve got a cavity that’s a sort of hemisphere shape, kind of like the business end of a rocket engine. You toss a pellet of […]
The stuxnet worm’s infiltration of Iran’s nuclear program was the most dramatic cyberattack the nuclear sector has ever seen. But it was not the only one. the Slammer worm infected the David-Besse nuclear power plant in Ohio, leaving reactor core safety data unavailable for nearly five hours. In another hackers stole blueprints of at least two nuclear reactors […]
When the NRC talks about “steam generators,” we’re not talking about teakettles. Steam generators provide vital technical and safety functions at many U.S. nuclear power plants. In the United States, steam generators are only found in pressurized-water reactors, one of the two types of U.S. reactors. There can be two to four steam generators for […]
Premature retirement of US nuclear power plants could be a major threat to efforts to reduce carbon emissions in both the short and long terms, a new report by the Brattle Group has found. A white paper prepared by Brattle economists finds that the retirement of a 1000 MWe nuclear power plant could increase carbon […]