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Compact Advanced Tokomak Concept Takes Fusion Power One Step Closer to Commercial Reality

April 4, 2021

The post Compact Advanced Tokomak Concept Takes Fusion Power One Step Closer to Commercial Reality appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Scientists at the DIII-D National Fusion Facility have released a new design for a compact fusion reactor that can generate electricity and help define the technology necessary for commercial fusion power.

General Atomics, which operates the DIII-D facility in San Diego, California, for the U.S. Department of Energy, says the approach is based on the “Advanced Tokamak” concept pioneered by the DIII-D program. The design is said to enable a higher-performance, self-sustaining configuration that holds energy more efficiently than in typical pulsed configurations, allowing it to be built at a reduced scale and cost.

“The key to our approach is to raise the pressure inside the tokamak,” Dr. Richard Buttery, director of experimental science for the DIII-D facility and leader of the project, said in a statement issued to POWER. “This makes more fusion occur, allowing us to reduce the current, which in turn makes the plasma easier to sustain and more stable.…

Power Infrastructure Prominent in Biden’s $2.25 Trillion Blueprint

April 2, 2021

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The post Power Infrastructure Prominent in Biden’s $ 2.25 Trillion Blueprint appeared first on POWER Magazine.

A major chunk of President Joe Biden’s $ 2.25 trillion transformational plan to overhaul the nation’s infrastructure is dedicated to re-energizing America’s power infrastructure. The initiatives garnered the industry’s approval—with notable exceptions.

The “American Jobs Plan,” released on March 31, strives to jumpstart the U.S. economy, which drooped under burdens posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. But according to senior administration officials, forward-looking initiatives unveiled on Wednesday are also “about focusing on how can we make a historic capital investment in America to improve our competitiveness, create millions of jobs, rebuild our infrastructure, and position our economy to face the crises and the threats we will face in the future, and finally address the climate crisis as a nation.”

Along with initiatives to fix highways, rebuild bridges, upgrade ports, airports, transit systems, drinking water systems, digital infrastructure, and public institutional infrastructure, the plan seeks to revitalize manufacturing, secure U.S.…

Key Pre-Demolition Considerations for Fossil Fuel Power Plants

March 31, 2021

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The post Key Pre-Demolition Considerations for Fossil Fuel Power Plants appeared first on POWER Magazine.

As the existing electric generation infrastructure matures, electric generation system owners are looking to the future for newer and greener technologies to meet the demands of electric consumption. An important part of this future perspective may include the demolition and removal of older generation plants and facilities to free up land resources for new development.

Prior to the physical work of demolition, there are a number of key considerations that need to be addressed to enable the closeout of one chapter to facilitate the emergence of a new chapter.

It can be safely assumed that all fossil-fueled plants maintained a requisite host of permits, licenses, and regulatory requirements that need to be properly closed out prior to filing for a demolition permit and initiation of physical work. All of these have a variety of lead times that may precede the actual demolition permit or are coincident with it.…

Understanding Energy Crises of the 1970s and Avoiding Problems Today

March 29, 2021

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The post Understanding Energy Crises of the 1970s and Avoiding Problems Today appeared first on POWER Magazine.

If you were alive and living in the U.S. during the 1970s, you probably remember waiting in long lines to fill your car with fuel. Yet, gasoline wasn’t the only item in short supply during the “Me Decade”—natural gas was seemingly running out and electricity demand was growing so much that new power plants were going up all over the country.

“I would argue, and I think a lot of historians would agree with me, that the 1970s was the most important decade in U.S. energy history, and I say that because of the gasoline interruptions. We had three big crises in the Middle East that reduced our supplies of oil, and that got so bad that at one point, in some states, less than 50% of the stations had any gasoline to sell at all,” Jay Hakes, author of the forthcoming book Energy Crises: Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Hard Choices in the 1970s, said as a guest on The POWER Podcast.…

Centrus on Track to Produce HALEU Nuclear Fuel Material by Early 2022

March 27, 2021

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The post Centrus on Track to Produce HALEU Nuclear Fuel Material by Early 2022 appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Centrus Energy, a firm under contract with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to demonstrate production of high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) with domestic technology, says it expects to begin producing the advanced nuclear fuel material by June 2022 at the American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, Ohio.

Centrus President and CEO Daniel Poneman said on March 23 that the company has kept construction of a cascade of 16 AC100M centrifuges on track despite the pandemic. The facility is being built and licensed under $ 115 million, cost-shared contract with the DOE that runs through May 2022. If completed as planned, Centrus expects its Piketon, Ohio, facility will “become the first plant in the nation licensed to produce HALEU, with enrichment levels up to a U-235 concentration just below 20%.”

The Urgency for HALEU

As POWER has reported, HALEU—a nuclear fuel material that is enriched to a higher degree (of between 5% and 20%) in the fissile isotope U-235—is not commercially available in the U.S.…

GE Turbines Will Power 1.2-GW Malaysian Plant

March 25, 2021

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The post GE Turbines Will Power 1.2-GW Malaysian Plant appeared first on POWER Magazine.

General Electric (GE) will provide two of the company’s 9HA.01 gas turbines along with other equipment and services to a new power plant in Malaysia. The company on March 24 announced it secured an order from a consortium of three groups, including Mitsubishi Corp., that is serving as the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) lead for the project.

The 1.2-GW Pulau Indah Power Plant is sited in Selangor, Malaysia. The two-block combined cycle plant will feature a modular configuration, according to GE. It also will include an STF-D650 steam turbine, a W88 generator, and a once-through heat recovery steam generator (HRSG). GE said the “HRSG technology is a key enabler in advanced water-steam cycles delivering higher combined cycle efficiency, while GE’s 9HA is the company’s flagship and most efficient 50 Hz gas turbine.”

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