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INL Mulling Building New Nuclear Reactor to Energize Net-Zero Campus Microgrid

April 30, 2022

Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is exploring designing, building, and operating an onsite nuclear reactor resource as part of a broader effort to achieve net-zero emissions at its sprawling campus in Idaho Falls by 2031.

Battelle Energy Alliance (BEA), an entity that manages and operates the Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratory, on April 29 launched a request for information (RFI) from industry, utilities, energy users, and other stakeholders that could inform how it can integrate nuclear-generated power and heat into a campus microgrid. The initiative falls under the April 2021–launched INL Net-Zero Program, which aims to eliminate or offset all emissions from the campus where 5,400 employees work.

The quest to achieve net-zero in less than a decade will serve as a crucial demonstration of a decarbonization pathway that would utilize “technology innovations, collaborations, increased efficiencies, and novel approaches,” BEA suggested. The city-like INL campus already has 100 miles of transmission lines, a landfill, a 605-vehicle fleet, 357 buildings, and hundreds of miles of roads.…

Duke Energy Could Power Purdue with Nuclear Project

April 28, 2022

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Small modular reactors (SMRs) are widely considered the best technology to increase the use of nuclear power worldwide, with advocates touting their zero-emission production of electricity, smaller land footprint, and scalability. SMRs also offer a cost savings over construction of new utility-scale nuclear reactors.

Powering a college campus with nuclear energy has increasingly been a topic of discussion in recent years, as universities try to reduce their carbon footprint and many seek to upgrade older, fossil fuel-powered central utility plants. Purdue University and Duke Energy on April 27 announced that officials will jointly look at the feasibility of using nuclear power to meet the school’s energy needs.

“No other option holds as much potential to provide reliable, adequate electric power with zero carbon emissions,” said Mitch Daniels, Purdue’s president since 2013 after serving two terms as Indiana’s governor. “Innovation and new ideas are at the core of what we do at Purdue, and that includes searching for ways to minimize the use of fossil fuels while still providing carbon-free, reliable, and affordable energy.…

DOE Poised to Issue Guidance Document for Civil Nuclear Credit Program

April 16, 2022

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The Department of Energy (DOE) will next week kick off its much-watched $ 6 billion Civil Nuclear Credit (CNC) program to bolster the existing U.S. nuclear fleet by issuing a guidance document that will set down criteria for a combined certification and a sealed bid auction process.

The agency said in an April 6 update the guidance document it will make public in the week of April 18 “will define program eligibility requirements, identify all required deliverables for both certification applications and the sealed bid auction, and give details on program administration.” Because it is acting on an ambitious schedule as required by the November 2021–enacted Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the agency said it will aim to issue the first certification determination and preliminary credit award decisions “expeditiously” after a 30-day open application period.

The first award cycle for fiscal year 2022 will “prioritize and be limited to reactors that are approaching near-term closure,” the DOE said in its update.…

UK PM Boris Johnson Makes a Big Promise on Nuclear Energy. Can He Keep it?

March 26, 2022

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Note to Readers For the latest news on nuclear energy issues in Ukraine sign up to receive the newsletter of the American Nuclear Society Rapid Response Taskforce It has updates on the status of nuclear facilities impacted by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Also, the International Atomic Energy Agency at iaea.org is publishing periodic bulletins. UK PM Johnson Makes..
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Fukushima Touched by Another Earthquake, Some Deficiencies Reported at Nuclear Plants

March 18, 2022

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A 7.3-magnitude earthquake caused some deficiencies at two of the three nuclear power plants (NPPs) located in relatively close proximity to the fault, but it did not cause any safety concerns, according to Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA).

The quake struck about 60 kilometers off the coast of Japan on March 16 at 2:36 p.m. UTC. The NPPs affected include the Fukushima Daiichi facility, site of the infamous nuclear disaster in February 2011. Other potentially vulnerable facilities were the Fukushima Daiini and Onagawa nuclear power stations.

At the Daiichi site, hundreds of seismically qualified tanks store treated water from the 2011 accident. The force of the quake reportedly moved some of these tanks up to 10 centimeters, but there was no leakage, according to the NRA. Also at the Daiichi site, a cooling pump for the Unit 5 reactor’s spent fuel pool temporarily stopped working, but later resumed operation and cooling functions at the site have been maintained, the regulator said.…

Women Are an Important Piece of UAE Nuclear Power Program

March 12, 2022

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Tuesday, March 8, was International Women’s Day, a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The idea of an International Women’s Day (IWD) was first proposed in 1910 by Clara Zetkin, leader of the Women’s Office for the Social Democratic Party in Germany, during a conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. The following year, on March 19, more than a million people reportedly attended IWD rallies in Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland. The campaign was aimed at ending discrimination and allowing greater rights for women to work, vote, be trained, and hold public office.

While the situation has improved for women since 1911, inequality persists. According to the World Economic Forum, none of us will see gender parity in our lifetimes. In fact, gender parity may not be attained for another century. Yet, there are women around the world achieving great success. One example is Amani Al Hosani, a nuclear engineer in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

“I was born and raised in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.…