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New laws offer nuclear industry incentives for existing power plant uprates
This year, the U.S. nuclear industry received a much-needed economic boost that could help preserve operating nuclear power plants and incentivize upgrades that extend their lifespan and power output.
Signed into law in 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act offers production tax credits (PTCs) for existing nuclear power plants and either PTCs or investment tax credits (ITCs) for new carbon-free generation. These credits could make power uprates—increasing the maximum power level at which a commercial plant may operate—a much more appealing option for utilities.
Bernd Sohnius, Rudolf Anton, Erwin Wehner, Frank-Dietrich Heidt, Rudolf Rabenstein
Nuclear Technology | Volume 99 | Number 2 | August 1992 | Pages 213-221
Technical Paper | Nuclear Fuel Cycle | doi.org/10.13182/NT92-A34691
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A method to determine the release of low activities through natural air exchange from a decommissioned fuel fabrication plant is described. The method has been applied to the buildings of the NUKEM-A plant and was important in obtaining governmental authorization for the plant decommissioning. The air exchange rate in the NUKEM-A plant was measured by using a tracer gas method. For that purpose, N2O as inert gas was injected into representative rooms, and the decrease of concentration caused by exfiltration processes was measured by an infrared gas analyzer as a function of time. The knowledge of this decay curve allows the calculation of low activities, which may be released into the environment by the natural air exchange. The activity is determined according to the German radiation protection regulation. From this, an air exchange rate of ∼25 h−1 would be equivalent to 10% of the tolerable activity emission. The measured exchange rates are less than ∼0.5 h−1. This results—at least for the meteorological conditions during the measurement period—in a significantly lower activity release than that permitted. The measuring method was successfully performed and can be recommended for similar investigations.