ANS Nuclear Cafe

In the not-so-distant 20^th century past, our planet was in an uncertain new-world order. The second of two major wars had dramatically reshaped the landscape of the world's nations. It was not by any means assured that the extraordinary nuclear process of fission, which itself had been discovered mere years before the second war's end, would be successfully utilized for anything but the tremendous and frightening powers realized in thermonuclear warheads. In the years following, a humble project materializing out of the National Reactor Testing Station in Idaho was to challenge that assertion and demonstrate that nuclear fission could indeed be a commercial, peaceful source of electrical power for civilizations around the globe.

After the 2011 Fukushima incident shook the confidence of the people of Europe. It shook their confidence in the technology. Switzerland actually voted to phase out their nuclear power. ANS member & GA Section chair Juan Villarreal gives a Power Talk on the "Swiss Nuclear Brexit."

Mexico's Laguna Verde nuclear plant sits at a beautiful location in Veracruz. This plant has operated successfully for three decades. Photo courtesy Morrison-Knudsen / United Engineers & Constructors.

Nuclear power never really did take off in Mexico; although the populous nation seriously considered nuclear energy for a variety of purposes it ended up with just a single commercial plant.  It is beginning to look like that might change, sooner or later.

What to expect from this article: (4 minutes read)

December 5 marks the anniversary of the launch of the first nuclear powered icebreaker, the Lenin, in what at that time was the Soviet Union.  The job that icebreakers perform is among the very most demanding that any type of seagoing vessel endures due to the environment, the remoteness, and the tremendous stresses on the ship itself.  As it turns out, it's a perfect application for nuclear energy.  Let's take a look at this historic ship, its design and the operation of icebreakers with a variety of photos from my library.

On November 21, 1905, exactly 114 year ago, Albert Einstein first published the well-known equation E=mc². You might think of nuclear power when seeing E=mc², but here's something to think about. What does E=mc² really mean and how does it relate to your cup of coffee?

The ANS Winter Meeting has been awesome. Everyone is talking about this fantastic meeting and the excellent session offerings! Were you unable to attend the ANS Winter Meeting in Washington, D.C? If so, we have the video from the Monday morning Opening Plenary to share! ANS President Marilyn Kray started off the event and then introduced the new Executive Director/CEO Craig Piercy.  And of course, don't miss out on the great Opening Plenary speakers:

It's no secret that public will and a great deal of marketing have combined to legislate large amounts of renewable energy onto parts of the US grid (and indeed grids around the world.)  The challenges that this brings are particularly severe for nuclear energy, which is commonly threatened when expected to operate in an environment where everything else has to "get out of the way" for renewables.  The question is:  Can nuclear play a role if it's coupled with some kind of energy storage?  The early answers seem to be well into the "yes" range, as was explained today during an excellent technical session featuring a number of speakers.

The ultimate survival of TEPCO as a long term profitable business continues to be in question as the company struggles with the ongoing decommissioning of the Fukushima Daiichi plant.  In recent times the company has also stated that it will dismantle the other, more southerly nuclear station in Fukushima prefecture.  This leaves TEPCO with only one nuclear plant it can return to operation, and from which it can generate revenue in order to survive (although it has considerable other generating assets).  Will that happen?  The answer is only a "maybe," although the company is certain it's "yes."

This week's enhanced Friday Matinee feature is a fascinating, albeit short, compilation of television clips that were made at Sheldon Station in Nebraska.  This pioneering power station included a very modern coal fired facility and the Hallam Nuclear Generating Station, as one interconnected and combined facility.  The original idea was that coal could be used when the nuclear facility was not operating, although it was later planned to add another turbine generator to allow both ends (as it were) to run continuously.  The sodium-cooled Hallam facility was shut down before this happened.

Illustration from Will Davis library courtesy US AEC.

This week's (thinly veiled and early) Matinee feature, augmented by my rambling and some illustrations from my library, is a short AEC film made to describe and explain the long-since-shut-down Piqua Nuclear Power Facility, in Piqua, Ohio.

Episode 27 of RadioNuclear is now online! In this episode, the new partnership between the DOE and NRC, aimed at accelerating developments in new nuclear was discussed.  Also France's plan to reboot the EPR program, and finally get into a detailed discussion with Gene Grecheck, ANS Past President 2015-2016, about the value in preserving our LWR fleet.

In April 1957, when the new, small nuclear plant at the Army's Fort Belvoir, Virginia site first started up, it seemed as if the plant's vendor, ALCO Products, had carried off something of a coup.  Winning this important early contract had come about three years earlier for this small but well-equipped company that was looking to diversify and it seemed as if a bright future lay ahead for it.  However, by mid-1962 the company had sold the bulk of its nuclear business to Allis-Chalmers (with some vessel contracts going to Baldwin-Lima-Hamilton.)  What happened? We'll take a brief look as we walk through a photo montage.

Our subject this week is a fairly obscure but nevertheless fascinating film, given the present emphasis on small modular and/or microreactor plants - the Relocation of PM-2A.

Thank you for joining us on Episode 26 of RadioNuclear! Today, we discuss news items from two literal "Nuclear Islands". How can nuclear help out island nations that are energy constrained? Are there examples of this? Tune in to find out! We also discuss Westinghouse's purchase of Rolls Royce's North American nuclear business, and discuss how this could benefit utilities looking to reduce operations and maintenance costs.

Recently, a tremendous success story culminated at the Hanford Reservation - the completion of radioactive sludge removal from one of the K-Reactor basins.  Announcement of the completion of this task ends a years-long process that was a major barrier to finally cocooning the K reactors, which are the last two other than B left in their original state (albeit long since shut down and defueled) at Hanford.  (Of course, B Reactor has been preserved as a historic landmark and can be toured.)

The news this week that NASA has contracted for as many as 12 of the new Orion manned space flight capsules brings again to focus the fact that the US is returning to manned space flight in a big way.  While orbital flights will be first, it's clear that a return to the moon is in the cards and that, perhaps, we may go to Mars.

In a move that has relieved some observers but angered others, a Tokyo District court has found three former executives of Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) not guilty on the charges of not having prepared the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant against the tsunami that occurred in 2011.

Happy birthday to RadioNuclear! The podcast, sponsored since 2019 by ANS, turned two years old earlier this month. The host, Doug Hardtmayer, and the Society would like to thank everyone who continues to listen and support the show!

In a news briefing in Tokyo earlier this week, Japan's Minister of the Environment, Yoshiaki Harada, told reporters that Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) will have to dump radioactive water from its crippled Fukushima nuclear power plants into the Pacific Ocean.