ANS Nuclear Cafe

The Freemelt ONE 3D printer.

Hungary’s Institute for Nuclear Research (ATOMKI) is set to take delivery this year of a 4.6 million Swedish krona ($414,300) electron-beam 3D printer for nuclear material science research.

The printer—the Freemelt ONE model—is manufactured by Freemelt, a Swedish company.

Research plans: ATOMKI intends to use the printer for “research in surface science [and] surface topology, which means creation of new surface structures and composite materials via non-adiabatic [not occurring without heat loss or heat gain] alloying,” according to Kalman Vad, a senior research associate at ATOMKI. “The open architecture and free parametrization of the properties of the [electron] beam makes Freemelt ONE an ideal tool for research purposes.”

Ia Aanstoot, an 18-year-old Swedish climate activist, is gaining a lot of online attention with her “Dear Greenpeace” campaign, asking the global environmental organization to drop its “old-fashioned and unscientific opposition to nuclear power, and join us in the fight against fossil fuels instead!”

As reported by the Guardian, Aanstoot’s stance is that “Greenpeace is stuck in the past fighting clean, carbon-free nuclear energy while the world is literally burning. We need to be using all the tools available to address climate change, and nuclear is one of them.”

The American Nuclear Society will be hosting a special online event on Friday, August 25, at 11:00 am (ET). The webinar Oppenheimer: Behind the Scenes with Los Alamos National Laboratory will feature representatives from LANL, who will discuss the blockbuster feature Oppenheimer, directed by Christopher Nolan, which premiered last month in theaters.

Bilbao y Léon

The World Nuclear Performance Report 2023 has been released by the World Nuclear Association (WNA), containing a mix of positive and negative news about the global nuclear power industry. On the positive side, according to the report, nuclear energy in 2022 supplied approximately 10 percent of the world’s electricity and roughly 25 percent of low-carbon clean electricity (second only to hydropower). On the negative side, the total amount of electricity supplied by nuclear energy declined by 4.2 percent in 2022 compared with the previous year, and the nuclear industry as a whole is “not growing fast enough to address the challenges of ensuring energy security, tackling climate change, and providing access to clean energy for all,” said WNA director-general Sama Bilbao y León in remarks at the launch of the report.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued a new report, Metal Fuel Qualification--Fuel Assessment Using NRC NUREG-2246, “Fuel Qualification for Advanced Reactors,” which documents experience with the zirconium-clad ceramic fuel system in fast reactors and presents the fuel qualification case for a data-supported fuel design and set of operating conditions. The research includes identifying as-fabricated conditions (e.g., dimensions, chemistry) and in-pile conditions (e.g., linear heat generation rates, burnup, temperature) and anticipated operational occurrences.

Five pronuclear organizations—the Breakthrough Institute, Clean Air Task Force, ClearPath, Nuclear Innovation Alliance, and Third Way—have together penned a letter to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, calling on the agency to take action on its emergency preparedness for advanced reactors rule—which, despite the explosion of interest in these technologies over the past few years, has yet to be finalized.

The Department of Energy is holding an initial Industry Day on July 28 that is open to parties with proven experience in implementing successful clean electricity projects generating 200 MW or larger.

The current bull market for uranium seems to be heating up. “Fundamentals are strong, and new political incentives are in place to spur nuclear development,” according to an article on the Proactive Investors website, which also noted that the uranium supply “will need to increase significantly to meet the market’s needs if nuclear is to become a key source of energy in the global push to reduce carbon emissions.”

Take note! Registration closes today for the U.S. Department of Energy Conference for Newcomers: Understanding Exports of Advanced Reactor Technologies, scheduled for July 26–27 at Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont, Ill.

Contact Mercedes Trent (mercedes.trent@nnsa.doe.gov) to sign up for the conference. Additional information will follow upon registration.

The Finnish company Steady Energy, a spinout entity from VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, announced on June 27 that it has raised €2 million in seed funding led by VTT, Yes VC, and Lifeline Ventures. Steady Energy aims to build what it said would be the world’s first reactor-based heating plant by 2030. The company will use the funding to work on research and development to demonstrate the functionality of its LDR-50 plant by building a 1:1 scale mock-up powered by electric heat.

When a technical problem with a feedwater pump at Unit 1 of the Comanche Peak nuclear power plant caused the unit to shut down temporarily on June 16, a new backup system was employed by grid operator Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) to make up for the electricity loss.

Kennedy

Environmental attorney Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the 69-year-old son of the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy, has launched a campaign for the 2024 Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, and he has been voicing his views on a wide range of issues in numerous interviews and podcasts.

Kennedy spoke with tech mogul Elon Musk in one recent online discussion, a roughly two-hour livestreamed event hosted by Musk on the Twitter Spaces platform on June 5 (and later posted on YouTube). Titled “Reclaiming Democracy,” the event, which was moderated by tech investor and Musk’s friend David Sacks, garnered 2.6 million listeners, according to the tally on the recording posted on Kennedy’s Twitter page.

The American Nuclear Society Diversity and Inclusion in ANS Committee (DIA) is offering a webinar open to both members and nonmembers on the subject of “The Impact of National, State, and Local Policies on the Nuclear Workforce.” This roundtable discussion, to be held June 29, will explore the impact that national and state policies have on recruiting and retaining a strong nuclear workforce. Although national policy and the advancement of nuclear technology have always gone hand-in-hand regarding regulatory concerns for novel reactor designs or waste form and repository policy, the evolution of state and local policies is affecting the workforce in different ways with a younger and growing workforce.

Registration is required for the webinar. Click here for details or to sign up.

The commercial operation of Georgia Power Company’s Vogtle-3 nuclear power plant has been delayed again, this time because of turbine troubles, the Associated Press reported last week.

The latest National Nuclear Energy Public Opinion Survey by Bisconti Research, conducted from April 28 to May 5, indicated little awareness of small modular reactors (SMRs). Of 1,000 adults in the United States who were surveyed, only about 20 percent answered “yes” to the question “Have you heard anything about advanced-design nuclear power plants called Small Modular Reactors (SMRs)?” Sixty-seven percent answered “no,” and 14 percent responded “not sure.”

Wharton

Effective today, American Nuclear Society member Art Wharton has been named business area president for Studsvik Scandpower Group. Wharton joined Studsvik in 2017 as a vice president and has held the role of acting president of the Studsvik Scandpower Business Area since October 6 of last year.

"Art Wharton will play an important role in shaping the future of the Scandpower business through his knowledge, experience, and his broad industry network,” said Camilla Hoflund, president and chief executive officer at Studsvik. “I look forward to the further development of our ability to benefit the nuclear energy market with Scandpower's software, and services."

The nuclear advocacy group Atomic Garage Movement is looking for reviewers for its soon-to-be-published book Chain Reaction.

Interested in reviewing? Sign up on the Atomic Garage Movement’s website. Review copies will be sent in July.

The latest National Nuclear Energy Public Opinion Survey conducted by Bisconti Research has found for the third year in a row that more than 75 percent of the U.S. public supports nuclear energy. In addition, approximately 70 percent of the public supports the building of additional nuclear power plants in the United States.

Analysis and Measurement Services Corporation (AMS) has been awarded $500,000 from the Department of Energy for a yearlong project to develop an industry blueprint that should reduce outage times and maintenance costs at nuclear power plants. The project is set to start later this year.

Seven sites in southwestern Virginia have been identified as “competitive hosting grounds” for small modular reactors by a feasibility study Dominion Engineering, Inc. (DEI) prepared for the LENOWISCO Planning District Commission. (The planning district, based in Duffield, Va., serves the counties of Lee, Wise, and Scott and the city of Norton.) At a May 22 press conference at LENOWISCO’s offices, DEI chemical engineer and principal investigator Chuck Marks said the review represents the “very early stages of, does this region have what it takes to site one of these reactors, successfully deploy and successfully operate. And the answer is overwhelmingly yes,” according to an article in the Cardinal News.