Power & Operations

The European Union agreed in July 2022 to include nuclear power in its taxonomy of environmentally sustainable economic activities. Yet as Columbia University senior research scholar Matt Bowen and research assistant Kat Guanio note in commentary published July 6 by Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, that policy decision remains “a bit of an outlier.” Despite nuclear energy’s anticipated role in achieving decarbonization, many climate finance taxonomies either explicitly exclude nuclear power or are discouragingly ambiguous.

As nuclear power plants in the United States and around the world go through license renewals to operate for up to 60 and 80 years and beyond, aging management of electrical cables takes center stage. Each nuclear power plant unit has thousands of miles of cables, many of which are critical to plant safety and reliability. The most important cables—those in safety systems or safety-related applications—are qualified according to industry standards and guidance documents for nuclear applications. These qualification methods use accelerated aging to simulate cable degradation under natural aging conditions and then subject the cable to a design-basis event simulation to establish the cable’s “qualified life.” This approach has worked well for the length of the initial plant license, but now, many cables are approaching or already are past their 40-year qualified lifespan. With license renewals allowing plants to operate beyond their original design life, the industry has undertaken a variety of research endeavors to help assess the condition of cables as they age and develop in situ testing techniques to verify that cables can continue to operate safely and reliably. For example, in 2022, we completed a multiyear project to develop aging acceptance criteria for a wide variety of condition monitoring techniques that can objectively assess the aged condition of cables while they remain installed in nuclear plants.

Jamie Coble

The nuclear power industry has the opportunity for significant advancements in the coming years, driven by the digital integration of instrumentation and controls (I&C), machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI), and optimized operations and maintenance (O&M) technologies. These developments are the enabling technologies that can ensure the efficiency, safety, and reliability of our future fleet of nuclear power plants, propelling the industry toward a more sustainable and intelligent future.

I&C plays a vital role in monitoring and controlling various aspects of nuclear power plants. Traditional I&C systems have relied on hardwired control circuits, but modern advancements are shifting towards digital I&C systems, also known as digital control systems (DCS). These systems offer enhanced flexibility, scalability, and reliability. They utilize advanced sensors, data acquisition systems, and distributed control algorithms to enable real-time monitoring, fault detection, and control optimization.

The energy ministries of Bulgaria and Ukraine have announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding to expand collaboration in the energy sector, including the nuclear energy sector.

There are two open positions on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS). To fill these positions, the NRC is looking for candidates who have extensive experience in nuclear reactor safety issues—especially in the engineering and safety aspects of new light water and non–light water reactor designs and technologies, or in similar areas of nuclear reactor and fuel cycle safety.

If we’re in a new nuclear renaissance, its capital would appear to be Ontario. On July 7, just two days after debuting a collaboration with Bruce Power to build up to 4.8 GW of new nuclear generation at the Bruce plant, the government of Ontario announced that it is working with Ontario Power Generation to begin planning and licensing for the deployment of three additional GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) BWRX-300 small modular reactors at that utility’s Darlington site.

“It is critical after the Hamaoka Nuclear Power Station restart that we reduce our cost and increase our capacity factor while becoming more economically competitive.” Ichiro Ihara, chief nuclear officer of Chubu Electric Power, made this observation recently when the Electric Power Research Institute visited the Japanese nuclear power plant for a strategy development session for plant modernization. EPRI’s team of five specialists spent four days at Hamaoka to investigate the feasibility of potential improvements—the third step of the EPRI modernization strategy planning process. It was a trip six months in the making—and the first time EPRI has applied its nuclear plant modernization process outside the United States.

The government of Ontario announced Wednesday that it is starting predevelopment work with Bruce Power—operator of the eight-unit Bruce nuclear plant—to site the first large-scale nuclear build in Canada in more than thirty years.

International Atomic Energy Agency experts at Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant have so far been unable to verify recent claims by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy that Russia may have planted explosives at the site to “simulate an attack.”

Consulting company TVO Nuclear Services (TVONS), a subsidiary of Teollisuuden Voima Oyj, owner and operator of Finland’s three-unit Olkiluoto nuclear plant, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Norsk Kjernekraft, aka Norwegian Nuclear, a firm established last July with the goal of bringing small modular reactors to power reactor–deprived Norway.

A June 27 announcement from TVO said the new MOU provides the Norwegian firm with “access to the know-how and experience of one of the world’s best-known nuclear power companies” and stressed TVO’s 60 percent ownership of Posiva, the company responsible for the disposal of Finland’s spent nuclear fuel. “Posiva has successfully built the world’s first final disposal facility for high-level nuclear waste,” TVO stated. “This is decisively important for Norwegian Nuclear’s plans for the management of the entire life cycle of nuclear power.”

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission recently revised its regulations for the licensing, inspection, special projects, and annual fees it will charge its applicants and licensees for fiscal year 2023.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has completed its final safety evaluation for Kairos Power’s application to build its Hermes advanced test reactor at a site in Oak Ridge, Tenn., the agency announced recently. The evaluation found no safety aspects precluding issuance of a construction permit for the proposed reactor.

The Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN) announced June 26 the companies that have received GAIN Nuclear Energy Vouchers, which allow private companies to access the expertise and research capabilities of Department of Energy national laboratories to advance their projects toward commercial deployment. This is the third round of GAIN vouchers awarded for fiscal year 2023; the first round was announced in December 2022 and the second in March.

The future of nuclear power and nuclear science will be informed by the past. But how did “the future” look six decades ago? We’ll check back on the predictions of ANS members in 1965 before assessing the investments in technology, workforce, and licensing needed now.

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.

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.

Westinghouse Electric Company this week inked agreements with two of its European customers—Ukraine reactor fleet operator Energoatom and Bulgaria’s Kozloduy NPP–Newbuild, a firm established in 2012 to commission new nuclear power capacity at Kozloduy, Bulgaria’s only nuclear power facility.

The recent increase in investments and in new designs for nuclear power is essential if energy growth estimates are even marginally correct. The world will achieve a consumption of well over 35 trillion kilowatt-hours per year (35 tkWh/yr) by midcentury, with about 5 tkWh/yr of that in the U.S. This growth is essential because humanity requires about 3,000 kWh/yr per person to eradicate poverty, with the accompanying benefits of increased life span, decreased population growth, and decreased terrorism and war.

France’s Ministry of Energy Transition last Friday announced an investment of more than €100 million ($108 million) in civil nuclear sector training, research, and innovation in alignment with President Emmanuel Macron’s October 2021 unveiling of the “France 2030” investment plan, as well as his February 2022 call for a “rebirth of France’s nuclear industry.” (Among other things, Macron’s envisioned rebirth includes the construction of at least six new nuclear reactors and life extensions for the country’s existing units.)

Nuclearelectrica, operator of the Cernavoda plant—Romania’s sole nuclear power facility—has announced the signing of a support agreement with the Romanian government for further development of the project to complete construction of Cernavoda-3 and -4.