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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.
H. A. Sandmeier
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 6 | Number 2 | August 1959 | Pages 85-92
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.13182/NSE59-A25637
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
For large perturbations the usual assumption in power reactor stability that the flux variations δn are small in comparison with the steady-state flux level n0 is not valid. Due to the product term of excess reactivity and neutron flux, harmonies are generated in the flux. The stability under such conditions can be discussed by extracting the fundamental flux component and obtaining a quasi frequency response as the ratio of fundamental incremental flux component to excess reactivity as a function of frequency and amplitude of perturbation. This approach is applied to two Argonne power reactors, the Experimental Boiling Water Reactor (EBWR) and the Experimental Breeder Reactor (EBR-I), where experimental frequency responses have been obtained and a peak has been observed. It is found that for both reactors the stability decreases as the amplitude of perturbation increases.