Tag: Nuclear

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NRC abandons prior estimate on reactor lifespans
June 29, 2011

By Jeff Donn
ROCKVILLE, Maryland (AP) — When commercial nuclear power was getting its start in the 1960s and 1970s, industry and regulators stated unequivocally that reactors were designed only to operate for 40 years. Now they tell another story — insisting that the units were built with no inherent life span, and can run for up to a century, an Associated Press investigation shows.

By rewriting history, plant owners are making it easier to extend the lives of dozens of reactors in a relicensing process that resembles nothing more than an elaborate rubber stamp.

As part of a yearlong investigation of aging issues at the nation’s nuclear power plants, the AP found that the relicensing process often lacks fully independent safety reviews. Records show that paperwork of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission sometimes matches word-for-word the language used in a plant operator’s application.

Also, the relicensing process relies heavily on such paperwork, with very little onsite inspection and verification.
And under relicensing rules, tighter standards are not required to compensate for decades of wear and tear.

So far, 66 of 104 reactors have been granted license renewals. Most of the 20-year extensions have been granted with scant public attention. And the NRC has yet to reject a single application to extend an original license. The process has been so routine that many in the industry are already planning for additional license extensions, which could push the plants to operate for 80 years, and then 100.

Regulators and industry now contend that the 40-year limit was chosen for economic reasons and to satisfy antitrust concerns, not for safety issues. They contend that a nuclear plant has no technical limit on its life.

But an AP review of historical records, along with interviews with engineers who helped develop nuclear power, shows just the opposite: Reactors were made to last only 40 years. Period.

The record also shows that a design limitation on operating life was an accepted truism.

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A kneejerk rejection of nuclear power is not an option
March 17, 2011

Support of nuclear power will no doubt provoke hostile responses, but we have a duty to be as realistic as possible about how we might best prevent runaway climate change.

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5 myths about nuclear energy
March 16, 2011

Explosions. Radiation. Evacuations. More than 30 years after Three Mile Island, the unfolding crisis in Japan has brought back some of the worst nightmares surrounding nuclear power — and restarted a major debate about the merits and the drawbacks of this energy source. Does nuclear energy offer a path away from carbon-based fuels? Or are nuclear power plants too big a threat? It’s time to separate myth from reality.

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New Reports Chart Path to Net-Zero-Energy Commercial Buildings
February 23, 2011

Washington, D.C. (February 23, 2011) – Two new reports from the Zero Energy Commercial Buildings Consortium (CBC) on achieving net-zero-energy use in commercial buildings say “high levels of energy efficiency are the first, largest and most important step on the way to net-zero.”

 

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Clean energy standard won’t favor one technology, Chu maintains
February 10, 2011

Clean energy standard won’t favor one technology, Chu maintains

By Edward Felker
Energy Guardian
Energy Secretary Steven Chu says his department’s efforts to craft a clean electricity standard won’t rush toward any one energy source.

The department’s early modeling “gives us a sense at first pass that no single sector will dominate. A clean energy standard will not automatically say everything goes to natural gas, everything goes to nuclear (or) everything goes to renewables,” Chu told reporters on Wednesday.

“At least in the first pass it seems to be what we wanted, a balance, that also depends on the area,” he added.
During a hearing at the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Chu said that the goal of 80 percent clean electricity by 2035 would see increases in the energy generated from natural gas,  renewable and nuclear power, along with continued use of coal combined with carbon capture.

“We think we see growth in all these areas,” Chu told reporters
Chairman Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., has requested estimates from the department showing potential domestic energy breakdowns under the proposal. He said he has yet to begin drafting any legislative language.

The proposal would effectively seek to double the current share of low-carbon electricity, which includes renewables, nuclear, hydropower and natural gas, though Chu said the department only gives it about half the credit of zero-carbon sources. 
Chu stressed that the administration’s request to boost nuclear construction loan guarantees by $36 billion, to $54.5 billion, is critical to the clean energy standard, by making new nuclear plants a viable investment.

“Right now there is an uncertainty, can you build them on time and on budget,” he said.

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The Conversation We Should Be Having
January 21, 2011

This year's Clean-Tech Investor Summit was anything but a cheerleading session for clean-tech entrepreneurs.

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The Ten Forms of Energy on Earth
December 11, 2010

1. BIOFUELS

   Biofuels are made from harvesting plants, large and small, and animal fats of all kinds. Living matter is made up of carbon molecules, which is the source of much of our energy.

   • Comes from:

     Plants and foods like: sugar, soybeans, all grains like corn, rice, wood pellets, algae, body fat from chickens, cows, pigs and animal poop which has plants and grains in it.

   • Used for:

     Through breaking down the molecules with heat and pressure some biofuels are distilled into liquid fuel, like ethanol. Enzymes can also break down or eat biomass and the waste products can be converted through bio-chemical reactions into fuel. Biomass can make liquid fuel, natural gas, crude oil, chemicals and even coal.

   • Trade offs:

     Can use more energy to create fuel than they make available; can also cost a lot more to produce than other forms of fuel, such as gasoline.

2. COAL

   Coal is a combustible, burnable, black or brownish-black sedimentary rock composed mostly of carbon and hydrocarbons. It is the most abundant of the fossil fuels.

   • Comes from:

     These were formed from animals and plants that lived millions of years ago.

   • Used for:

     Heat by burning it to make steam to turn a turbine that makes electricity or gas by pressurizing it under heat, which is then burned in a turbine to make electricity.

   • Trade-offs:

     Any energy source from plants and animals has carbon in it. When burned coal sends a lot of carbon into the air. Coal in rock form is cheap. Capturing the carbon dioxide can get expensive.

3. GEOTHERMAL

   Geothermal energy comes from hot magma below the surface of the earth. When volcanoes erupt we see geothermal energy in action.

   • Comes from:

     Magma, or molten liquid, rock and the radioactive decay of uranium, thorium, and potassium. Magma is hot because of the tremendous amount of friction and pressure to be found in the earth's subsurface area.

   • Used for:

     Heat source

   • Trade offs:

     Difficult to harness and use consistently.

4. HYDROGEN

   Hydrogen is the simplest element in nature. It is the most plentiful gas in the universe. Stars like the sun are made primarily of hydrogen. The sun is basically a giant ball of hydrogen and helium gases. In the sun's core, hydrogen atoms combine to form helium atoms. This process — called fusion — gives off radiant energy.

   • Comes from:

     Water, which is composed of two atoms of Hydrogen combined with one atom of Oxygen (H2O). Also it comes from hydrocarbons such as coal, oil and natural gas.

   • Used for:

     Electricity through a fuel cell chemical reaction with the only emission is water vapor.

   • Trade-offs:

     Safety around pressure, flame and heat.

5. NATURAL GAS

   Natural gas is a combustible (burnable), gaseous mixture of simple hydrocarbon compounds, usually found in deep underground reservoirs formed by porous rock. Natural gas is a fossil fuel composed almost entirely of methane, but does contain small amounts of other gases, including ethane, propane, butane and pentane.

   • Comes from:

     Animals and plants that lived millions of years ago the same way oil and coal were formed. It is a carbon, or hydrocarbon, formed as a result of pressure and heat turning fossils of microscopic or larger animals and plants into gas, the same way they form oil and coal.

   • Used for:

     In gas or liquid forms used for virtually all kinds of energy needs.

   • Trade-offs:

     The fracking, or fracturing, of the porous rock where gas is often trapped may cause seismic disturbances like mini-earthquakes. The liquids used to flush out the gas may be poisonous to the water supply.

6. NUCLEAR

   Nuclear energy originates from the splitting of uranium atoms in a process called fission.

   • Comes from:

     Uranium rocks

   • Used for:

     In power plants, the fission process is used to generate heat for producing steam, which is used by a turbine to generate electricity.

   • Trade-offs:

     Safe reprocessing and disposal of nuclear waste are difficult and politically sensitive issues.

7. OIL

   Oil is a fossil, hydrocarbon fuel, formed more than 300 million years ago.

   • Comes from:

     Some scientists say that tiny diatoms are the source of oil. Diatoms are sea creatures the size of a pin head. They do one thing just like plants; they can convert sunlight directly into stored energy.

   • Used for:

     Currently, oil supplies more than 40% of our total energy demands and more than 99% of the fuel we use in our cars and trucks. It is also used to make petro-chemicals which are used for many purposes from plastic and paints to make-up and medicines.

   • Trade-offs:

     Like all fossil fuels, Oil (or gasoline, diesel and jet fuel made from oil) gives off carbon, and other gaseous waste, into our atmosphere.

8. SOLAR ENERGY

   Solar energy is the sun’s rays (solar radiation) that reach the Earth. It can turn into electricity using photovoltaic cells or its heat can be used to produce steam to make electricity.

   • Comes from:

     Solar collectors that reflect the heat from the sun’s rays or panels that convert sunlight into electricity.

   • Used for:

     This energy can be converted into other forms of energy, such as heat and electricity

   • Trade-offs:

     Needs a liquid, like water, to boil to produce steam to produce energy. There is more sunlight available in desert areas with few people. But there is little water. Such solar collectors need transmission lines to population areas. Photovoltaic panels are expensive to make and produce only small amounts of electricity. When the sun does not shine solar energy is not produced.

9. WATER ENERGY

   Water energy comes from the force of energy created by movement of water.

   • Comes from:

     Dams, ocean wave power, tidal power, stream power, marine current power, ocean-thermal energy conversion.

   • Used for:

     Electricity production and to run mills.

   • Trade offs:

     Must be near water sources. Can be expensive to harnass the energy. Dams change the ecosystems that depended on the rivers, can require relocation of towns or loss of farms and affect the spawning of salmon or other species that need moving water.

10. WIND ENERGY

    The kinetic, or moving, energy of the wind can be changed into other forms of energy, either mechanical energy or electrical energy.

    • Comes from:

      The naturally occurring wind which is produced by temperature and pressure changes in the atmosphere, most often as the day warms and cools near mountains. Wind produces energy by using blades that turn a turbine.

    • Used for:

      Generating electricity, charging batteries, or pumping water.

    • Trade-offs:

      Needs transmission lines out into windy areas where there are fewer people. Causes soil erosion and eyesores for some people. The windmill blades are dangerous to birds and bats.

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Thorium: A Cheap, Clean and Safe Alternative to Uranium
September 14, 2010

With some concept tests thorium used as a nuclear fuel could end energy as a problem issue and shift the economy into a new growth phase. All the conversation in the media, politics and the economy could be moved to building the next centuries energy production with thorium and the various ways to use the metal as a fission power source.

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UC receives grant for nuclear engineering
July 18, 2010

The University of Cincinnati will soon have a program to study nuclear engineering, thanks in part to a grant from the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

The $118,342 grant will allow the university to develop a nuclear engineering track for students in the mechanical engineering technology major in the College of Engineering and Applied Science.

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The cover story of Energy Digital’s July issue discusses the potential of nuclear power and where the energy source is growing
July 11, 2010

SAN DIEGO, CA,– Energy Digital features an article on the controversial topic of nuclear energy as its cover story in the July issue.

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