NASA’s Twin Spirit and Opportunity Probes Leave Lasting Legacy 20 Years Later

The two spacecraft landed on Mars in January 2004, giving scientists the first evidence the red planet once held water.

By Jack Daleo

January 25, 2024


An artist’s concept depicts one of the twin rovers on the Martian surface. [Courtesy: NASA]

Two decades ago, a pair of NASA rovers changed the way scientists study Mars and the solar system forever.

January marks the 20th anniversary of twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity’s arrival on the Martian surface, where the vehicles searched for the first evidence of water on the red planet. Designed to last 90 days, Spirit was active until 2010, while Opportunity’s final communication came 15 years after landing.

Opportunity—nicknamed “the little rover that could”—was built to travel 1,100 yards but ultimately zigzagged nearly 30 miles across the Martian surface, covering a marathon-length distance by 2015. The rover finally succumbed to a planetwide dust storm in 2018.

“This was a paradigm shift no one was expecting,” said John Callas, former project manager of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which managed the Mars Exploration Rover mission, in a media release commemorating the anniversary. “The distance and time scale we covered were a leap in scope that is truly historic.”
[Courtesy: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory]

Before Spirit and Opportunity, scientists had no definitive proof that the network of channels visible from Mars’ orbit were formed by liquid water. The twin rovers delivered it—and set the stage for later and future explorations.

The Search for Life

The golf cart-sized twin rovers touched down three weeks apart on opposite sides of Mars: Spirit landed on January 3, while Opportunity followed on January 24. They arrived draped in airbags, bouncing along the surface dozens of times before coming to a stop.

Immediately, the rovers got to work snapping panoramic images—these were beamed back to scientists, who used them to select targets to investigate. Five-foot-high, mast-mounted cameras gave the vehicles a 360-degree, two-eyed, humanlike view of the terrain

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A Mars panorama taken by Opportunity above Perseverance Valley, which would become the rover’s final resting place. [Courtesy: NASA]

The rovers’ robotic arms moved like a human’s with elbows and wrists. They could position instruments directly up against rock and soil scientists chose to investigate. A mechanical “hand,” meanwhile, held a microscopic camera that functioned like a geologist’s magnifying glass. A Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT) acted as a hammer, exposing the insides of rocks.

Spirit and Opportunity ultimately returned more than 217,000 raw images, illuminating the Martian surface like never before. Shortly after landing, Opportunity discovered Martian “blueberries”—spherical pebbles of mineral hematite that formed in acidic water. Spirit years into its mission unearthed evidence of ancient hot springs, which may have housed microbial life billions of years ago

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Opportunity snapped photos of Martian ‘blueberries,’ which support the theory that Mars once housed acidic water. [Courtesy: NASA]

Over the course of their mission, the twin rovers found that Mars not only supported fresh water but also hot springs and even acidic and salty pools at different points in its history. The findings were—and still are—considered groundbreaking.


“Our twin rovers were the first to prove a wet, early Mars once existed,” said Matt Golombek, former project scientist of the JPL. “They paved the way for learning even more about the red planet’s past with larger rovers like Curiosity and Perseverance.”

A graphic highlights some of the twin rovers’ key achievements on Mars.

 [Courtesy: NASA]
Lasting Legacy

Opportunity’s final transmission came in 2018. But the twin rovers’ impact will last forever.

“It is because of trailblazing missions such as Opportunity that there will come a day when our brave astronauts walk on the surface of Mars,” said former NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. “And when that day arrives, some portion of that first footprint will be owned by the men and women of Opportunity and a little rover that defied the odds and did so much in the name of exploration.”

NASA engineers’ work on Spirit and Opportunity unlocked practices for exploring Mars that continue even today, such as the use of specialized software or 3D goggles. Their experience countering roadblocks along the mission—of which there were many—has helped them plan safer, longer drives. It also allowed teams to quickly put together the more complex daily plans required to operate two later NASA rovers, Curiosity and Perseverance.


NASA approved the development of the SUV-sized Curiosity “thanks in part to the science collected by Spirit and Opportunity.” Its 2012 mission determined that the chemical ingredients needed to support life were present on Mars billions of years ago, when the red planet is thought to have been painted blue by water.

Perseverance landed on Mars in 2021 on a mission to collect rock cores to return to Earth. The project to check for signs of ancient life is part of a joint NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) campaign called Mars Sample Return.

Perseverance carried with it NASA’s Ingenuity, an autonomous, remotely commanded Mars helicopter. Not long after, it made the first powered flight on another planet. Ingenuity has now flown more than 25 times, including a record-breaking flight spanning 2,000 feet at 12 mph. The diminutive rotorcraft earned the reader’s choice honor in FLYING’s 2022 Innovation and Editor’s Choice Awards.

NASA’s Perseverance rover takes a selfie with the Ingenuity autonomous helicopter. [Courtesy: NASA]

Read More: 2022 FLYING Innovation and Editor’s Choice Awards

The career of Abigail Fraeman—who was a high school student when she was invited to JPL on the night of Opportunity’s landing—perhaps best encapsulates the lasting impact of the twin rovers.


Fraeman went on to become a Mars geologist, returning to JPL years later to lead the Opportunity science team. Now, the accomplished researcher serves as deputy project scientist for Curiosity. She is one of many who were deeply affected by Spirit and Opportunity’s accomplishments.

“The people who kept our twin rovers running for all those years are an extraordinary group, and it’s remarkable how many have made exploring Mars their career,” Fraeman said. “I feel so lucky I get to work with them every day while we continue to venture into places no human has ever seen in our attempt to answer some of the biggest questions.”

Twenty years after Spirit and Opportunity touched down on the Martian surface, Perseverance is one month away from entering its fourth year on the red planet. But NASA isn’t stopping there. The next step? The return of humans to the moon via the Artemis program, followed by the first steps on Mars charted by the agency’s Moon to Mars architecture.

First All-European Commercial Astronaut Crew Begins Research at Space Station

The mission arranged by Axiom Space will research cancer cures, remote-controlled robots, space horticulture, microgravity, and more.

By Jack Daleo

January 24, 2024

The Ax-3 mission crew (from left, Michael Lopez-Alegría, Alper Gezeravcı, Marcus Wandt, and Walter Villadei) arrived at the International Space Station on Saturday and began a series of experiments. [Courtesy: Axiom Space]

A team of astronauts has arrived at the International Space Station to study microgravity, space botany, remote-controlled robots, and even methods to prevent cancer.

The multinational crew of Axiom Mission 3 (Ax-3)—the first all-European commercial astronaut mission to the space station—docked with the orbital laboratory Saturday morning and will spend two weeks conducting more than 30 experiments for NASA and its countries’ respective space agencies.

Wednesday marked the crew’s fourth day aboard the space station and the seventh day of its mission. Astronauts are now well underway conducting microgravity research, educational outreach, and commercial activities.

“The four Ax-3 crewmembers had their hands full as they explored cancer research, space botany, and robotics for Earth and space benefits,” NASA said in a blog post Tuesday.

Ax-3, the third private astronaut mission to the space station chartered by Houston-based Axiom Space, lifted off Thursday from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carrying the four-person crew was launched using a powerful Falcon 9 rocket, which the Elon Musk-owned company also uses to deploy Starlink satellites and conduct Commercial Crew rotation missions for NASA.

Axiom Space chief astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegría, a Spanish-born former NASA astronaut, is commanding the mission. Lopez-Alegría has made six trips to the space station, including as the commander of the company’s Ax-1 mission in 2022.

The crew also includes mission specialist Alper Gezeravcı, who became the first Turkish astronaut in space. European Space Agency (ESA) project astronaut Marcus Wandt of Sweden and pilot Walter Villadei of Italy—who also flew a commercial spaceflight mission for Virgin Galactic last year—round out the crew.

The Crew Dragon spacecraft docked with the space station Saturday morning, making Ax-3 the third mission with a fully private crew to arrive at the orbital lab. The astronauts were greeted by the Expedition 70 crew—NASA’s 70th long-duration mission to the space station—which helped them adjust to life in zero gravity and get the lay of the land.


The Expedition 70 team, which comprises NASA, ESA, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronauts and Roscosmos cosmonauts, arrived in August on the Crew-7 Commercial Crew rotation mission for a monthslong stay.

Now the Ax-3 and Expedition 70 teams—a total of 11 crewmembers from more than half a dozen nations—are living and working together on a two-week dual mission.

“The crew has seamlessly adjusted to microgravity and are now busy conducting research and outreach engagements,” Axiom Space said in a blog post on Tuesday.

The more than 30 experiments being conducted will focus on low-Earth orbit, such as the effects of microgravity on the biochemistry of neurodegenerative diseases (Alzheimer’s, for example). One study will monitor cancerous tumors in microgravity, aiming to identify early warning signs and prevent and predict cancer diseases.

Wandt carried out a pair of outlandish experiments. On Tuesday, he used a laptop computer to command a team of robots on Earth, testing the ability for explorations on other planets to be controlled remotely from spacecraft. Wandt also recorded his brain activity to study how isolated environments affect an astronaut’s cognitive performance and stress levels.

Beyond human-centric research, Ax-3 crew members also conducted a space botany experiment. Researchers studied how space-grown plants responded to the stress of microgravity. The aim is to uncover better agricultural practices both in space and on Earth, including the possibility of genetic modifications to adapt plants to weightlessness.

The Ax-3 crew is expected to depart the space station on February 3, splashing down off the coast of Florida. NASA in August tapped Axiom Space for a fourth private astronaut mission to the orbital lab, with a launch targeted for August at the earliest. The mission is similarly expected to fly on a SpaceX Crew Dragon and span two weeks.

NASA’s relationship with Axiom Space actually extends beyond trips to the space station. The company was selected to provide next-generation spacesuits for Artemis III, NASA’s planned attempt to return Americans to the lunar surface. Testing on the spacesuits began earlier this month, the same day NASA pushed the Artemis III timeline from 2025 to 2026.

FAA Cracks Down on Boeing

Quality control and more inspections and maintenance will be required for the 737 Max 9.

By Meg Godlewski

January 25, 2024


The FAA is leaning hard on Boeing to improve its safety culture if the company wants to return the Max 9 to the air. [Shutterstock]

With the warning that “the January 5 Boeing 737 9 Max incident must never happen again,” the FAA has unveiled a list of actions Boeing must undertake if it wants to see the 737 Max 9 return to the skies.

According to a statement from the FAA, the agency has “approved a thorough inspection and maintenance process that must be performed” on all 171 grounded Boeing 737 Max 9 aircraft. The statement notes that “upon successful completion, the aircraft will be eligible to return to service.”

Within hours of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 losing a door plug shortly after an early evening takeoff from Portland International Airport (KPDX) in Oregon, the airline grounded its 737 Max 9 fleet as a precaution. The model makes up approximately 20 percent of Alaska’s fleet.

FAA Administer Mike Whitaker noted that the agency grounded the 737 Max 9 on a national scale within hours of the event and “made clear this aircraft would not go back into service until it was safe.”

Whitaker continued: “The exhaustive, enhanced review our team completed after several weeks of information gathering gives me and the FAA confidence to proceed to the inspection and maintenance phase. However, let me be clear: This won’t be back to business as usual for Boeing. We will not agree to any request from Boeing for an expansion in production or approve additional production lines for the 737 Max until we are satisfied that the quality control issues uncovered during this process are resolved.”

In addition, the FAA has “ramped up oversight of Boeing and its suppliers”.

New Instructions from the FAA

Per the statement from the FAA, the agency reviewed data compiled from 40 inspections of grounded aircraft and used it to create a detailed set of inspection and maintenance instructions. It also convened a Corrective Action Review Board (CARB) “made up of safety experts [that] scrutinized and approved the inspection and maintenance process.”

The agency stressed that “following the completion of the enhanced maintenance and inspection process on each aircraft, the door plugs on the 737 Max 9 will be in compliance with the original design which is safe to operate….This aircraft will not operate until the process is complete and compliance with the original design is confirmed.”

Per the FAA, the enhanced maintenance process requires:Inspection of specific bolts, guide tracks and fittings

Detailed visual inspections of left and right mid-cabin exit door plugs and dozens of associated components

Retorquing fasteners

Correcting any damage or abnormal conditions

FAA Holding Boeing Accountable

The FAA is also increasing oversight of Boeing’s production lines.

“The quality assurance issues we have seen are unacceptable,” Whitaker said. “That is why we will have more boots on the ground closely scrutinizing and monitoring production and manufacturing activities.”

Increased oversight activities include: Capping expanded production of new Boeing 737 Max aircraft to ensure accountability and full compliance with required quality control procedures

Launching an investigation scrutinizing Boeing’s compliance with manufacturing requirements. The FAA will use the full extent of its enforcement authority to ensure the company is held accountable for any non-compliance.

Aggressively expanding oversight of new aircraft with increased floor presence at all Boeing facilities

Closely monitoring data to identify risk

Launching an analysis of potential safety-focused reforms around quality control and delegation

The agency will continue to work closely with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) as it continues the investigation into Alaska Airlines Flight 1282. One of the key questions to be answered is if the bolts that are designed to hold the door plug in place were installed correctly, if at all, at the time of the accident.

READ MORE: NTSB Identifies Part That Failed on 737 Max 9

FAA Waiting for Boeing Safety Review

In early 2023, the agency convened 24 experts to review Boeing’s safety management processes with an eye toward how they affect the aircraft manufacturing giant’s safety culture.

Per the FAA statement, “the review panel included representatives from NASA, the FAA, labor unions, independent engineering experts, air carriers, manufacturers with delegated authority, legal experts and others.”

The panel reviewed thousands of documents and interviewed more than 250 Boeing employees, managers, and executives, Boeing supplier employees, and FAA employees, and visited several Boeing sites as well as Spirit AeroSystems’ facility in Wichita, Kansas.

The report is expected to be released in a few weeks. The FAA will be using the information to determine if additional action is required.

In response to the FAA, Boeing released a statement: “We will continue to cooperate fully and transparently with the FAA and follow their direction as we take action to strengthen safety and quality at Boeing. We will also work closely with our airline customers as they complete the required inspection procedures to safely return their 737-9 airplanes to service.”

READ MORE: Boeing to Shut Down Facility for a Day

In addition, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) announced she will conduct congressional hearings to investigate the alleged “safety lapses” that may have led to the loss of the door plug from the ill-fated flight.

“[The public and workers deserve] a culture of leadership at Boeing that puts safety ahead of profits,” Cantwell said.

Airlines Reply

According to aviation data provider Cirium.com, there are approximately 215 Max 9 aircraft in use around the world. Of those, 79 belong to United Airlines and 65 to Alaska Airlines. Both airlines experienced flight cancellations and delays following the FAA’s grounding of the jets.

During the grounding the airlines complied with an FAA mandate to inspect their fleets of Max 9s, and the data collected from these inspections has been evaluated by the agency and used to develop its orders for final inspection of the aircraft, which is required to return them to airworthy status.READ MORE: United Airlines Says It’s Disappointed in Boeing

In a statement, Alaska Airlines noted “each of our aircraft will only return to service once the rigorous inspections are completed and each aircraft is deemed airworthy, according to the FAA requirements. We have 65 737-9 Max in our fleet. The inspections are expected to take up to 12 hours for each plane.”

Alaska Airlines predicts the first of the Max 9s will resume flying on Friday, “with more planes added every day as inspections are completed and each aircraft is deemed airworthy.”

Toby Enqvist, United’s executive vice president and chief operations officer, said the airline began inspection of its Max 9 fleet on January 12. In a message to United employees, Enqvist outlined the process, which includes removing the inner panel, two rows of seats, and the sidewall liner, enabling workers to access the doors and “inspect and verify the proper installation of the door and frame hardware, as well as the area around the door and seal.”

FRA issues final rule requiring breathing gear on hazmat trains

26/01/2024

The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) yesterday announced a final rule to improve employee safety on freight trains transporting hazardous materials.

The rule requires railroads to provide emergency escape breathing apparatuses (EEBAs) for train crew members and other employees who could be exposed to an inhalation hazard in the event of a hazardous-material release. Railroads must also ensure that the equipment is maintained and in proper working condition and train their employees in its use.

The FRA advanced the rule after the Norfolk Southern Railway train derailment in East Palestine in February 2023.

“As FRA continues to advance rail safety and address concerns related to the transportation of hazardous materials, this new rule will implement needed protections for the workers who transport these products around the country,” said FRA Administrator Amit Bose in a press release. “The safety needs and benefits of EEBAs have long been established by past tragedies and research, and this rule will provide rail employees with the knowledge and tools to minimize potential dangers.”

Although casualties and fatalities caused by inhalation of hazmat are rare, train crew fatalities in 2004 and 2005 resulting from chlorine gas inhalation demonstrated that employee protections are necessary, FRA officials said.

The final rule fulfills the mandate in the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 that FRA issue regulations requiring railroads to provide EEBAs and training in their use. The rule also addresses similar recommendations made by the National Transportation Safety Board.

Click here to read the final rule.

BMWED finalizes sick leave pact with CN

26/01/2024

The Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division-International Brotherhood of Teamsters (BMWED) members work work for CN have finalized a sick-leave agreement, the union announced yesterday.

Membership on the former Bessemer and Lake Erie, Grand Trunk Western, Illinois Central & Chicago, Central and Pacific and Wisconsin Central railroads, now all doing business as CN, all have contractual language guaranteeing four paid sick leave days annually at the bid-in straight time wage, according to a BMWED press release.

CN MOW employees can take up to four paid sick days annually or cash in the unused time at the end of the year. They also have the option to roll over any unused sick leave into their 401K retirement plan.

The CN members also can use three personal days as additional sick leave if needed.

 

Florida Gulf & Atlantic MOW workers vote to join BMWED

22/01/2024

Nine maintenance-of-way workers at Florida Gulf & Atlantic Railroad voted 8-to-1 to join the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division–International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

The workers will be assigned to the Allied Federation, according to a BMWED press release. They maintain and repair track from Baldwin through Tallahassee into Pensacola along the Florida panhandle.

Preparation to issue Section 6 notices under the Railway L

 

In pictures: Rooppur 2 passive heat removal system installed

26 January 2024

The installation of the inner and outer parts of the steel structures of the 215-tonne passive heat removal system was completed in two days on Rooppur 2 in Bangladesh, Rosatom says. 

The structure sits on top of the reactor building (Image: Rosatom)

The process involves the installation - with a maximum allowable deviation of 1 centimetre - of the two parts 64.5 metres high, bringing the reactor building's height to a total of 74.85 metres.


(Image: Rosatom)

The passive heat removal system (PHRS) is a safety feature which, in the event of a loss of on-site power supply, provides long-term heat removal from the reactor core to the atmosphere using natural circulation - outside air comes into heat exchangers, is heated up, then rises through air ducts to the outlet header located on top of the dome, and returns to the atmosphere, thus cooling down the reactor compartment. 


A PHRS can be seen in place on the first unit (Image: Rosatom)

The Rooppur plant, 160 kilometres from the capital Dhaka, will feature two Russian VVER-1200 reactors. Construction of the first unit began in November 2017 and it is scheduled to be commissioned in 2024. Construction of the second unit began in July 2018. They have an initial life-cycle of 60 years, with a further 20-year extension possible.

Workers on the top of the reactor dome helped with the precision task (Image: Rosatom)

Bangladesh officially became a member of the international 'club' of nuclear countries in October when the first fuel for the plant was delivered to the Rooppur site. The project follows a February 2011 agreement with Rosatom for two reactors to be built at Rooppur for the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission. The initial contract for the project, worth USD12.65 billion, was signed in December 2015.


A bird's eye view (Image: Rosatom)

Alexey Deriy, ASE JSC vice president and director of the Rooppur NPP construction project, said: "Installing two parts of the PHRS deflector in the design position in two days is a record." He said the next stage was to install the service platforms and air ducts.

Researched and written by World Nuclear News

 

Tender launched for UAE nuclear fuel plant

24 January 2024

The UAE's Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC) announced it has launched a tender for a domestic nuclear fuel assembly fabrication facility. The facility will produce fuel assemblies for the Barakah nuclear power plant.

The Barakah plant (Image: ENEC)

"Over the past 18 months, we have been conducting an extensive review into the needs of the UAE Peaceful Nuclear Energy Programme going forwards and specifically the strategic supply of the fuel assemblies needed to power the UAE's Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant over the next 60 years ahead," ENEC said. "As part of examining a range of options, we have entered into the tendering for a domestic fuel assembly fabrication facility."

It said the facility would be dedicated to the industrial fabrication of fuel assemblies from their various components.

"Although the fuel assembly facility will neither involve enrichment or reprocessing, the fabrication of fuel assemblies remains a regulated nuclear activity, given the need for stringent nuclear quality standards," ENEC noted.

The UAE embarked on its plan to implement a nuclear energy programme in 2008 when its government made the decision to build and operate a nuclear power plant to provide 25% of the country's electricity needs, diversifying its energy sources and supporting its long-term energy vision and net zero goals. Construction of the first unit began in 2012, and Barakah 1 was connected to the grid in 2020. The fourth and final unit at the plant is currently preparing to start up.

As part of its nuclear energy policy, the UAE made the decision to forgo domestic uranium enrichment and nuclear fuel reprocessing, two key elements of the country's commitment to non-proliferation.

To obtain nuclear fuel for the Barakah plant, ENEC conducted an extensive procurement competition with international nuclear fuel suppliers. Once the procurement process was complete, the company entered into contracts with six suppliers to provide materials and services, including: the purchase of natural uranium concentrate; the purchase of enriched uranium product and related products and services; and conversion and enrichment services.

Fuel assemblies are currently manufactured in South Korea by Kepco Nuclear Fuel - part of the prime contractor consortium led by Korea Electric Power Company - and then shipped to the UAE.

Researched and written by World Nuclear News

 

First new panel in a decade at US waste facility

26 January 2024

Work has started on mining a new panel at the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). Panel 11 is the first of two waste emplacement panels approved last year by the New Mexico Environment Department as part of a 10-year extension of WIPP's operating permit.

The continuous mining machine excavating Panel 11 at WIPP (Image: DOE Office of Environmental Management)

Mined out of an ancient salt formation more than 2000 feet (610 metres) below ground, WIPP is the USA's only repository for the disposal of transuranic, or TRU, waste. Clothing, tools, rags, residues, debris, soil and other items contaminated with small amounts of plutonium and other man-made radioactive elements from the US military programme in sealed drums are placed in "rooms" within each panel.

A panel consists of seven rooms, each measuring 300 feet long by 33 feet wide by 14 feet high. It takes about two years to cut and outfit a panel, requiring the mining of around 120,000 tons of salt rock. A continuous miner cuts into the salt rock with a rotating drum, and can generate 10 tonnes of salt per minute which is either trucked for use elsewhere in the underground facility or hoisted to a salt tailings pile on the surface.

The natural movement of the salt rock that will eventually permanently encapsulate the waste also causes mined openings to close, so mining at WIPP is timed so that a panel is only ready when it is needed for waste emplacement. Waste is currently being emplaced in Panel 8, where the first room - Room 7 - has already been filled.

The creation of new panels allows safe and compliant emplacement of waste to continue, supporting environmental cleanup and national security missions, the DOE said.

Panel 11 is connected to WIPP's new air intake shaft, constructed as part of a major investment project to increase airflow, and to the rest of the underground facility by around half a mile (just under a kilometre) of new pathways.

Researched and written by World Nuclear News

Advanced nuclear fuel arrives at INL for testing

26 January 2024

Westinghouse Electric Company has shipped 25 irradiated experimental nuclear fuel rods, including accident-tolerant fuel, to Idaho National Laboratory (INL) for testing and examination. The tests are part of the process to qualify the fuel for use in commercial reactors.

The irradiated fuel's arrival at INL in December (Image: Businesswire)

The shipment contains both accident tolerant fuel - also known as ATF - and high burnup fuel, which has been irradiated in the core of a commercial nuclear power plant. It is the first such shipment to arrive at INL for testing in two decades, the lab said.

Developed and manufactured by Westinghouse with technical assistance from several national laboratories, including INL, and supported by funding from the US Department of Energy (DOE), the new fuel technology is designed for extended use, enabling nuclear power plants to extend their operating cycle from the current 18 months to 24 months, reducing refuelling outages while delivering significant cost savings for customers and generating less spent nuclear fuel. The fuel will also increase a nuclear power plant's resilience under potential accident conditions.

These properties could be a "huge" economic benefit, said Daniel Wachs, national technical director of DOE's Advanced Fuels Campaign. The increased cycle length would eliminate one refuelling outage every 6 years and significantly increase electrical output. "The increased electrical output in the US could be the equivalent of adding new reactors to the fleet," he said.

Before it can be deployed for use in commercial reactors, researchers must examine and analyse how the technology performs under normal usage conditions, as well as carrying out additional experiments to understand how it performs under postulated accident conditions and to demonstrate behaviour during storage and recycling. This data will then be used to establish the safety bases required by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to qualify the fuel for use at US nuclear power plants.

"Continuous innovation is key to improving the nuclear sector's reliability, especially at a time when energy demand is increasing and nuclear is more vital than ever," said Tarik Choho, Westinghouse President of Nuclear Fuel. "Westinghouse is proud to join efforts with INL and other partners in the production and testing of these advanced nuclear fuels."

The fuel will be analysed and tested at INL's Materials and Fuels Complex, and will also be subjected to safety tests with simulations of power excursions or loss-of-cooling events in a controlled environment. These are designed to push the fuel to its breaking points and beyond, according to INL. The lab's Advanced Test Reactor is also being readied to accommodate fuels for endurance tests mimicking the wear and tear incurred over a decade of service in a commercial reactor in a fraction of the time.

"Receiving these fuel rods is a significant milestone for INL and the nuclear energy industry," INL Director John Wagner said. "As the nation's nuclear energy research and development centre, we possess the unique facilities, capabilities and expertise to perform this vital research.

"Completion of this shipment, along with the state of Idaho's reinstatement of the Department of Energy's ability to receive up to 400 kilograms of commercial spent nuclear fuel per year at INL for research and development purposes, send a strong message that we are once again open for business."

A shipment of irradiated nuclear fuel rods with this new technology has previously been delivered for testing to Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. Research on the fuel will provide valuable data not only for US regulators and agencies but also for international partners and regulatory bodies. "The advanced testing and the post-irradiation examinations at both laboratories are key milestones to receive final approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to deploy this innovative fuel to commercial reactors around the globe," Westinghouse said.

Researched and written by World Nuclear News

 

Grossi to visit Zaporizhzhia, warns against complacency

26 January 2024

International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi says he will visit Ukraine, Russia and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in the next two weeks, with one aim being to ascertain long-term plans for the plant, such as restarting units.

The IAEA director general at the UN (Image: UN Photo/Manuel Elías)

Grossi, briefing the United Nations Security Council for the sixth time on the situation in Ukraine, said he planned to visit the occupied plant and Kiev and Moscow within the next two weeks. It will enable him to assess the situation at the plant first-hand, eight months after his last visit.

He said: "Although the plant has not been shelled for a considerable time, significant military activities continue in the region and sometimes in the vicinity of the facility, with our staff reporting rockets flying overhead close to the plant, thereby putting at risk the physical integrity of the plant."

There were also continuing concerns about off-site power supplies. "There have now been eight occasions when the site lost all off-site power and had to rely on emergency diesel generators, the last line of defence against a nuclear accident, to provide essential cooling of the reactor and spent fuel," he said.

In a media briefing later he said the power supply loss might be the result of deliberate action, but it was often not possible to find the exact reason for the loss of power supply as it could be the result of something happening hundreds of kilometres away.

He said that during his visit he would be meeting the Russian operators to discuss more about the cooling water situation at the plant - wells have been dug since the destruction of the Kakhovka dam last year led to the decline of the previous water supply system. The IAEA also says that with the units not working, the cooling water temperature has dropped and ice has been seen in parts of the ponds.

Grossi added that during his talks there he would try to "ascertain their longer term plans for the plant - are they going to attempt to restart one or more reactors, and why and how - these are issues which have profound nuclear safety implications".

He warned against complacency, telling the UN: "A nuclear accident has not yet happened. This is true. But complacency could still lead us to tragedy. That should not happen. We must do everything in our power to minimise the risk that it does."  Grossi added that the unpredictable nature of war meant you could not talk in terms of "a trend of things stabilising ... you can have a good week and then you have a blackout, you can have a good week and then a drone aims at the plant".

There had been times when the IAEA experts, a team of which has been at the plant since September 2022, "have not had timely access to some areas of the plant - sometimes for many months" and although no indications have been seen that the five core safety principles have been breached, "nevertheless, in line with the evolving situation, the agency needs to have timely access to all areas of the ZNPP of significance for nuclear safety and security" to monitor observance. The principles include the core ones that the facility should not be fired at, or from, or be used as a base for heavy military equipment.

There was continuing concern for the staffing levels at the plant, which has been under Russian military control since March 2022. More broadly, he said "we have put together a programme of health care assistance including through equipment and psychological support for all Ukrainian nuclear workers".

Researched and written by World Nuclear News