By Joe Fisher
Jan. 3, 2025
Microsoft agreed to a deal with Constellation, a Baltimore based energy company, to restart the Three Mile Island Unit 1 nuclear plant in Londonderry Township, Pa.
Jan. 3 (UPI) -- A string of announcements about big investments in nuclear energy production signal a revival for the industry that already produces about 20% of U.S. electricity.
Google, Microsoft and Amazon are among the technology companies looking to nuclear power to produce energy with a smaller carbon footprint. Environmental organizations remain skeptical, if not outright opposed to the use of nuclear energy.
Disasters at nuclear plants in Chernobyl in 1986 and the Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan in 2011 play a large role in the minds of opponents.
"Anyone who thinks the public perception is overwhelmingly pro-nuclear is probably kidding themselves," Dr. Lane Carasik, assistant professor in the Virginia Commonwealth University Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, told UPI. "A lot of work needs to continue to be done by organizations to make sure the public is appropriately informed about the benefits and dangers of nuclear power. There are both."
The benefits touted by companies making the investments and the U.S. government center around reducing carbon emissions. This goal has been a crucial point of emphasis for the Biden administration in the face of increasingly destructive and frequent extreme weather events around the globe.
The U.S. Department of Energy announced in October it is opening applications for $900 million in funding to build small modular nuclear reactors. The program is part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that passed in 2021.
"Revitalizing America's nuclear sector is key to adding more carbon free energy to the grid and meeting the needs of our growing economy -- from A.I. and data centers to manufacturing and healthcare," Jennifer M. Granholm, U.S. secretary of energy, said in a statement.
Earlier in the fall, the Biden administration announced the approval of a $1.52 billion loan to restart the Palisades nuclear plant in Covert Township, Mich. It would be the first restart of a nuclear plant once believed to be permanently out of commission in U.S. history.
Carasik said he is not surprised that the government is playing a role in revitalizing the nuclear energy industry. Along with the need for a diverse slate of energy sources, he said it is imperative that the United States nurture the field of nuclear science or risk losing experts to other countries.
"If we do not train in nuclear science-adjacent fields, we could lose them potentially to other countries and potentially to adversarial countries," Carasik said.
Support for nuclear energy has been burgeoning in Michigan even prior to the announcement.
A bipartisan, bicameral caucus was formed in the state legislature. The state has agreed to put $300 million toward the Palisades restart. The Michigan Chamber of Commerce and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer have also called it a positive development.
Holtec International, the company that purchased the Palisades plant in 2022, has agreed to sell a portion of the energy it produces to Hoosier Energy in Indiana.
The plant is capable of producing 800 megawatts of electricity, enough to power about 800,000 homes. More capacity may be coming as Holtec International is developing two small modular reactors to be built near the Palisades plant capable of producing 300 megawatts each.
That additional energy will be needed as Microsoft and telecommunications company Switch eye building new data centers in western Michigan, according to Ed Rivet, executive director of the Michigan Conservative Energy Forum.
Existing data centers consume about 4% of all electricity generated in the United States. That need is expected to more than double by 2030 as more data centers are constructed, according to the Department of Energy.
"It's pretty shattering from a paradigm sense, seeing companies like Google (request for proposal) to the private sector 'Will you build a nuclear plant next to our data center?'" Rivet said.
The investments from the tech industry play a large role in the recent nuclear resurgence. Energy hungry data centers will require a reliable energy source. Rivet's organization calls for an "all of the above" approach to powering the nation's grid, including wind and solar energy. He believes nuclear energy must be part of that equation as well.
Unlike wind and solar, nuclear energy is produced on a constant basis regardless of the elements. Nuclear energy has no carbon footprint and its physical footprint -- the land a nuclear plant sits on -- is drastically smaller than the land covered by solar panels to produce the same amount of energy.
Christopher Ortiz, senior communications specialist with Kairos Power, told UPI that energy density is an attractive feature of nuclear reactor technology.
"Kairos Power's advanced reactor technology offers incredible energy density," Ortiz said. "One golf-ball-sized fuel pebble can produce the same amount of energy as burning four tons of coal."
Google signed an agreement to buy nuclear energy produced by Kairos Power's small modular reactors to support the needs of its artificial intelligence systems.
"This landmark announcement will accelerate the transition to clean energy as Google and Kairos Power look to add 500 (megawatts) of new 24/7 carbon-free power to U.S. electricity grids," Michael Terrell, Google senior director of energy and climate, said in a statement.
The projects in this agreement are slated to be finished and in operation across multiple plants by 2035.
Kairos Power, based in California, was founded in 2016 and employs more than 480 people. The company has hired more than 130 employees at its plant in Albuquerque, N.M., with an average salary of more than $100,000. It will also create more than 55 "high-skilled, high-paying" jobs to build, operate and decommission the Hermes Low-Power Demonstration Reactor near Oak Ridge, Tenn.
Construction on the Hermes reactor began in July. It will be used to develop the company's commercial advanced nuclear reactor technology.
Nuclear energy accounts for about 50% of U.S. clean energy production, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
The Hermes reactor is projected to be complete in 2027.
The Palisades Nuclear Plant is not the only U.S. plant set to be brought back online. Microsoft agreed to a deal with Constellation, a Baltimore based energy company, to restart Three Mile Island Unit 1 in Londonderry Township, Pa.
The plant will produce 835 megawatts of electricity and create an estimated 3,400 jobs. It was shut down in 2019.
Three Mile Island Unit 2 was the site of a meltdown in 1979, leading to the evacuation of thousands of people. Like Chernobyl and Fukushima, Three Mile Island evokes memories of what can go wrong with nuclear power.
Dr. Arthur Motta of the Ken and Mary Alice Lindquist Department of Nuclear Engineering at Penn State told UPI that the Three Mile Island meltdown brought about positive changes to the industry. Better reporting and sharing of information about malfunctions among plants internationally has increased safety and reliability.
The challenge nuclear energy faces in the realm of public perception is cutting through the fear that has been harnessed in decades of pop culture depictions of nuclear disasters. Godzilla, the Fallout video game series and Homer Simpson bumbling around the Springfield power plant have fed into misconceptions about the industry, Motta said.
"It strikes something in the human psyche that makes people afraid," Motta said. "People evaluate risk based on their familiarity. Nuclear is the unknowable. People don't know about it."
Critics of nuclear energy have raised questions about waste disposal. Nuclear waste looks far different from the barrels filled with glowing green liquid that create three-eyed fish on The Simpsons. Instead, most waste comes in the form of nuclear fuel rods. They are highly radioactive but are not voluminous.
Motta explains that the total volume of the nuclear waste produced in the United States in the last 40 years could be stacked 2 to 3 meters high across one football field. There is about 90,000 metric tons of spent nuclear waste in the country, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office. The Department of Energy is responsible for disposing high-level waste -- like the nuclear fuel rods -- in a yet-to-be-built repository.
In 1987, the government designated the Yucca Mountain in Nevada to be the site of a waste repository. However, the government turned away from nuclear energy through the Obama administration while lawmakers came to an impasse over next steps. The Obama administration also began to explore alternatives to the Yucca Mountain.
Currently nuclear waste remains stored in spent fuel pools -- large, reinforced concrete casks lined with steel. The fuel is submerged in 40 feet of water and cooled for five years or more before being moved to a dry cask to be stored for up to 40 more years.
This method of storage is considered temporary by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The radioactivity of nuclear waste decays over time. After 40 years, the radioactivity of a spent fuel rod is about one-thousandth of what it was when it was first placed in storage, according to the World Nuclear Association.
Motta said the chief concern about storage of waste among skeptics is that radiation will make its way into the water table due to the containment casks corroding and the waste dissolving.
"The water table goes very deep. You bury the waste 5,000 feet and you're still well above the water table," he said. "There is no way for the waste to be released, especially because of the corrosion-resistant canisters and drip shields. Really, it's a question of if you believe the disposal proceeding can be done safely and I think it can."
Constellation to supply US federal sector under record contract
The ten-year, USD840 million contract to supply electricity to federal facilities is the first-ever long-term multi-agency purchase of electricity by the US General Services Administration, and will support licence extensions and capacity uprates at Constellation's nuclear plants.
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The agreement to supply an estimated 10 million MWh over the contract's ten-year term to 80 federal facilities is part of over USD1 billion in combined contracts awarded to Constellation by the General Services Administration (GSA) to supply power to more than 13 government agencies and perform energy savings and conservation measures at five GSA-owned facilities. The contract is set to begin April.
The GSA, which provides centralised procurement and shared services for the US federal government, said the purchase - a portion of which is "bundled CFE" (carbon pollution-free electricity) - will increase resilience and reliability for federal agencies while protecting against price increases.
"This historic procurement locks in a cost-competitive, reliable supply of nuclear energy over a 10-year period, accelerating progress toward a carbon-free energy future while protecting taxpayers against future price hikes," GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan said. "We're demonstrating how the federal government can join major corporate clean energy buyers in spurring new nuclear energy capacity and ensuring a reliable, affordable supply of clean energy for everyone."
The procurement covers the supply of electricity to federal facilities in the territory of regional transmission operator PJM Interconnection, which extends over portions of eleven mid-Atlantic and Midwest states and the District of Columbia. Facilities to be supplied with energy include the Architect of the Capitol, the GSA, the Social Security Administration, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Department of Veterans' Affairs, the Department of Transportation, the US Mint, the US Railroad Retirement Board, the National Archives and Records Administration, the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the Federal Reserve System, the National Park Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.
The procurement agreement will see GSA purchase 2.4 million MWh of nuclear capacity added by Constellation via licence extensions and uprates (together with the associated Energy Attribute Certificates) over the life of the 10-year contract. "Together with CFE already on the electrical grid, the purchase will enable the agencies covered in the procurement to transition to 100% carbon pollution-free electricity by 2030," GSA said.
The US federal government's more than 300,000 buildings and 600,000 vehicles make it the nation's largest energy consumer. The Federal Sustainability Plan aims to achieve net-zero emissions for federal operations by 2050 by transitioning to zero-emission vehicles, energy efficient buildings and CFE, with the government seeking to transition to 100% CFE by 2030, at least half of which will be locally supplied clean energy to meet 24/7 hourly-matched demand.
Minnesota plant set for operations to 2050 after licence renewal
US regulators have issued a 20-year subsequent licence renewal for Xcel Energy's Monticello, clearing the single-unit boiling water reactor plant to operate until 2050.
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The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) announced in the Federal Register that it had issued Subsequent Renewed Facility Operating License No DPR-22 to the licensee, Xcel subsidiary Northern States Power Company, on 30 December.
The subsequent licence renewal is the culmination of a multi-year process which included numerous NRC inspections, audits and reviews of all technical aspects of the plant to ensure it met or exceeded standards for safety, environmental impact and other considerations, Xcel said. The NRC accepted the application for the subsequent licence renewal in March 2023, although the company announced as long ago as 2019 its intention to operate the plant until at least 2040.
Approval from state-level regulators will also be required to allow Monticello to operate until 2050. Xcel has already received approval from the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission to extend operations at Monticello for the first half of this period, to 2040, and said it "will return to the PUC to seek approval for the additional 10 years in the future".
"For over 50 years, we have maintained, invested in and improved the Monticello plant to ensure it can continue to deliver for the communities we serve," Xcel Energy Chief Nuclear Officer Chris Church said. "By extending operations at the plant, we are carrying this commitment forward, and at the same time renewing our investment in the community of Monticello and the surrounding region."
The plant began commercial operation in 1971 and as well as the relicensing, Xcel recently completed a project to replace components and to increase its generating capacity from 600 to 671 MWe - which the company says is enough energy to power 500,000 homes.
Under the US Atomic Energy Act, the NRC is authorised to issue licences for commercial power reactors to operate for up to 40 years. These initial licences can then be renewed for an additional 20 years, for 60 years of operation: Monticello received its initial licence renewal in 2006, allowing it to operate until 2030. Subsequent licence renewals cover a further 20 years of operation beyond 60 years and focus on the management of plant ageing during the 60-80 year operating period.
Xcel also owns the two-unit Prairie Island pressurised water reactor plant, for which it has told the NRC it intends to submit an application for a subsequent licence renewal in the fourth quarter of 2026.
Second Koeberg unit returns to service
Unit 2 of the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station in Cape Town was reconnected to the South African grid on 30 December after the completion of extensive maintenance to extend the unit's operational lifespan by an additional 20 years.
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The maintenance programme included the replacement of three steam generators, comprehensive inspections, and refuelling activities to ensure the reactor's continued safe and efficient performance. These enhancements align with Eskom's broader strategy to secure the future of Koeberg's reactors, which the state-owned company says are critical to South Africa's energy security: unit 2's 930 MWe contribution plays a significant role in Eskom's goal to increase the company's capacity by 2500 MW by March 2025, it said.
Unit 2 was taken offline for its maintenance outage on 11 December 2023, shortly after unit 1 returned to service following the completion of similar work. In July, South Africa's National Nuclear Regulator granted Eskom a licence to continue operating unit 1 for another 20 years, until 21 July 2044, and is expected to decide on a similar extension of unit 2's operational licence later this year. Unit 1 has shown "exceptional reliability" since its return to service, Eskom said. Together, the two units supply around 5% of South Africa's total electricity and play a vital role in reducing loadshedding and stabilising the grid.
"As South Africa phases out some of the aging coal-fired power plants by 2030, nuclear energy is poised to provide a reliable and stable baseload supply. Unlike intermittent renewable sources, nuclear power ensures continuous electricity generation, meeting the needs of both residential and industrial users. Its ability to produce carbon-free energy also supports South Africa's climate goals by reducing greenhouse gas emissions," Eskom Group Executive for Generation Bheki Nxumalo said.
Although projects like the long-term operation (LTO) programme at Koeberg require high initial upfront investment, their long-term benefits make them indispensable, according to Eskom Group Chief Executive Dan Marokane. "Koeberg exemplifies how nuclear power can align economic and environmental priorities to create a sustainable energy future. Through the successful execution of the LTO project, our Koeberg team has once more demonstrated the exceptional skills we have to support our country's nuclear ambitions," he added.
Groundworks begin for new Chinese plant
Excavation work has started for the foundation of the nuclear island of unit 1 at the Bailong nuclear power plant in China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
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The construction of Phase I (units 1 and 2) of the Bailong plant was among approvals for 11 new reactors granted by China's State Council in August last year. State Power Investment Corporation (SPIC) plans to build two CAP1000 pressurised water reactors - the Chinese version of the Westinghouse AP1000 - as the first phase of the plant. An investment of about CNY40 billion (USD5.6 billion) is planned for the two units, which are expected to take 56 months to construct.
"The negative excavation of the nuclear island is an important node in the construction of nuclear power, marking another solid step forward in the construction of the Bailong nuclear power plant," said SPIC subsidiary Guangxi Nuclear Power Company Ltd.
The company noted that "vertical slope" construction technology - which involves "supporting first and then excavating" - has been adopted for the excavation of unit 1's foundation pit. Since 25 November, a total of 137 cast-in-place piles of the foundation pit retaining structure have been completed and negative excavation started on 30 December.
Excavation of about 66,000 cubic metres of earth to form the foundation pit - which will eventually be 12.2 metres deep and cover an area of about 3000 square metres - is expected to be completed by the end of March this year.
Once Bailong units 1 and 2 are put into operation, the annual power generation of the plant will be about 20 billion kilowatt-hours, Guangxi Nuclear Power said. It noted that this can reduce the consumption of standard coal by about 6 million tonnes and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 16 million tonnes annually.
Four CAP1400 reactors are also planned to be built at the site - located about 24 kilometres from the border with Vietnam and about 30 kilometres southwest of China General Nuclear's Fangchenggang nuclear power plant - in later phases.
Reactor vessel installed at third Akkuyu unit
The assembly of the reactor has been completed at unit 3 of Turkey's Akkuyu nuclear power plant. Meanwhile, the fuel to be used in the second unit has also been delivered to the site.
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The cylindrical reactor pressure vessel (RPV) - measuring 11.45 metres in length and 5.7 metres in width - was produced by the Volgodonsk branch of AEM-Technologies JSC of Atommash, part of Atomenergomash, the machine production division of Rosatom. The 350-tonne vessel was delivered by sea to the construction site in November 2023 and has since been held in storage.
The RPV has now been installed using the 'open top' method. This method allows large equipment to be loaded into the reactor building using a heavy-duty crane before the reactor dome is closed. It can significantly cut the time taken to carry out installation work.
Following the completion of the reactor pressure vessel assembly, a commission consisting of experts from Akkuyu Nuclear Inc. as well as independent auditing organisation Türk Loydu and the Turkish Nuclear Regulatory Authority carried out an inspection of the reactor vessel assembly quality.
"As in previous years, the dynamics of the field work in 2024 were very high," said Sergei Butckikh, First Deputy CEO of Akkuyu Nuclear JSC. "We carried out the main operations envisaged in the project plan. The heart of the third power unit of Akkuyu NPP was established, that is, we successfully completed the critical work on the assembly of the nuclear reactor vessel.
"As with all other construction and installation operations on the site, the installation of the reactor vessel required meticulous preparation, highly qualified experts and special precision at every stage."
The Akkuyu plant, in the southern Mersin province, is Turkey's first nuclear power plant. Rosatom is building four VVER-1200 reactors, under a so-called BOO (build-own-operate) model. Construction of the first unit began in 2018. The 4800 MWe plant is expected to meet about 10% of Turkey's electricity needs, with the aim that all four units will be operational by the end of 2028.
The RPVs of units 1 and 2 were installed in June 2021 and September 2022, respectively.
Fuel delivered for second unit
In late December, the nuclear fuel produced for unit 2 arrived at the Akkuyu site. The fuel assemblies - produced at the Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrator Plant, part of Rosatom's fuel company TVEL - were delivered to the site in special transport containers and placed in the fresh fuel storage facility.
Fuel for Akkuyu unit 2 (Image: Akkuyu Nuclear)
"The fuel was transported to Turkey by land and sea in leak-proof containers under close coordination between the relevant units of Akkuyu Nuclear JSC, the production facility and the inspection authorities," Butckikh said. "Before being loaded into the reactor, the containers will be kept under special conditions in the fresh fuel storage facility at the NPP site."
One fuel load for the VVER-1200 reactor consists of 163 fuel assemblies containing uranium enriched to 5% uranium-235.
A ceremony was held in April 2023 to mark the arrival of the first fuel for unit 1 of the Akkuyu plant ahead of its expected start up later this year. The delivery of nuclear fuel marked the moment of Akkuyu officially becoming a nuclear power plant and also of Turkey being categorised as a country with nuclear energy capacity.
BREST-OD-300 fuel fabrication facility begins pilot operation
The unit for fabrication/refabrication of nuclear fuel for the BREST-OD-300 lead-cooled fast neutron reactor has been put into pilot operation, Rosatom has announced.
The facility, in Seversk, Tomsk Region, in Siberia, has already manufactured prototype fuel assemblies with depleted uranium nitride fuel pellets. It will have a complete staff of about 250 people.
There are four production focuses: carbothermal synthesis of mixed uranium and plutonium nitrides; fabrication of fuel pellets; manufacturing of fuel elements; and assembly of complete fuel bundles.
The BREST-OD-300 fast reactor is part of Rosatom's Proryv, or Breakthrough, project to enable a closed nuclear fuel cycle. The 300 MWe unit will be the main facility of the Pilot Demonstration Energy Complex at the Siberian Chemical Combine site. The complex will demonstrate an on-site closed nuclear fuel cycle with the facility for the fabrication/re-fabrication of mixed uranium-plutonium nitride nuclear fuel, as well as a used fuel reprocessing facility.
At the moment the operators are fabricating BREST-OD-300 bundles with depleted uranium fuel matrix in compliance with the current licence from regulator Rostechnadzor. Once the regulator approves the handling of plutonium, production will start of mixed dense nitride uranium-plutonium fuel (MNUP). Prior to the initial core loading of the BREST-OD-300, more than 200 MNUP fuel bundles are scheduled for fabrication.
Rosatom says it will be a world first to have all the facilities on one site with reprocessed irradiated fuel sent for refabrication so the site will be "practically autonomous and independent of external supplies of energy resources".
Alexey Likhachev, CEO of Rosatom, noted the progress of the company's development of Generation IV nuclear technologies: "According to the International Atomic Energy Agency classification, this implies higher efficiency in the use of fuel raw materials, increased safety standards for the operation of nuclear plants, as well as a significant reduction in the amount of nuclear waste generation. All these principles are fully consistent with the technological solutions adopted at the Pilot Demonstration Energy Complex, such as the fuel made of depleted uranium and plutonium, the BREST reactor facility based on the principles of natural safety, and the latest more efficient radiochemical technologies for irradiated fuel reprocessing.”
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