Across the United States, communities and the energy industry are working to decarbonize their energy generation and consumption and are implementing actions to achieve zero-carbon-emission goals. This is a reflection of the Nation's commitment to carbon reduction and supporting the policies of the Federal and State governments. An increasing number of coal power plant (CPP) retirements has been seen across the Nation to support lower carbon plans. Transitions from coal to gas fuel have dominated the Nation's energy landscape over the past decade and allowed the Nation to reduce its carbon emissions, there is a continued desire to further reduce carbon emission from energy portfolios as the Nation works to decarbonize its electricity and energy generation. As more CPPs are retired, a reliable and affordable zero-emission power replacement is needed. Nuclear power is a viable dispatchable and clean source of energy that can replace a CPP.Beyond the functional replacement of the power being provided to the grid, a nuclear power plant (NPP) approximates the staffing and economic benefits of a retired CPP. A new NPP will employ similar numbers of professional employees. The operating NPP will also provide the benefits of a long-term continuing tax base to support the local community.There is a large near-term potential to transition recently retired and operating CPPs with NPPs. Decommissioning coal plants is ongoing and accelerating for last decade when almost half of the nation's 400 CPPs were retired. Going forward, retirements of larger and newer plants are to be expected. Retaining the intrinsic power-producing value of the site should provide increased incentive to use these former CPPs.There are many options for replacing coal power generation with different technical and socioeconomic considerations at each CPP. The power plant function can be replaced; however, the significant technical differences between coal and NPP make nuclear repowering a CPP challenging. Fully removing the coal plant and replacing it with a nuclear plant is the most understood path forward in terms of being able to meet zero-carbon goals. Each coal site would require assessment to determine the viability of the coal-to-nuclear transition. The type and number of any equipment retained will depend on the particulars of the retired coal plant and the design features of the new nuclear plant. Repowering a site by replacing the heat producing coal boiler with a heat producing nuclear reactor and retaining the existing power-producing technologies would require specialized equipment and analysis.Given the new generation of highly capable, safe, and economic NPPs being developed, transitioning CPPs to zero-carbon production is ever more promising. The purpose of this report is to provide information to utilities and other stakeholders in their consideration of replacing CPP with NPP. Near-term issues that should be considered and are discussed include energy generating basics, factors in replacing a CPP with a NPP, matching a NPP with the CP...
Tritium (H13) is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen formed by ternary fission events (rare emissions of three nuclides rather than two during a fission) and neutron absorption (and subsequent decay) of predecessor radionuclides, particularly 6Li and 7Li. Also in fusion, the concept of breeding tritium during the fusion reaction is of significance for the future needs of a large-scale fusion power plant. Tritium is of special interest among the fission products created in next-generation nuclear reactors such as gas cooled reactors and molten salt reactors, because of the large quantities produced when compared with conventional light-water reactors (LWR) and the higher temperatures of operation for these systems enhances permeation. To prevent the tritium contamination of proposed reactor buildings and surrounding sites, this paper examines the root causes and potential solutions for mitigation of permeation of this radionuclide, including materials selection and inert gas sparging. A model is presented that can be used to predict permeation rates of hydrogen through metallic alloys at temperatures from 450–750°C. Results of the diffusion model are presented along with mitigation strategies for tritium permeation.
The chemical, mechanical and thermal properties of silicon carbide (SiC) along with its low neutron activation make it an attractive material for encapsulating fuel rods and fuel pellets.
v SUMMARYLegacy computational reactor physics software tools and protocols currently used for support of Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) core fuel management and safety assurance and, to some extent, experiment management are obsolete, inconsistent with the state of modern nuclear engineering practice, and are becoming increasingly difficult to properly verify and validate (V&V). Furthermore, the legacy staff knowledge required for application of these tools and protocols from the 1960s and 1970s is rapidly being lost due to staff turnover and retirements. In 2009 the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) initiated a focused effort to address this situation through the introduction of modern high-fidelity computational software and protocols, with appropriate V&V, within the next 3-4 years via the ATR Core Modeling and Simulation and V&V Update (or "Core Modeling Update") Project. This aggressive computational and experimental campaign will have a broad strategic impact on the operation of the ATR, both in terms of improved computational efficiency and accuracy for support of ongoing DOE programs as well as in terms of national and international recognition of the ATR National Scientific User Facility (NSUF).The ATR Core Modeling Update Project, targeted for full implementation in phase with the anticipated ATR Core Internals Changeout (CIC) in the 2014 time frame, began during the last quarter of Fiscal Year 2009, and has just completed its first full year. Key accomplishments so far have encompassed both computational as well as experimental work. A new suite of stochastic and deterministic transport theory based reactor physics codes and their supporting nuclear data libraries (SCALE, KENO-6, HELIOS, NEWT, and ATTILA) have been installed at the INL under various permanent sitewide license agreements and corresponding baseline models of the ATR and ATRC are now operational, demonstrating the basic feasibility of these code packages for their intended purpose. Furthermore, a capability for rigorous sensitivity analysis and uncertainty quantification based on the TSUNAMI system is being implemented and initial computational results have been obtained. This capability will have many applications in 2011 and beyond as a tool for understanding the margins of uncertainty in the new models as well as for validation experiment design and interpretation.On the experimental side, new hardware was fabricated, measurement protocols were approved, and the first two of several planned sets of flux validation measurements based on neutron activation spectrometry were then conducted at the ATRC facility in collaboration with a separate online reactor instrumentation evaluation project associated with the ATR NSUF. These measurements will continue through much of 2011, and will include the fabrication and introduction of additional new experimental hardware to broaden the scope of the planned validation protocols. Further opportunities to collaborate with various planned experimental campaigns in the ATRC and ATR will be identified as t...
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