U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Agency Approves First Generation IV Nuclear Reactor
Construction has started on the new facility in iconic Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
The last time we checked on the nation’s energy industry, the Biden-Harris administration banned drilling for gas and oil on 28 million acres of Alaska (rescinding the order signed by President Donald Trump).
However, there is better news on the nuclear energy front. This is good news given tht nuclear energy is the only rival to fossil fuels in efficiency and cost-effectiveness and is worthy of supplying power on a civilization-level.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved construction of the first fourth-generation nuclear reactor in the country.
According to Interesting Engineering, the new Hermes reactor will be the first one built in the United States in 50 years that won’t be cooled by light water. Instead, it will use a system of molten fluoride salt, and a TRISO (tri-structural isotropic particle) fuel pebble bed design will power the generator.
Molten fluoride salts have “excellent chemical stability and tremendous capacity for transferring heat,” per the report, meaning it stays cooler and dissipates heat much faster than the light water that has been used for so long in American reactors.
The fuel bed consists of hundreds of millimeter-sized particles of uranium encased in multiple layers of special ceramic, which allows each individual piece of fuel to have its own containment and pressure vessel, per Ultra Safe Nuclear. The ceramic casing is stronger and more resilient than the typical zirconium alloy, meaning it can withstand higher temperatures and neutron bombardment past the failure point of other types of fuel.
On top of that, because each individual piece of fuel is so small, in the event that one fails, the ensuing burst of radiation would be significantly lessened — and less likely to cause further damage, thanks to the coolant system.
Generation IV nuclear power utilizes a system of fuel fabrication plants and reprocessing facilities that together overcome some of the shortcomings of the previous generations of nuclear power plants.
To be classified as Generation IV, a system must meet, or at least have the ability to meet, the following criteria:
(1) it is much more fuel-efficient than current plants;
(2) it is designed in such a way that severe accidents are not possible, that is, plant failure or an external event (such as an earthquake) should not result in radioactive material release to the outside world;
[3] the fuel cycle is designed in such a way that uranium and plutonium are never separated (“diverged”) but only present in a mix and with other elements. This makes it more difficult to create nuclear weapons.
Construction is underway on the new nuclear power plant in Tennessee, in the iconic city of Oak Ridge (famous for its importance in World War Two’s Manhattan Project).
Kairos Power has begun building the Hermes Low-Power Demonstration Reactor in Oak Ridge, the first Gen IV reactor approved for construction by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The Hermes reactor utilizes a fluoride salt-cooled, high-temperature reactor design, differing from conventional light-water reactors.
“Generation IV nuclear power plant designs are revolutionary, in that they are planned to use a very different set of technologies than the reactors we use today,” Ross Peel, a professor with King’s College London’s Centre for Science and Security Studies told Newsweek.
Unfortunately, we are behind China when it comes to the construction. It launched its construction of a Generation IV reactor late last year.
The Shidaowan nuclear power plant, which features the world’s first fourth-generation reactor, started commercial operations on December 6, China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), one of the project’s developers, said.
“China’s independently developed high-temperature gas-cooled reactor demonstrator commenced commercial operation,” CNNC said in a statement.
“It signifies that China has completed the world’s first commercially operational modular nuclear power plant with fourth-generation nuclear technology, marking the transition of fourth-generation nuclear technology from experiments to the commercial market.”
Interestingly, more and more countries are rethinking their ban on nuclear energy, likely in light of the realities of “green energy” as well as the improvements being made in the Generation IV systems. Switzerland, for example, has reversed its outright ban of nuclear.
The Swiss government said on Wednesday it plans to overturn a ban on building new power plants to strengthen local energy supply at a time of increased geopolitical tension.
Energy Minister Albert Roesti said the government would submit a proposal to amend nuclear legislation by the end of 2024 so it can be debated in parliament next year.
“Over the long term, new nuclear power plants are one possible way of making our supply more secure in a geopolitically uncertain time,” Roesti told a press conference.
Failure to retain the option could be seen as a betrayal by future generations, Roesti argued.
All of these are positive developments for those of us who enjoy the perks of civilization, such a light at night and heat during the winter.
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Comments
To put things in perspective, this is only a demonstration reactor and it is only the 2nd reactor approved for construction in the last 50 years!!!!
That’s how bad things have been for so long.
I’m sure the nihilist eco-terrorists will figure out ways (with the collusion of the democrat party) to kill any actual construction of these nuclear power plants … or, as per their usual, the left will strangle the new plants with enough regulations to make them take decades to build and to cost more than they are worth.
In the meantime, we should be building new coal plants out the wazoo – because coal plants are really the best for the bulk of electricity generation.
Good news, but, the Dhimmi-crats’ indefensible and irrational histrionics, hysterics and fear-mongering regarding nuclear energy have set back the U.S.’s energy security and stability by decades. It’s outrageous. The U.S. should by now have at least 60% of electricity production coming from nuclear plants.
Ideally, after the 70’s Arab oil embargo, the U.S. should’ve followed France’s lead with a massive expansion of nuclear power plants.
The new Small Modular Reactors hold great promise and make a lot of sense, given their smaller physical footprint and much less expensive capital requirements.
I’m pro NP and have worked at many … but whether you’re D or R … the Fukushima and Chernobyl incidents should elicit a degree of cautiousness.
My response to concerns based upon those two incidents that you cite is — we are talking, what, exactly? Two major incidents (I’ll leave out Three Mile Island, where no radiation was leaked into the surrounding environment), over the course of decades of nuclear power plant operation by multiple countries — that’s a stellar safety record, by any reasonable measure. How many major oil spills, tanker leaks, well blowouts, well fires, etc., have taken place, over that time? What about coal fires?
Chernobyl is a unique event that was caused solely by a flawed reactor design, combined with the distinctly lax and indifferent safety standards and protocols that were common under Soviet communism. In other words, this is not an event that would ever be replicated in a nuclear power plant run in a western democracy.
Fukishima was a freak accident that could have (and, should have) been avoided, if the operating utility had situated backup generators on higher ground, above a likely tsunami flood zone on lower ground.
So, at the end of the day, these are two accidents over decades of total operation, neither of which is going to be repeated, again.
And, it should be mentioned that the 4th generation reactor designs incorporate many passive safety features, eliminating the need for human intervention or even operating power to activate those features.
You’re missing the point. Which is … despite the operating record of the nuclear industry … shit has happened … and shit can always happen … and with nuclear power it can be bloody big shit that can effect thousands of people and takes lifetimes to mitigate. I’m not saying not to build nuclear power plants … I’m just sayin’ ya better know what you’re doin’ when ya do … both on the AE side as well as operations.
Remember, for the last 30 years, more people die from coal and gas and solar and wind annually directly than have died from all nuclear power energy in the last 30’years.
In OECD countries, it was over 2,000 per year annually from 1970 to 2000 for example.
Nuclear was minimal …
This is GREAT news. Gen IV nuclear power is our future, for almost unlimited power with no carbon emissions and no radioactive waste. Scott Adams has been pushing this for years. This is our future. I don’t care if you are Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative, this is what we should be striving for.
JR doesn’t care if your a republican or democrat
That’s news to me
Even when the topic isn’t politics, you just HAVE to inject some.
You could have just said “This is our future. This is what we should be striving for.”
But you couldn’t, so you didn’t.
Absolutely. Mini modular 4th gen salt reactors are one of the best ways to go. The technology is quite interesting but I would prefer liquid fluoride Thorium reactors as they produce far less spent fuel that could be used in weapons and the US has about a 1,000 yr supply of thorium.
China uses the reactors to power their quantium supercomputers, and not for their population.
Nuclear power is the ONLY thing that can power the liberal lunatic fantasy of ‘100% EVs by 2030’ that they’ve been trying to force.
We’ve entertained the delusion of ‘sustainable green energy’ for too long and with too many trillions of dollars.
I can’t imagine any of them actually think we’ll be 100% EV in 6 years. In order for the public to transition, they need to be safe, cheap, reliable and can be used in all conditions for all purposes we currently use ICE vehicles. We’re not there and we’re not going to be there by 2030.
We will be lucky to be 20% by 2030. Everyone that really wants one has one. Growth will slow even more. 50% by 2050 MIGHT be a reasonable goal. But you cannot force folks to buy something they don’t want. And the infrastructure isn’t there. Show me a fully electric Buckees and I might think otherwise.
I said this forever that we need small nuclear reactors all over the country. I’m wondering if Harris is going to use this in the debate, that she is responsible for this happening seen as the left is so crazy about nuclear.
Rickover style nuclear reactors, about 50 megawatts. should have been installed in Hawaii, Alaska, Maine and various other places decades ago. You just need an infallible supply of water nearby.
And that’s the beauty of the Gen IV reactors. They don’t have the same water needs which means they can be built in places where water is more valuable than electricity.
The nuts at the EPA will kill the project.
A molten salt reactor is the way to go, but this type still relies on an expensive constructed fuel (ceramic-enclosed uranium), instead of literally dirt-cheap thorium (with the injection of very little raw uranium), no fancy, engineered fuel elements needed. Note the nonsense about each pebble being “its own containment and pressure vessel” and how the coolant system will prevent disasters. In a MSR LFTR, the fuel is liquid. It’s kept in circulation in which it constantly sheds its heat into the power generation system. If something goes wrong, a plug of frozen fuel is allowed to melt (and it will melt on its own if the power that keeps it frozen is cut), and the fuel flows (via gravity – no valves or pumps involved) into a containment vessel below the reactor. In this vessel, the fuel’s heat causes the molten salt carrier to expand, in turn causing the density of the fuel to fall to a point at which the reaction stops. Not only is this far safer than any other system, the entire “hot” portion of the system operates at a little over 1 atmosphere of pressure. There is no danger of a high-pressure failure in the reactor because it doesn’t operate at high pressure.
The “pebble” fuel is a scam. The money in building nuclear power plants is in the fuel. Today’s nuclear plants use expensive fuel rods, which are available from a mere handful of suppliers. Power plant operators get locked in to multi-decade contracts for the fuel. The pebble fuel, being engineered, will be no different. This is one of the main reasons why there is resistance to MSR LFTRs – the fuel isn’t in an engineered container, it’s simply a mix of elements that work together by pure chemistry and physics, no rods, no cladding, and the fuel itself is currently a waste product of rare earth mining (although it can also be found in dirt that doesn’t have rare earth elements). There are literally hundreds of thousands of tons of thorium sitting around in drums, waiting for someone to put the thorium to use. There is no money it, meaning that the power they can produce will be (almost literally) dirt cheap.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfWB4CsQwyw&pp=ygUia2lyayBzb3JlbnNvbiBtb2x0ZW4gc2FsdCByZWFjdG9ycw%3D%3D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbyr7jZOllI&t=513s&pp=ygUia2lyayBzb3JlbnNvbiBtb2x0ZW4gc2FsdCByZWFjdG9ycw%3D%3D
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3rL08J7fDA&pp=ygUia2lyayBzb3JlbnNvbiBtb2x0ZW4gc2FsdCByZWFjdG9ycw%3D%3D
I worked for “Westinghouse” at the Bluff Road facility here in Columbia, SC 17 years ago, we made fuel rods.
Everything you said is spot-on.
I wouldn’t call the reactor a scam but rather a different approach. I agree with you about the thorium reactor and why it is superior. I’ve been reading about them for years. Something goes wrong and instead of a meltdown or explosion they just stop working.
“Scam” is probably the wrong word. How about “racket”?
Thorium is wonderful, no doubt…. but ain’t nobody got one commercially operational nowhere yet.
A few experimentals, sure, but even the adventurous Chinese won’t have one on line until 2030 – assuming it is finished successfully and on schedule.
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3271978/china-sets-launch-date-worlds-first-thorium-molten-salt-nuclear-power-station
The US ran an MSR for years at Oak Ridge. There are few technological hurdles to developing the type for commercial use. They are simple, safe, use well-understood chemical and nuclear processes, breed much of their own fuel, and are inexpensive to operate. They will cost much less to build than current commercial types of reactors, and smaller-scale reactors can be built economically – the type was specifically developed in response to a USAF request for a reactor small and safe enough to operate on board an intercontinental bomber.
Billions are being spent to develop fusion, a technology for which maturity isn’t even on the horizon. A fraction of what is being spent on fusion could be spent on developing LFTRs for commercial use, that could possibly be ready to come online in a decade or two.
BTW, without looking at the article (so I don’t know if this is mentioned therein), the Chinese were able to access all of our data on the Oak Ridge MSR because it’s all in the public domain and freely available. A group of Chinese scientists toured Oak Ridge years ago – they were expressly interested in what they could learn about the experimental MSR. They’re now ahead of us because of our research and experimentation. They were smart enough to begin commercial development of the tech. Why weren’t we? We aren’t we now?
IIRC, the DoD nixed it because they wanted reactor that could breed fuel for bombs.
This will never be completed, Democrat lawfare and liberal courts will ensure it.
This is the best news I’ve read all year, hands down. Gen IV nuclear is a civilization-level improvement. It will have the way to unlimited, safe, clean energy for all amd it will jump-start the training of a new generation of nuclear scientists and engineers. Space applications in power and propulsion already underway will diversify and accelerate. Nuclear shipping will cut more pollution and increase capacity and speed. One successful Gen IV design could lead to others (George W Bush’s Gen IV initiative focused initially on 6 types). Unless a startup such as Tri-Alpha Energy achieves commercial fusion, there is no better energy option for humanity than Gen IV nuclear.
I want to see a diverse staff at the control panels.
1st hire in exchange for the permits will be a dyslexic lesbian african american little person with autism.
It would seem to be great news, but we all know that when Trump wins in November the demonrats will immediately start the lawfare to kill it in the crib. Why? Because they don’t want Trump / R’s taking credit for it. Think Nixon when we landed on the moon. FKH
It would sure be nice if the U.S. would use advanced technology to implement a permanent and efficient nuclear waste policy rather than the current status of procrastination.
Iran would e a good place to hold to store the world’s waste.
nytimes:
But in recent speeches, two senior administration officials were allowed to allude to the change — in carefully constrained, single sentences — ahead of a more detailed, unclassified notification to Congress expected before Mr. Biden leaves office.
President Biden spent much of his political career as an advocate of nuclear nonproliferation and reducing the role of nuclear weapons in American defenses.Credit…Eric Lee/The New York Times
sooo………..
The new strategy, Mr. Vaddi said, emphasizes “the need to deter Russia, the PRC and North Korea simultaneously,” using the acronym for the People’s Republic of China.
nytimes
but doesnt think that AMERICAN CITIZENS CAN STOP LOCAL ARMED THUGS BY BEING ARMED???? against those thugs!!
Not sure how much of the southeastern grid this will power. It’s sorely needed for all the businesses and people fleeing NY and CA.
How about redirecting all of NY and CA power to growing state?