Article

2022-01-24 Science & Technology

[Black Hills Pioneer] In this sleepy Wyoming town that has relied on coal for over a century, a company founded by the man who revolutionized personal computing is launching an ambitious project to counter climate change: A nationwide reboot of nuclear energy technology.
Maybe he can pull it off, but it's ...nuclear power
Until recently, Kemmerer was little-known for anything except J.C. Penney’s first store and some 55-million-year-old fish fossils in quarries down the road.

Then in November, a company started by Bill Gates, TerraPower, announced it had chosen Kemmerer for a nontraditional, sodium-cooled nuclear reactor that will bring on workers from a local coal-fired power plant scheduled to close soon.

The demonstration project comes as many U.S. states see nuclear emerging as an answer to fill the gap as a transition away from coal, oil and natural gas to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Which US states are 'thinking' about nuclear power? Starting a new meme, AP?
Many residents in Kemmerer, where the population of 2,700 is little-changed since the 1990s, see the TerraPower project as a much-needed economic boost because Rocky Mountain Power’s Naughton power plant ~~killed by Obama/Biden~~ will close 2025. The plant employs about 230 and a mine that supplies coal exclusively to the plant — and is also at risk of closing if it can’t find another customer — almost 300.

The U.S. nuclear industry has been at a standstill, providing a steady 20% of the nation’s power for decade amid the costly and time-consuming process of building huge conventional nuclear plants.

Only one new commercial nuclear project, the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Watts Bar No. 2, has come online in the U.S. in the past 25 years.

By cooling the planned Kemmerer reactor with liquid sodium, a metal that boils at a temperature much higher than water and solidifies at well above room temperature, TerraPower says its relatively small, 345-megawatt plant, able to power about 345,000 homes, will be safe and less expensive than conventional, water-cooled nuclear plants. The company’s Natrium plant will use a simpler and less expensive system of unpressurized coolant and vents not dependent on electricity to halt fission during an emergency.

The approach isn’t new. Russia has had a commercial sodium-cooled reactor in use at full capacity since 2016 and such designs have been tested in the U.S.
Yeah, they also had Chernobyl.

Posted by Bobby 2022-01-24 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11128 views ] Top

#1 That will bring a whole new meaning to the term 'Blue Screen Of Death'.

Posted by CrazyFool 2022-01-24 01:11|| 2022-01-24 01:11|| Front Page Top

Posted by Skidmark 2022-01-24 01:57|| 2022-01-24 01:57|| Front Page Top

#3 Oh, my. More people died in an Oldsmobile driven by a Senator from Massachusetts than at 3 Mile Island.

Posted by Procopius2k 2022-01-24 09:30|| 2022-01-24 09:30|| Front Page Top

#4 lots of different groups are working on small modular reactors

NuScale is expecting to build in Idaho and another company is expecting to build in the Tennessee Valley.

There was funding in the 'infrastructure' bill for a testing site in Idaho which would try out different materials, different composite designs, etc. for the components of reactors. I don't know how that is coming.

Posted by Lord Garth 2022-01-24 10:22|| 2022-01-24 10:22|| Front Page Top

#5 Had there not been stoppage of building and new development due to hysteria, we would be much further along. It seems the "proliferation" concerns that Jimmuah Cahtah used as an excuse to kill Clinch River have moved ahead anyway.

Posted by M. Murcek 2022-01-24 10:25|| 2022-01-24 10:25|| Front Page Top

#6 Gee, a medium size plant already in use and proven safe in say Sweden couldn't be, you know, just copied?

Posted by Procopius2k 2022-01-24 10:33|| 2022-01-24 10:33|| Front Page Top

#7 ^ There's much of the problem. Here in the US, every plant was engineered almost from scratch, re-invent the wheel every time. For regulatory reasons, doncha know...

Posted by M. Murcek 2022-01-24 10:38|| 2022-01-24 10:38|| Front Page Top

#8 And continuously re-engineered during construction, to make it even safer.

Posted by Bobby 2022-01-24 10:54|| 2022-01-24 10:54|| Front Page Top

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