First new U.S. nuclear reactor in almost two decades set to begin operating

[thackney]

First new U.S. nuclear reactor in almost two decades set to begin operating
http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=26652
June 14, 2016

The Tennessee Valley Authority's (TVA) Watts Bar Unit 2 was connected to the power grid on June 3, becoming the first nuclear power plant to come online since 1996, when Watts Bar Unit 1 started operations. Watts Bar Unit 2 is undergoing final testing, producing electricity at incremental levels of power, as TVA prepares to start commercial operation later this summer. The new reactor is designed to add 1,150 megawatts (MW) of electricity generating capacity to southeastern Tennessee.

Watts Bar Unit 2 is the first nuclear plant in the United States to meet new regulations from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) that were established after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that damaged the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant in Japan. After the NRC issued an operating license for the unit in October 2015, 193 new fuel assemblies were loaded into the reactor vessel the following month. TVA announced at the end of May that the reactor achieved its first sustained nuclear fission reaction.

Construction on Watts Bar Unit 2 originally began in 1973, but construction was halted in 1985 after the NRC identified weaknesses in TVA's nuclear program. In August 2007, the TVA board of directors authorized the completion of Watts Bar Unit 2, and construction started in October 2007. At that time, a study found Unit 2 to be effectively 60% complete with $1.7 billion invested. The study said the plant could be finished in five years at an additional cost of $2.5 billion. However, both the timeline and cost estimate developed in 2007 proved to be overly optimistic, as construction was not completed until 2015, and costs ultimately totaled $4.7 billion.

Although Watts Bar 2 is the first new U.S. nuclear generator to come online in 20 years, four other reactors are currently under construction and are expected to join the nuclear fleet within the next four years. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant Units 3 and 4 in Georgia and Virgil C. Summer Nuclear Generating Station Units 2 and 3 in South Carolina are scheduled to become operational in 2019–20, adding 4,540 MW of generation capacity.

[IsailedawayfromFR]

First new U.S. nuclear reactor in almost two decades set to begin operating
http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=26652
June 14, 2016

The Tennessee Valley Authority's (TVA) Watts Bar Unit 2 was connected to the power grid on June 3, becoming the first nuclear power plant to come online since 1996, when Watts Bar Unit 1 started operations. Watts Bar Unit 2 is undergoing final testing, producing electricity at incremental levels of power, as TVA prepares to start commercial operation later this summer. The new reactor is designed to add 1,150 megawatts (MW) of electricity generating capacity to southeastern Tennessee.

Watts Bar Unit 2 is the first nuclear plant in the United States to meet new regulations from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) that were established after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that damaged the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant in Japan. After the NRC issued an operating license for the unit in October 2015, 193 new fuel assemblies were loaded into the reactor vessel the following month. TVA announced at the end of May that the reactor achieved its first sustained nuclear fission reaction.

Construction on Watts Bar Unit 2 originally began in 1973, but construction was halted in 1985 after the NRC identified weaknesses in TVA's nuclear program. In August 2007, the TVA board of directors authorized the completion of Watts Bar Unit 2, and construction started in October 2007. At that time, a study found Unit 2 to be effectively 60% complete with $1.7 billion invested. The study said the plant could be finished in five years at an additional cost of $2.5 billion. However, both the timeline and cost estimate developed in 2007 proved to be overly optimistic, as construction was not completed until 2015, and costs ultimately totaled $4.7 billion.

Although Watts Bar 2 is the first new U.S. nuclear generator to come online in 20 years, four other reactors are currently under construction and are expected to join the nuclear fleet within the next four years. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant Units 3 and 4 in Georgia and Virgil C. Summer Nuclear Generating Station Units 2 and 3 in South Carolina are scheduled to become operational in 2019–20, adding 4,540 MW of generation capacity.

Seems only Southern States are allowing the permitting for construction of new nuclear power plants.

[thackney]

Seems only Southern States are allowing the permitting for construction of new nuclear power plants.

http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-reactors/col/new-reactor-map.html

[Joe Wooten]

I know for a fact the two new units at Comanche Peak are a dead issue. Luminant is bankrupt and both of those units are either in deep freeze or have been quietly cancelled. They will never be built. natural gas is way too cheap and plentiful in the north central Texas area. Duke might give the go-ahead for the Lee County units depending upon the results of startup testing in China.

[Smokin Joe]

I know for a fact the two new units at Comanche Peak are a dead issue. Luminant is bankrupt and both of those units are either in deep freeze or have been quietly cancelled. They will never be built. natural gas is way too cheap and plentiful in the north central Texas area. Duke might give the go-ahead for the Lee County units depending upon the results of startup testing in China.

Keep in mind, too, that as the bombs to reactor fuel program winds down, there will be a reduction in the available fuel for these reactors, leading to price increases for Uranium. Combine that with the low price of Natural Gas, and for the present, conventional reactors do not look like a good power generation investment. As with any other energy sector, Government Agency rule changes have factored in that economic equation.

https://www.caseyresearch.com/articles/the-resurgence-of-the-nuclear-reactor
Keep in mind that does not preclude the emergence of newer and better designs than the current ones on line.

[Joe Wooten]

All the other reactor designs have not had a commercial size demonstrators built yet. Hell, not even fully designed in detail. The SMR's TVA plans to build in Clinch River are in design right now. Unless the NRC changes it's regulatory system, the people costs for the SMR units will be the same as a large LWR plant. That is one reason Ft. Calhoun is closing, Kewaunee closed, and several other smaller sites are considering closing.

The Germans had a 15MWth pebble bed plant for many years, but as the South African consortium found out, there are some big problems with scaling up the design to a more commercially viable size. They were going for a 10X uprate, which proved to be undoable. and a smaller upsizing just was not economically feasible. A 50 MWth one needs to be built and operated for several years, then you can upsize again after getting some operating experience (if it pans out), but only a government subsidized plant that size can be operated. The bitter experience with the HTGR's shows this problem. Peach Bottom 1 ran for several years successfully, so General Atomic decided to go directly to a ~10X commercial size design, and convinced one utility t build it (Ft. St. Vrain). FSV had a lot of operational problems and after a decade of trying Public Service Colorado gave up and shut it down. An intermediate size unit, say of 300 MWth, could have ironed out some of these problems, but Rickover's influence on the civilian nuclear industry was large, and if it was not useful for the Navy, he opposed it. The only reason GE was able to get BWR's built was their influence rivaled his due to their size, which GA could not.