Watts Bar Unit 2 Achieves Initial Criticality

[kidd]

Nuclear fission begins at TVA's Watts Bar Unit 2 reactor

A self-sustaining nuclear reaction was achieved Monday at TVA's Watts Bar Unit 2 reactor in one of the most significant milestones toward activating America's first new nuclear plant in the 21st century.

Licensed reactor operators at the newest unit at Watts Bar brought the reactor to a sustained fission reaction known as initial criticality at 2:16 a.m. EDT. Unit 2 is now generating heat under its own power and within the next couple of weeks should be brought to a power level sufficient to heat steam and generate electricity for the first time.

TVA expects the Unit 2 reactor to achieve 100 percent power and be declared complete and commercially viable by this summer — nearly 43 years after construction first began at Watts Bar. The TVA plant has been stopped and started several times over the past four decades due to changing power demands in the Tennessee Valley.

Read more at:
http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/business/aroundregion/story/2016/may/24/nuclear-fissistarts-tvnuke/367211/

[kidd]

The Tennessee Valley Authority's Watts Bar Unit 2 achieved initial criticality on Monday morning, making it the first new reactor added in the US in two decades.

Oddly enough, the first new reactor of the 21st century has some of the oldest components of any existing plant. Its Model D3 steam generators are already expected to be replaced within 10 years.

[Just_Victor]

@Joe Wooten

And the good people of Tennessee thank you Joe.



... or at least they should.

[Joe Wooten]

The Tennessee Valley Authority's Watts Bar Unit 2 achieved initial criticality on Monday morning, making it the first new reactor added in the US in two decades.

Oddly enough, the first new reactor of the 21st century has some of the oldest components of any existing plant. Its Model D3 steam generators are already expected to be replaced within 10 years.

It was a very stupid decision on the part of TVA not to replace those steam generators before startup. The D3's have been replaced everywhere else after a few years, and WB2 could have done it much cheaper and gotten the scrap metal value for them by replacing during construction. Now they will have to store them for 60 years. I think there were some shady issues behind this, and my reason for it is that the original VP in charge of WB 2 is hiding from the US law in Europe or Iran right now.

[Joe Wooten]

@Joe Wooten

And the good people of Tennessee thank you Joe.



... or at least they should.

It was fun doing startup while I was there in 2011-2013.....

[kidd]

It was a very stupid decision on the part of TVA not to replace those steam generators before startup. The D3's have been replaced everywhere else after a few years, and WB2 could have done it much cheaper and gotten the scrap metal value for them by replacing during construction. Now they will have to store them for 60 years. I think there were some shady issues behind this, and my reason for it is that the original VP in charge of WB 2 is hiding from the US law in Europe or Iran right now.

Well, we questioned why they chose to keep the D3s as well.
First of all, they were delivered to Watts Barr Unit 2 (many years ago) without the N-stamp. The SGs had to be certified.
Second, to get the D3s up to modern standards, the bowl had to be electroplated (to keep dose rates down)
Third, replacement would have been a lot cheaper without having to deal with radioactivity.

But, it was TVA's decision and we will do what we can to make them look good.

We have some tricks we can use to keep them running.
- Better water chemistry management
- Alternate repair criteria
- Aggressive inspection and repair (rather than plug)

[ConstitutionRose]

I worked at Sequoyah during the 90's.  Watts Bar was on again, off again, on again.  Seemed stupid not to bring it online and sell the power even if TN didn't need it.  They were selling from Sequoyah in the 90's.

[Fishrrman]

From the article:
"TVA expects the Unit 2 reactor to achieve 100 percent power and be declared complete and commercially viable by this summer — nearly 43 years after construction first began at Watts Bar. The TVA plant has been stopped and started several times over the past four decades due to changing power demands in the Tennessee Valley."

FORTY-THREE years to get a plant built and online?

This ought to convey the state of nuclear power generation in America today.

That is to say, it's an all-but-dead technology.

Prediction:
No one reading this post will live to see a new nuclear plant built (notwithstanding those already started or in the advanced planning stages).

Them days is over. Done gone.

[Joe Wooten]

From the article:
"TVA expects the Unit 2 reactor to achieve 100 percent power and be declared complete and commercially viable by this summer — nearly 43 years after construction first began at Watts Bar. The TVA plant has been stopped and started several times over the past four decades due to changing power demands in the Tennessee Valley."

FORTY-THREE years to get a plant built and online?

This ought to convey the state of nuclear power generation in America today.

That is to say, it's an all-but-dead technology.

Prediction:
No one reading this post will live to see a new nuclear plant built (notwithstanding those already started or in the advanced planning stages).

Them days is over. Done gone.

Actually my company (Westinghouse) is building two new 2 unit plants at the Vogtle plant in Georgia and VC Summer in S Carolina. I'm hoping to get down there in 18 moths to 2 years to do a startup to round out my career where it started. I did Startup/Power Ascension at Comanche Peak starting back in 1980 when I was less than 2 years out of college. A fun, but frustrating 11 year exercise.....

[kidd]

From the article:
"TVA expects the Unit 2 reactor to achieve 100 percent power and be declared complete and commercially viable by this summer — nearly 43 years after construction first began at Watts Bar. The TVA plant has been stopped and started several times over the past four decades due to changing power demands in the Tennessee Valley."

FORTY-THREE years to get a plant built and online?

This ought to convey the state of nuclear power generation in America today.

That is to say, it's an all-but-dead technology.

Prediction:
No one reading this post will live to see a new nuclear plant built (notwithstanding those already started or in the advanced planning stages).

Them days is over. Done gone.

Not true at all.
Watts Bar Unit 2 was significantly completed.
Then Three Mile Island happened and new nuclear construction was halted. Watts Bar Unit 2 was 75% done.

After 30 years, TVA found that the economics were right to restart work on Watts Bar Unit 2.
Of course, over those 30 years, TVA used Watts Bar Unit 2 for spare parts in Watts Bar Unit 1, so a lot of rework has to be done.

There is a high probability of new plant orders in the United Kingdom, India and Bulgaria.
In the United States, Bellfonte is a possibility and South Texas recently received approval for new units 3 and 4.

Right now, nuclear power is hurting because natural gas from fracking is so cheap.
But once that market matures, nuclear power will be more attractive. It is hardly a permanent situation.

[Joe Wooten]

Not true at all.
Watts Bar Unit 2 was significantly completed.
Then Three Mile Island happened and new nuclear construction was halted. Watts Bar Unit 2 was 75% done.

After 30 years, TVA found that the economics were right to restart work on Watts Bar Unit 2.
Of course, over those 30 years, TVA used Watts Bar Unit 2 for spare parts in Watts Bar Unit 1, so a lot of rework has to be done.

There is a high probability of new plant orders in the United Kingdom, India and Bulgaria.
In the United States, Bellfonte is a possibility and South Texas recently received approval for new units 3 and 4.

Right now, nuclear power is hurting because natural gas from fracking is so cheap.
But once that market matures, nuclear power will be more attractive. It is hardly a permanent situation.

What's hurting the Illinois nuke plants is the idiotic 3 cents/KWH federal subsidy for wind power, AND the requirement that the grid take wind over all other forms when the generators are running. They also build a lot of the farms close to an existing power plant so they do not have to build and maintain a switchyard and that plant is forced by law to let the wind generators use their switchyard.