Nuclear Power and the U.S. Transition to a Restructured, Competitive Power Generation Sector

Author(s):  
Shelby T. Brewer ◽  
Rayburn Hanzlik
Author(s):  
Daniel R. E. Ewim ◽  
Stephen S. Oyewobi ◽  
Michael O. Dioha ◽  
Chibuike E. Daraojimba ◽  
Suzzie O. Oyakhire ◽  
...  

2014 ◽  
Vol 44 (5) ◽  
pp. 470-502 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simone Turchetti

After World War II had ended, Italy, not unlike other developed countries, held the ambition to establish an atomic energy program. The Peace Treaty of 1947 forbade its administration from seeking to acquire atomic weaponry, but in 1952 a national research committee was set up to explore the peaceful uses of atomic energy, in particular with regard to building nuclear reactors. One of the committee’s goals was to use nuclear power to make the country less reliant on foreign energy provisions. Yet, this paper reveals that the atomic energy project resulted in actually increasing Italy’s dependence on overseas assistance. I explain the reasons for this outcome by looking at the unfolding of U.S.–Italy relations and the offers of collaboration in the atomic energy field put forth by the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. I argue that these offers undermined plans to shape the nuclear program as its Italian architects had envisioned, caused them to reconsider the goal of self-sufficiency in energy provisioning, and reconfigured the project to be amenable to the security and economic priorities of the U.S. administration. In this way, I conclude, the path for the Italian project to “de-develop” was set.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bill Press ◽  
Adam Dukes ◽  
Dave Poole ◽  
Jack Adams ◽  
Luke Burling ◽  
...  

Abstract The Additive Manufacture (AM) of nuclear plant components, such as small-bore globe valves, offers opportunities to reduce costs and improve production lead-times. Cost reductions can be achieved by reducing raw material quantities, removing machining operations, and eliminating the welding of sub-assemblies. Furthermore, there is the opportunity to reduce production lead-times by simplifying the supply chain, e.g. reducing the number of parts to be sourced and eliminating special operations. Such opportunities are important against a backdrop of industry striving to reduce the cost of nuclear power generation in order to ensure viability with other forms of power generation. However, AM is a relatively new and innovative manufacturing technology, and although now seeing greater use in industry, there are still very few examples of where the technology has been applied to components used in safety critical applications. Furthermore, it is not covered by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Section III, nuclear design code. For nuclear plant applications, it is imperative a robust safety justification is provided. This paper presents Rolls-Royce’s approach to provision of a high integrity safety justification to enable the implementation of AM small-bore globe valves, up to a nominal bore size of 2” to nuclear plant. The material of construction is AM Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) 316LN stainless steel, with a Hot Isostatic Press (HIP) bonded LPBF Tristelle 5183 low cobalt hard facing seat. The paper describes the structure of the safety justification, which follows a multi-legged approach. It provides an overview of the innovative manufacturing process, which is, to the best of Rolls-Royce’s knowledge, the first of a kind application on nuclear pressure boundary components. The paper provides a summary of the suite of materials testing and metallurgical examinations conducted, and majors on prototype functional and performance testing where comparisons are made with the previous forged form. Pressure testing is covered which includes ultimate pressure testing to 2,000 bar, as well as: functional cyclic testing, hard facing bond strength tests, dynamic loading (shock), and cyclic thermal tests. In all cases the additive manufactured small-bore globe valves performed as well, and in some cases better than the forged material equivalent.


BioResources ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulises Lacoa ◽  
Guillermo Velarde ◽  
Michael Kay ◽  
Edgar Blanco ◽  
Daniel E. Saloni

Author(s):  
Se-Kwon Jung ◽  
Adam Goodman ◽  
Joe Harrold ◽  
Nawar Alchaar

This paper presents a three-tier, critical section selection methodology that is used to identify critical sections for the U.S. EPR™ Standard Nuclear Power Plant (NPP). The critical section selection methodology includes three complementary approaches: qualitative, quantitative, and supplementary. These three approaches are applied to Seismic Category I structures in a complementary fashion to identify the most critical portions of the building whose structural integrity needs to be maintained for postulated design basis events and conditions. Once the design of critical sections for a particular Seismic Category I structure is complete, the design for that structure is essentially complete for safety evaluation purposes. Critical sections, taken as a whole, are analytically representative of an “essentially complete” U.S. EPR™ design; their structural design adequacy provides reasonable assurance of overall U.S. EPR™ structural design adequacy.


Author(s):  
Dongsu Kim ◽  
Heejin Cho ◽  
Rogelio Luck

This study evaluates potential aggregate effects of net-zero energy building (NZEB) implementations on the electrical grid in simulation-based analysis. Many studies have been conducted on how effective NZEB designs can be achieved, however the potential impact of NZEBs have not been explored sufficiently. As significant penetration of NZEBs occurs, the aggregated electricity demand profile of the buildings on the electrical grid would experience dramatic changes. To estimate the impact of NZEBs on the electrical grid, a simulation-based study of an office building with a grid-tied PV power generation system is conducted. This study assumes that net-metering is available for NZEBs such that the excess on-site PV generation can be fed to the electrical grid. The impact of electrical energy storage (EES) within NZEBs on the electrical grid is also considered in this study. Finally, construction weighting factors of the office building type in U.S. climate zones are used to estimate the number of national office buildings. In order to consider the adoption of NZEBs in the future, this study examines scenarios with 20%, 50%, and 100% of the U.S. office building stock are composed of NZEBs. Results show that annual electricity consumption of simulated office buildings in U.S. climate locations includes the range of around 85 kWh/m2-year to 118 kWh/m2-year. Each simulated office building employs around 242 kWp to 387 kWp of maximum power outputs in the installation of on-site PV power systems to enable NZEB balances. On a national scale, the daily on-site PV power generation within NZEBs can cover around 50% to 110% of total daily electricity used in office buildings depending on weather conditions. The peak difference of U.S. electricity demand typically occurs when solar radiation is at its highest. The peak differences from the actual U.S. electricity demand on the representative summer day show 9.8%, 4.9%, and 2.0% at 12 p.m. for 100%, 50%, and 20% of the U.S. NZEB stocks, respectively. Using EES within NZEBs, the peak differences are reduced and shifted from noon to the beginning of the day, including 7.7%, 3.9%, and 1.5% for each percentage U.S. NZEB stock. NZEBs tend to create the significant curtailment of the U.S. electricity demand profile, typically during the middle of the winter day. The percentage differences at a peak point (12 p.m.) are 8.3%, 4.2%, and 1.7% for 100%, 50%, and 20% of the U.S. NZEB stocks, respectively. However, using EES on the representative winter day can flatten curtailed electricity demand curves by shifting the peak difference point to the beginning and the late afternoon of the day. The shifted peak differences show 7.4%, 3.7%, and 1.5% at 9 a.m. for three U.S. NZEB stock scenarios, respectively.


2018 ◽  
pp. 85-92
Author(s):  
Takashiro Akitsu

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