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About Iowas Duane Arnold plant that is being closed: "The Mark I containment was undersized in the original design; the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Harold
by antattack 6y ago
About Iowas Duane Arnold plant that is being closed:
"The Mark I containment was undersized in the original design; the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Harold Denton estimated a 90% probability of explosive failure if the pressure containment system were ever needed in a severe accident.[18] This design flaw may have been the reason that the tsunami in 2011 led to explosions and fire in Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.[19]" (Wikipedia)
It's likely that many old power plants are just not safe and too costly to operate reliably.
- lumost 6y agoThe follow-on question is why aren't these plants retrofitted to be secure? I'd somewhat naively expect that its simpler to upgrade an existing plant than permit a new plant in.a separate location.
- antattack 6y agoDuane Arnold plant is being replaced with solar panels and battery storage: https://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/business/duane-arnold-nuclear-plant-solar-farm-nextera-energy-palo-ia-20210318 https://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/business/duane-arnol...
- belorn 6y agoA 615-megawatt facility coupled with 60 megawatts seems a bit low on the storage side. The more common approach I have seen with solar panels is 75% capacity for about 3-4 hours running time. It should be quite clear that neither solution are even close to enough power to bridge the gap and require additional energy in the form of fossil fuels. It will be less fossil fuels than if the nuclear plant was exclusively replaced with fossil fuels, but it will be more fossil fuels than before and it will be adding to global warming in a time where the planet can't take more.
- benchaney 6y agoIt’s possible that it would be more expensive to upgrade than to replace in many cases. While I support expanding nuclear power capabilities in general, a straightforward rule like “don’t decommission old plants as long as fossil fuels are still being used” seems dangerous and irresponsible.
- sliken 6y agoEach plant is unique, and not perfectly understood. Often the people that did understand it have forgotten, died, moved on, etc. Understanding, improving, testing, and certification of a plan to protect against the huge risks involved is expensive and often in practice timelines and budgets often go significantly over. There's numerous MUCH newer designs that: are much smaller, much easier to scale, absolutely identical, well understood, robust in the face of failure, and don't even need operators. Additionally since they are identical they get economies of scale and only need a finite number of experts on hand, not a group of them per site. You literally need a flat site, water, and electrical hookups. If you don't provide enough water for cooling they shut down. After their useful service life you put them back on a train car and ask for a replacement. Some of these projects are ready to deliver, but the early customers have been cancelling. Bill Gates funded a project, and there's several around.
- dundercoder 6y agoCouple that with outages being so expensive. Each day offline is millions in lost revenue.
- andrewlgood 6y agoTo be clear, none of the new designs have been certified in the US by the NRC
- andrewlgood 6y agoThe plants have been retrofitted to be secure/safe. The retrofits can cost $100+ million and do not make much sense if the power plants are losing money.
- effie 6y agoYes but their safety could be improved, new containment system can be built etc. Governments should step up and change the incentives to keep the good plants in operation. Being unprofitable is not a good reason to decommission a nuclear plant. > DAEC's operation helps avoid the emission of nearly 4 million tons of carbon dioxide annually, which is the equivalent of taking almost 800,000 cars off the road
- ThinkBeat 6y agoThere are a lot of advantages to designing a better nuclear plant to be built than to retrofit one that is designed wrong from the beginning
- Lammy 6y agoAre retrofits and new construction equally possible in today's regulatory and media environments?
- dundercoder 6y agoThe NRC and DOE levy so much regulation, I really can’t imagine how anyone can make a profit with any changes.
- redis_mlc 6y ago> Yes but their safety could be improved, new containment system can be built etc. > Being unprofitable is not a good reason to decommission a nuclear plant. Peak delusional.