34 ms·

Article date: 6 July 2021 Referenced in TFA, India’s PFBR “began fuel loading” in March of 2024: https://www.powermag.com/long-awaited-milestone-fuel-loading-b

by settsu 2y ago

Article date: 6 July 2021 Referenced in TFA, India’s PFBR “began fuel loading” in March of 2024: https://www.powermag.com/long-awaited-milestone-fuel-loading-begins-at-indias-prototype-fast-nuclear-reactor/ https://www.powermag.com/long-awaited-milestone-fuel-loading...

Aachen 2y ago
Thanks for pointing that out! Looks like they've gotten a permit to start construction in Kemmerer, Lincoln County, Wyoming last May: https://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-reactors/advanced/who-were-working-with/applicant-projects/terrapower/documents.html https://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-reactors/advanced/who-were-... Edit: this would be for 840 MW thermal (I assume that means 840 MW worth of heat, which is then to be turned into electricity and perhaps district heating): https://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-reactors/advanced/who-were-working-with/applicant-projects/terrapower.html https://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-reactors/advanced/who-were-... Looking into India's plant, that is apparently entirely independent of Terrapower. Sounded a bit like they got a permit to build there sooner but no: > designed by India’s Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) based on the success of IGCAR’s 13.6-MWe/40-MWth fast breeder test reactor (FBTR), an experimental sodium-cooled fast reactor that has operated since 1985 [...]. The 500-MW PFBR got its start in October 2003, when the Indian government set up a wholly owned enterprise [...]. Construction of the reactor began in 2004. [...] delays stemmed from funding deficits, procurement delays, operational challenges, technical difficulties, and the geopolitical impact of the Fukushima accident. Much further down the article, also interesting: > At the end of 2016, Russia put online the 800-MWe (2,100-MWth) BN-800 at its Beloyarsk nuclear plant, a sodium-cooled fast reactor project that [this magazine] recognized as a pioneering Top Plant in 2016. The BN-800 reactor was, for the first time, fully loaded with uranium-plutonium MOX fuel in 2022. In December 2023, it was preparing to begin pilot operation China also has an experimental reactor, Japan is working on one, Canada started planning one in 2022, three European counties in 2023... nuclear isn't dead?! We're actually getting safer reactors that can eat spent fuel, even if they're a bit later than one might hope for? Cool!
- thinkcontext 2y ago
  That's local site prep permits. Getting an NRC permit to be able to start construction of the reactor itself is the real rub.
  - baking 2y ago
    That's for their sodium test facility, which they have just started construction on. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40658852 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40658852 They applied for their NRC permit on March 28, 2024. https://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-reactors/advanced/who-were-working-with/applicant-projects/terrapower.html https://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-reactors/advanced/who-were-...
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
- bonzini 2y ago
  > We're actually getting safer reactors that can eat spent fuel, Absolutely not my field, but can't CANDU reactors use spent fuel too? They seem pretty cool, it's not clear to me why they use them only in Canada!
  - acidburnNSA 2y ago
    They can extract a little bit more energy out of spent fuel using a process like DUPIC [1], but they don't extract the vast energy remaining in the U-238, and they also do not transmute it into shorter-term waste like fast-neutron reactors do, so the total value is pretty low. There are lots of CANDUs outside of Canada though! [2] [1] https://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/45495/42255431-MIT.pdf https://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/45495/4225543... (thesis) [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CANDU_reactor#Active_CANDU_reactors https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CANDU_reactor#Active_CANDU_rea...
    - Retric 2y ago
      U-238 has almost zero economic value, and it’s definitely negative when part of spent fuel. It’s literally the waste product of uranium enrichment and mostly used in ammunition. CANDU avoids the need for enrichment which means throwing a lot less U-238 out at the beginning. However it’s all the other bits like maintenance keeping nuclear expensive right now, reactor grade enriched uranium is still cheap and plentiful (~0.9c/kWh in fuel rods) which is why CANDU reactors don’t take off in the first place.

by settsu 2y ago

Aachen 2y ago

Thanks for pointing that out! Looks like they've gotten a permit to start construction in Kemmerer, Lincoln County, Wyoming last May: https://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-reactors/advanced/who-were-working-with/applicant-projects/terrapower/documents.html https://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-reactors/advanced/who-were-... Edit: this would be for 840 MW thermal (I assume that means 840 MW worth of heat, which is then to be turned into electricity and perhaps district heating): https://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-reactors/advanced/who-were-working-with/applicant-projects/terrapower.html https://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-reactors/advanced/who-were-... Looking into India's plant, that is apparently entirely independent of Terrapower. Sounded a bit like they got a permit to build there sooner but no: > designed by India’s Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) based on the success of IGCAR’s 13.6-MWe/40-MWth fast breeder test reactor (FBTR), an experimental sodium-cooled fast reactor that has operated since 1985 [...]. The 500-MW PFBR got its start in October 2003, when the Indian government set up a wholly owned enterprise [...]. Construction of the reactor began in 2004. [...] delays stemmed from funding deficits, procurement delays, operational challenges, technical difficulties, and the geopolitical impact of the Fukushima accident. Much further down the article, also interesting: > At the end of 2016, Russia put online the 800-MWe (2,100-MWth) BN-800 at its Beloyarsk nuclear plant, a sodium-cooled fast reactor project that [this magazine] recognized as a pioneering Top Plant in 2016. The BN-800 reactor was, for the first time, fully loaded with uranium-plutonium MOX fuel in 2022. In December 2023, it was preparing to begin pilot operation China also has an experimental reactor, Japan is working on one, Canada started planning one in 2022, three European counties in 2023... nuclear isn't dead?! We're actually getting safer reactors that can eat spent fuel, even if they're a bit later than one might hope for? Cool!

thinkcontext 2y ago
That's local site prep permits. Getting an NRC permit to be able to start construction of the reactor itself is the real rub.
- baking 2y ago
  That's for their sodium test facility, which they have just started construction on. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40658852 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40658852 They applied for their NRC permit on March 28, 2024. https://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-reactors/advanced/who-were-working-with/applicant-projects/terrapower.html https://www.nrc.gov/reactors/new-reactors/advanced/who-were-...
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
bonzini 2y ago
> We're actually getting safer reactors that can eat spent fuel, Absolutely not my field, but can't CANDU reactors use spent fuel too? They seem pretty cool, it's not clear to me why they use them only in Canada!
- acidburnNSA 2y ago
  They can extract a little bit more energy out of spent fuel using a process like DUPIC [1], but they don't extract the vast energy remaining in the U-238, and they also do not transmute it into shorter-term waste like fast-neutron reactors do, so the total value is pretty low. There are lots of CANDUs outside of Canada though! [2] [1] https://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/45495/42255431-MIT.pdf https://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/45495/4225543... (thesis) [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CANDU_reactor#Active_CANDU_reactors https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CANDU_reactor#Active_CANDU_rea...
  - Retric 2y ago
    U-238 has almost zero economic value, and it’s definitely negative when part of spent fuel. It’s literally the waste product of uranium enrichment and mostly used in ammunition. CANDU avoids the need for enrichment which means throwing a lot less U-238 out at the beginning. However it’s all the other bits like maintenance keeping nuclear expensive right now, reactor grade enriched uranium is still cheap and plentiful (~0.9c/kWh in fuel rods) which is why CANDU reactors don’t take off in the first place.