3 ms·

Constellation's Nuclear Plants to Provide Power for US Government Agencies

20 points by mpweiher 2y ago

credit_guy 2y ago
The idea here is that Constellation will add 1.1 GW of additional capacity and will sell this to the US Government. The additional capacity is done by power uprating their existing nuclear power plants. A nuclear reactor does not really have a limit of how much power it can produce, you can slowly increase the reactivity in the reactor until you double, triple, or multiply by one hundred the amount of fission that happens in the core per unit of time. The problem is how to remove the heat. You just need to pump proportionally more water through the core. But that's not easy. Still, it can be done, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is able to oversee and approve the uprate. Of course, we are not talking about factors of 100, or even of 2, but a 20% increase is doable. The NRC offers more details here https://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/licensing/power-uprates.html https://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/licensing/power-uprat...
- toomuchtodo 2y ago
  This is a clever way to lock in federal funding for low carbon energy into the future. Great explainer.
mattpavelle 2y ago
From TA > Constellation and its partners will add approximately 1,100 MW of clean energy by 2028, enough energy to power over one million homes. And > A portion of the power will come from investments Constellation will make to increase output at its nuclear plants. Anyone know where the rest of the promised energy comes from? Building a new plant takes a long time...
throw0101a 2y ago
The DoD is developing their own (mobile) nuclear reactor in partnership with BWXT (which won the design competition): * https://www.cto.mil/pele_eis/ https://www.cto.mil/pele_eis/ * https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/3915633/dod-breaks-ground-on-project-pele-a-mobile-nuclear-reactor-for-energy-resiliency/ https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/391563... * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pele https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pele Interview with the program manager of the project, Jeff Waksman: * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ij8z5WZbEg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ij8z5WZbEg
- preisschild 2y ago
  Pele is designed for a niche use case though: to power small remote grids for larger grids, a big reactor (like a modern WH AP1000) is more economical Still, pretty cool, because those niches need decarbonizing too.
  - throw0101a 2y ago
    > Pele is designed for a niche use case though: to power small remote grids Yes: covered in the interview. As someone who lives in Canada, I have a family friend who is currently working in Nunavut: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nunavut https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nunavut In the interview the PM mentions communities in Alaska, as well as Hawaii: * https://www.hawaiianelectric.com/billing-and-payment/rates-and-regulations/average-price-of-electricity https://www.hawaiianelectric.com/billing-and-payment/rates-a...
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
PaywallBuster 2y ago
Before Trump comes in power, suddenly Biden administration is doing lots of things Trump would have done Is it just me or are they trying to take credit ?
- preisschild 2y ago
  The Biden Administration has been pretty pro-nuclear for years. Biden himself even said a lot of pro-nuclear things during his IBEW speech.
- mpweiher 2y ago
  The Biden administration has been very pro nuclear for some time (possibly from the start), with the current plan to triple nuclear capacity from currently 100GW to 300GW, adding 200GW of generating capacity. https://liftoff.energy.gov/advanced-nuclear-2/ https://liftoff.energy.gov/advanced-nuclear-2/

20 points by mpweiher 2y ago

The idea here is that Constellation will add 1.1 GW of additional capacity and will sell this to the US Government. The additional capacity is done by power uprating their existing nuclear power plants. A nuclear reactor does not really have a limit of how much power it can produce, you can slowly increase the reactivity in the reactor until you double, triple, or multiply by one hundred the amount of fission that happens in the core per unit of time. The problem is how to remove the heat. You just need to pump proportionally more water through the core. But that's not easy. Still, it can be done, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is able to oversee and approve the uprate. Of course, we are not talking about factors of 100, or even of 2, but a 20% increase is doable. The NRC offers more details here https://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/licensing/power-uprates.html https://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/licensing/power-uprat...

toomuchtodo 2y ago
This is a clever way to lock in federal funding for low carbon energy into the future. Great explainer.

mattpavelle 2y ago

From TA > Constellation and its partners will add approximately 1,100 MW of clean energy by 2028, enough energy to power over one million homes. And > A portion of the power will come from investments Constellation will make to increase output at its nuclear plants. Anyone know where the rest of the promised energy comes from? Building a new plant takes a long time...

throw0101a 2y ago

The DoD is developing their own (mobile) nuclear reactor in partnership with BWXT (which won the design competition): * https://www.cto.mil/pele_eis/ https://www.cto.mil/pele_eis/ * https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/3915633/dod-breaks-ground-on-project-pele-a-mobile-nuclear-reactor-for-energy-resiliency/ https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/391563... * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pele https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Pele Interview with the program manager of the project, Jeff Waksman: * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ij8z5WZbEg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ij8z5WZbEg

preisschild 2y ago
Pele is designed for a niche use case though: to power small remote grids for larger grids, a big reactor (like a modern WH AP1000) is more economical Still, pretty cool, because those niches need decarbonizing too.
- throw0101a 2y ago
  > Pele is designed for a niche use case though: to power small remote grids Yes: covered in the interview. As someone who lives in Canada, I have a family friend who is currently working in Nunavut: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nunavut https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nunavut In the interview the PM mentions communities in Alaska, as well as Hawaii: * https://www.hawaiianelectric.com/billing-and-payment/rates-and-regulations/average-price-of-electricity https://www.hawaiianelectric.com/billing-and-payment/rates-a...

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

PaywallBuster 2y ago

Before Trump comes in power, suddenly Biden administration is doing lots of things Trump would have done Is it just me or are they trying to take credit ?

preisschild 2y ago
The Biden Administration has been pretty pro-nuclear for years. Biden himself even said a lot of pro-nuclear things during his IBEW speech.
mpweiher 2y ago
The Biden administration has been very pro nuclear for some time (possibly from the start), with the current plan to triple nuclear capacity from currently 100GW to 300GW, adding 200GW of generating capacity. https://liftoff.energy.gov/advanced-nuclear-2/ https://liftoff.energy.gov/advanced-nuclear-2/