New Nuclear Power Generation in the US

[Astronuc]

New Nuclear Power Generation in the US Announced!

I posted about this in the Nuclear Engineering Forum, but this may signal the "Nuclear Rennaisance" in the US, so I'm repeating here for discussions on energy policy rather than technology.

https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?p=1017157#post1017157

 

[Skyhunter]

What is Kinky's position on the new plant?

 

[edward]

The Palo Verde Nuclear power station west of Phoenix has announced that they want to build two more reactors to add to their existing three.

Is any company in the USA still making reactors or reactor components?
Below is the only link I could find and it indicates that we haven't manufactured anything since 1999. It also stated that as of nov 2005 American companies had to pay a tariff to buy foreign components.
http://www.nei.org/index.asp?catnum=3&catid=653

The oil and coal lobbyists in Washington are going gto be busy.

 

[Astronuc]

Palo Verde was designed for 5 units, although I believe I remember someone saying ten units.

[QUOTE-NEI]Steam generator, pressurizer and vessel-head replacements can improve reactor performance dramatically by reducing downtime and increasing electrical output.[/QUOTE] That is if the plant is derated over concerns of failure of aged parts. These components were supposedly designed for 40 year lifetime. In some cases, the internal started failing before they reached half-life.

PV head replacements are motivated by the near failure of the Davis Besse Head. Corrosion and a steam leak wore away the carbon steel shell leaving about 5/8" (IIRC) stainless steel liner holding back about 2230 psia. It would have been a nasty situation if that liner had failed.

Interestingly, the nuclear industry is considered fairly conservative, as is the utility industry. However, the nuclear industry supports the claim that GW is in large part caused by fossil fuels (the utilitiy industry also uses a lot oil and coal), and they promote nuclear energy as a way to meet demand for electricity and reduce greenhouse gases.