Nuclear experiences renewed interest via several recent projects; one researcher examines trends in hydrogen production in nuclear; and the quiz question of the week.
Nuclear accidents like those at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania (1979), Chernobyl in Ukraine (1986), and Fukushima in Japan (2011) have made many people fearful of nuclear power plants. Relatively cheap coal and natural gas have also discouraged more costly nuclear energy use. However, times are changing. Nuclear has been all over news headlines lately. Here is a look at two of those interesting developments.
Rasoul Sorkhabi
Editor, Core Elements
Bringing Back the Palisades Plant
Wlad 74/Shutterstock.com
Between 2012 and 2021, roughly a dozen nuclear plants in the United States were closed, mainly for economic reasons. One of them was the Palisades plant on the shores of Lake Michigan. Now, Florida-based Holtec International, the plant owner, plans to bring the Palisades back to life with a $1.82 billion federal and state loan.
Why go nuclear? Companies and investors seem to be showing a renewed interest in nuclear that was not present even five years ago. Where is this interest coming from? Let’s look:
In addition to having no carbon dioxide emissions and being more consistent than wind and solar power, nuclear power has the highest energy density of all energy resources.
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 has provided financial incentives for green energy technologies.
Almost all 94 operating reactors in the United States have already had their licenses extended to 60 years.
The Palisades project:
The Palisades reactor began in 1971 and closed in 2016. Its electricity powered about 800,000 homes across Michigan and Indiana.
In 2018, Holtec International purchased Palisades from Entergy and began plans to upgrade and reopen it.
Some locals are concerned about the safety of this old, rejuvenated reactor. They have signed a petition asking the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to develop new safety rules for the Palisades.
Last year, the state of Georgia launched two new reactors, supported in part by a $12 billion federal loan. The second of these was completed in April 2024.
Bill Gates’ energy company, TerraPower, is constructing a new generation of “small module reactors” in Wyoming. The project will cost $4 billion, half of which will come from the federal government.
Speaking of Bill Gates, Microsoft recently made a deal to help revamp Three Mile Island’s existing reactor. My colleague Sarah Compton reported on this in her tech and innovation newsletter, Enspired.
NextEra Energy in Iowa is considering reopening the Duane Arnold Energy Center, a 45-year-old nuclear plant closed in 2020.
International projects: Response to nuclear power is not the same everywhere.
Although Japan shut down all its 54 reactors after the Fukushima accident, the country has reopened 12 of them and another roughly 20 are awaiting approval to repone.
Is there a relationship between nuclear power plants and hydrogen production? A recent article in the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy explores this question.
Nuclear reactor classification: For context, nuclear reactors are classified into:
Light-water reactors (<320 °C) using water as coolant
Fast-breeder reactors (<500 °C) using sodium as coolant
High-temperature gas-cooled reactors (>700 °C) using helium as coolant
Hydrogen production in nuclear: Hydrogen in nuclear plants can be produced by dedicated nuclear reactors for water electrolysis or via co-production of electricity and hydrogen using the same nuclear reactor.
In either case, the procedure used to produce hydrogen may be one of the following:
Thermochemical water splitting using heat directly generated by the reactor to drive chemical reactions that extract hydrogen from water
High-temperature steam electrolysis using solid-oxide cells to extract hydrogen from steam while also consuming electricity and high temperature process heat
Hybrid thermochemical water splitting using both high-temperature heat and electricity (a combination of methods 1 and 2)
Radiolysis, which uses nuclear radiation to split water into hydrogen and oxygen
Electrolysis using electricity directly generated by nuclear energy
The new study: Researchers conducted a literature review of 398 articles conducted by 999 scientists and published in English from 2021–2023 to investigate research trends in nuclear hydrogen.
Researchers noted several trends and developments:
Hybrid thermochemical methods and integrating nuclear reactors with other systems to co-generate electricity, heat, and hydrogen are extensively researched because they have efficiency, cost, and environmental impact advantages.
For the large-scale production of nuclear hydrogen using thermal energy, the copper-chlorine cycle holds great potential because it has minimal material and maintenance cost and no adverse reactions.
Thermochemical cycles—even though they have relatively lower production costs—require high temperature process heat and a lot of electricity and pose safety and other technical issues. Their conversion efficiency is about 50 percent.
Steam methane reforming (SMR) with a conversion efficiency of 75–85 percent is the commonly used method for hydrogen production. Nuclear hydrogen, unlike SMR, does not emit carbon dioxide; however, nuclear hydrogen will need to greatly improve its efficiency and safety to compete with SMR.
Thank you to all who submitted answers to last week’s quiz!
As a reminder, the question was: What is the difference between Early Jurassic and Lower Jurassic or Late Cretaceous and Upper Cretaceous? Give examples of how you would use these terms.
Both Peter Webb and Allan Scardina correctly responded that the terms Lower and Upper Jurassic refer to the position of stratigraphic units (for example, Upper Jurassic sandstone formations), while the terms Early and Late Jurassic refer to the time during which deposition or other geologic events occurred (for example, Late Jurassic sea-level rise).
This week’s quiz question: Obsidian, or volcanic glass, is usually a dark color, often black. Is it a mafic or felsic rock? Briefly explain.
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