Nuclear Power

[TerryM]

Thanks Sebastian!


I had no idea that the Yukon had a grid, or that hydro would be available in sufficient quantity. It sounds as though the Yukon does have real advantages WRT power!


You mentioned FF, but not coal. I hope coal isn't part of the mix.


With a modicum of luck and lots of political willpower it seems just possible that Canada could ween herself from coal in the not too distant future. Might be a way to mitigate in some small way the damage we've done to the atmosphere with our dirty oil.


I've long believed that if we could end coal generating plants worldwide it might represent a win that we could point at with pride.


We have to start somewhere with a winnable goal.
Terry

[Sebastian Jones]

Hi Terry,
I suppose Yukon's grid would be considered an isolated micro grid if placed in the global context. To some this is a problem because we cannot easily dump excess electricity or purchase if we are short. To that end, some wish to connect to the British Columbia grid. This, they argue, would enable us to industrialize the Yukon on clean electricity from a mega dam under construction in B.C. that is woefully over budget and desperately short of customers. Currently, any shortfall is made up with diesel and, increasingly, LNG generators.
Yes, Canada can easily stop using coal for electricity, and I'm confident we shall and soon(ish). Ontario has done it, Alberta is committed- and once it sent the signal, half the plants immediately closed- pretty well the only hold out is Saskatchewan which still thinks carbon capture and storage is viable.
Sorry, kinda got away from nukes here....
 

[tombond]

http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Viewpoint-There-is-no-Holy-Grail-of-energy

Germany will fail to achieve the CO2 emission reduction targets set for 2020, and the gap will be quite significant.  That’s why it is postponing the closure of coal-fired power plants and is building Nord Stream 2, writes Józef Sobolewski, director of the Nuclear Energy Department in Poland's Ministry of Energy.  He went on to say:

I compared the historical emissions data for Poland, Germany and France and found for the last 20 years, Poland has reduced its emissions by virtually the same amount as Germany, whose total renewable energy investment exceeded EUR250 billion.

In fact, Germany, while it leads the way in the development of renewable energy sources, has emissions ten times higher than France that relies on nuclear for power generation.

Energy systems cannot feed solely off renewables without supply from stable sources, and for Germany, these are provided by lignite power plants, the highest producers of emissions.

A German expert on wind energy, explained that the Holy Grail of renewable energy - an energy storage facility capable of filling the gap if wind stops for one day across the country - cannot be built, meaning it does not exist.  Remember that the ‘wind silence’ can last for weeks.

France that derives 75% of its energy from nuclear power plants and emits an average of ten times less CO2 per power unit than neighbouring Germany.  The French president abandoned plans to reduce the share of nuclear energy to 50%, stating that the reduction of emissions is the most important and not the way it is achieved.   Nevertheless, to appease the wind lobby, he approved the construction of offshore wind farms, with a guaranteed price five times more expensive than nuclear power.

A few years ago, I read an article by a consultancy that "a wind turbine is not a wind power plant; it is an excellent financial instrument”.

One may ask who gets the most profits from the development of renewable energy. It is obvious to me that it is not the climate.

Recently, a number of reports have been published on climate change, clearly indicating the need to develop nuclear energy as the only real measure that can prevent the bad from getting worse.

Maybe it’s time now to consider changes to EU policy and the replacement of “renewable energy” with “clean energy”?

[b_lumenkraft]

Hello everyone. Greetings from Germany.

Long time lurker here. Made an account to share this link to the thread >> http://omegataupodcast.net/299-gravity-storage/

It shows how energy storage can be done. It's about gravity storage.

@tombond i want to invite you to listen to it. The guest is talking about how much storage is needed and how a bigger grid (say a European/Asian combined) does not need energy storage at all and how it can be done without the need of nuclear power. Making the grid bigger or building energy storage as mentioned in the podcast or even do both would be cheaper and faster to deploy as new nuclear power plants.

[oren]

Welcome B Lumenkraft. Thanks for sharing. The first post is the hardest...

[Alexander555]

Tombond: One of the problems with a nuclear powerplant, is that you have to supply it with uranium. Or it goes down 100 % of the time. And the reserves that can be mined at todays price are just for a few years. Maybe 6 or 7 years. There is still a big pile left that can be mined at a much higher price. Bud than it depends how much reactors they build in the rest of the world. or that big pile is only good for a couple dozens of years. Until now it is mainly a few countries that use all the uranium, the USA, France.....But there are many left with a big need for energy. So nuclear will only be a short term solution, if you close your eyes for the thousands of years they will have to take care for that waste.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_uranium_reserves

[sidd]

Uranium reserves are not the problem. Financing is.

Absent state backed guarantees, no generator or utility today will undertake nuclear construction. Even given state backed funding, too many nuke projects turn into fiasco.

Banks rather fund solar, wind, gas peaker and battery. At current levels of solar/wind penetration, they can play that game for a few doublings, until solar/wind hits several tens of percent of load. Which is quite far away, certainly too far away for bean counters who live and die on quarterly reports.

sidd

[Alexander555]

Maybe the reserves are not a problem in the short term. But if you are born today, in a fossil fuel world. And they would make it to the average age of 80. Than they will not die in a fossil fuel world. Because all of that , coal, gas, oil, uranium, tree's....will be gone by the time they will be 80. And most of these hydro dams will be between the age of 80 and 200 years. So they will be cracking, or collapsed already.

[mitch]

Uranium reserves will be a problem without breeder reactors. U-235 fission supplies the energy for most reactors (0.75% of total U). Breeder reactors are needed to convert U-238 to the more fissile plutonium species, or to convert Th-232 to U-233. 

There will be concern about these nuclear fuels going forward. 

[Sciguy]

Here's a link to an article exploring why China has cut back on construction of nuclear reactors:

https://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Nuclear-Power/Why-Is-China-Losing-Interest-In-Nuclear-Power.html

And here are some excerpts:

Why Is China Losing Interest In Nuclear Power?

By Leonard Hyman & William Tilles  - Dec 19, 2018, 2:00 PM CST

The future of the nuclear power industry lies in China. The Chinese are presently building more nuclear electric power generating stations than any other country. This year, the Chinese will add three more nuclear power stations to their fleet bringing their total up to 40, while eighteen nuclear plants are also under construction. According to MIT estimates, the Chinese can erect a nuclear plant for half the cost of a plant here in the U.S. If so, what’s the problem?

First, let’s put the numbers into perspective. Nuclear power accounts for about 4 percent of Chinese electric power production. (Nuclear accounts for about 20 percent of electric power generation the U.S.) Solar and wind generation accounts for 7 percent of production in China and the renewable component has been growing far faster than nuclear. Chinese industries spent $127 billion in 2017 on developing renewables

Now, let’s get to the disturbing item in the MIT analysis as far as the nuclear power industry is concerned. The money quote? “Officially China still sees nuclear power as a must have. But unofficially, the technology is on a death watch.” The Chinese appear committed to completing all of the eighteen or so nuclear projects presently under construction, but they have not announced a new commercial project since 2016.

But we would argue that there are other factors for this waning interest in nuclear power. First is that renewables may be cheaper. Also, projections for power demand show a substantial falling off. The rate of Chinese electric power demand growth was 11 percent per year in 2000-2015 but is projected to fall to 2 percent per year in 2015-2030. These shifts show the Chinese economy coming to resemble those of the U.S. and Europe with less growth in the most energy intensive industries. An 11 percent growth rate in demand means a situation of almost chronic undersupply and shortage. A 2 percent growth rate in power demand permits a far more leisurely approach to long term energy planning.

[Sciguy]

Nuclear power plants tend to be huge, so when they go offline, either for scheduled refueling every 18 months or for unexpected repairs, backup generation is still needed.

For example, the largest nuclear power plant in the US has been having issues since 2016:

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jackson-mississippi-grand-gulf-nuclear-plant-outage-raises-concerns/

Jackson, Miss. — Another unplanned outage at Mississippi's Grand Gulf nuclear power plant is adding to regulators' concerns that reliability problems at the largest single-unit nuclear power plant in the United States may be affecting power markets.





Operators at the Entergy Corp. plant in southwest Mississippi took it offline Wednesday, citing problems with a turbine bypass valve. The outage came to light Tuesday when the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) announced a special inspection citing equipment issues "the agency wants to better understand."

"The two-member NRC team will spend about a week on site developing a chronology of the event, and evaluating the licensee's cause analysis and the adequacy of corrective actions," the company also said. "An inspection report documenting the team's findings will be publicly available within 45 days of the end of the inspection."

The plant has been running at reduced or zero power output for much of the time since 2016. That can stress power supplies and cause higher prices across Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana and eastern Texas. Tuesday, the commission said Grand Gulf was running at 18 percent power.

[NeilT]

Nuclear power plants tend to be huge, so when they go offline, either for scheduled refueling every 18 months or for unexpected repairs, backup generation is still needed.

Hence why the British Advance Gas Reactor was originally designed to be fuelled in operation.  When they hit issues with fuelling the costs had already been growing astronomically so they decided to park the problem and treat them like standard reactors.

[Sciguy]

Lurk,

The article states that the Chinese haven't started any new nuclear power plants in China since 2016.  Do you have any data that contradicts that statement?

[Sciguy]

Link,

Any news on the startup of the pebble bed reactor that began construction in April 2012, only 6 years ago (lightning fast for nuclear power plant construction)?  According to the articles you linked to above, it was supposed to start commercial operation this year.

The only articles I could find about it were from August 2018:

https://www.theengineer.co.uk/nuclear-safety-pebble-bed-reactors/

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/08/180823113558.htm

Experts voice safety concerns about new pebble-bed nuclear reactors
Date:August 23, 2018
Source:Cell Press
Summary:Researchers advise caution as a commercial-scale nuclear reactor known as HTR-PM prepares to become operational in China. The reactor is a pebble-bed, high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR), a design that is ostensibly safer but that researchers in the US and Germany warn does not eliminate the possibility of a serious accident.

In addition to generating electrical power more efficiently, pebble-bed HTGRs such as HTR-PM avoid some of the safety challenges that earlier reactor designs faced. They use graphite- and ceramic-coated grains of uranium fuel that can withstand the core's very high temperatures and passive cooling systems, which together should eliminate the possibility of a core meltdown. "Pebble-bed reactors have been described by their supporters as 'free from catastrophes' and 'walk away safe,'" he says.

What this means in practice, however, is that the soon-to-be-operational HTR-PM has been built without the safeguards that nuclear reactors in operation today are usually equipped with: it does not have a high-pressure, leak-tight containment structure to serve as a backup in case of an accidental release of radioactive material. It also does not have a redundant active cooling system.

"No reactor is immune to accidents. The absence of core meltdown accidents does not mean that a dangerous event is not possible," Moormann says. He and his coauthors, Scott Kemp and Ju Li of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, argue that with new technology, there is always a higher chance of user error. And prototype HTGRs have surprised their operators in the past by forming localized hot spots in the core and unexpectedly high levels of radioactive dust. The pebble-bed design also produces a larger volume of radioactive waste, which is challenging to store or treat.

"There was already some controversy about pebble-bed HTGRs, but my impression was that many problems of them were not sufficiently published and thus not known to some of my colleagues," says Moormann. "I hope that the pros and cons will be broadly discussed."

When the Chinese started up the first AP1000 reactors earlier this year, they made a big deal out of it and there were a lot of news releases.  I find it odd that they haven't made any announcements about the start up of this reactor.

[Sciguy]

Here'a another article, from a different author, that comes to similar conclusion about the Chinese nuclear industry:

https://www.compelo.com/energy/news/china-nuclear-expansion/

Many of the negative factors which have affected nuclear programmes elsewhere in the world are now also equally applicable in China. Despite many new reactors starting up, it is clear that the programme has continued to slow.

The most obvious sign of this is the lack of approvals for new construction starts. There have been no new approvals for approaching three years, so the number of reactors under construction has been falling sharply. Other indications of trouble are:
•uncertainties about the type of reactor to be utilised in the future
•the position of the power market
•the structure of the industry with its large state-owned enterprises (SOEs)
•the degree of support from state planners and the level of public opposition to nuclear plans.
•where China now stands with its planned transition to advanced reactors and a fuel reprocessing strategy.

Another important reason for the slowdown relates to the size of nuclear programme China needs. Problems of power over-supply in particular regions are now pressing and connected to the continued construction of coal generating stations and the rapid expansion of wind and solar power. There are important questions to be resolved about how many reactors are needed to satisfy power demand and the price that can be paid for their electricity. Nevertheless, most of the Chinese nuclear companies want to build lots of new units and feel they are being held back by the authorities. The rapid expansion of wind and solar generating capacity has reminded the planners that there are alternative means of achieving environmental goals, while the Chinese hydroelectric programme is still enormous.

China’s nuclear programme is now much harder to assess. The picture up to 2020 is fairly certain, as units under construction come into operation). The 58GW capacity target by end-2020 will be missed by perhaps 5GW, but more serious is another goal – having 30GW under construction by then. This would imply a programme of six reactors a year up to 2025, a similar level to 2015-2020. Almost all will have to be approved before the end of 2020. On recent trends, this looks unlikely and so it may be prudent to assume a programme of only 3-4 units per year beyond 2020. This means nuclear generating capacity of only 90GW or so by 2030, well below previous expectations. Beyond then it is difficult to judge, but the chance of China having a huge nuclear programme by 2050, perhaps consisting of 200-400 reactors, is much less than a few years ago. Estimates that China may move ahead of the USA in nuclear generating capacity by the mid or late 2020s now look wide of the mark. Even if 10-20 US units do eventually shut down by 2030, it could happen after then.

[sidd]

Japanes prosecutors want five years of jail time for Tepco officials:

 
"It was easy to safeguard the plant against tsunami, but they kept operating the plant heedlessly,"

"That led to the deaths of many people."

Officials are:

" ... former TEPCO chairman Tsunehisa Katsumata, 78, as well as former vice presidents Sakae Muto, 68, and Ichiro Takekuro, 72."

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/12/27/japanese-prosecutors-demand-5-years-prison-executives-facing-trial-fukushima-nuclear

sidd

[sidd]

Gift that keeps on giving:

"Last fall the US Army Corps of Engineers announced it was finally ready to resume a $500 million toxic waste cleanup of the Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation (NUMEC) dump."

It is in the little town of Apollo, Pennsylvania. That is one of the sacrifice zones of late stage capitalism. I go thru there on occasion, that sad place was blighted by the late seventies and gutted by the end of the Reagan years. The people there deserve better.

sidd

[Sebastian Jones]

"The Japanese conglomerate Hitachi looks certain to cancel its plans for a £16bn nuclear power station in Wales, leaving Britain’s ambitions for a nuclear renaissance in tatters."
"It would also mark an end to Japan’s hopes of exporting its nuclear technology around the world."
But there is an upside, even for those who like nuclear power, the situation will: " heap pressure on ministers to consider other large-scale alternatives such as offshore wind farms.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jan/11/hitachi-cancel-plans-nuclear-power-station-angelsey-wales

[sidd]

Former head regulator for US nukes turns apostate: " nuclear power is more hazardous than it is worth "

"Because the industry relies too much on controlling its own regulation, the continued use of nuclear power will lead to catastrophe"

Regulatory capture. It's the new black.

https://www.wtae.com/article/former-top-regulator-now-says-nuclear-power-hazardous/25888972

sidd

[b_lumenkraft]

Subsidizing upstate New York nuclear power plants more expensive than new wind: shutting down nuclear and replacement with onshore wind will save $ 7.9 Billion till 2050, while reducing CO2 by 20.1 to 27.4 Mt more than nuclear.

Link >> https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652618326829

Abstract:
We compare the cost of maintaining a proposed subsidy for New York's three upstate nuclear power plants with the cost of replacing the plants with renewable technologies from 2016 to 2050. Keeping nuclear operating with subsidy until 2050 is the most expensive option, costing $32.4 billion (2014 USD) over that period in the base business as usual case. The least expensive option is to shut down nuclear today and replace it with onshore wind, saving $7.9 billion. All analyzed renewable scenarios lead to 20.1 to 27.4 Mt CO2 greater life-cycle emission reductions. In addition, re-investing the cost savings of the renewable scenarios into additional onshore wind increase CO2 savings up to 32.5 Mt.

[sidd]

Problems, problems: Cleanups and ripoff contractors

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-lockheed/u-s-sues-lockheed-others-for-alleged-kickbacks-and-lying-on-cleanup-of-nuclear-site-idUSKCN1PX2EL

sidd

[sidd]

Piketon is one of those little towns on the scioto river about 30 mile up from it meets the ohio, been thru there many times. The nuke there was closed out and the cleanup was botched, and is currently as they say, "A Work in Progress." Nevertheless i see a proposal to repoen the thing as a civilian-military mixed use fuel manufacturing facility.

That area is a sacrifice zone of late stage capitalism. Unemployment and drug overdose death skyrocketing. Sherrod Brown supports the proposal for the jobs, but i think he is wrong. The site has a long history of contamination and screwups, and  is far too close to the ohio river. I shudder to think of the prisoners at lucasville just down the scioto, who will be left to the tender mercies of their jailors in the event of disaster.

https://energynews.us/2019/02/13/midwest/nuclear-watchdogs-warn-against-blurring-energy-military-uses-at-ohio-fuel-plant/

sidd

[sidd]

More woes for Vogtle: Lawsuit could end the plant

https://www.ajc.com/news/local/feds-warn-georgia-nuclear-project-threatened-florida-company-case/qusNs4dbVyvXV1ykjcLCON/

sidd

[NeilT]

"Experts" are always voicing their safety concerns. That's why the IAEA exists. They seem convinced all is ok and have approved the HTGR-PM. Who am I to argue? Given what "those experts" say and question, i think they need to do more research on this type of unit and why the IAEA have signed off on it being "meltdown proof; walk away safe" and what that actually means and why it is true.

When I went back to college after the Army I wrote to the IAEA and got a report of the Chernobyl incident.

Reading that document I can understand exactly why they might want to keep on looking at safety concerns.

Reactors are built differently today.  Not only will reactors not work the same way, they are built of different materials and, also, it is not possible to disable the safety mechanisms so you can "play" with the reactor in the same way.

[gerontocrat]

"Experts" are always voicing their safety concerns. That's why the IAEA exists. They seem convinced all is ok and have approved the HTGR-PM. Who am I to argue? Given what "those experts" say and question, i think they need to do more research on this type of unit and why the IAEA have signed off on it being "meltdown proof; walk away safe" and what that actually means and why it is true.

When I went back to college after the Army I wrote to the IAEA and got a report of the Chernobyl incident.

Reading that document I can understand exactly why they might want to keep on looking at safety concerns.

Reactors are built differently today.  Not only will reactors not work the same way, they are built of different materials and, also, it is not possible to disable the safety mechanisms so you can "play" with the reactor in the same way.

There is no such thing as absolute security. Any safety mechanism constructed by man can be deconstructed by man. The more complex a system is, the more "Judas Gates" that system has.

It just needs some people with sufficient motivation, resources and time to crack any system. Or, just like Windows, the system becomes so complex that errors and glitches remain hidden until such time a combination of circumstances....

But then perhaps the conversation may drift towards entropy and its association with complexity, leading to the inevitable destruction of homo sapiens and its "civilisation" built into the DNA thereof.

[oren]

Here's a quick overview for those not in the know, such as myself.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very-high-temperature_reactor

I do note that such reactors do not exist commercially, and that many problems in the life of a complex system come up during long-term operation, despite theoretical considerations. And that costs also tend to reveal themselves during construction and operation, despite the best design documents and expert estimates.
So it will take at least a decade to understand the economics of such reactors, and then another decade to deploy a significant number of them, even if all goes well.
It's certainly a good option to explore, and I am glad sombody is doing it, but you cannot bank on it at this point to solve clean energy issues - other options should be promoted in parallel, with a preference towards those that are already proven economically.

[Sciguy]

Japan has been restarting nuclear power plants slowly, which is finally cutting into their consumption of fossil fuels.

https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=38533

In 2018, Japan restarted five nuclear reactors that were shut down after the 2011 Fukushima accident. As those reactors return to full operation, the resulting increase in nuclear generation is likely to displace generation from fossil sources, in particular natural gas. Because Japan imports all of its natural gas in the form of liquefied natural gas (LNG), increased nuclear power production is likely to reduce Japanese imports of LNG in the electric power sector by as much as 10% in 2019.

Japan now has nine operating nuclear units with a total electricity generation capacity of 8.7 gigawatts. Electricity generation produced by natural gas-fired plants in Japan has been declining annually from its peak in 2014 and is likely to decline further in 2019, while generation from nuclear units will likely increase.

[b_lumenkraft]

It takes 30 years to plan and deploy nuclear power plants. We are in deep shit in 30 years so we can't wait for that.

In 30 years there is so much renewables and storage in place we don't need that!

Fast deployment of renewables TODAY is necessary. We can't wait any longer.

BTW, this Borislav Boev is a nuclear shill, and he has no answer to what to do with nuclear waste either.

[b_lumenkraft]

While there are some really bad examples the 30 years is 'a little' overstated.

Well, in China perhaps. But when we talk Europe, only the risk assessment takes a very long time. Then you have to add the planning phase. And only then you can start building the thing which lasts a decade on average.

safe GenIV VHTG

They don't exist really, do they? Ok, there is a test reactor in China, but no one ever has build an actual power plant with this technology. Means you can add another period of risk assessment and research if you want to build such a thing in Europe.


Note, there is no sufficient answer to what to do with the waste. There is no country in the world that has solved this problem.

Germany has shown, that you can deploy a lot of renewable in a very short time frame with moderate effort. The tech is reliable, recyclable, cheap, easy to deploy (small and big scale), advances decentralisation while disadvantaging corporate influence. Going this way is just a no-brainer for me.

[gerontocrat]

Whoops.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-47485321
Hunterston B: Pictures show cracks in Ayrshire nuclear reactor

The first pictures have emerged of cracking in the graphite bricks which make up the core of nuclear reactors at Hunterston B Power Station in Ayrshire.

Reactor three has not produced electricity since cracks were found to be forming quicker than expected. About 370 hairline fractures have been discovered which equates to about one in every 10 bricks in the reactor core.

Owner EDF Energy says it does intend to seek permission from the Office of Nuclear Regulation (ONR) to restart. It first has to prove it can still shut down the North Ayrshire reactor, which has not produced electricity for a year, in all circumstances.

The operational limit for the latest period of operation was 350 cracks but an inspection found that allowance had been exceeded. EDF plans to ask the regulator for permission to restart with a new operational limit of up to 700 cracks.

The company accepts that the cracking is 'life-limiting' for the reactor but will not say what it believes to be a limit beyond which it would be unsafe to operate.

When operational, the two reactors at Hunterston B provide a base-load of electricity which is enough to power 1.8 million homes.

It has advanced gas-cooled reactor (AGC) similar to those at Heysham 1 and 2, Torness, Hartlepool, Hinkley Point B and Dungeness B.

The industry expects all 14 reactors to eventually be decommissioned because of the cracking.

[b_lumenkraft]

Nuclear history is a history of unintended consequences...

[b_lumenkraft]

Re: Kugelbett-Reaktor

Der Bau des modularen Demo-Hochtemperatur-Kugelbett Reaktors (HTR-PM) ist mit drei Milliarden-Yuan (ca. 476 Mio. US-USD, 364 Mio Euro) laut staatlichen Medien ein Teil des voraussichtlich größten nuklearen Komplexes in China.

The 200 MW reactor is $476 million...

For comparison, 1 MW solar farm costs roughly $1 million to install.

Do i miss something here or is this insanely expensive?

[rboyd]

Re: Kugelbett-Reaktor

Der Bau des modularen Demo-Hochtemperatur-Kugelbett Reaktors (HTR-PM) ist mit drei Milliarden-Yuan (ca. 476 Mio. US-USD, 364 Mio Euro) laut staatlichen Medien ein Teil des voraussichtlich größten nuklearen Komplexes in China.

The 200 MW reactor is $476 million...

For comparison, 1 MW solar farm costs roughly $1 million to install.

Do i miss something here or is this insanely expensive?

The 1 MW solar farm will have a utilization rate of 20-25%, versus 80-90% for the nuclear reactor. Plus the nuclear reactor output is not dependent upon the sun and weather.

A 200 MW solar farm would cost $200M and produce one third less output, of an intermittent nature - so the nuclear option seems to be reasonable on a comparable basis.

[Tor Bejnar]

… the nuclear reactor output is not dependent upon … weather.

Frequently true; sometimes not true.  At least one reactor (someplace) reduced production when river water (used for cooling) was too warm.  [That's a mixture of weather (chaos) and climate (warming) and/or just bad engineering (misunderstanding of reality can make formulas 'give the answers the paymaster wanted before construction started').]

[b_lumenkraft]

A 200 MW solar farm would cost $200M and produce one third less output, of an intermittent nature - so the nuclear option seems to be reasonable on a comparable basis.

Yes, but only because we ignored the externalities. Handling/storage/neutralization (if possible) of nuclear waste will totally destroy this calculation long term.

Also worth mentioning in this context, these externalities are mostly paid for by the taxpayer while the earnings are privatised. Not so much of a fair system IHMO.

[NeilT]

Germany has shown, that you can deploy a lot of renewable in a very short time frame with moderate effort. The tech is reliable, recyclable, cheap, easy to deploy (small and big scale), advances decentralisation while disadvantaging corporate influence. Going this way is just a no-brainer for me.

Germany has the most expensive Electricity in the EU.  France, 70% Nuclear, has the cheapest.  The UK stats show that the MTBF and replacement of a wind turbine is 12-15  years.  The Netherlands offshore Wind farm stats show that the cost of maintaining an offshore wind farm exceed the original cost of purchase and deployment after 5 years.

Nuclear may be expensive to set up and have unknown final decommissioning costs.  But, in operation, it is cheap, effective and virtually always on.

Reality is that we need a blend of energy production.  The UK approach was in thirds.  1/3 Nuclear, 1/3 renewable, 1/3 Carbon Capture CCGT.  Right now, today, not one of those things is going to plan.  Yet the UK is going to hit the Paris accord target.  Notably Germany is NOT.

[b_lumenkraft]

Germany has the most expensive Electricity in the EU.  France, 70% Nuclear, has the cheapest.

Well, that's not really so. The production side is very efficient (see pic). We pay a little more as customers due to higher taxes (which are financing the energy transition in part with which i'm totally fine).

Link >> https://ec.europa.eu/energy/sites/ener/files/documents/quarterly_report_on_european_electricity_markets_q3_2018.pdf

[Sciguy]

China was building a lot of nuclear power plants earlier this decade, but has slowed construction considerably.  A big factor is the cost as this article from December 2018 explains.

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/612564/chinas-losing-its-taste-for-nuclear-power-thats-bad-news/

For years, as other countries have shied away from nuclear power, China has been its strongest advocate. Of the four reactors that started up worldwide in 2017, three were in China and the fourth was built by Beijing-based China National Nuclear Corp. (CNNC) in Pakistan. China’s domestic nuclear generation capacity grew by 24% in the first 10 months of 2018.

The country has the capacity to build 10 to 12 nuclear reactors a year. But though reactors begun several years ago are still coming online, the industry has not broken ground on a new plant in China since late 2016, according to a recent World Nuclear Industry Status Report.

Officially China still sees nuclear power as a must-have. But unofficially, the technology is on a death watch. Experts, including some with links to the government, see China’s nuclear sector succumbing to the same problems affecting the West: the technology is too expensive, and the public doesn’t want it.

The bigger problem is financial. Reactors built with extra safety features and more robust cooling systems to avoid a Fukushima-like disaster are expensive, while the costs of wind and solar power continue to plummet: they are now 20% cheaper than electricity from new nuclear plants in China, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Moreover, high construction costs make nuclear a risky investment.

And gone are the days when nuclear power was desperately needed to meet China’s soaring demand for electricity. In the early 2000s, power consumption was growing at more than 10% annually as the economy boomed and manufacturing, a heavy user of electricity, expanded rapidly. Over the past few years, as growth has slowed and the economy has diversified, power demand has been growing, on average, at less than 4%.

Last June two of the world’s most advanced reactors began operating in China: a US-designed AP1000 and a French-German EPR. In theory, these reactors are at greatly reduced risk of a Fukushima-style accident. At the Japanese plant, tsunami waves swamped the backup generators needed to keep coolant pumps running, and the catastrophic loss of coolant caused three of the plant’s six reactors to melt down. The AP1000 design stores water above the reactor that can be gravity-fed to keep it cool if the pumps fail. The EPR reactors employ multiple redundant generators and cooling systems to lower meltdown risk.

But adding safety adds cost. At 52.5 billion yuan ($7.6 billion) for an AP1000 plant with the typical configuration of two reactors, the construction cost is nearly double that of the conventional technology commonly used in China. Wenke Han, a former head of the Energy Research Institute, an arm of the powerful National Development and Reform Commission that plans China’s economy, calls nuclear power “very expensive.” He adds, “Nuclear power in China has begun to face price competition, and will certainly face more competition in the future.”

Coal remains the cheapest source of power in China, but grid operators face demands from the government to use more renewable energy to limit air pollution. With pressure from both directions, even the nuclear plants now operating are underutilized. On average they used 81% of their generating capacity in 2017, 10% less than five years earlier, making the electricity they produce even more expensive.

China even built a couple of Gen IV prototypes.

If the Hualong One proves too expensive, China’s lingering nuclear hopes will be pinned to its advanced-reactor program—an effort to develop a new generation of technologies that include high-­temperature gas-cooled reactors, designs cooled with sodium metal or salt, and smaller versions of pressurized-­water reactors. These various designs are meant to be cheaper to build and operate—and much safer—than conventional reactors.

But so far there is little evidence that any of them will solve nuclear’s problems. A sodium-cooled reactor completed near Beijing in 2011 has had familiar technical glitches such as problems in its coolant systems. And the rising cost of a pair of high-­temperature gas-cooled reactors nearing completion at Shandong Province’s Shidao Bay ended plans for a further 18 such reactors at the site.

Even Chinese nuclear power plant investors are diversifying into renewables.

There’s always the possibility of a breakthrough that would make nuclear safe and cheap enough to compete with renewables and coal. But even China’s nuclear giants are hedging their bets. Both CGN and the state-owned firm funding China’s AP1000 investments rank among the world’s top 10 renewable-power operators.

[Sciguy]

Here are some interesting statistics about nuclear power from the 2018 World Nuclear Performance Report published in August 2018 by the World Nuclear Association.  Link to the full report here:

https://www.world-nuclear.org/getmedia/b392d1cd-f7d2-4d54-9355-9a65f71a3419/performance-report.pdf.aspx

At the end of 2017 the global nuclear capacity of the 448 operable reactors
stood at 392 GWe, up 2 GWe on the end of 2016 total. Four new reactors were
connected to the grid, with a combined capacity of 3373 MWe. Five reactors
were shut down, with a combined capacity of 3025 MWe.

The capacity factor for the global fleet stood at 81%, maintaining the high
availability of around 80% that has been maintained since 2000, up from the
60% average capacity factor at the start of the 1980s.

 

(Note that according to the US EIA, nuclear capacity factors in the US over the past few years have varied between 89% to 93%).

With a net addition to capacity of 348 MW (3373 - 3025) and an average operating capacity of 80%, that's 278 MW.  According to Wikipedia, in 2017 95 GW of Solar PV capacity was installed and the average worldwide capacity of solar is 11% (according to EIA averages from 208 to 2012.  The US capacity factor has grown from 15% in that time period to 25% now, so the worldwide average may be in the 20 to 25% range now)).  That's 10.45 GW of generation (assuming the probably low capacity factor of 11%), or 37.5 times the amount of new nuclear generation added to the grid.

The number of reactors under construction at the end of 2017 was 59. The
median average construction time for the four reactors grid connected last
year was 58 months. In addition to the four grid connections, there were four
construction starts and two construction projects halted.

Four is a small sample size, but 5 years to go from start of construction to grid connection is pretty fast for nuclear.  The projects underway in the US and Europe are taking much longer, often because quality inspectors reject key components.  Hopefully the other countries aren't cutting corners on quality.

With construction on more than 25 reactors scheduled to be completed in
2018 and 2019 strong progress is being made. New reactor projects are
needed to maintain and accelerate global nuclear build so that nuclear
generation can meet the Harmony goal of supplying 25% of the world’s
global electricity by 2050.

Given that nuclear is about 9% of current global electricity production and that most of the current fleet of reactors is between 30 and 60 years old, this would seem to be a very unlikely goal.  Nuclear is more expensive than coal and natural gas, while renewables are even cheaper than those sources.  I would expect to see more nuclear projects that are currently being proposed (and even some under construction) be cancelled than new projects being announced.

[Sciguy]

Another article clearly illustrates why solar power is more important to going carbon-free than nuclear:

https://www.constructionglobal.com/infrastructure/year-review-trends-nuclear-construction

The sector is experiencing profound structural change. The introduction of renewable energy at scale, thanks to declining costs driven by technological advances, has increased renewable power output at the expense of conventional technologies such as coal and nuclear. Though an operating NPP can provide up to nine times more electricity per installed kilowatt than a photovoltaic plant, the challenge to the industry from renewables is tangible. China’s massive rates of solar capacity deliver over 50GW to its grid. Even when taking into account lower productivity per installed GW from solar, research shows new solar plants in China alone in 2017 will generate significantly more power than all nuclear reactors started up (four) in the same year in the entire world.

[vox_mundi]

Fukushima Grapples with Toxic Soil that No One Wants   
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/11/fukushima-toxic-soil-disaster-radioactive

Eight years after the disaster, not a single location will take the millions of cubic metres of radioactive soil that remain 

... Minoru Ikeda, who took part in the decontamination effort, said workers cut corners to meet strict deadlines. “There were times when we were told to leave the contaminated topsoil and just remove the leaves so we could get everything done on schedule,” he said. “Sometimes we would look at each other as if to say: ‘What on earth are we doing here?’”

[b_lumenkraft]

According to this article about Chernobyl >> "surrounding countries has estimated costs of roughly $700 billion over the past 30 years"
Link >> https://globalhealth.usc.edu/2016/05/24/the-financial-costs-of-the-chernobyl-nuclear-power-plant-disaster-a-review-of-the-literature/

According to this article about Fukushima >> "The latest estimate from the trade ministry put the expected cost at some 20 trillion yen ($180bn, £142bn)."
Link >> https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-38131248

According to this article about Harrisburg >> "The cleanup of the damaged nuclear reactor system at TMI-2 took nearly 12 years and cost approximately US$973 million."
Link >> http://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/safety-and-security/safety-of-plants/three-mile-island-accident.aspx

This is material cost and does not take into account that thousands of people died.

None of these accidents is 'solved'. There will be cleaning up needed furthermore for thousands of years to come (if mankind is still around that is).

[b_lumenkraft]

Experts voice safety concerns about new pebble-bed nuclear reactors

"No reactor is immune to accidents. The absence of core meltdown accidents does not mean that a dangerous event is not possible," Moormann says. And while Moormann and his co-authors Scott Kemp and Ju Li of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology acknowledged the potential of HTGRs and support further research into them, "HTGR designs with what's known as a prismatic core seem to be less problematic than the pebble-bed one, so development work should concentrate on that," he says.

"There was already some controversy about pebble-bed HTGRs, but my impression was that many problems with them were not sufficiently published and thus not known to some of my colleagues," says Moormann. "I hope that the pros and cons will be broadly discussed."

Link >> https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/08/180823113558.htm

To realize, inherent safety is just a dream.

Sorry, Lurk, for stepping on your toe all the time with this, but nukes and i just don't get together.

And of course, my question about what to do with the nuclear waste stays unanswered obviously, because there is none.

[Sciguy]

China's demonstration high-temperature gas-cooled reactor plant (HTR-PM) at Shidaowan (Shidao Bay NE China) )

The innovations for the inherent safety of the HTR-PM are
easy to understand according to physical laws. However, two
challenges still remain: ① How can we construct and operate the
HTR-PM? and ② what are the economics of the HTR-PM? The key
problem is how a small HTR-PM can compete with an LWR plant,
which is 10 times bigger.

We use the idea of “combining N into 1.” We have finished
a concept design of a 660 MWe multi-module HTR-PM nuclear
power plant, which includes 6 HTR-PM reactor modules connect-
ing to a steam turbine. Each reactor module has the same design
as the HTR-PM demonstration plant, with an independent safety
system and shared non-safety auxiliary systems. The footprint of
a multi-module HTR-PM plant is not significantly different from
that of a PWR plant generating the same power. Fig. 6 shows a
2 × 600 MWe  HTR-PM nuclear power plant for cogeneration.


To date, supply contracts have been signed for all the com-
ponents of the HTR-PM project. From the actual contract costs,
we can compare the detailed capital costs of a 2 × 600 MWe
 multi-module HTR-PM plant with those of a real 2 × 600 MWe
 PWR plant constructed at the same time in China. Using the
capital costs of the HTR-PM plant as evaluated by the govern-
ment in 2014, the total price of a 2 × 600 MWe multi-module
HTR-PM plant is about 110%–120% of the price of the PWR.

The electricity price to the grid thus increases from 0.4 CNY·(kW·h)
-1 to 0.48 CNY·(kW·h)-1, which is still much lower than the costs
of gas, wind power, and solar power in the Chinese market.

The costs of the RPV (Reactor Pressure Vessels) and reactor
internals are very small, about 2% of the total plant costs.
Therefore, assuming that the other costs of the plant are
unchanged, even if the costs of the RPV and reactor internals
increase to 10 times their original value, the increase of the total
plant costs can be limited to within 20%. This is the reason behind
the above economic evaluation results; details can be found in
Ref. [7].

To realize the dream of inherent safety, the philosophy of “dividing 1 into N” is adopted,
and to limit the cost increase, the philosophy of “combining N into 1” is preferred.

[7]  Zhang ZY, Sun YL. Economic potential of modular reactor nuclear power
plants based on the Chinese HTR-PM project. Nucl Eng Des 2007; 237(23):
2265–74.

Of course with nuclear plants, there's the planned costs before construction begins and then the actual costs with all of the attendant delays.  As this article with an apparent pro-nuclear slant summarizes:

https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2017/08/china-small-modular-pebble-beds-will-be-400-million-for-200-mw-and-1-2-billion-for-600-mw.html

Pebble bed high temperature reactors

China is finishing a 210 MW pebble bed reactor (High temperature pebble bed HTR-PM) in 2018.
China’s HTR-PM project is squarely aimed at being a cost-effective solution that will virtually eliminate air pollution and CO2 production from selected units of China’s large installed base of modern 600 MWe supercritical coal plants.

China plans to construct two 600 MWe HTRs at Ruijin city in China’s Jiangxi province passed a preliminary feasibility review in early 2015. The design of the Ruijin HTRs is based on the smaller Shidaowan demonstration HTR-PM. Construction of the Ruijin reactors is expected to start next year, with grid connection in 2021.

The commercial operation date is six to nine months later than scheduled when construction began, but Prof. Zhang Zuoyi proudly explained that the HTR-PM first-of-a-kind delays were much shorter than the 3-4 year delays that have plagued the EPR and AP1000 construction projects in their country.

The high temperature atomic boilers produce steam conditions that are identical to the design conditions for a large series of modern, 600 MWe steam plants that currently use coal as the heat source.

Prof. Zhang Zuoyi confirmed that some of the pebble-bed atomic boilers will be installed as replacement heat sources for existing steam plants. Those installations will be able to take advantage of the switchyards, the installed transmission networks, the cooling water systems, the sites and in some cases the entire steam plant including the steam turbine.

The overall cost of this first of a kind nuclear plant will be in the neighborhood of $5000.00/kw of capacity. That number is based on signed and mostly executed contracts, not early estimates. It is about twice the initially expected cost. According to Zhang Zuoyi, 35% of the increased cost could be attributed to higher material and component costs that initially budgeted, 31% of the increase was due to increases in labor costs — which Zhang Zuoyi noted were rising rapidly in China — and the remainder due to the increased costs associated with the project delays.

So the good news is that the delays for building 200 MW pebble bed reactors may be half of what can be anticipated from building 1600 MW Gen 3+ PWR reactors!  We're saved!

Meanwhile, the costs of solar power have decreased in the three years since that article was published.  According to this article from a Chinese news agency in December 2018, new solar projects are now less expensive than the nuclear project touted above:

http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-12/29/c_137707579.htm

XINING, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) -- Two solar power bases in northwest China's Qinghai Province, with a total installed power generating capacity of 1 GW, were launched and connected to the grid Saturday.

Each of the two demonstration bases directly managed by the National Energy Administration in the cities Delingha and Golmud, the Mongolian-Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Haixi, has a generating capacity of 500 MW.

The Golmud base sells its electricity at 0.316 yuan (5 U.S. cents) per kWh, lower than the 0.325 yuan benchmark price of electricity generated by coal-fired power plants.

This is unprecedented nationwide for solar power plants, offering hope that solar power could be price competitive.

The prices for renewables are decreasing so rapidly that an article from 3 years ago can't possibly be correct.  Onshore wind and solar became less expensive than nuclear in most countries several years ago.  And the costs have been decreasing for both as the technology has improved.  The same can't be said for nuclear power.

[Sciguy]

I've posted excerpts from this Carnegie Endowment report on the Chinese nuclear industry before, with emphasis on how much the Chinese government subsidizes the nuclear industry.  This time, I'll excerpt the references to the pebble bed reactors.

https://carnegieendowment.org/2018/05/14/electricity-policy-and-economics-pub-76315

What has happened in China’s HTGR program suggests that a decision by the government in favor of such technology-driven investments is not a foregone conclusion. Last decade, China launched a project to build ten twin-unit 105-MWe HTGR power plants, a total of twenty reactors, in series at the Shidaowan site in Shandong Province. Like the fast reactor, the HTGR was designated a strategic technology in 1986 by central planners. But the HTGR project in Shidaowan will be halted after the first pair of units is completed in 2018. According to officials from the project’s consortium, the generation cost (in part based on the project cost) for these units was found during project implementation to be 25 percent higher than for a Chinese PWR-based power station.240 Utility investors are now planning on building a large PWR on the site instead. The HTGR program will be redesigned for lower construction and procurement costs, and it is foreseen that the next HTGR project will be a 655-MWe station consisting of six modules linked to one turbine generator, intended to reap greater economies of scale.241 Even for a reactor model that the government had favored since 1986 for strategic reasons, comparative costs matter to state-owned investors.

[Sciguy]

As this article from 2011 notes, construction of the pebble bed reactors was scheduled to take 4 years.

http://www.china.org.cn/china/2011-03/17/content_22166536.htm

In an exclusive interview with the China Business News, Mu Zhanying, president of China Nuclear Engineering Group (CNEG) Co., said construction of the Rongcheng plant would begin by the end of March or early April.

China Nuclear Engineering Group Co. is China's sole nuclear power construction contractor.

The plant will use new technology researched and developed entirely in China. The whole project including scientific research will cost 5 billion yuan. Construction is scheduled to take four years.

After delays due to the meltdown of the four reactors at Fukishima, construction began in December 2012.  At that time, according to this article from January 2013, the reactors were supposed to be connected to the grid by the end of 2017.

https://www.nucnet.org/all-the-news/2013/01/07/china-begins-construction-of-first-generation-iv-htr-pm-unit

Jan (NucNet): China has broken ground on a three billion-yuan (about 476 million US dollars, 364 million euro) demonstration high-temperature pebble bed modular nuclear reactor (HTR-PM) project, which will form part of what could become China’s largest nuclear facility, state media confirmed yesterday.

The 200-megawatt Generation-IV Shidaowan nuclear reactor, near the coastal city of Rongcheng in east China's Shandong Province, will be part of the Rongcheng Nuclear Power Industrial Park project, which could – if approved by regulators – eventually be the site of a further 18 units of the same type as well as four CPR-1000 pressurised water reactor units.

Construction of the Shidaowan HTR-PM started last month and first concrete has been poured for the nuclear island, according to Huaneng Shandong Shidao Bay Nuclear Power Company Ltd. (HSNPC), the builder and operator of the unit.

The design has “broad prospects for commercial application” and can “meet the needs of different countries and regions”, the company said. Construction is scheduled to take 50 months, with 18 months for building, 18 months for installation and 14 months for pre‐commissioning.

The gas-cooled HTR-PM, which has twin reactor modules of 100 MW each driving a single 200-MW steam turbine, will start generating commercial electricity by the end of 2017, HSNPC said in a statement.

[Sciguy]

An independent review of nuclear energy around the world, published in 2018, had an interesting forward from the Chinese viewpoint.

https://www.worldnuclearreport.org/World-Nuclear-Industry-Status-Report-2018-HTML.html

In China, due to the slowing growth in demand for electricity, in combination with the rapid development of wind and solar power as well as the ‘excessive’ installed capacity of coal power, the need for further development of nuclear power has already diminished considerably. The social context of nuclear power-plant construction is also facing big changes; voices opposing nuclear environmental and safety issues have become inevitable ‘warnings’ to which policy-makers must respond. The result is the cancellation of some nuclear programs in the preparation phase, and delay of those under construction. Of course, a nuclear program can be delayed or end up over-budget for a variety of reasons. But the ever higher demands for nuclear safety and the growing production costs of newer nuclear technology are impediments that policy- and decision-makers cannot overlook.

On the other hand, in recent years the development of China’s renewable energies, especially on-grid wind and solar, have been rapid and significant. Their rates of annual increase are continually among the highest in the world, and the cumulative installation capacity is still growing. The annual amount of electricity generated by wind and solar energies is now level with and even higher than that from nuclear energy. However, holistically, the amount of electricity generated by China’s non- hydropower renewable energy still makes up only a very small percentage of the entire amount, and the wind and solar power generation will not be able to form a stronger competitive advantage at the present stage. The cost of manufacturing and installing solar and wind power in China is indeed quickly decreasing; in some provinces, the price of planned solar power can be equal to the price of nuclear power, with no need for state subsidies. The WNISR’s discussion about the nuclear power vs renewable energy, and Dave Freeman’s view in his Foreword to WNISR2017 that “renewable energy is a lower cost and cleaner, safer alternative to fossil fuels than nuclear power,” is a window of thought for Chinese readers.

[Sciguy]

More from the World Nuclear Industry Status Report (2018):

https://www.worldnuclearreport.org/World-Nuclear-Industry-Status-Report-2018-HTML.html

It’s that time of year again when those who value unvarnished data, and analyses of global nuclear energy developments, free of industry spin, look forward to the latest annual World Nuclear Industry Status Report (WNISR). The 2018 edition does not disappoint; it reveals fascinating new information and trends, and confirms that, as the world undergoes a fundamental and far-reaching energy transition, nuclear is being left behind.

I have worked in the energy sector for nearly 40 years and I have never seen as rapid innovation and change as in the last five. The relative prices of electricity generation sources have switched, and solar and wind energy are now, in most countries, the cheapest grid-connected sources of energy. And as storage prices plummet, off-grid power solutions are becoming more cost-competitive. The electricity system is becoming more decentralized, with a multitude of smaller, incremental investments by utilities, industries and households, which are becoming producers as well as consumers of power. Networks and mini-grids are increasingly radial, meshed and fractal, and as energy, transport and communications technologies converge, along with the internet of things, machine learning, demand-side management, and block-chain payment systems, energy services will be democratized and controlled to match optimally individual and community needs.

The nuclear industry seems puzzled by these developments and is mostly in denial. As the competitiveness of solar and wind energy become undeniable – renewable energy auctions are transparent with published long-term contracted prices – the nuclear industry shifts the debate away from the costs of nuclear to issues of system reliability and to its role in the transition to a low-carbon economy. In so doing, they discount the huge construction time and cost overruns in generation III and III+ nuclear reactors and the difficulties of financing nuclear, especially in emerging economies.

As solar and wind grow exponentially, nuclear energy has remained stagnant. There are fewer nuclear reactors in operation today than there were 30 years ago. Nuclear reactors have increased in size, so they produce more electricity, but still less than in 2001. The share of global electricity production decreased from a peak of 17.5 percent in 1996 to 10.3 percent in 2017. This is hardly a growth industry.

It is instructive to note that the construction of new nuclear power plants is mostly driven and backed by states, and not by the private sector. China accounts for a third of nuclear plants under construction. Nuclear is becoming an option for fewer countries, and only those that are prepared to offer significant government support, including sovereign guarantees. It is regrettable that often this support is facilitated by rent-seeking and corruption.

◦Five construction starts in the world in 2017, of which a demonstration fast reactor project in China.
◦No start of construction of any commercial reactors in China since December 2016.
◦The number of units under construction globally declined for the fifth year in a row, from 68 reactors at the end of 2013 to 50 by mid-2018, of which 16 are in China.
◦China spent a record US$126 billion on renewables in 2017.

◦As of mid-2018, 32 reactors—including 26 in Japan—are in Long-Term Outage (LTO).
◦At least 33 of the 50 units under construction are behind schedule, mostly by several years. China is no exception, at least half of 16 units under construction are delayed.
◦Of the 33 delayed construction projects, 15 have reported increased delays over the past year.
◦Only a quarter of the 16 units scheduled for startup in 2017 were actually connected to the grid.
◦New-build plans have been cancelled including in Jordan, Malaysia and the U.S. or postponed such as in Argentina, Indonesia, Kazakhstan.

Decommissioning Status Report
◦As of mid-2018, 115 units are undergoing decommissioning—70 percent of the 173 permanently shut-down reactors in the world.
◦Only 19 units have been fully decommissioned: 13 in the U.S., five in Germany, and one in Japan. Of these, only 10 have been returned to greenfield sites.

Renewables Accelerate Take-Over
◦Globally, wind power output grew by 17% in 2017, solar by 35%, nuclear by 1%. Non-hydro renewables generate over 3,000 TWh more power than a decade ago, while nuclear produces less.
◦Auctions resulted in record low prices for onshore wind (<US$20/MWh) offshore wind (<US$45/MWh) and solar (<US$25/MWh). This compares with the “strike price” for the Hinkley Point C Project in the U.K. (US$120/MWh).
◦Nine of the 31 nuclear countries—Brazil, China, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Spain and United Kingdom (U.K.)—generated more electricity in 2017 from non-hydro renewables than from nuclear power.

[b_lumenkraft]

This belongs here as well. Thanks bbr for the link.

The Missouri is a few inches away from the Brownsville nuclear plant's emergency status level and is forecast to breach it by almost 2 feet in the coming days.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooper_Nuclear_Station

[Sigmetnow]

The Missouri is a few inches away from the Brownsville nuclear plant's emergency status level and is forecast to breach it by almost 2 feet in the coming days.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooper_Nuclear_Station

Nebraska preps nuclear plant for possible flooding, no public danger*

PPD said its procedures require it to declare an unusual event to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission when the Missouri River tops 899 feet above sea level. It reached 899.05 feet Friday morning, the company said.

Should the river rise to 900 feet above sea level, NPPD said plant workers will "barricade internal doorways as another layer of protection for facility equipment."

If the river reaches 901.5 feet above sea level, NPPD said it would take the station offline as a protective measure.

https://news.yahoo.com/nebraska-preps-nuclear-plant-possible-flooding-no-public-163210422.html

*Pretty sure there’s a “but” or “unless” appropriate in there somewhere.