62 lines
3.2 KiB
Markdown
62 lines
3.2 KiB
Markdown
Dane Sabo
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NUCE 2122 - Summer 2025
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# Instructions
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Submit a 500 work analysis predicting two major events and specific locations
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that in your estimation have a high probability to occur in the next five years
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regarding nuclear operating and construction plants
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In support of this, review the list of prematurely shutdown nuclear plants,
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review the new plant licensing status as it exists in several states, review the
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projected load growth data for the key states we discussed and predict
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locations where two events associated with additional nuclear plants will
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occur.
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Events to be evaluated:
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1. A shutdown plant will be restarted (Do not count Palisades or TMI)
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2. A partially completed nuclear plant construction restarted
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3. A new contract for a new nuclear plant signed and construction begun.
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Evaluate your target locations by:
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- their predicted electricity consumption growth;
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- the availability of purchased power from a neighboring state;
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- the current fuel balance issues faced in that location;
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- and any reduction in the number of resource energy plants that were
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originally scheduled to be constructed per the utility’s strategic plans
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# Submission
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## Vermont Yankee Restarting
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- Vermont Yankee is one of the most recent nuclear reactors to be
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decomissioned, and notably, was because of economic factors.
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This makes Vermont Yankee an ideal candidate to restart.
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- NIMBYs in the area HATE Vermont Yankee. The state senate tried
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to block its license extension, but the NRC approved it anyway. The
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utility sued the state to stay open and won.
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- New England is expecting a 10% power demand increase https://commonwealthbeacon.org/energy/grid-operator-forecasting-11-increase-in-electricity-consumption-by-2034/
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- They're counting on two wind farms being built to fill this demand.
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- These wind farms might get killed by new admin.
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- There is also a massive resevoir and hydrolectric system that was built to
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balance load from specifically this reactor. Right now it's being used with
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fossil fuel plants, but is a massive piece of infrastructure that will be less
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efficient without the NPP
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## ARC: First Commercial Fusion Power Plant
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- Commonwealth Fusion Systems is planing to build a 400 MWe tokamak
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reactor in the area
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- It turns out, fusion technology can be approved at the state level instead
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of the federal level. Because of this, the regulatory process is completely
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different, and Virginia is super on board.
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- The area is desperately going to need additional power, with power
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consumption from data centers expected to rise from 10GW to 30GW by 2040
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https://virginiamercury.com/2024/12/18/virginia-to-host-worlds-first-fusion-power-plant/
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- Virginia is the dominant place for data centers in the US, with more than 1
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in 7 data centers being in Virginia.
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- The basics out there say this will happen in the early 2030s. Realistically this
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is very optimistic, because the precursor project, SPARC, has yet to achieve
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Q>1. That being said, things are looking hopeful that SPARC might produce
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this benchmark in 2026.
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- The impact of commerically viable fusion power cannot be understated, especially with the regulatory framework that will be regulated *at the state level*. Reduced pollution too is also a huge plus.
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