Germany has decided to close all its nuclear plants by France is also aiming to significantly reduce its nuclear dependency, recently passing a law which aims to cut nuclear consumption from around 75 per cent today, to 50 per cent in So if the EU is going to keep nuclear capacity anywhere near its current level, other countries are going to have to build lots of new plants — and fast. New nuclear plants currently take an average of 10 years to construct, according to the status report.
Two plants in Ukraine that were started in the s are yet to be completed, the report points out. Replacing gigawatts of nuclear capacity by means building average sized plants in the next 30 years. Since , only eight new plants have come online. Returning to the graph above, you can see the EU wants renewables to grow faster than any other energy source — as they already are.
In addition to materials research, the LWRS program is working on modernizing plant systems to reduce operation and maintenance costs, while also looking to diversify plant products through non-electric applications such as desalination and energy for hydrogen production. Learn more about the LWRS. Video Url. The Year Club Eleven reactors are already using this research to apply for a second year extension.
Sign Up for Office Updates. The relentless bombardment creates minute flaws, such as dislocation loops or precipitates, that "tend to harden the material," Was said. As metals lose this plasticity, they lose the ability to give way, turning brittle and becoming a breeding ground for cracks and fissures. And when it comes to nuclear power plants, cracks kill.
In ways not yet understood, the corrosion that eventually accompanies the pristine water used in nuclear reactors interacts with and exacerbates incipient breaks in metal alloys. Such cracks are among the primary concerns of NRC when considering the future of U. This cracking, which can affect core components down to baffle bolts, has been studied for 30 years and has still defied explanation, scientists say.
In the meantime, it has cost the U. Getting a handle on age-induced cracking will be one of the principal missions of nuclear scientists and engineers over the next decade, as U. Since it is hardly time-effective to reproduce 60 years of natural neutron exposure, scientists instead use test reactors to expose steel and other alloys -- up to 25 varieties of metals can be found in reactor systems -- to higher energy radiation that simulates the plant's conditions.
Once the simulations are complete, high-powered imaging is applied to the metals. For this reason, France's MAI has one of the world's most powerful electron microscopes. Such imaging and vast increases in computing power now allow scientists to reconstruct the millions of individual atoms boiled off the surface of a metal into something similar to a photograph. The resolutions achieved allow unprecedented insights into cracking metals, Was said.
There are also risks that could be wholly unanticipated, or other materials to investigate, such as the long-term effect of radiation on concrete, which is poorly understood, DOE's Szilard said. The industry has become skilled at replacing even large, expensive components like reactor heads and steam turbines -- in overhauls that can cost several hundred million dollars.
Once flaws are identified, nearly any structural problem can be solved. The reactor provides heat to make steam, which drives a turbine that, in turn, drives the generator that produces electricity. Thirty-two U. Although some foreign nuclear power plants have as many as eight reactors, only three U. All three plants have three reactors. For cost and technical reasons, nuclear power plants are generally used more intensively than coal- or natural gas-fired power plants.
In , the nuclear share of total U. In February , the U. The new Vogtle reactors are the first new reactors to receive construction approval in more than 30 years.
Summer plant in South Carolina. However, construction on these reactors stopped in The two new reactors that are now under construction—Vogtle Units 3 and 4—in Georgia are expected to come online between and The NRC issues license applications for new reactors in various stages of review.
The NRC application review process can take up to five years to complete. Under current licensing regulations, a company that seeks to build a new reactor can use reactor designs that the NRC has previously approved.
The design certification the NRC issues is independent of approvals of applications to construct or operate a new nuclear power plant. When the applicant uses an NRC-certified reactor design, that means that all safety issues related to the design have been resolved, and the focus of the NRC's review is the quality of construction. Construction of a nuclear power plant may take five years or more. The U. Energy Information Administration EIA projects in the Annual Energy Outlook Reference case that new nuclear electricity generation capacity will be added in and , but capacity retirements and derating of some reactors will result in less total nuclear electricity generation capacity in than in Nuclear explained U.
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