Canada and the USA Support Nuclear Energys Bright Future - JC

Link: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2022/01/18/canada-and-the-unitedstatescrisscross-support-for-nuclear-energys-bright-future/?sh=5d23f78f1018 Please see link above for source text, embedded hotlinks, and comments.

January 18, 2022

Canada And The United States CrissCross Support For Nuclear Energy's Bright Future James Conca Contributor Energy I write about nuclear, energy and the environment

The United States and Canada have a lot to collaborate on in the nuclear energy field, and they seem to be doing a good job of it. Each country is considering each other’s reactor designs and each has funded or chosen to review some of those from both countries.

Ontario Power Generation (OPG) recently selected U.S.-based GE Hitachi’s BWRX-300 small modular reactor (SMR) as Canada's first commercial, grid-scale, SMR for their Darlington nuclear site.

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Illustration of the IMSR®400 power plant in the configuration proposed for Canada’s Darlington site. ... [+] Terrestrial Energy And recently, the U.S. Department of Energy gave a $3 million grant to Canada-based Terrestrial Energy to support licensing and commercialization of its Integral Molten Salt Reactor (IMSR), a Generation IV nuclear power plant. The largest of the DOE awards announced last fall, the award supports modeling and simulation for the off-gas systems of the IMSR power plant, supporting the company’s regulatory program for U.S. NRC licensing.

The University of Illinois has partnered with Canada’s Chalk River site to demonstrate a Generation IV SMR, the MMR, from Ultra Safe Nuclear.

In 2020, the Canadian government also invested $15 million of federal funds to accelerate development of Terrestrial Energy's IMSR power plant.

Terrestrial Energy seeks to topple the myth that nuclear plants must be the traditional water-moderated-water-cooled reactors. Their Generation IV IMSR operates at 700°C, 375°C hotter than conventional nuclear reactors, and drives net thermal efficiency to 44%. This is a level of efficiency nearly 50% higher than conventional nuclear power plants and significantly lowers electricity-generation costs.

As with all SMRs, TE’s IMSR, once commercialized and licensed, would produce zeroemissions electric power and would have impressive load-following capabilities – features prized by electric power utilities as they work to balance the variability of wind and solar power with demand loads.

An advantage of the high-temperature heat from an IMSR plant is that it would be delivered as a molten salt mixture using an inexpensive pipe loop, using an approach already in industrial use today. As a result, the IMSR power plant can replace fossil fuels in producing hydrogen and ammonia, chemical processing, and new applications such as clean synthetic transport fuels.

Today there are many industrial applications rely almost entirely on fossil fuels today for thermal energy – the industrial sector is responsible for a whopping approximately 30% of emissions and has resisted attempts at becoming net-zero.

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The face of a CANDU reactor core, with hundreds of pressure tubes that are able to be refueled during operation. With a Th-U mix fuel like ANEEL, they only need to be filled one-eighth of the time.

Meneley and Ruan, Energy Education Canada's electricity system is amongst the cleanest in the world, thanks to hydro and nuclear power, a policy review by the International Energy Agency has found.

Launching the report, the agency's Executive Director Fatih Birol praised Canada's leadership in the development of small modular reactors and expressed the agency's support for the Canadian government's "ambitious" clean energy transition.

According to the IEA report, Canada has made a series of enterprising international and domestic commitments since the last IEA review in 2015 to put the country on a path towards transforming its energy system. Canada's electricity system is already 83% nonemitting - thanks to the "dominance" of hydropower and an "important role" for nuclear - and among the cleanest in the world, and the nation has set a target to cut greenhouse 3

gas emissions by 40-45% by 2030 from 2005 levels and to reach net zero emissions by 2050.

"Canada has shown impressive leadership, both at home and abroad, on clean and equitable energy transitions," Birol said.

The IEA report also recommended that Canada “foster international collaboration, notably for international licensing of innovative SMR technologies and the use of CANDU nuclear reactor technologies.” This last point is critical to Canada’s and other countries’ future with nuclear as the CANDU is Canada’s flagship design, is considered as a National Treasure, and its use should expand worldwide along with many other designs.

According to the World Nuclear Association, there are 48 CANDUs and other Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs) in operation worldwide, with a combined electric generating capacity of 24 million kilowatts. The largest fleet of such reactors is in Canada, where 19 CANDU PHWRs with a capacity of nearly 14 million kilowatts supply 15 percent of the country’s electricity.

This is a CANDU/PHWR nuclear fuel bundle that can be made of CCTE’s new ANEEL fuel bundle but with a different composition and configuration of U/Th. Both, the current CANDU/PHWR and ANEEL fuel bundles are about 50 cm long and 10 cm in diameter. Dreamstime 4

But a new fuel developed in the United States by Clean Core Thorium Energy can increase that power and result in much less waste. The Advanced Nuclear Energy for Enriched Life, or ANEEL, fuel combines thorium (Th) with High-Assay, Low-Enriched Uranium (HALEU).

ANEEL is particularly suitable for existing and new CANDU and other Pressurized Heavy Water Reactors (PHWRs). ANEEL can reduce the amount of waste produced in CANDUs/PHWRs by more than 80%, minimizing waste management costs, operational costs, fuel costs and safety concerns, while offering nonproliferation benefits.

Texas A&M University’s Nuclear Engineering and Science Center successfully fabricated the ANEEL fuel pellets last year under the quality requirements and supervision of DOE’s Idaho National Laboratory for irradiation testing and qualification of the fuel.

ANEEL fuel is important for another reason – it creates an early demand for HALEU, a material necessary for many of the new reactor designs, especially SMRs and fast reactors. This one reason that nuclear fuel supplier Centrus Energy Corporation is planning on being the first American commercial supplier of HALEU and could supply HALEU to Canada as well.

This is another great collaboration between Canada and the U.S. This U.S.-based fuel is ideal for the Canada-based CANDU and PHWRs. Also, getting Th used in reactors of any sort will facilitate those SMRs that will use thorium fuels in the future.

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. James Conca I have been a scientist in the field of the earth and environmental sciences for 33 years, specializing in geologic disposal of nuclear waste, energy-related research, planetary surface processes, radiobiology and shielding for space colonies, subsurface transport and environmental clean-up of heavy metals. I am a Trustee of the Herbert M. Parker Foundation, Adjunct at WSU, an Affiliate Scientist at LANL and consult on strategic planning for the DOE, EPA/State environmental agencies, and industry including companies that own nuclear, hydro, wind farms, large solar arrays, coal and gas plants. I also consult for EPA/State environmental agencies and industry on clean-up of heavy metals from soil and water. For over 25 years I have been a member of Sierra Club, Greenpeace, the NRDC, the Environmental Defense Fund and many others, as well as professional societies including the America Nuclear Society, the American Chemical Society, the Geological Society of America and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.

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