Feb 1, 2025: AI on the Susquehanna River

Sep 29, 2024: The case against restarting Three Mile Island’s Unit-1


Radioactive: The Women of Three Mile Island

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On a Monday earnings call, executives reported continued progress on NuScale’s Romania power project and U.S. regulatory
 
 

Failure After Failure: Let’s Ditch Small Modular Reactors.

REUTERS/Stephane Mahe

Posted by

Carmine Miklovis in International

 
Imagine a revolutionary new coffee machine – one that can get twice as much coffee from the same amount of beans. This machine would make coffee cheaper to make at home and buy at shops like Dunkin’ and Starbucks. This coffee machine starts to get buy-in from major companies in the coffee business, like Keurig and Nespresso, and is projected to be launched in Summer 2025. Halfway through the spring, it’s announced that, due to delays, it will now be launched in Winter 2027. After another delay, it’s announced that the project is now expected by 2030. Keurig and Nespresso, in response, withdraw from the project, further delaying it until 2035. After 10 years of delays, would you still invest in this machine? Probably not, so why are we investing in an energy technology that’s built on the same promises?

Small modular reactors (SMRs), unlike the coffee machine, are a real technology that promise to make nuclear energy cheaper and more accessible. In theory, their smaller size allows them to be deployed more quickly and in a variety of settings, an advantage over solar panels, wind turbines, and tidal energy, which have location restrictions. Some of these reactor designs can reprocess spent fuel (known as a “closed fuel cycle”) to extract more energy than traditional reactors can from the same amount of fuel. As such, many have hailed these nuclear reactors as the key to addressing the climate crisis, as they seem to resolve a lot of the current problems that have plagued nuclear power thus far.

On an international level, France and India have announced plans to begin constructing SMRs together, praising the energy source for its potential to enable the transition to a low-carbon future. India is also expected to work with U.S. firms to enhance investment in the technology. Similarly, Trump’s pick for energy secretary, Chris Wright, served on the board of Oklo Inc., a company that focuses on advanced nuclear technology, and is pushing for investments in nuclear energy (alongside fossil fuels). As the Trump administration ditches renewables for fossil fuels and nuclear energy, some, including Wright, have said that now is the time for the nuclear renaissance.

Unfortunately, however, it seems increasingly likely that these reactors will fail to live up to their promise. Talks of deploying small modular reactors have been ongoing for over a decade, and while around a hundred designs exist, only two reactors have been deployed–one in China and one in Russia. In the U.S., while private companies and the federal government have invested billions into their development, projects have faced delays and cancellations. Long construction times, issues with quality control, and disproportionately high energy costs (for producers and consumers alike) have led many to conclude that the energy source is a false promise. Recognizing this failure, many of the largest energy companies, such as Babcock & Wilcox and Westinghouse have withdrawn their investments, leaving many other investors hesitant to put any of their assets in the nuclear cause. While the potential of these models is exciting in theory, investors would much rather hedge their bets on just about anything else.

To make matters worse, small modular reactors come with an additional catch: they risk enabling the proliferation of nuclear weapons. SMRs are a dual-use technology; after reactors have extracted energy from the fuel rods (the real-life equivalent of the coffee beans from earlier), they’re left with weapons-grade plutonium in the nuclear waste that could be used to create a potent nuclear weapon. This risk is particularly acute for reactors that reprocess for more energy, as the leftover waste is more potent and more viable for a nuclear weapon. This presents a particular challenge, as in order for the touted benefits of SMRs to materialize, they need to distinguish themselves from the nuclear reactors we have now. As such, these new designs have to be more efficient and take advantage of their versatility, which means a lot of smaller reactors capable of reprocessing. More fissile material (in quantity and quality) coming out of more reactors makes it difficult to effectively monitor where all the waste goes. To complicate things, monitoring is already a problem, as it’s difficult to accurately measure nuclear material as it’s being transported from the facility to a waste disposal unit. The ease of diverting material could provide a pathway for states that have long had nuclear ambitions, such as Iran (who is also in a proxy war against a nuclear-armed adversary), or opportunistic non-state actors (such as domestic extremists or terrorist groups like ISIS) to finally get their hands on a nuclear weapon. 

Unfortunately for proponents, it’s unlikely that the U.S. will be able to control or monitor the spread of this technology. The U.S. cannot set the standards for SMRs when it continues to lag behind Russia and China in production. Even then, why would countries already in China’s global infrastructure program, known as the Belt and Road Initiative, choose to get nuclear reactor designs from the U.S. further down the line when they can get nuclear reactors from China now? Chinese energy technology is likely more interoperable—able to work with pre-existing infrastructure—than U.S. designs, further restricting the U.S.’ potential market share. Even our closest allies wouldn’t want U.S. models, as some of them, including Germany and Japan, have given up on nuclear energy altogether. Given this hesitation and the long delays, SMRs would either fail to be deployed at a sufficient scale to resolve climate change, or would be completed hastily, which increases the risk of state or non-state actors acquiring a nuclear weapon.

While some may argue that any investment in renewable energy is a net positive in the fight against climate change, investing in nuclear energy hamstrings the response of future administrations. Investing in nuclear power creates a dangerous moral licensing, wherein future leaders may feel less incentivized to invest in other, effective renewable energy sources because they feel that they already have it covered with nuclear power. Historically, because of the way subsidies are distributed under the Clean Power Plan, nuclear energy actively stifles the development of other energies. In an effort to make nuclear power prices competitive, the U.S. government subsidizes it, which actively siphons those subsidies away from solar, wind, and tidal energy. As solar energy becomes the cheapest option available, subsidies to expand its gap or aid its clean partners could enhance renewable energy’s grip on the market. Absent these subsidies, however, fossil fuels may retain their foothold in the market for the foreseeable future. Given the existential threat at stake, the risk that this poses for the climate response cannot be overstated.

While advocates of SMRs are right that renewable energy needs to be adopted swiftly, trying to haphazardly rush out these reactors to deploy around the world risks trading one crisis for another, enabling a new era of nuclear proliferation. Similarly, if the Trump administration wants to keep its promise of low energy prices, their best bet is to stop investing in the nuclear power industry and let solar and wind energy take the reins. Like the hypothetical coffee machine, the benefits of SMRs will remain a nice thought, but nothing more than that. As climate change beckons at our doorstep, we can’t afford to invest in a false promise—it’s time to ditch SMRs.

 NEWS FROM BEYOND NUCLEAR


 For immediate release 

 Contact: 
 
Kevin Kamps, radioactive waste specialist, Beyond Nuclear,  kevin@beyondnuclear.org, 240-462-3216
 
Stephen Kent, media consultant, skent@kentcom.com, 914-589-5988
 
Source:  Beyond Nuclear https://beyondnuclear.org/

MEDIA ALERT for Wednesday, March 5, 2025

LISTEN LIVE TO U.S. SUPREME COURT ORAL ARGUMENTS ON THE ILLEGALITY OF LICENSING RADWASTE DUMPS IN TX AND NM

WASHINGTON, D.C., MARCH 5, 2025-- 

WHAT?  Wednesday morning, March 5, the United States Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Nuclear Regulatory Commission vs. Texas. At issue in the SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the U.S.) proceeding is whether the NRC exceeded its authority when it approved licenses for proposed “consolidated interim storage facilities” for high-level radioactive waste including highly irradiated “spent” fuel from nuclear power plants.  Two CISFs are planned for western Texas and southeastern New Mexico.  The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982, as Amended specifically prohibits private “interim” storage of federal spent nuclear fuel, and disallows the Department of Energy from taking title to the waste (which would be necessary for DOE to transport it to CISFs), unless and until a permanent geologic repository is licensed, built and opened to receive the waste.  The law intended to prevent private “interim” storage of federal radwaste, which is much less robust than permanent storage, and would double the risk of accident or attack during transport, since consolidated “interim” storage  necessitates moving the waste twice, once to the CISF and again to a permanent repository.  The NRC approved recent CISF license applications despite the law, saying it anticipated Congress would change it in the future.  But the federal Fifth Circuit court ruled that the NRC didn’t have that authority. If the Supreme Court strikes that ruling down, it could open the floodgates for thousands of shipments of spent fuel from nuclear power plants across the US, through many states, to CISFs in Texas and New Mexico.  The case pits the nuclear industry’s push for CISFs against the interests of fossil fuel companies which object to high-level radioactive waste dumped in their drilling/fracking areas, the state governments of Texas and New Mexico, which have passed laws prohibiting importation of nuclear waste to their states, and cities along the transport routes which object to it being shipped through their jurisdictions.  Their amicus briefs in the case are posted here.



WHO?  Attorneys for the NRC, Interim Storage Partners, LLC (the Texas CISF company), and for plaintiffs in the legal challenge to licensing CISFs will make their cases before the Supreme Court Justices. Participants in the legal challenge to CISFs include the State of Texas, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) Beyond Nuclear, Sierra Club, and Don't Waste Michigan, et al., a national environmental grassroots coalition of watchdog groups, and Fasken Land and Minerals, Ltd., and Permian Basin Land and Royalty Owners, which advocate for ranching and mineral rights.


WHERE & WHEN?  The SCOTUS oral arguments take place on Wednesday, March 5th at 10am Eastern time.  To listen live, go to https://www.supremecourt.gov/ and click on the “live audio” icon.  Later that day, SCOTUS will also post an audio recording and transcript of the oral arguments. In-person attendance is also an option, but journalists should arrive early to ensure their place. More information  https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/oral_arguments.aspx

 

NOTE TO EDITORS AND PRODUCERS:  Participants in the lawsuits challenging CISFs, their attorneys, and other experts are available for comment and interviews. Fact sheets, and a short educational video, documenting the Environmental Justice burdens of CISFs, and risks of highly radioactive waste transport, and alternatives to this, are posted here. For more information, additional documentation, or to arrange an interview, please contact Stephen Kent, skent@kentcom.com, 914-589-5988.

###
Beyond Nuclear is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit membership organization. Beyond Nuclear aims to educate and activate the public about the connections between nuclear power and nuclear weapons and the need to abolish both to safeguard our future. Beyond Nuclear advocates for an energy future that is sustainable, benign and democratic. The Beyond Nuclear team works with diverse partners and allies to provide the public, government officials, and the media with the critical information necessary to move humanity toward a world beyond nuclear. Beyond Nuclear: 7304 Carroll Avenue, #182, Takoma Park, MD 20912. Info@beyondnuclear.orgwww.beyondnuclear.org.
 

--

Kevin Kamps
Radioactive Waste Specialist
Beyond Nuclear

Document Title:
Palisades [50-255], Annual Report Form for Drug and Alcohol Tests for 2024
Document Type:
License-Fitness for Duty (FFD) Performance Report
Document Date:
02/24/2025
 
The query search link below shows there were 27 Single Positive Drug and Alcohol Tests for 2024.
 
If there were xx600xx 450 employees at Palisades in 2024, xx4.5%xx 6% of them failed drug and alcohol tests.
 
No specifics are provided - they have been redacted / withheld.  The raw number of occurrence deduced by mandatory filing into ADAMS yields 27.
 

Article on new Trump's DOE appointment Eric Wright and his positions on energy use.
 
https://sourcenm.com/2025/02/25/u-s-energy-secretary-wright-tours-new-mexico-national-labs/

Nuclear Regulatory Commission - News Release
No: I-25-001 February 25, 2025
CONTACT: Diane Screnci, 610-337-5330

NRC Begins Special Inspection at Hope Creek Nuclear Power Plant

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has launched a special inspection at the Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Station to review the circumstances of the repeated inoperability of one of the plant’s emergency diesel generators. The plant is operated by PSEG Nuclear, LLC.
 
Plant operators declared one of four emergency diesel generators inoperable on February 20 when water was detected in the lube oil system after the diesel was run following planned maintenance. A similar event occurred on January 31 and PSEG took steps to address the issue at that time.
 
The NRC determined a special inspection was warranted because this is a repeat issue. Emergency diesel generators are important because they provide backup power to safety equipment when power from the electrical grid is not available.
 
“While this did not affect safe plant operation, an independent review of the issue by the regulator is warranted given the repetitive inoperability of a safety-related system,” said Region I Administrator Andrea Kock. “Our inspectors will evaluate PSEG’s response, its work to find the cause, and actions the company is taking to ensure the equipment issues are corrected.”
 
Once the inspection is completed, NRC inspectors will document their findings in a publicly available inspection report, which will be distributed electronically to listserv subscribers and available on the NRC website.
 
The plant is in Hancocks Bridge, New Jersey.
 


Constellation and Other Nuclear Stocks Live and Die on AI News Now. It Is a Problem.


Feb 24, 2025 1:52 pm EST

In this article

MSFT     ORCL     CEG     VST 

Nuclear power stocks sank on a report that Microsoft canceled some data center leases. Above, the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania. (AMY LUTZ/DREAMSTIME)

Nuclear energy stocks tumbled on Monday, continuing a downswing that started on Friday. The stocks’ fortunes are closely tied to growth in artificial intelligence, and there’s news that the demand for power from one big tech player may not be as high as expected.

Two reports from analysts at TD Securities released on Friday and Monday said Microsoft 

MSFT

-1.03% canceled some data center leases, amounting to a couple of hundred megawatts—or enough to power 150,000 or so homes. The report on Monday said that Microsoft’s spending is being supplanted by other players like Oracle 

ORCL  +1.28%.

The mere hint that a big player is pulling back was enough to rattle the market. It’s similar to what happened to these stocks when Chinese AI company DeepSeek suggested that tech firms can make AI products that use less power.

Microsoft, in a statement to Barron’s, played down reports of a pullback, saying that while it sometimes makes spending adjustments, it’s still on track to spend over $80 billion this fiscal year on infrastructure “as we continue to grow at a record pace to meet customer demand.

“While we may strategically pace or adjust our infrastructure in some areas, we will continue to grow strongly in all regions,” a Microsoft representative said.

Constellation Energy 

 

CEG

-5.88%, the country’s largest owner of nuclear plants, was down 6.9% in early afternoon trading. Vistra Corp. VST -5.11%, another large nuclear and natural gas plant owner, was down 3.6%.

Nuclear reactor developers Oklo and NuScale dropped 9% and 1.2% respectively, after previously being down much more.

Paul Dotson, equity trading managing director at TD Securities, wrote in an email that the market appeared to be overreacting to the news. (Dotson wasn’t involved in the reports.) The news “is being misinterpreted,” he wrote. One issue is that the stocks had risen a lot beforehand and investors are “viewing news from a negative perspective—especially from sectors and themes which have outperformed.”

The selloff could signal a larger long-term issue for the stocks.

Nuclear and AI have been a great match over the past year. The nuclear stocks have soared on expected demand from new AI data centers owned by large tech firms like Microsoft. The tech companies like nuclear power because the electricity the reactors produce is reliable and the reactors don’t emit carbon, allowing the companies to meet carbon emissions pledges.

But the nuclear-AI connection isn’t always a great thing for nuclear companies. Upstart nuclear companies like Oklo have to prove over a long time period that they can construct and operate plants at reasonable costs. But their overall value is jumping up and down based on rumors or whims about the intentions of tech companies. The fate of the stocks can fluctuate on an hour-to-hour basis based on news they have no control over.

Write to Avi Salzman at avi.salzman@barrons.com

Fossil Fuels

Federal Regulator’s Approval for Gas Plant Queue-Jumping Sparks Outrage

Critics argue the federal decision props up costly fossil fuels power plants, does little to ensure grid reliability and undercuts state clean energy goals.

Aman Azhar
PJM Interconnection claims that these power projects are needed to help meet growing energy demand and keep the grid reliable. Credit: Joe Raedle_Getty Images.jpeg
PJM Interconnection claims that these power projects are needed to help meet growing energy demand and keep the grid reliable. Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
 

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s approval of PJM Interconnection’s plan to let 50 power projects, including nuclear and gas-fired plants, cut the line and connect to the grid ahead of hundreds of stalled renewable energy projects has ignited fierce backlash, with critics calling it “a dangerous precedent” that props up costly fossil fuels and tips the scale against renewables. The decision does little to fix PJM’s broken interconnection process, they argue, and deepens the rift between PJM’s reliability strategy and state-led clean energy goals.

PJM’s Reliability Resource Initiative (RRI) aims to fast-track new nuclear and fossil fuel generation projects to offset anticipated energy shortages as early as 2026, as coal plants retire and demand from data centers and increased electrification spikes.

Dispatchable power, like natural gas, is essential to reliability, partly due to state policies phasing out coal, PJM, the grid operator for the District of Columbia and portions of 13 states across the mid-Atlantic, South and Midwest, has argued. 

But clean energy leaders insist renewables and battery storage could address reliability just as effectively if given a fair shot. They say PJM rules favor capital-intensive fossil fuel plants that are slower to build and complicate states’ clean energy goals.

FERC approved PJM’s proposal by a 3-1 vote on Feb. 11, with Commissioner Judy Chang dissenting and Commissioner Lindsay See abstaining. 

 

In its decision, FERC agreed with PJM’s rationale that a one-time arrangement was needed to prevent potential electricity shortages by 2030, and that allowing 50 large power projects to move ahead will help meet growing energy demand and keep the grid reliable. FERC also endorsed PJM’s method of choosing these projects based on their impact and readiness, ensuring that the most needed and reliable projects get priority, especially in areas facing power supply challenges.

Not everyone agreed, though. 

In her dissent, Chang slammed PJM’s scoring system for prioritizing size over speed, warning it won’t bring new power online fast enough to meet reliability risks predicted to occur between 2026 and 2030. “PJM’s filing presents a risk of the worst of both worlds: it compromises the Commission’s open access principles with no guarantee it will resolve PJM’s reliability issue,” she wrote. She said PJM ignored faster, grid-ready renewable projects in favor of larger, more complex plants that face permitting delays, supply shortages and transmission bottlenecks.

Chang also criticized PJM for capping approvals at 50 projects without ensuring enough capacity would be available to meet demand. She argued PJM overemphasized project size while failing to prioritize projects that use existing grid infrastructure, which could be deployed faster and at lower cost. “PJM, when designing its proposal, should have ensured that the in-service dates of the interconnecting resources receive the greatest weight,” she said.

In emailed comments, PJM spokesperson Jeffrey Shields said: “PJM continues to process new renewable projects and still they are not getting built fast enough to replace retiring generators while meeting growing demand.” He expressed his frustration at being called out for not processing enough renewable projects, claiming that PJM was “successfully implementing the reformed process and moving tens of thousands of megawatts worth of projects to completion in our study process.” Shields said that FERC’s order adequately explained the reasons why a measure like the RRI was necessary. 

Still, Chang’s criticism was echoed by clean energy advocates. 

Tom Rutigliano, a senior advocate with the Natural Resources Defense Council, called FERC’s decision “a dangerous precedent” that expands emergency measures far beyond their intended scope. 

“RRI is PJM admitting their interconnection queue is too slow to solve problems even with six years’ notice. That’s what PJM should be working on,” he said. If PJM had a speedy, efficient queue, “we could rely on markets and competition to solve this problem, rather than picking winners and losers.” He warned the decision creates market uncertainty because developers won’t know until years later when their projects will come online and if they must compete with RRI-backed projects.

Like Chang, Rutigliano argued that PJM’s rules favor fossil fuels and dispatchable resources over renewables and battery storage. 

“There are two real problems with the criteria,” he said. “First, project size is considered more important than completion date, so RRI is likely to select large projects that won’t be completed far after the reliability problem PJM claims they’re trying to fix. Second, the scoring criteria exaggerates the difference between thermal resources and storage. It makes sense for PJM to consider the reliability value of the resources they pick, but that should be done fairly.”

Ada Statler, an associate attorney with the advocacy organization Earthjustice, said “the calculations PJM uses to justify the Resources Reliability Initiative fail to consider other sources of new generation that could close the gap without harming resources that have already been waiting to interconnect for years or frustrating state climate policy.” She cited a study from the sustainability nonprofit RMI that said PJM already has 3 gigawatts more power than needed if renewable projects and grid reforms moved forward.

“PJM is giving itself too much control over decisions about the generation mix that are supposed to be left to the states.”

— Ada Statler, Earthjustice

Statler also questioned PJM’s accounting of projects. ”While load growth is certainly accelerating, PJM has yet to develop an effective method of verifying that load growth projects are not speculative or double-counted from duplicative requests submitted in multiple areas,” she said.

Megan Wachspress, an attorney with the Sierra Club, warned that PJM is overstepping its authority by choosing which power plants get special treatment. “These criteria are not neutral or within the proper authority of the regional grid operator, meaning they interfere with state control. Even worse, this approach goes against state policies in New Jersey, Michigan and Illinois, which aim to boost renewable energy on the grid.”

Consumer advocates argue PJM’s lack of transparency is raising electricity prices across its service area. The Maryland Office of People’s Counsel has warned PJM that utilities and power suppliers may be exaggerating demand forecasts, leading PJM to uncritically accept speculative growth projections.

“We are concerned that because the RRI plays favorites by choosing which resources get special treatment in the interconnection process, PJM is giving itself too much control over decisions about the generation mix that are supposed to be left to the states,” Earthjustice’s Statler said.

Rutigliano agreed. “If states can’t get power plants connected, their authority is meaningless,” he said. “The law says that states have authority over generation, while the federal government controls transmission. That’s always been a balancing act, but the RRI ruling pushes far enough that the state’s authority becomes meaningless.” 

Instead of focusing on short-term fixes, advocates urged FERC to follow rules it has already implemented, such as Order 2023. The rule is designed to speed up and simplify the process for connecting new power projects to the grid, reduce long wait times, improve transparency and help renewable energy projects get online faster by reforming how grid operators handle interconnection requests. It requires utilities to process projects in groups rather than one by one, making the system more efficient and reducing delays.

“Commissioners [David] Rosner and [Willie] Phillips supported RRI only as a one-time emergency measure. PJM must comply with Order 2023 and speed up interconnections to fix delays that block renewables from replacing outdated coal plants,” said Wachspress of the Sierra Club. “Instead of delays, PJM should focus on long-term transmission planning, expansion, and reducing interconnection wait times.” 

Jacob Mays, an assistant professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Cornell University, said he expects to see more ad hoc modifications like RRI in systems across the U.S. given ongoing struggles with the queue process. “I think it is widely thought that more fundamental reforms enabling greater predictability and stability would be best in the long term,” he said, “but system operators are very focused on what they can do to address near-term concerns.”

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