Posted on 04/01/2021 1:40:14 PM PDT by shotgun
What could be the nation’s first commercial advanced nuclear power reactor would be built and operated near Richland under a partnership agreement signed Thursday.
X-energy, of Rockville, Md., will work with Energy Northwest of Richland and Grant County PUD to develop, build and operate an 80-megawatt reactor, the Xe-100, on land already leased by Energy Northwest at the Hanford nuclear reservation in Eastern Washington.
(Excerpt) Read more at tri-cityherald.com ...
They haven’t decommissioned any Tridents yet...soon.
I saw the first RC package leave Bremerton more than 30 years ago though (S5W plant).
We’ve nuclear plants floating in the Puget Sound for decades.
Yes, but it is on the opposite side of the state from the earthquakes and subduction zones and pretty much in the same place as the WWII era superfund site.
And a lot of high paying engineering jobs. I look forward to it.
I sure miss the days when we had Governor Dixie Lee Ray:
Dixy Lee Ray (September 3, 1914 – January 2, 1994) was an American scientist and politician who served as the 17th Governor of the U.S. state of Washington. Variously described as idiosyncratic, and “ridiculously smart,” she was the state’s first female governor and was in office during the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens. She was a supporter of atomic energy.
In 1973, Ray was appointed chairman of the United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) by President Richard Nixon. Under her leadership, research and development was separated from safety programs, and Milton Shaw, the head of the powerful reactor development division, was removed. She was appointed Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs by President Gerald Ford in 1975, but resigned six months later, complaining about lack of input into department decision making.
Ray ran for election as Governor of Washington as a Democrat in 1976. She won the election despite her blunt, sometimes confrontational, style. As governor, she approved allowing supertankers to dock in Puget Sound, championed support for unrestrained growth and development, and continued to express enthusiasm for atomic energy.
...or maybe it was even an S3G.
I do know we didn’t figure out that Hanford wasn’t licensed for hazardous waste (only radioactive) and the reactor packages were full of asbestos and PCBs until the first few were buried.
Had to dig them up and remove the hazardous stuff.
I live about 60 miles North of the stupidly decommissioned San Onofre site. I wish they would build a molten salt reactor on that site. AQ huge one. They are safe, efficient and the perfect answer to all the worlds energy needs. No requirement for a large water source, No waste/spent fuel material. Materials are easily and cheaply available Thorium is everywhere. Spent fuel rods from old school reactors can be consumed by molten salt reactors. Perfect solution.
Their reactors are based on soviet designs and their safety margins are kinda sketchy. You want that too?
CC
“...the nation’s first commercial advanced nuclear power reactor.”
“Advanced” is a name applied to many kinds of reactors, such as the old LFR, invented at Los Alamos in 1944, and the new IFR, invented at UC San Diego in 1984.
“We believe we will build hundreds of the Xe-100 reactor in Canada and around the world in the next 20 years,” he said.
Good news. IFR’s should be in every city: totally efficient and safe.
I don’t know nowadays.
Remember the stink she stirred up when she said high level rad waste should be disposed by setting it on top of the ice cap in Antarctica and letting it bury itself by melting into the ice? By the time it got to the bottom it would have decayed away.
Classic government terminology. I can understand the concern for the PCBS, but removal of buried asbestos just so it can be re-buried somewhere where it is permitted. A perfect example of Government waste at its finest.
I went to elementary school in a town called Mountlake Terrace in the early 60s and I was rather taken aback years later when finding out that Washington state had such a gigantic Superfund issue. Beautiful state.
I wonder if it was common knowledge back when I was there. We vacationed/trailered all over the state. It was beautiful.
I think she was Trump before he was. Her Wikipedia page is the best.
We all thought so.
> Thorium molten fluoride
Most of the establishment nuclear science people want nothing to do with this.
Don’t worry. They spray the radioactive tumbleweeds with fluorescent paint so you can stay away from them.
Even my dad who was a hard core Missouri raised conservative republican voted for her.
And of course the establishment from both parties hated her.
WIKI Research and development of thorium-based nuclear reactors, primarily the Liquid fluoride thorium reactor (LFTR), MSR design, has been or is now being done in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Brazil, India, China, France, the Czech Republic, Japan, Russia, Canada, Israel, Denmark and the Netherlands.[15][17] Conferences with experts from as many as 32 countries are held, including one by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in 2013, which focuses on thorium as an alternative nuclear technology without requiring production of nuclear waste.
Actually, they’re using homegrown CAP-1000, Hualong-1, CPR-1000, etc. Additionally, they’ve teased using CANDU designs at some sites, but those haven’t gone into building phases so far.
Do I want sketchy designs? No. I want the enviro-wackos tossed to the side so good, solid designs can be put in place quickly and efficiently.
Somehow they must see nuclear power as 1) thwarting their moral vision for the planet and/or 2) making it harder for them to boss people around.
Oh great! One more thing to worry about as I drive to work. I should have stayed in Palm Beach.
Tri-Cities Architect
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