Is Nuclear Power still Phasing Out?

A long time follower of nuclear, and sometime analyzer of its value, and a believer that its danger was  over-hyped.  Is it really now over?  Or will it survive?   Here from IEEE Spectrum one look, overview below: 

Is Europe’s Nuclear Phaseout Starting to Phase Out? France re-ups aggressive fission policy; Poland and Romania expand theirs; EU frameworks will treat some nukes as sustainable RAHUL RAO 11 FEB 2022

In the depths of the 1970s oil crisis, French prime minister Pierre Messmer saw an opportunity to transform his country’s energy supply. His plan’s legacy is the dozens of cooling towers rising from the French landscape, marking the nuclear power stations that produce over two-thirds of France’s electricity, by far the highest proportion of any country on Earth.

Yet in a world where Chernobyl and Fukushima Daiichi smolder in recent memories, France’s cooling towers might seem like hopeless relics. Philippsburg, an old fortress town in Germany just 40 kilometers from the French border, once hosted a nuclear power plant with two towers just like them. A demolition crew brought both down on an overcast day in early 2020. The event was abrupt and unceremonious, its time kept secret to prevent crowds from gathering amidst the first wave of COVID-19.

Following somewhat in Messmer's footsteps, French president Emmanuel Macron announced a plan earlier this month to build at least six new reactors to help the country decarbonize by 2050.

At first glance, there’s little life to be found in the nuclear sectors of France’s neighbors. Germany’s coalition government is today forging ahead with a publicly popular plan to shutter the country’s remaining nuclear reactors by the end of 2022. The current Belgian government plans to shut down its remaining reactors by 2025. Switzerland is doing the same, albeit with a hazy timetable. Spain plans to start phasing out in 2027. Italy hasn’t hosted nuclear power at all since 1990.  ... ' 

Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough Claimed

More fusion progress reprted.

Scientists make breakthrough with nuclear fusion record  in DW

European researchers have leaped closer to making nuclear fusion a practical energy source for humanity. It's the same power-generating process that makes stars, including our own sun, shine. Scientists announced progress on Wednesday in the mission to make nuclear fusion a safe, practical, and clean energy source — smashing the record for the amount of nuclear fusion energy produced.

The experiment at the Joint European Torus (JET) facility near Oxford, England, set a record of generating 59 megajoules of sustained fusion energy in a five-second period — well over double the previous amount.

What is nuclear fusion?

The fusion process is a reverse of what happens in existing nuclear power plants — nuclear fission — where energy is released when large atoms are broken down into smaller ones. Nuclear fusion comes from bashing together two small atomic nuclei at such high temperatures that they fuse — and release energy.

The nuclei would normally repel one another, so unimaginably high temperatures are needed to make them move quickly enough to actually collide. It's the same basic process that sees hydrogen in the sun converted into helium, generating sunlight and making life on Earth possible.

Fusion offers the prospect of climate-friendly, abundant energy without pollution, radioactive waste.  ... ' 

Net Zero Emissions and Nuclear Power

 Some energy challenges and stats. 

Duke Energy CEO: Net-zero emissions can’t be achieved without nuclear power

By Akiko Fujita

As one of the country’s largest energy holding companies, Duke Energy (DUK) is on a mission to slash 2005-level carbon dioxide emissions in half by 2030 on its path to decarbonize its power supply by 2050.

The timeline requires a heavy reliance on nuclear power, according to CEO Lynn Good.

Nuclear energy already accounts for nearly 40% of electricity generated by the North Carolina-based utility company, and Good said the company sees no way to reach net-zero emissions without the power source weighing heavily in its energy mix.

Stay ahead of the market

“A little bit over 80% of the carbon-free generation and energy that we produce comes from nuclear,” said Good, in an interview at Yahoo Finance's All Markets Summit: The Path Forward. “I want to keep that nuclear fleet operating as long as I possibly can because I don't have an alternative of a carbon-free resource that runs 95% of the time, which is what nuclear represents today.”

The U.S. already generates more nuclear power than any other country, with 94 reactors supplying electricity roughly 20% of the overall grid. But the number of reactors have remained largely stagnant, in part because of concerns about safety and cost overruns. Just one new nuclear plant has come online in the U.S., in the last 25 years.... ' 

Hacking Nuclear Plants

Good reason for very strict identification policies.  And in the meantime,  just keeping some things off the Net.

How a nuclear plant got hacked
Plugging nuclear plants into the internet makes them vulnerable targets for nation-state attack.
    
J.M. PorupBy J.M. Porup in CSOOnline

If you think attacking civilian infrastructure is a war crime, you'd be right, but spies from countries around the world are fighting a silent, dirty war to pre-position themselves on civilian infrastructure — like energy-producing civilian nuclear plants — to be able to commit sabotage during a moment of geopolitical tension.

What follows is an explanation of how India's Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP) got hacked — and how it could have been easily avoided  .... " 

Schemes to Revolutize Nuclear Power

A favorite topic.  A good summary from the IEEE to improve the options.  " ... Three Schemes to Revolutionize Nuclear Power ... The future of nuclear energy could lie with supersmall reactors and alternative technologies ... " 

Compact Nuclear Power

IEEE,  A perhaps unexpected small power source:

" ... Boston-based UPower Technologies thinks it can reinvent nuclear power by going small and ditching the predominant light-water design. Its reactor, whose contents would fit inside a shipping container, turns out between 1 and 2 megawatts of electric power, compared with about a gigawatt for a full-size nuclear power plant. And instead of submerging fuel rods in constantly circulated water to keep the core from overheating, UPower’s closed-cycle design uses a liquid that evaporates when exposed to the heat of fission, but then condenses when that heat is used to turn generators. For foolproof safety—a heightened concern after the Fukushima disaster—it can dissipate excess heat and avoid a meltdown through natural convection. But will UPower’s intent to quickly commercialize its miniature nuclear power plant be frustrated by a U.S. licensure and regulation regime built around evaluating light-water designs? ... "