New nuclear announced

[Kayos]

Small modular power plant planned for Snowdonia | New Civil Engineer

He said the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) and Cwmni Egino will now work together on proposals for the siting of a new nuclear development at

buff.ly

Looks like Wales will be getting 2 new nuclear plants now.

No mention of cost (yet) and they hope to be online in 2029

Just for balance, that's 3 years after the largest offshore wind farm in the UK and the world (that is under construction) will be completed

I'm not anti nuclear, and hope these work but the completion date is optimistic at best and I really would like to see costs, including total lifetime costs with decommissioning etc

 

[minimutly]

Humph, should have put one (or two 8n battersea), too late now. Apparently the Welsh Gov have bought Aberthaw power station - prime site for one of those mini reactors you might think?

 

[mtt.tr]

Life span seems to be 50years due to embrittlement

 

[Rrobson]

Humph, should have put one (or two 8n battersea), too late now. Apparently the Welsh Gov have bought Aberthaw power station - prime site for one of those mini reactors you might think?

They did, and it would be a good site due to size and infrastructure around, grid connection but it would need a new cw system because the one that’s there is jiggered. Supposedly they’re developing the site to experiment with and develop new technologies.

Either way they’ll be eye wateringly expensive for their no doubt modest output…

 

[Kayos]

Wales have a very forward thinking outlook to energy. I am currently working on an anaerobic digester plant, the idea is to feed it with waste food from schools
It looks like the nuclear will be funded by Westminster, although the Anglesey site has many many years of clear up first

 

[Rrobson]

That’s one of the major problems with aberthaw too, asbestos is literally everywhere, even in the concrete! Wouldn’t like to be anywhere near the place when they bring it down…

 

[prepman]

Life span seems to be 50years due to embrittlement

Of the locals?

 

[prepman]

That’s one of the major problems with aberthaw too, asbestos is literally everywhere, even in the concrete! Wouldn’t like to be anywhere near the place when they bring it down…

Trawsfynnydd was an ugly thing against a beautiful background. Hopefully these'll be landscaped.
It the 1,000 to 10,000 year lifespan of the residue and the long term storage that's the main concern.
I suppose the thinking is ..leave it to the next generation, we'll be dead?

 

[Ross365]

It the 1,000 to 10,000 year lifespan of the residue and the long term storage that's the main concern.
I suppose the thinking is ..leave it to the next generation, we'll be dead?

I think we are a position where we already have so much waste from the weapons programmes and the last ~60 years of nuclear power, that increasing the amount by a few percent doesn't really make the problems significantly worse.

Does anyone know how close, or how different, the Rolls SMR will be from the reactors they already make for the subs?

I see that they recently announced that the schedule for the (French) PWR 'Hinckley C' has slipped by 2 or 3 years; absolutely no surprise there!

 

[Kayos]

I think we are a position where we already have so much waste from the weapons programmes and the last ~60 years of nuclear power, that increasing the amount by a few percent doesn't really make the problems significantly worse.

Does anyone know how close, or how different, the Rolls SMR will be from the reactors they already make for the subs?

I see that they recently announced that the schedule for the (French) PWR 'Hinckley C' has slipped by 2 or 3 years; absolutely no surprise there!

I posted this elsewhere, the cost of Hinckley C has also increased massively

There is some public info on the SMR, but unsurprisingly not a huge amount

 

[outofthefire]

I think we are a position where we already have so much waste from the weapons programmes and the last ~60 years of nuclear power, that increasing the amount by a few percent doesn't really make the problems significantly worse.

I heard about "everlasting" batteries from nuclear waste a few years ago https://www.bristol.ac.uk/cabot/what-we-do/diamond-batteries/ but I assumed it had either been unsuccessful or buried by energy companies. They seem to be the answer to a lot of energy problems https://www.energylivenews.com/2020...startup NDB,isotopes used in nuclear reactors.

 

[minimutly]

Wales have a very forward thinking outlook to energy. I am currently working on an anaerobic digester plant, the idea is to feed it with waste food from schools
It looks like the nuclear will be funded by Westminster, although the Anglesey site has many many years of clear up first

Well Ludlow council did it first, went there on a fact finding mission 15 years ago. We now have one in Cardiff, power feeds the poo works next door, which also has its own digester. In North Wales we have a digester feeding gas into the gas grid, pays better than chp.

 

[Kayos]

Well Ludlow council did it first, went there on a fact finding mission 15 years ago. We now have one in Cardiff, power feeds the poo works next door, which also has its own digester. In North Wales we have a digester feeding gas into the gas grid, pays better than chp.

This is possibly going to be at a livestock auction, fed from the slurry and the food waste from the school.
Likely to be funded through a PPA and supply a local big consumer through a private wire agreement as a case study in South Wales, Welsh Govt have found a few million down the back of the sofa it seems

 

[minimutly]

This is possibly going to be at a livestock auction, fed from the slurry and the food waste from the school.
Likely to be funded through a PPA and supply a local big consumer through a private wire agreement as a case study in South Wales, Welsh Govt have found a few million down the back of the sofa it seems

The issue with livestock slurry is water, the stuff’s full of it. Usually means you have to dewater, which doesn’t give you water, quite. This liquor has to go into the sewer, or works.

 

[Kayos]

The issue with livestock slurry is water, the stuff’s full of it. Usually means you have to dewater, which doesn’t give you water, quite. This liquor has to go into the sewer, or works.

The system we are looking at produces fertilizer as a by product, this will be used by the council

 

[Ross365]

I posted this elsewhere, the cost of Hinckley C has also increased massively

There is some public info on the SMR, but unsurprisingly not a huge amount

But of course, the price of the electricity from Hinkley is fixed, so the cost of the station won't impact the public.... .

I think the Rolls sub reactors use uranium metal as fuel, but the SMRs will use uranium oxide, but sadly, I have no idea at all why that should be so. I wonder who will produce the fuel; the source of oxide fuel in the past was the old BNFL site at Springfield (Preston), which I think is now owned by US Westinghouse? I applied for a job at Rolls back in the mid 1980's and they were talking about "SMR's" then, but that terminology is more recent. In the 80's, the idea would be that they would be built on barges and sailed off to third world countries. However incredible that idea seems now, the idea of SMR's is something that Rolls have had ticking away in the background for ~40 years, so maybe they will do it (relatively) fast and successfully?

 

[minimutly]

The system we are looking at produces fertilizer as a by product, this will be used by the council

Doesn’t change what I posted above - as a water company we’ve been selling digested, and even dried sludge for years. I got as far away as fast as I could - it’s a world of wearing out, worn out kit, every day, and no one wants to pay for it or work on it....

 

[daleyd]

But of course, the price of the electricity from Hinkley is fixed, so the cost of the station won't impact the public.... .

I think the Rolls sub reactors use uranium metal as fuel, but the SMRs will use uranium oxide, but sadly, I have no idea at all why that should be so. I wonder who will produce the fuel; the source of oxide fuel in the past was the old BNFL site at Springfield (Preston), which I think is now owned by US Westinghouse? I applied for a job at Rolls back in the mid 1980's and they were talking about "SMR's" then, but that terminology is more recent. In the 80's, the idea would be that they would be built on barges and sailed off to third world countries. However incredible that idea seems now, the idea of SMR's is something that Rolls have had ticking away in the background for ~40 years, so maybe they will do it (relatively) fast and successfully?

I imagine it’s because the sub reactors are inaccessible and will generally only have 1 mid life fuelling - a commercial reactor can be refuelled as and when, usually in a continuous process as part of the normal production cycle

I hope Springfields gets the work (Can’t see why not, I don’t think there’s anywhere else in Uk that can do fuel production, or at least certainly not with the experience they have) , I’ve done a lot of work there over the years -last time I was there about 4 years ago (before the announcement of the new nuclear stuff) it was all pretty downbeat as a lot of their contracts were coming to an end with the closure of the existing sites, and nothing new on the horizon.

 

[Kayos]

Doesn’t change what I posted above - as a water company we’ve been selling digested, and even dried sludge for years. I got as far away as fast as I could - it’s a world of wearing out, worn out kit, every day, and no one wants to pay for it or work on it....

I'm not justifying a job to someone on a forum who has minimal info and has admitted they no longer work on the plant. The system works, as it is a carbon copy of another already in use for considerable time

 

[Gareth J]

The system we are looking at produces fertilizer as a by product, this will be used by the council

There is a local biogas cooperative around here, farmers who're part of it send their cowshit off and digestate, upgraded with food waste gets returned. With higher nutrient value than the original ****e. The downside is that the food waste also adds loads of plastic. They can see lots of tiny bits in the fields.

Imo, turning food waste into energy is an incredibly inefficient process.