#vogtl

[benkaden]

Ansichtskarte

Born (Darß) Zeltplatz

Reichenbach (Vogtl): VEB BILD UND EIMAT Reichenbach i.V. (III/18/6 A 1/B 321/68 1/6042).

Foto: Bild und Heimat ([Heribert] Darr)

1968

[wumblr]

okay

For decades, nuclear power has been the largest source of clean energy in the United States, accounting for 19% of total energy produced last year

false. first sentence. off to a great start. you may notice this is a 2022 chart but i can tell you the only new reactors started since then are vogtle 3 and 4 (you may notice that's not a new power plant but new reactors at an existing plant), years late and $17b over budget, vogtle as a whole produces 1.1gwh, we use about 29 million annually. point being: it has not risen to 19%, the last reactor since vogtle was watts bar in 2016 and since then we've decommissioned 14 of them

The industry directly employs nearly 60,000 workers in good paying jobs

weirdly low estimate, almost by half

maintains these jobs for decades

"maintains" is doing a lot of work here, does that include toxic exposure payouts? because they are still fighting pretty hard to get those in the world's first nuclear contamination site, hanford

and supports hundreds of thousands of other workers

✅ true! 475,000 according to the NEI link above

In the midst of transformational changes taking place throughout the U.S. energy system

sure

the Biden-Harris Administration is continuing to build on President Biden’s unprecedented goal of a carbon free electricity sector by 2035

have they developed carbon free cement yet? (yes.) at scale? (no.) are we just not counting construction emissions because they're one-time emissions investments or how does this work exactly, i would love to know because i think we're also not counting emissions from waste transport to longterm storage because we haven't started doing that. anyway they've built a train for it even though we don't have a storage site so that's umm. that's uhh. fine i'm sure

while also ensuring that consumers across the country have access to affordable, reliable electric power

i guess you can still say "across the country" if you exclude texas as an outlier

and creating good-paying clean energy jobs.

i guess you can still call them good paying clean energy jobs if everybody who mines and refines the uranium dies of cancer because you just pulled out of the largest disarmament program in history due to it being geopolitically inadmissible (for russia... to continue... selling us the uranium from decommissioning...? i'm still trying to figure out the optics of that one but anyway as i have previously stated we didn't actually stop buying it in cases where it's "liable to cause supply chain issues")

Alongside renewable power sources like wind and solar, a new generation of nuclear reactors is now capturing the attention of a wide range of stakeholders

weird way to say that

for nuclear energy’s ability to produce clean, reliable energy and meet the needs of a fast-growing economy, driven by President Biden’s Investing in America agenda and manufacturing boom.

this is a carrier sentence to inject the president's name, but i would like to question which sectors of the growing economy are driving the most energy demand because i'm sure there are no nasty truths being elided there (it's computing)

The Administration recognizes that decarbonizing our power system, which accounts for a quarter of all the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions, represents a pivotal challenge requiring all the expertise and ingenuity our nation can deliver.

it's time once again for... the energy flow sankey chart! the reason the power system accounts for a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions is in no small part because 67% of it is lost to waste heat. has the nation's expertise and ingenuity started working on that yet

The Biden-Harris Administration is today hosting a White House Summit on Domestic Nuclear Deployment, highlighting the collective progress being made from across the public and private sectors

oh boy! a summit! talking about it is the same as doing it

Under President Biden’s leadership, the Administration has taken a number of actions to strengthen our nation’s energy and economic security by reducing – and putting us on the path to eliminating – our reliance on Russian uranium for civil nuclear power and building a new supply chain for nuclear fuel

gosh, i got ahead of myself and already criticized both of those things

including: signing on to last year’s multi-country declaration at COP28 to triple nuclear energy capacity globally by 2050

everybody criticized that

developing new reactor designs

which ones, the bill gates project that just got cancelled because utilities pulled out (edit: that's nuscale, the bill gates project is terrapower), the rolls royce submarine, or the one that just got regulatory approval (edit: this is also nuscale)

extending the service lives of existing nuclear reactors

yep! you sure showed the embrittlement at diablo canyon by doing nothing about it

and growing the momentum behind new deployments

nonsense clause, but it has this really ominous undercurrent due to its vagueness

Recognizing the importance of both the existing U.S. nuclear fleet and continued build out of large nuclear power plants, the U.S. is also taking steps to mitigate project risks associated with large nuclear builds and position U.S. industry to support an aggressive deployment target.

this one is not nonsense but they can't just out and out say "we are deregulating the industry because opening the process for public comment is most often the thing that slows it down" because then somebody might realize they're bulldozing ahead no matter what any constituent says, does, or actually wants

To help drive reactor deployment while ensuring ratepayers and project stakeholders are better protected, theAdministration is announcing today the creation of a Nuclear Power Project Management and Delivery working group that will draw on leading experts from across the nuclear and megaproject construction industry to help identify opportunities to proactively mitigate sources of cost and schedule overrun risk

i'm sure a revolving door working group packed with industry insiders can solve this without compromising their commitment to the profit motive, not that it particularly matters since the cost is passed on to the consumer in the form of fees on the electric bill

The United States Army is also announcing that it will soon release a Request for Information to inform a deployment program for advanced reactors to power multiple Army sites in the United States

good god... that is a fresh nightmare i did not see coming

Additionally, the Department of Energy released today a new primer highlighting the expected enhanced safety of advanced nuclear reactors

"expected" really serves to demonstrate several points i've made

i'm going to stop going line by line here because i know this is already too boring and long for anyone to read this far, unless anybody wants to know what i think about parts 50, 52, and 53 of the NRC licensing guidance -- which many of you have very clearly stated over the years that you don't -- and while i do want to acknowledge that it does go into more detail and even answer some of the questions i raised (vogtle comes up, diablo canyon comes up, a list of which SMR designs is given, or at least a list of the companies responsible for them),

what i would like to focus on is one conspicuous absence:

the reason we need a new fleet of reactors is because they are an essential part of the bomb production chain. they are the beginning of the refinement process, and we cannot carry out the plan (already underway) to replace the minutemen missiles currently in silos with sentinel missiles without significant new construction. we cannot start the president's desired wars with russia and china without the new sentinels. he's not going to be the one to carry this out, he's ensuring whoever is his successor in about 2030 or more likely 2040 will be armed to do so. limited amount of time left to prevent that

[beardedmrbean]

ATLANTA (AP) — A new reactor at a nuclear power plant in Georgia has entered commercial operation, becoming the first new American reactor built from scratch in decades.

Georgia Power Co. announced Monday that Unit 3 at Plant Vogtle, southeast of Augusta, has completed testing and is now sending power to the grid reliably.

At its full output of 1,100 megawatts of electricity, Unit 3 can power 500,000 homes and businesses. Utilities in Georgia, Florida and Alabama are receiving the electricity.

Nuclear power now makes up about 25% of the generation of Georgia Power, the largest unit of Atlanta-based Southern Co.

A fourth reactor is also nearing completion at the site, where two earlier reactors have been generating electricity for decades. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Friday said radioactive fuel could be loaded into Unit 4, a step expected to take place before the end of September. Unit 4 is scheduled to enter commercial operation by March.

The third and fourth reactors were originally supposed to cost $14 billion, but are now on track to cost their owners $31 billion. That doesn’t include $3.7 billion that original contractor Westinghouse paid to the owners to walk away from the project. That brings total spending to almost $35 billion.

The third and fourth reactors were originally supposed to cost $14 billion, but are now on track to cost their owners $31 billion. That doesn’t include $3.7 billion that original contractor Westinghouse paid to the owners to walk away from the project. That brings total spending to almost $35 billion.

The third reactor was supposed to start generating power in 2016 when construction began in 2009.

Vogtle is important because government officials and some utilities are again looking to nuclear power to alleviate climate change by generating electricity without burning natural gas, coal and oil.

“This project shows just how new nuclear can and will play a critical role in achieving a clean energy future for the United States,” Southern Co. CEO Chris Womack said in a statement. “Bringing this unit safely into service is a credit to the hard work and dedication of our teams at Southern Company and the thousands of additional workers who have helped build that future at this site.”

In Georgia, almost every electric customer will pay for Vogtle. Georgia Power currently owns 45.7% of the reactors. Smaller shares are owned by Oglethorpe Power Corp., which provides electricity to member-owned cooperatives, the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia and the city of Dalton. Oglethorpe and MEAG plan to sell power to cooperatives and municipal utilities across Georgia, as well in Jacksonville, Florida, and parts of Alabama and the Florida Panhandle.

Georgia Power’s 2.7 million customers are already paying part of the financing cost and elected public service commissioners have approved a monthly rate increase of $3.78 a month for residential customers as soon as the third unit begins generating power. That could hit bills in August, two months after residential customers saw a $16-a-month increase to pay for higher fuel costs.

Commissioners will decide later who pays for the remainder of the costs of Vogtle, including the fourth reactor.

[deutsche-bahn]

Anwärter für schlimmste Bahnhöfe: zunächst wäre da der Bahnhof Reichenbach (Vogtl) oberer Bahnhof. Das Bahnhofsgebäude ist gefühlt einen Kilometer lang, aber im Grunde eine Ruine und gesperrt. Die Busse fahren genau auf der anderen Seite ab, was jedesmal einen 500m Sprint von jedem verlangt, der rechtzeitig seinen Anschluss, oder den SEV erreichen möchte. Denn auf dieser Strecke gibt es SEHR viel SEV ._. (RE3 zwischen Dresden und Hof). Unter anderem aktuell zwischen Chemnitz Hbf und Chemnitz Siegmar. Der RE macht diese Strecke normalerweise in 5 Minuten. Der Bus braucht 15 min. Aber da man für so eine Lappalie ja nicht den Takt ändern kann, dürfen Umsteiger dann die restlichen 45 Minuten auf den nächsten RE warten. Und das an einem wundervollen Bahnhofskunstwerk: der Bahnhofsruine Chemnitz-Siegmar. Alt, bröckelig, vermoost, alles voller Graffiti. Um dem geneigten Reisenden den Anblick zu ersparen ist im Inneren alles mit Spanplatten und Infotafeln zum Bauprojekt abgedeckt. Es stinkt derbe nach Pisse. Durch einen Tunnel und eine Treppe gelangt man zum Bahnsteig - natürlich ohne Überdachung, was den Reisenden bei Regen oder Hitze wiederum dazu zwingt, die Wartezeit im Tunnel zu verbringen. Laut DB wird dieses Arrangement noch für etwa einen Monat andauern, nachdem es jetzt bereits seit einem Monat läuft. Glücklicherweise muss ich die Strecke nun nicht mehr pendeln.

Dem ist absolut nichts hinzuzufügen. Mein ehrliches Beileid. Alt, bröckelig und vermoost trifft übrigens auch auf unsere Verwaltungsetage zu.

[datarep]

Recently, the U.S. expanded its nuclear energy portfolio by commissioning the Unit 3 reactor at Plant Vogtle. Currently, nuclear power now contributes approximately 18.5% to the nation's total electricity generation.

by u/etfshelf

[man-and-atom]

We’ve been seeing a lot of sponsored posts from “ecoAmerica” recently. What exactly are they promoting? Are their programs worthwhile, or is it more greenwashing and temporizing?

Well, with Bill McKibben involved, you can bet your bottom dollar the folks at Georgia Power and the Southern Company aren’t getting the award they well deserve for Vogtle 3 and 4. The startup of two 1100 MW emissions-free high-capacity-factor power plants ought to be lauded.

[hackernewsrobot]

The first Gen III+ Nuclear plant begins fuel loading

https://www.georgiapower.com/company/news-center/2022-articles/vogtle-unit-3-nuclear-fuel-load.html Comments

[christinamac1]

'Peter Dutton’s nuclear plan is an economic disaster that would leave Australians paying more for electricity

If we use Vogtle as an example, which is the one completed project that employed Dutton’s favoured Westinghouse AP1000 technology, the extra cost to consumers would be very high. Tristan Edis Almost all nuclear power plants in Europe and North America were constructed in the 1970s and 1980s The Peter Dutton-led Coalition has announced that, if elected, the government will build seven nuclear…

[3lub]

[The Washington Post] As nuclear power flails in the U.S., White House bets big on a revival

As nuclear power flails in the U.S., White House bets big on a revival

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/06/05/nuclear-power-vogtle-georgia-granholm/

[eastgeorgiafence]

Fencing Company Augusta GA

Fencing Company Augusta GA: We, here at East Georgia Fence are committed to doing the best work by professional installers for the best possible price. We are committed to customer service and believe we set ourselves apart from the competition based on our experience, knowledge, and professionalism. East Georgia Fence and Construction is a was established in August 2006 by Travis Cain and Philip Martin. Travis is now the sole owner of East Georgia Fence and Construction. He previously worked in the fence division for another large fence company in the Augusta Area. He has been working in the fence industry for the past 13 years and has grown his company into one of the largest and most successful in the CSRA. He has been a project manager and salesman of fence jobs all over the southeast for customers such as the Augusta National Golf Club, Bartam Trail, Jones Creek, Champions Retreat, Fort Gordon, the City of Augusta, Columbia and Richmond County governments, Plant Vogtle, City of Savannah, Fort Stewart, numerous neighborhood associations including Bartram Trail, Tudor Branch, Canterbury Farms as well as numerous other residential and commercial customers.

[benkaden]

Ansichtskarte

Königerode Kr. Quedlinburg 1 Übersicht 2 Klausstraße 3 Badeteich 4 Teilansicht.

Reichenbach (Vogtl): BILD UND HEIMAT REICHENBACH (VOGTL) (A 1/B 52/87 IV-14-483 01 08 13 340)

Foto: Bild und Heimat ([Heriber] Darr)

1987

[thoughtlessarse]

The nuclear industry has been offering so-called Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) as an alternative to large reactors as a possible solution to climate change. SMRs are defined as nuclear reactors with a power output of less than 300 megawatts of electricity, compared to the typically 1000 to 1,500 megawatts power capacity of larger reactors. Proponents assert that SMRs would cost less to build and thus be more affordable. However, when evaluated on the basis of cost per unit of power capacity, SMRs will actually be more expensive than large reactors. This ‘diseconomy of scale’ was demonstrated by the now-terminated proposal to build six NuScale Power SMRs (77 megawatts each) in Idaho in the United States. The final cost estimate of the project per megawatt was around 250 percent more than the initial per megawatt cost for the 2,200 megawatts Vogtle nuclear power plant being built in Georgia, US. Previous small reactors built in various parts of America also shut down because they were uneconomical. The high cost of constructing SMRs on a per megawatt basis translates into high electricity production costs. According to the 2023 GenCost report from the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and the Australian Energy Market Operator, the estimated cost of generating each megawatt-hour of electricity from an SMR is around AUD$400 to AUD$600. In comparison, the cost of each megawatt-hour of electricity from wind and solar photovoltaic plants is around AUD$100, even after accounting for the cost involved in balancing the variability of output from solar and wind plants. Building SMRs has also been subject to delays. Russia’s KLT-40 took 13 years from when construction started to when it started generating electricity, instead of the expected three years. Small reactors also raise all of the usual concerns associated with nuclear power, including the risk of severe accidents, the linkage to nuclear weapons proliferation, and the production of radioactive waste that has no demonstrated solution because of technical and social challenges. One 2022 study calculated that various radioactive waste streams from SMRs would be larger than the corresponding waste streams from existing light water reactors.

continue reading

So, they turn out to be more expensive and have all the risks of conventional nuclear power stations and then some.

The one risk not mentioned for SMRs is design faults. If one reactor has a fault, all the others of the same design will have that fault as well.

[tocitynews]

Georgia Is Now The Largest Generator Of Clean Energy In The Country After Power System Unit Launch –Atlanta Georgia reporting

After 33 years of being a low-level engineer at Plant Vogtle, Georgia Power CEO Kim Greene is now chairwoman, president, and CEO of Georgia Power. She has the distinction of leading the company’s efforts to put Georgia on top of the energy map when it comes to clean energy.

With Greene’s blessing, Channel 2 Action News crews drove two and a half hours away to meet the immense security and protocol involved in stepping foot on the property where some of the potentially most powerful science in the world is being employed.

“To be the home of the largest generator of clean energy in the United States is saying something pretty spectacular,” said Greene.

After cost overruns and delays, Vogtle is the first successfully launched nuclear power plant in the U.S. in more than 30 years.

Vogtle Vice President and Georgia Tech-educated engineer John Williams gave Channel 2 Action News a tour, deeper and deeper into Vogtle.

Farmer said he has interviewed a sitting president inside the White House, but the security at Vogtle was 10 times more intense than what he experienced inside the White House.

“So all of these, operators are licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. And one week out of every five, they are being, trained to make sure they’re being kept the latest on procedure changes, any, new technology or anything like that,” said the speaker.

In the simplest terms, when atoms are split, instead of a catastrophic explosion like an atom bomb, the release of energy is controlled which heats water, creating steam to turn turbines. Current leaves the generator and hits the grid on its way to you with a zero carbon footprint.

[cdoc1890]

A second new nuclear reactor is completed in Georgia. The carbon-free power comes at a high price https://apnews.com/article/georgia-power-vogtle-nuclear-reactor-plant-3ef69a9f64f74410ab2dcda62981b2eb

[man-and-atom]

The anodyne syrup of the “solar–hydrogen economy” keeps mankind suckling at the fossil–fuel teat when we should long since have moved on to adult foods. Also, computer programmers once again prove unable to deal with intercalation, even when it comes on a regular schedule, and has for centuries past ; congratulations to Georgia Power on first synchronization of Vogtle 4 ; and, who are your heroes?

Direct link to archive recording [192 kbps MP3, 40 MB]