By Chase Hanson, EHS
What do you think when you hear the word nuclear? Most people think of major disasters such as Chernobyl, and Fukushima, these disasters were bad but with the modern innovations Nuclear power is so much safer, In this Informative I’m going to go over the current largest innovation in nuclear power, a plant natrium plant in Wyoming and how it affects me. Where I am from the main source of income is in the coal industry, personally both my mom and dad work at the local coal power plant. The big problem about this is the regulations set on the coal plants that will inevitably make them shut down. This shutdown would lead to the loss of the main employer for our county, But there is a solution that at first may seem scary, we could replace these plants with nuclear ones. In this Informative I will go over Natrium plants and how they work, the setup of these plants, the benefits of them and the safety and permitting.
Natrium nuclear power plants are the future of zero greenhouse gas emissions power in the United States. Terra Power, along with their partner the U.S. Dept. of Energy, and Pacificorp broke ground on its natrium power plant by a retired coal power plant in Kemerer, Wyoming. The Reason this is a big deal is because this nuclear plant features a new experimental nuclear reactor, called a natrium reactor. This new natrium reactor is supposed to be better for our modern grid, and it is supposed to work well with renewable energy, such as solar or wind power. This plant would have two parts that they call islands, a nuclear island and an energy storage island.
The nuclear island has 3 buildings: the reactor auxiliary building, the reactor building, and the fuel handling building. The natrium reactor uses advanced uranium fuel which is inserted into a container covered with liquid sodium. This liquid sodium acts as a coolant and as a heat transfer. The reason they use sodium is because its boiling point is higher than water. The heat from the nuclear reaction then travels through the sodium into energy pipes which are filled with molten salt. Then the molten salt is transferred into a container so it can be used like a battery. This molten salt is used to heat water which is then pressurized into steam and ran through a turbine creating power. What makes this nuclear plant unique is the use of sodium as a coolant rather than water, and the use of a container that holds molten salt so they can ramp up or slow down energy production depending on what the grid needs. After the salt is cooled down it can go back through the reactor creating an endless cycle.
Some of the other benefits of this nuclear design is the operation costs which are lower in this plant than most nuclear plants because the turbine and battery are far enough away from the nuclear plant that you have less area to secure than a traditional nuclear plant which lowers costs. The modular design of the power plant makes the plant easy and faster to build than the traditional power plant too.
One of the major concerns people have about nuclear power is its safety. Disasters like Chernobyl, Three mile Island, and Fukushima bring fear towards nuclear power. But with the innovation of this new plant it is safer than traditional nuclear power plants, mainly because of two things, the sodium coolant and the use of convection to cool these reactors and prevent meltdowns. These technologies make nuclear power a considerable option for cleaner and safer power, especially with our grid that is becoming more and more unstable with the use of solar and wind and the retirement of many coal power plants. Nuclear technology might be a viable solution. These disasters also cause a problem because they hurt the public perception of nuclear power. Usually when people hear about nuclear power they think about how unsafe it is, when in reality with the advancements of nuclear power technology, safety has increased tenfold.
So how much power does this plant make? The plant is supposed to produce 345 megawatts just with the reactor, but with the boost of the salt batteries the plant can boost production to 500 megawatts for up to 5 and a half hours. This 500 megawatts could be a boost for the grid when renewables like solar panels aren’t making power.
One of the other reasons this is a big deal is because America needs more power. Pacificorp turns down big customers all the time because there is not enough power on the grid to support the technological projects like data centers that companies want to build. So these power plants could be part of the solution to that problem. This nuclear power plant will also align with the United states plan to lower greenhouse gas emissions because this plant produces zero greenhouse gas emissions.
One of the problems facing this project is the permitting. Permitting can take 5-10 years and cost tens of millions of dollars just to get approved to build a nuclear plant, plus with all of the legal and political hurdles you have to pass through building these plants can take some time.
Overall power is something most people use on a daily basis. With the added consumption of power to electronics and artificial intelligence, the development of cleaner energy and better energy production has been pushed by companies like Terra Power, whose main investor is billionaire Bill Gates.
Overall this new project is very exciting, and these new innovations could personally affect my life and the lives of millions of americans. Power is a very important thing in this modern age, and making better, clean, and safer power is very important. And with all of these new innovations and technologies it will be interesting to see what comes from this new Natrium plant being built.