Andries Wantenaar’s Post

#Georgia Power’s #Vogtle nuclear power plant’s expansion (units 3 & 4) is now complete with unit 4 coming online 4/29/2024. This is a great achievement for Georgia Power and Westinghouse as approximately 2 million homes around the Augusta, GA area can be powered through low-cost, emission-free generation. Although the expansion should be celebrated, delays (7 years) and cost over-runs ($17B) can’t be ignored. Because of the magnitude of this project and short fallings with project execution, confidence in US nuclear has been damaged and unrealized risks for future projects will have to be assessed before these projects are green-lit. #NuclearPower #VogtlePowerPlant #Georgia #EnergyConsultant #InfinityPowerPartners

Nuclear plant owner Constellation along with Microsoft have agreed to a massive, unprecedented deal to restart the closed Three Mile Island unit 1 by 2028 to power their datacenters. “The symbolism is enormous: this was the site of the industry’s greatest failure, and now it can be a place of rebirth”! Most famous for its 1979 meltdown on its unit 2, TMI unit 1 closed in 2019 because of economics. Constellation will pay to refurbish the plant entirely out of its own pocket, “no penny from the state or from utility customers”. This follows the decision to restart another nuclear plant, Palisades, closed in 2022 which is ongoing. #nuclear #nuclearenergy #nuclearpower

Soaring 40% over budget with further multi-billion overruns expected. Over 15 years now in the works. Completion timelines already pushed from 2025 to 2027, yet new issues emerging could see the first reactor delayed until beyond 2030. I’m talking about the UK’s long-planned Hinkley Point C - intended showcase of Europe’s 21st century nuclear While the need for stable baseload to anchor more intermittent #renewables remains sound, this project was billed as powering 6 million homes by mid-2020s. But with delays mounting and EDF taking on eye-watering debt between Hinkley Point and similar efforts in France, I have to wonder if this grand #nuclear plan will end up too little too late for UK #decarbonization aims despite government policy tailwinds. What’s your take - can projects with this historic level of overrun reputational damage be re-righted to cost-effectively deliver low carbon electrons when promised? Or does the economic case and role for giant nuclear builds like these need reassessing in light of smaller, nimbler alternatives making faster market inroads? #HowBigThingsGetDone

Boosting #NuclearCapacity: #ConstellationEnergy's Uprate Strategy Key Takeaways: - Invest $800 million to increase nuclear output by 135MW at two Illinois sites. - Uprate projects across 14 plants aiming for an additional 1,000MW capacity. - Revival of nuclear investment driven by federal climate incentives. Further Insights 1. Expansion Plan: Constellation Energy Corp. aims to expand its nuclear fleet's capacity by effectively adding a new reactor's worth of power through equipment upgrades. 2. Strategic Shift: The decision to pursue uprate projects marks a strategic pivot, fueled by advantageous tax incentives under Biden's climate policy, reversing a decade-old stance against nuclear investments due to competition from natural gas and renewables. 3. Economic & Environmental Impact: The initiative promises to bolster the supply of carbon-free electricity, catering to the soaring demand influenced by electrification efforts and the surge in AI-driven data centers. Closing Thoughts: While Constellation Energy embarks on enhancing nuclear power’s contribution to the clean energy mix, one wonders what implications this will have for the broader energy transition. Will this reaffirm nuclear energy’s role in achieving a sustainable and resilient power grid?

"We need to get on and build more nuclear... If we don't do anything other than talk about it for five years then we're going to be in a worse position." 📺 Nuclear Industry Association CEO Tom Greatrex tells TalkTV the only way Britain will have enough clean power on the grid to meet increased demand is to get on with building new reactors and for decisions to be made by the government enabling the industry to make that happen. ⚡ On Monday, an Electricity Capacity Market Notice was issued for the first time in two years warning of a potential shortfall between supply and demand. Tom told the Telegraph: "Without fresh investment and decisions on new nuclear projects at Sizewell C and Wylfa as well as small modular reactors, these warnings will become more commonplace and we will have to continue relying on volatile gas markets to fill the gaps in supply, threatening our energy security and driving up bills and emissions.” 👉 Full Telegraph article: https://lnkd.in/er-YTqr4 👉 Watch Tuesday's full interview from 1.43 minutes here: https://lnkd.in/eVw5wt22 #netzeroneedsnuclear 

New Funding to Fuel Nuclear Plant Construction Boosting Local Jobs, and Power to Millions of Homes. The UK government is ramping up its efforts to expand nuclear energy by committing an additional £1.3 billion to support the construction of Sizewell C. This significant funding injection comes after the Development Consent Order (DCO) #£13BillionFunding #InfrastructureImprovementsSuffolk #JobCreationNuclearSector #LongtermEnergySecurity #NuclearEnergyExpansion #NuclearPlantConstruction #SecurePowerGeneration #SizewellCNuclearProject #SustainableEnergyDevelopment #UKGovernmentInvestment

A new restart of nuclear energy production! Interesting project and more favoring the development compared to some European countries where technologies, development and knowledge gain are forbidden by the democratic government. Difficult to understand how so called leaders are leading their peolple in areas of their interest. Is this the task of a government or just just to set the rules?

Increased reliance on Nuclear Power is part of the governments plan to achieve net zero by 2050. Sizewell in Suffolk (pictured) has been known as the next Nuclear site for quite a while. Anglesey or Cumbria are now the lead contenders for another Nuclear Power Station in the UK. Undoubtedly boosting the local economy and bringing plenty of jobs with it. Cleaner and greener power generation will always be more popular with the public, but with a shortage of skilled workers already in construction, I think we need to encourage more students to choose Construction to deliver these projects in the timescales being planned. https://lnkd.in/eWwf4n2V

A long way to go, but the concept and delivery of a stable #GDF to house the UK's legacy #nuclear waste is covered almost as much in the media as new-build EDF sites. It is an important factor not just today, but for generations to come, and the engineers planning these facilities have to predict and take into account even future potential earthquakes and ice ages in order to select the most appropriate site. It is absolutely appropriate - and maybe a happy coincidence - that work is happening concurrently on both ends of the nuclear fuel lifecycle; I hope that the GDF project will align well with the commissioning and activation of the UK's new nuclear power fleet going into the second half of the 21st century.

The reopening of the Palisades Nuclear Power Plant in Michigan does make a lot of sense. Especially as the goal is to reduce the carbon intensity on the Michigan grid, so leveraging existing assets had to be seriously considered. #nuclear #energy #electricity #energytransition #energypolicy #energysecurity