Nuclear Fuel Cycle

Nuclear Energy's Critical Illness

Continue With Failed Treatments or Pursue the Cure?

Many supporters of nuclear technology have tried to correct significant challenges on assorted issues from the public, the media, and the scientific, regulatory and political sectors. But these efforts failed; they could not acknowledge the true illness and pursue the cure. This discussion focuses on what that illness is, how the industry has treated it, how to cure it, and one way to achieve a new political and regulatory environment that can save the patient.

Nuclear Innovation Is Not an Oxymoron

EPRI Podcast: Advanced Nuclear Looks Promising

Advanced nuclear technologies are closer to reality than you might think. To make a breakthrough, they'll need to provide significant advantages over current technologies, such as operating at low pressures and very high temperatures, and including inherent safety features.

Path Forward for Storage

Managing Aging Nuclear Storage Canisters

The Electric Power Research Institute, EPRI, will publish nuclear aging management and inspection guidance in early 2017. These will address the potential for chloride-induced stress corrosion cracking in welded stainless steel canisters in dry-cask storage systems.

Small Modular Reactors and Path Not Taken

Military Rivalry Fueled Nuclear Program

If we had to choose a new nuclear generating technology today, we would emphasize one that had no potential for catastrophic failure and minimized problems of long term waste storage. Perhaps we should revisit the path not taken: a thorium-fueled nuclear reactor design.

Nuclear's New Chance

Reprocessing nuclear fuel is a sustainable and viable option.

Reprocessing nuclear fuel separates the uranium and the plutonium for the rest of the spent fuel, enabling plant operators to reuse the uranium. But concerns over nuclear proliferation are stopping it in this country.

Next-Gen Nuclear

Tomorrow’s options for low-carbon baseload generation.

The nuclear renaissance might be postponed, but technologies continue advancing. The next generation of plants will apply innovation for safety, efficiency, and modularity.

Nuclear Policy Half-Life

Interim steps toward solving America’s spent-fuel dilemma.

New legislation could clear the path toward a sustainable strategy for storing spent nuclear fuel. Complexities and disagreements, however, might scuttle the effort.

For the People

Former Progress Energy CEO checks in from his new job at TVA.

Fortnightly speaks with William Johnson, CEO of the Tennessee Valley Authority, about managing the country’s biggest government-owned power supplier.

Spent-Fuel Fedcorp

The Blue Ribbon Commission’s best answer for the nuclear waste dilemma.

As the Fukushima-Daiichi crisis unfolds, the U.S. DOE’s Blue Ribbon Commission is preparing its initial recommendations on how America should deal with its commercial nuclear waste. Early indicators suggest it will endorse the so-called fedcorp model—creating an independent federal corporation, similar to TVA. But a fedcorp structure, by itself, won’t resolve the spent-fuel dilemma. Success will require a strong mandate, consistent funding—and a totally new approach to siting and management.

Rethinking Spent Fuel

Could a TVA-style Fed Corp model be the answer to America’s ongoing nuclear waste dilemma? A bill sponsored by the new Senate Energy Committee chairman proposes to create just such a corporation. Constellation’s Henry (Brew) Barron discusses the proposal — and its prospects for enactment in the current political environment.