Constellation Saves Millions Using Blue Wave AI Tools

• Constellation Saves Millions Using Blue Wave AI Tools
• TerraPower Submits Its Natrium Construction Permit Application the NRC
• South Korea Gears Up For Advanced Reactor Development
• Urenco Signs New Nuclear Fuel Contract With South Korea
• Eagle Rock Enrichment Plant May Fly Again
• South Africa’s PBMR May Get a Restart
• Thailand, Philippines Exploring Nuclear Power

Constellation Saves Millions Using Blue Wave AI Tools

A nuclear energy consultancy Blue Wave AI Labs, located at the Kurz Purdue Technology Center in West Lafayette, IN, (70 miles NW of Indianapolis, IN) has developed a suite of artificial intelligence (AI) tools for use by nuclear utilities.

Blue Wave tested its technology at Constellation’s Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station and Limerick Generating Station starting in 2022. The results are of immense importance to the firm’s fleet of reactors.

The project was part of a $6 million effort supported by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to help lower the operating costs of nuclear power plants using the latest artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologies.

Two U.S. national laboratories, Argonne National Laboratory and Brookhaven National Laboratory, contributed to the project. The effort also leveraged 158,000 core hours computing time across the Nuclear Science User Facilities high-performance computing systems.

AI Application Areas

Over time, sensors in nuclear reactors can become out of calibration and lose accuracy. If enough sensors stop working correctly, the reactor will reduce power or shut down as a precautionary measure, costing an operator millions of dollars per day in lost generation revenue.

All three of Blue Wave’s AI tools used vast amounts of historical plant data to analyze and improve sensor measurements within the reactor core.

In 2023, Blue Wave identified sensors at Limerick 2 that were suspected to be out of calibration. These sensors were taken offline, allowing the plant to continue operating safely while staying in compliance with its operating license.

During the next sensor calibration cycle, the plant operators were able to verify that sensors that were taken offline were giving incorrect readings due to being out of calibration specifications, as was predicted by Blue Wave’s tool.

The AI algorithms also improved engineers’ ability to predict how much nuclear fuel must be purchased and how to configure the fuel to generate the greatest amount of power while preserving margin to operating limits — another time-consuming and expensive process.

Jonathan Nistor, Ph.D., Chief Operating Officer, Blue Wave AI Labs, wrote in an email to this blog, “We believe that the tools we have developed (including ThermalLimits.ai and other intelligent diagnostic tools for in-core nuclear instrumentation) will significantly reduce many of the operational challenges that arise throughout a BWR fuel cycle.”

“These challenges traditional required remedial actions that have an adverse impact on the power generation capability of the core, and consequently come with a high financial cost. Now, we have tools that provide incredible visibility into the underlying causes and afford nuclear operators more flexibility than the need for power de-rates or unplanned insertion of control rods.”

Jason Murphy, vice president for nuclear fuels at Constellation, said, “Constellation’s collaboration with Blue Wave AI Labs has allowed us to use powerful machine learning tools to complement traditional engineering practices when designing innovative nuclear fuel products for our operating fleet. Widespread adoption of these new tools will benefit nuclear reliability and cost-effectiveness.”

Because of the success of this project, Constellation plans to expand AI applications to additional reactors in its BWR fleet. Blue Wave projects that the new software could save up to $80 million per year once the tools are expanded to the nation’s fleet of 32 boiling water reactors (BWR).

The company is also working to adapt the AI algorithms to support the pressurized water reactor fleet, which comprises two-thirds of America’s nuclear energy generation.

Blue Wave AI Labs and Constellation Expand Strategic Agreement

Blue Wave AI Labs announced that Constellation is expanding its strategic collaboration by integrating ThermalLimits.ai across its fleet of boiling water reactors (BWRs).

According to the firm’s website, ThermalLimits.ai is a state-of-the-art tool that yields real world, high value results via machine learning. It enables powerful predictive capability into crucial operating limits ensuring compliance with technical specifications, enabling reduced reload fuel costs, and eliminating operational challenges.

ThermalLimits.ai, the latest addition to Blue Wave AI Labs’ Nuclear-AI Suite, will help Constellation sustain cost-effective and innovative nuclear fuel-cycle planning and cycle management.

ThermalLimits.ai is expected to contribute to reduced operational challenges, avoidance of power de-rates, and more efficient reload core design across Constellation’s boiling water nuclear power plants. This product offers advanced predictive analytics to increase visibility into thermal margins to help maximize safe production.

& & &

TerraPower Submits Its Natrium Construction Permit Application the NRC

TerraPower announced the submission of its construction permit application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for the Natrium reactor demonstration project. TerraPower is the first firm to submit its construction permit application for a commercial advanced reactor to the NRC. The firm’s work is supported by a cost-shared contract with DOE under the Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program.

TerraPower has been working closely with the NRC in pre-application meetings and is confident in its application. Due to its unique design, non-nuclear construction will begin on the Natrium reactor demonstration project this summer, while nuclear construction will begin after this application is approved. Upon completion, the Natrium plant will be a fully functioning commercial power plant.

“This submission marks another step toward bringing the Natrium reactor to market and revolutionizing how a nuclear reactor functions on the grid,” said Chris Levesque, President and CEO of TerraPower.

Last month, TerraPower announced the second round of contracts for long-lead suppliers supporting the development of the Natrium reactor, strengthening the advanced nuclear supply chain throughout North America.

The Natrium technology is an advanced nuclear design featuring a 345 MWe sodium-cooled fast reactor with a molten salt-based energy storage system. Other advantages of this Generation IV non-light-water reactor include improved fuel utilization, enhanced safety features and a streamlined plant layout that will require less overall materials to construct.

The Natrium storage technology can boost the system’s output to 500 MWe for more than five and a half hours when needed. This innovative addition allows a Natrium plant to integrate seamlessly with renewable resources and leads to faster, more cost-effective decarbonization of the electric grid while producing dispatchable carbon-free energy. The Natrium demonstration plant is being constructed near a retiring coal facility.

& & &

S. Korea Gears Up For Advanced Reactor Development

(WNN) South Korea’s Ministry of Science & ICT (MSIT) has signed a memorandum of understanding with eight Korean companies to cooperate on the development of next-generation nuclear reactors.

The agreement is between MSIT and the eight private companies: Century, Daewoo Engineering & Construction, Doosan Energy, HD Korea Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, Hyundai Engineering, Hyundai Engineering & Construction, POSCO E&C and Samsung Heavy Industries.

The ministry said the MOU is expected to serve as a foundation for disseminating the results accumulated through government-led research and development to the private sector and promoting private-led technology development, demonstration and commercialization.

Through the MOU, the government and companies have confirmed their commitment to developing next-generation nuclear reactors, including the Korean-designed SMART SMR, molten salt reactors, high-temperature gas reactors and sodium-cooled fast reactors. They have also agreed to continue close cooperation for joint technology development, technology transfer, acquisition of licenses, and human resource training.

“In order to become a global leader in the nuclear energy market, which is rapidly being reorganized centering on next-generation nuclear reactors, the role of private companies that can respond quickly and flexibly is paramount,” said First Vice Minister of Science and ICT Lee Chang-Yune.

“Based on the public-private cooperation MoU, we will spare no effort in providing the necessary support for our companies to develop into top-tier next-generation nuclear reactor companies, such as transferring technology owned by government-funded research institutes, supporting licensing, and establishing a research association.”

President Yoon Suk-yeol, who took office in May 2022, vowed to reverse former President Moon Jae-in’s policy of phasing out nuclear power, a policy which was brought in after he assumed office in 2017, and followed the 2011 Fukushima Daiichi accident in Japan.

& & &

Urenco Signs New Nuclear Fuel Contract With South Korea

• Seoul is bullish on nuclear power and is planning to build new reactors at home and abroad

(NucNet) Urenco, the Anglo-German-Dutch provider of uranium enrichment services, has signed a new contract for the long-term supply of enrichment services with the operator of South Korea’s nuclear power plants.

The company said in a statement that the agreement with Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power company (KHNP) would help to provide a “secure, diverse and reliable supply” of nuclear fuel to South Korea, which has 26 nuclear plants in commercial operation and two under construction.

“The agreement with the KHNP, with whom Urenco has worked since 1993, will see us remain a major supplier for them well into the next decade.”

KHNP’s president and chief executive officer Jooho Wang said KHNP is aiming to build a number of new nuclear power plants at home and abroad, and cooperation with reliable partners such as Urenco will be “very important as demand for nuclear power increases internationally”.

In December 2023, Urenco approved an investment aimed at expanding the production capacity of its existing plant in Almelo, the Netherlands.

According to Urenco, the expansion is a response to an expected long-term increase in customer demand as more countries and utilities turn to nuclear power for the first time or seek to extend and diversify fuel supplies for existing nuclear reactor fleets. The expansion marked the third investment under Urenco’s capacity program.

South Korera’s president Yoon Suk Yeol has pledged to revive the country’s nuclear power industry by promising about $2.4 billion (€2.2bn) investment in nuclear projects and extending $750m in financing.

Yoon has also vowed to boost the country’s technological capability for small modular reactors (SMR) and introduce the country’s first SMR model, the i-SMR, by 2028.

& & &

Eagle Rock Enrichment Plant May Fly Again

Reuters reports that France’s Orano is studying a plant to build a uranium enrichment plant at site about 20 miles west of Idaho Falls, ID. The multi-billion dollar facility and site were previously considered by Areva, Orano’s predecessor organization.

Areva chose the Idaho Falls, ID, location after a national site selection process. It also won a $2 billion federal loan guarantee from the then Obama administration, but was unable to raise the additional needed $1 billion from private investors to break ground.

Areva cancelled the project due to the rapid fall in the price of uranium and over capacity of enrichment services following the Fukushima disaster in Japan.

The wire service report said the plan for a facility has now been resurrected, according to Claude Imauven, chairman of Orano’s board.

“It’s a topic that was studied in the past by Areva and is now being studied by Orano,” he told an event organized by think tank Confrontations Europe. He gave no further details.

Separately, Orano said in October it will invest in increasing production capacity at its uranium enrichment facility in southern France, largely to meet demand from its U.S. clients. The expansion would help to reduce the risk of any halt in supplies from Russia’s Rosatom, which provides about 30% of the West’s enriched uranium, according to Orano.

Meanwhile, in the US Centrus Energy started up a new plant in Ohio late last year to produce high-assay, low-enriched uranium (HALEU).

President Joe Biden signed a bill this month approving $2.7 billion in U.S. funding for domestic fuel production, including HALEU projects.

& & &

South Africa’s PBMR May Get a Restart

According to a business trade press report in South Africa, the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR), which was cancelled in 2010, may be getting as reboot.

The potential customer base for the HTRM-100 (35 MWe, 100 MWt) reactor is composed of remote farming communities in South Africa. The Southern African Agri Initiative (SAAI)has partnered with the private equity firm C5 Capital to pursue the project. C5 Capital is a specialist venture capital firm that invests in cybersecurity, space, and energy security.

The firm’s objective is to develop plants that would support micro grids in local communities but which would not tie into the national transmission infrastructure run by state owned utility Eskom.

According to SAAI there’s strong interest in SMRs from farmers whose livelihoods have been assaulted by load shedding. Irrigation systems cannot function when there’s no power, poultry farmers have had to destroy millions of rands worth of stock, refrigeration equipment doesn’t work, etc.

Chris Opperman, operating partner for Africa and the Middle East at C5 Capital, says there’s been a surge of interest in these small reactors across Africa.

Washington DC-based C5 is raising about $50 million needed to jump start building the first HTRM-100 reactor, either near Cape Town or Pretoria, with a construction lead time of five years.

A problem for the project is that when PBMR was cancelled, most of its talent left the country. The decision put hundreds of highly skilled nuclear technicians and engineers on the global job market resulted in many of them ending up at US-based X-energy, a nuclear reactor and fuel design engineering company.

As one industry observer told the trade press source, “One of our nuclear experts went to a meeting with about 15 X-energy executives in Washington and the entire meeting was conducted in Afrikaans. That tells you what happened to our nuclear talent.”

X-energy has ended up with  intellectual property developed in South Africa, though its modular reactors have taken a different course to that of the HTMR-100.

& & &

Thailand, Philippines Exploring Nuclear Power

• Small modular reactors seen as solution to meet energy demand, promote safety

(Nikkei) Thailand and the Philippines are developing plans to start nuclear reactors by the next decade. Thailand’s government says it plans to unveil in September a national energy plan through 2037 expected to incorporate small modular reactors (SMRs). The government will look into potential sites for the reactors, which would account for 70MW worth of capacity or roughly the equivalent of one NuScale SMR.

Srettha Thavisin, Thailand’s current prime minister, told the wire service he discussed the possibility of rolling out nuclear power with U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo when they met in Bangkok on March 14th.

Thailand is promoting nuclear power as its natural gas fields become exhausted and the country’s electricity needs grow along with the economy. Bangkok has pledged to go carbon neutral by 2050, fueling the need for a stable power source to replace gas and coal.

The Philippines, which faces similar challenges, plans to operate a commercial nuclear station in the early 2030s. Manila and Washington signed an agreement on civil nuclear power in November 2023 that allows transfers of nuclear material, equipment and information between the two countries.

SMRs are considered the leading candidate for adoption by the Philippines. U.S. firm NuScale Power plans to invest up to $7.5 billion through 2031 to build the reactors in the Southeast Asian country. The government has a preliminary list of potential sites, but has made no decisions on vendor(s) or sites.

Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest country at over 270 million people, plans to install 1,000 to 2,000 MW worth of nuclear capacity by the early 2030s. Coal currently accounts for about 60% of the power source mix. Indonesia looks to become carbon neutral by 2060.

# # #