#nuclearplants — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #nuclearplants, aggregated by home.social.
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#Kansas town is getting an underground #nuclear reactor [whether they like it or not!]
Story by Jessie Williams, July 29, 2026
"A pilot project to bury a #NuclearReactor one mile underneath a town in Kansas has split the opinion of local residents, with some fearing the #EnvironmentalImpacts while others hope it will create economic opportunities.
"The so-called #GravityReactor is being proposed by #DeepFission, a California-based start-up from a father-daughter duo, #LizMuller and #RichardMuller, emeritus professor of physics at University of California, and an inventor.
"It will be the first time a commercial nuclear reactor operates underground.
"The startup has raised around $150 million in the past year, with $40 million of that going to fund the work in #ParsonsKS, a rural town in Kansas with a population of 9,600.
"So far Deep Fission has drilled one test hole with a second due to be completed this year, and a full-scale prototype canister intended to test installation procedures.
"Their plan is to send the canister loaded with nuclear fuel into a third hole to heat water a mile underground and generate electricity on the surface in 2027 or 2028.
"But some people in Parsons are worried about the short time frame by industry standards and the impact on the #environment and their #WaterSupply.
"Each reactor would generate 15 megawatts of electricity from inside a 30-inch borehole, enough to power 12,000 homes. But Muller wants 100 or more reactors, providing more than a gigawatt – which would be enough for a #datacentre.
"The design relies on established pressurised water reactor technology, but with the reactor one mile underground, Deep Fission says it could remove some of the most expensive parts of conventional #NuclearPlants, as rock and water pressure could replace some costly #safety structures, such as #cooling and #containment.
"Nuclear only generates about a fifth of US electricity, but the Trump administration is seeking to kickstart a '#NuclearRenaissance,' aiming to quadruple America’s nuclear-power generation by 2050. It comes amid skyrocketing demand for electricity, mainly driven by data centres for AI."
#NoNukesForAI #AISucks #TrumpSucks #USPol #AIDatacenters #Datacenters #NoNukes #NoNewNukes #WaterIsLife #NuclearPowerPlant #SafetyStandards #EnvironmentalCosts
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U.S. faces electricity challenge as AI energy demand soars
By : Chip Minty//The Journal Record//September 25, 2025
"They say that artificial intelligence (AI) will be the most transformative technological development ever. Pick any revolutionary advancement you can think of — the Internet, smartphones, air travel, automobiles, the conveyor belt. You can go back as far as fire itself, and experts say AI has a chance to outshine them all.
"As a consequence, there’s an international winner-take-all race to supremacy underway that involves the United States, China and Europe, and the victor stands to emerge at the top of the world’s economic pecking order.
"Much is at stake as industry and institutions are ramping up microchip production, data center construction and educational programs customized to a new AI economy. But behind the billions of dollars in technology infrastructure investment, policymakers and industry visionaries still don’t know if the United States will have enough electricity available to feed the AI behemoth once it reaches maturity.
"No one is quite sure how much more electricity the United States will need, but estimates suggest the nation’s emerging AI machine could demand 60 gigawatts or more within the next couple of years. That volume far exceeds the needs of major U.S. cities, such as New York.
"Adding that much power to the grid will be no small undertaking, experts say, especially for a nation that has focused the last quarter century on a clean energy transition that still is looking for traction. Wind and solar energy can play a role, but inconsistent production limits their ability to meet spikes in power demand.
"So, what’s left? No one is talking about coal. That leaves #NaturalGas to carry the burden. And then there’s #nuclear, an emerging darling of the power industry, winning bipartisan support from policymakers who are now willing to set aside the 1979 #ThreeMileIsland disaster, which practically paralyzed the industry for decades.
"The Oklahoma City-based Hamm Institute for American Energy has made the issue one of its core concerns, bringing leaders together from across the United States and from key international trading partners, such as Japan and South Korea.
" 'The United States has the resources it needs. What it lacks is speed, certainty and alignment,' said Ann Bluntzer Pullin, executive director of the Hamm Institute.
'This initiative is about turning urgency into action so that America and its allies can lead in both energy and AI.''" I feel like you’ve got these two giants, the tech industry and the energy industry at this unbelievable moment in time where they can both rise to the occasion and literally move society forward in a way where everyone’s quality of life goes up,' she told leaders at a recent roundtable event.
"There’s a growing number of AI systems housed in an expanding network of data centers, which store, process and manage critical data and their applications. The giant facilities’ large assemblies of servers, storage drives and other hardware are known for their enormous appetite for electricity."
Read more / listen:
https://journalrecord.com/2025/09/25/ai-energy-demand-us-power-challenges/Archived version:
https://archive.ph/VKXi7#NoNukesForAI #NoNukesForDatacenters #FossilFuels #NuclearPlants #WaterIsLife #LandIsLife #CorporateGreed
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#French #NuclearPower production expected to be reduced on Wednesday
By Reuters
August 12, 2025PARIS, Aug 12 (Reuters) - "Power production at France's #Bugey3 #nuclear reactor in the east of the country is expected to be reduced by 500 megawatts (MW) on Wednesday, data from operator #EDF showed on Tuesday, as high river temperatures reduce the plant's ability to intake cooling water.
"A #heatwave throughout #France has led to multiple warnings of power reductions at a number of #NuclearPlants, particularly on the #RhoneRiver in the east and the #GaronneRiver in the west."The #Bugey 3 reactor has a maximum capacity of 910 MW, which will be reduced to 410 MW from 2:30 p.m. (1230 GMT) to midnight on Wednesday as the reactor is required to meet environmental safety measures, EDF's data showed.
"The high water temperature warnings for the #SaintAlban plant - down river of the Bugey site - and the #Golfech site in the west were moved to August 14, but restrictions have not yet been issued.
Average temperatures in the country are expected to continue to peak throughout the week, reaching a high of 28.5 degrees Celsius (83.3°F) on Saturday, LSEG data showed."#NuclearPower accounts for about 70% of total French power consumption annually, but August is the main holiday season throughout the country and electricity demand is often limited."
#EuropeHeatWaves #France #RethinkNotRestart #NoNukes #NoNukesForAI #NuclearPowerNoThanks #NuclearWasteIsForever #NuclearPowerPlants #ExtremeHeat #RenewablesNow #RenewableEnergy #RethinkNotRestart
#LeNucléaireNonMerci -
#Jellyfish Shut Four French #NuclearReactors as #HeatWave Builds
By Eamon Farhat
August 11, 2025"#Electricite de France SA [#EDF] was forced to shut four #AtomicReactors after a swarm of jellyfish clogged up filter drums at its #Gravelines power plant.
"The 'massive and unforeseen' [um, not if you read my posts -- very much FORESEEN] presence of jellyfish in the filter drums of pumping stations closed four out of six reactors at Gravelines on the north coast of France, EDF said in a statement on Monday. Pumping stations for coastal #NuclearPlants usually draw in sea water for cooling, sometimes exposing them to marine life.
"A #MarineHeatWave is intensifying off the west coast of France, with unusually warm waters in the English Channel near Gravelines, data from #Copernicus Marine Service show. Jellyfish populations can 'bloom' at such times, and France has closed several beaches in recent weeks due to invasions of the eight-legged molluscs, according reports compiled by the beach information app Meduseo."
Archived version:
https://archive.ph/bahil#EuropeHeatWaves #France #Jellyfish #RethinkNotRestart #NoNukes #NoNukesForAI #NuclearPowerNoThanks #NuclearWasteIsForever #NuclearPowerPlants #ExtremeHeat #RenewablesNow #RenewableEnergy #RethinkNotRestart
#LeNucléaireNonMerci -
The #HeatWave of late June threatens French #nuclear production
Written by Justine Dumont, Energy Renovation Expert Editor on 24 June 2025 at 08:00
"#EDF plans to reduce the production of its nuclear fleet, in particular that of the #Bugey power plant in Ain, as of Wednesday 25 June, due to the expected high temperatures. This decision comes at a time when Météo-France has placed 16 departments in orange-heat-wave vigilance since Friday 20 June."
Read more (en Français):
https://france3-regions.franceinfo.fr/normandie/manche/nucleaire-la-pleine-puissance-de-l-epr-de-flamanville-repoussee-d-ici-a-la-fin-de-l-automne-3196599.html#EuropeHeatWaves #NuclearPowerPlants #NuclearPlants #NoNukes #NuclearPowerNoThanks #NuclearWasteIsForever #NuclearPlants #Heatwaves #ExtremeHeat #RenewablesNow #RenewableEnergy #RethinkNotRestart
#NoNukes #NoNukesForAI #LeNucléaireNonMerci -
Invasion of #jellyfish, heat, water too hot: #GlobalWarming threatens the functioning of #NuclearPowerPlants
Several reactors are regularly forced to stop to protect river #biodiversity. While cuts in periods of high heat still have a very limited impact on supply, electrification of uses and #ClimateChange could make a difference.
Marie Toulgoat , Published 11 August 2025
"When nature paralyses the French nuclear park. Four units of the Gravelines nuclear power plant (northern) are at a standstill on Monday 11 August due to the 'mass and unforeseeable presence of jellyfish; at the water pumping stations used for the cooling of the reactors, EDF announced.
"These automatic stops of units 2, 3, 4 and 6 'have had no consequences on the safety of the installations, the safety of personnel or on the environment', #EDF assures on its site. The plant is thus temporarily completely shut down, as its other two production units 1 and 5 are currently under maintenance.
"On Sunday, 29 June, no steam volutes escaped from the chimneys of the Gulf nuclear power plant (Tarn-et-Garonne). Due to the intense #HeatWave in #France, the reactor in operation at the site was shut down. In the middle of the summer of 2024, the nuclear power plant had already been forced to reduce its production."
Read more (en Français):
https://www.humanite.fr/environnement/canicule/meduses-canicule-eau-trop-chaude-quand-le-rechauffement-climatique-menace-le-fonctionnement-des-centrales-nucleairesArchived version (en Français):
https://archive.ph/zNGD2#NoNukes #NoNukesForAI #NuclearPowerNoThanks #NuclearWasteIsForever #NuclearPowerPlants
#NuclearPowerNoThanks
#NuclearPlants #Heatwaves
#ExtremeHeat #RenewablesNow #RenewableEnergy #RethinkNotRestart
#NoNukes #NoNukesForAI #Atomkraft #AtomkraftNeinDanke #LeNucléaireNonMerci -
[Paywall] From 2021: Increase in frequency of nuclear power outages due to changing climate
by Ali Ahmad
Nature Energy volume 6, pages 755–762 (2021)
Abstract:
"Climate-related changes have already affected operating conditions for different types of energy system, in particular power plants. With more than three decades of data on changing climate, we are now in a position to empirically assess the impact of #ClimateChange on power plant operations. Such empirical assessments can provide an additional measure of the resilience of power plants going forward. Here I analyse climate-linked outages in #NuclearPowerPlants over the past three decades. My assessment shows that the average frequency of climate-induced disruptions has dramatically increased from 0.2 outage per reactor-year in the 1990s to 1.5 in the past decade. Based on the projections for adopted climate scenarios, the average annual energy loss of the global nuclear fleet is estimated to range between 0.8% and 1.4% in the mid-term (2046–2065) and 1.4% and 2.4% in the long term (2081–2100)."
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-021-00849-y
#NuclearPlants #NuclearPowerNoThanks #ClimateChange #Heatwaves #ExtremeHeat #RenewablesNow #RenewableEnergy #RethinkNotRestart #NoNukes #NoNukesForAI
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We’re having a #heatwave...
And #NuclearPower can’t cope. Worse still, it’s actually a liability under ever more extreme climate conditions, write Karl Grossman and Harvey Wasserman
Posted on July 27, 2025, by #BeyondNuclear
"At the core of the latest attempted 'renaissance' of nuclear power is the big lie that #AtomicReactors are an answer to #GlobalWarming. In fact, they are significant sources of heat.
"There are more than 400 nuclear power plants in the world today that fission atoms at 300 degrees Centigrade, (572 degrees Fahrenheit). More are under construction or proposed. As the International Atomic Energy Agency states, 'water-cooled reactors offer heat up to 300 degrees Celsius. These types of reactors include pressurized water reactors (PWRs), boiling-water reactors (BWRs), pressurized heavy-water reactors, and light-water-cooled graphite-moderated reactors (LWGRs).'
"Some heat is absorbed in the water—drawn from water bodies—used to cool these nuclear power plants and then returned, still with considerable heat, to #rivers or #seas.
"The heatwave going on in recent weeks in Europe, in combination with this discharge of heated water from nuclear plants, has caused #NuclearPlants there to shut down.
"Consider these headlines from recent days:
" '#France and #Switzerland shut down nuclear power plants amid scorching heatwave,' was the July 3rd headline on Euronews. As the piece explained: “To cool down, nuclear power plants pump water from local rivers or the sea, which they then release back into water bodies at a high temperature. However, Europe’s ongoing heatwave means that the water pumped by nuclear sites is already very hot, impacting the ability of nuclear plants to use it to cool down. On top of this, nuclear sites run the risk of posing a dangerous threat to local #biodiversity, by releasing water which is too hot into rivers and seas.'
"A New York Times article, also dated July 3rd, related how in Europe, 'operators shut down one of the two reactors at the #Golfech nuclear power plant in southern #France after forecasts that the #GaronneRiver, from which it draws water and then discharges it after it is used in the plant as coolant, 'could top…82 degrees Fahrenheit.' The Times continued: 'The #Beznau Nuclear Power Plant in #Switzerland, built along the #AareRiver followed suit, shutting down one of its reactors on Tuesday and the other on Wednesday.' "
Source:
https://beyondnuclearinternational.org/blog/#ExtremeHeat #ClimateChange #NuclearPowerPlants #NuclearPowerNoThanks #RenewablesNow! #WaterIsLife #NoNukes #RethinkNotRestart #NoNukesForAI
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#Palisades power plant will restart. Here's where on the #GreatLakes #NuclearPlants operate
Story by Sarah Moore, Lansing State Journal, 2/27/2025
"Owners of Michigan's Palisades nuclear energy plant this week announced a new five-year program aimed at restarting the power station while adding two smaller, modular reactors to the existing facility.
"Holtec has launched 'Mission 2030,' a program to build America’s first small modular reactors — Holtec’s SMR-300 — at the Palisades site in Covert Township, Michigan, with a target of 2030 for first commercial operation.' Holtec International said in a release. "The new SMR-300s will be co-located with the existing 800-megawatt Palisades plant, which is on track to restart after an extended outage following shutdown in 2022.'
"The program was discussed at a ceremony Feb. 25, at which #Holtec said it has joined forces with #Hyundai Engineering & Construction to build a 10-gigawatt fleet of SMR-300s in North America, the release said.
"Nuclear energy production is seeing growing interest for power generation because it requires no fossil fuels and can help reduce greenhouse gases. The systems, however, generate tons of highly #RadioactiveWaste that has to be stored. In #Michigan, waste is stored within a short distance of the #GreatLakes in some locations."
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/palisades-power-plant-will-restart-heres-where-on-the-great-lakes-nuclear-plants-operate/ar-AA1zUV7D
#RethinkNotRestart #NoNukes #Renewables #RenewablesNow #WaterIsLife #RadioactivePollution #HoltecLies -
And the #BidenAdministration should give #Holtec more money to restart #PalisadesNuclearPlant? Ummmm...
#NRC Fines #Holtec Once Again - Red Flags for #OysterCreek
January 28, 2022
Media Contact: [email protected]
"Holtec Decommission International was fined again by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Holtec agreed to pay a $50,000 fine after the plant’s armorer #falsified documents at the #OysterCreekNuclearPlant in #LaceyTownship. According to the NRC investigation, the agency found that the plant’s armorer failed to perform mandatory firearms inspections and falsified related records. This is the second fine in two months for Holtec. In December, the company agreed to pay a $150,000 penalty for security related violations, however this time neither NRC nor Holtec disclosed the details of the violation due to the sensitivity of it.
“This is the second time in two months that Holtec has been fined for security related violations for the former Oyster Creek #NuclearPlant. It's the latest red flag in a series of red flags when it comes to Holtec. These violations should be an alarm bell going off for NRC not just to hold Holtec accountable, but to intervene in Holtec’s security and management of the site. It’s good that NRC conducted investigations and penalized Holtec, however that is clearly not enough, as this continues to happen,' said Anjuli Ramos-Busot, New Jersey Director of the Sierra Club.
"The public is concerned about Holtec’s plan to move still-hot nuclear waste out of water pools and into dry cask storage in half the usual time, typically 5 years. They claim their casts are proprietary and have not disclosed details about their design to the public. Until the rods are out of the spent-fuel pools and put into dry cask storage, the plant is extremely vulnerable. If there is a power outage, storm surge, or flood, the rods could melt down and create serious public health and environmental damage.
“The NRC and New Jersey must make sure there is proper oversight and to ensure Holtec is following safety protocols. This area is impacted by sea-level rise and climate change. During Sandy, the floodwaters came up onto the site at Oyster Creek. Storing nuclear waste in a site that already presents safety flaws is incredibly dangerous. If Holtec isn’t storing nuclear rods correctly, it could lead to major public health and environmental problems. That is why we need to make sure Holtec is not cutting corners [because as we all know, Holtec gets to keep what it doesn't spend] and will ensure transparency,' said Anjuli Ramos-Busot, New Jersey Director of the Sierra Club."
https://www.sierraclub.org/new-jersey/blog/2022/01/nrc-fines-holtec-once-again-red-flags-for-oyster-creek
#NuclearPlants #Holtec #NRCViolations #RethinkNotRestart #HoltecLies #RenewablesNow -
A timeline of incidents at #Palisades #Nuclear Power Plant since 2007
Published: May. 12, 2013
"COVERT TOWNSHIP, MI -- The leak that shut down Palisades Nuclear Power Plant May 5 is one of a series of incidents that have bedeviled the nuclear reactor in recent years.
"#Entergy Corp. bought Palisades from Consumers Energy in 2007 for $380 million. The one-reactor plant, which is located along #LakeMichigan in #CovertTownship, supplies about 20 percent of the utility's power. The facility came online in 1971 and its license runs until 2031 [it was decommissioned in 2022].
"Below is a timeline of incidents at Palisades since 2007, based on NRC reports and previous MLive/Kalamazoo Gazette articles.
2007 -- Palisades' head of security resigned amid revelations he had fabricated some of his credentials.
2008 -- An NRC safety assessment found Palisades failed "to recognize and assess the impact of radiological hazards in the workplace." The NRC found that Palisades failed to determine how much radiation employees were exposed to after radiation monitors worn by the workers warned of an exposure.
August 2008 -- Five workers were trapped for 90 minutes inside a high-temperature area when a hatch malfunctioned. The NRC launched a probe and found the plant did not take proper precautions to prevent such occurrences.
2009 -- During an inspection, the NRC found that workers failed to notice a problem in the pool where spent fuel rods are kept. The finding, labeled a "low to moderate safety" risk that did not endanger the public, kept Palisades on the NRC's list of plants that required additional regulatory oversight for a second year. The plant's 2009 safety assessment also found problems with human performance regarding "error-prevention techniques."
May 2010
-- A Palisades manager left the control room without following protocol and the event was not reported within 24 hours, the NRC found.January 2011
-- Palisades operated at 55 percent power for eight days after a cooling-water pump lost power when an electrical bus failed. The event did not represent a threat to health and safety, the NRC said.May 2011
-- While NRC inspectors were conducting a routine test of the plant’s auxiliary feed water system, a turbine-driven pump was tripped. Investigators found a component of the pump that was greased and should not have been. The NRC classified the event as a "low to moderate" safety significance.August 2011
-- The NRC launched a special inspection after the failure of a coupling that holds pipes together. It found Palisades did not follow industry standards when choosing the coupling and the cracking was preventable. Palisades replaced all couplings.September 2011
-- Palisades shut down between Sept. 16 and Sept. 20 for repairs, after workers discovered a leaking valve in the system that cools the reactor.September 2011
-- Palisades shut down for a week after a breaker fault in the plant's electrical system Sept. 25, when a worker performing maintenance on an electrical panel when a piece of metal came into contact with another metal piece and caused an arc. There were no injuries reported. The NRC launched a special investigation, the second in two months. The investigation found that during the incident, which it named of "substantial significance to safety," Palisades did not follow proper safety protocols before the shutdown.November 2011
-- The NRC bumped Palisades down a level to the Regulatory Response column as a result of the May 2011 incident.January 2012
-- Palisades shut down for 3-1/2 days to repair a wearing seal on a control rod mechanism.February 2012
-- The NRC downgraded Palisades to the third regulatory column, making it among the four-worst performing reactors in the U.S. The downgrade came as a result of the two special investigations launched in 2011.June 2012
-- Palisades shut down for a month to repair a leak in its safety injection refueling water tank. Numerous cracks were found within the 300,000-gallon storage tank, according to reports. When the plant returned to service, the tank was still leaking, but due to its size, it did not pose a safety risk, the NRC found.July 2012
-- An independent review of Palisades found "examples of a lack of accountability at all levels."
The study, conducted by Conger & Elsea Inc. in January and February 2012, looked at plant operations related to human performance, safety-conscious work environment, problem identification and resolution.August 2012
-- Palisades shut down for 18 days to repair a leak in the control rod mechanism drive in the containment building. The NRC sent a three-inspector team and launched a special inspection of the pressure-boundary leak. During the 30 days before the location of the leak was discovered, up to 10,000 gallons of radioactive water leaked from the containment vessel. The water was contained and did not pose a safety risk to the public, the NRC found.September 2012
-- An NRC inspector found what it characterized as a small leak in a valve in the service water system. The water was not radioactive and did not represent a health or safety risk, the NRC said.November 2012
-- Palisades shuts down for three days to repair a steam leak inside the plant's auxiliary building.November 2012
-- The NRC upgraded Palisades after an 11-day inspection in September found that Entergy had made improvements and addressed deficiencies. The NRC ordered an additional 1,000 hours of inspections in 2013, on top of the standard 2,000 hours.February 2013
-- Palisades shut down for six days to repair a leak in the component cooling water system. It was leaking 35 gallons of non-radioactive water an hour before the shutdown, the NRC said. The leak did not represent a threat to the public or the plant, the NRC said.March 2013
-- Palisades was one of three U.S. plants with significant safety events, or "near-misses" in the past three years, according to a report by the independent Union of Concerned Scientists. The near-misses at Palisades resulted from long-standing problems, the UCS said, and it charged the NRC with failing to enforce violations.May 2013
-- On May 5, Palisades shut down after the leak in the safety injection refueling water tank accelerated from one a day to 90 gallons within a 24-hour period, the NRC said. On May 4, before the shutdown, some 79 gallons of radioactive water from the tank went down a drain into a capture basin, where it was extremely diluted, according to the NRC, and ended up in Lake Michigan. The NRC has sent an additional inspector to Palisades, and one of its health physicists is also investigating the incident. As of May 10, Palisades was still offline while workers and inspectors search for the source of the leak and make repairs."Source:
https://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/2013/05/palisades_nuclear_power_plant_14.html#Michigan #NuclearPlants #PalisadesNuclearPlant #Holtec #Entergy #NRC #Violations #HoltecLies #RethinkNotRestart #RenewablesNow
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#PalisadesNuclearPlant has a long history of problems. And #Holtec a long list of violations. They were made for each other [sarc]
#Palisades #nuclear plant gets $150 million in #Michigan budget
By Sheri McWhirter, Jul. 03, 2023
"Michigan lawmakers included $150 million toward the effort to restart the Palisades nuclear plant as part of a record $81.7 billion state budget passed last week.
"State officials contributed the millions in taxpayer dollars toward #Holtec International’s effort to get the nuclear plant upgraded and fired back up to provide 800 megawatts of carbon-free, base load power as the energy sector transitions away from fossil fuels. If it happens, it would be the first nuclear plant nationwide to return to generating power after being decommissioned.
"The plant was closed last year when its fuel ran out and the owner sold the facility to Holtec. The new owner has now twice applied for federal money to help get the plant operational again.
"The Biden administration has a $6 billion fund within the U.S. Department of Energy intended to preserve the U.S. nuclear reactor fleet and energy sector jobs.
"[...] Power generation at nuclear plants does not generate greenhouse gas emissions that drive climate change, like burning fossil fuels does. However, some #environmental advocates remain concerned about ecological #degradation from needed #uranium #mining and #radiation risk from #ToxicWaste nuclear plants produce."
https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2023/07/palisades-nuclear-plant-gets-150-million-in-michigan-budget.html
#UraniumMining #NuclearPlants #NuclearWaste #HoltecLies #RethinkNotRestart #RenewablesNow