Tom Mudge ASQ Energy & Environmental Division

Nuclear Industry Update - 2014

Speaker Background•Nuclear Quality Manager for URS• Past Chair of the ASQ Southern Jersey Section• Past Chair of the ASQ Design and Construction Division• Past ASQ Deputy Director for Region 5• Current Chair of the ASQ Energy and Environmental Division•Member of Nuclear Energy Industry QA New BuildTask Force• BS Metallurgical Engineering – Lafayette College

Nuclear Industry Outlook in 2009• 2005 – Energy Policy Act of 2005 ($18.5 Billion in Loan

Guarantees)• 2008 – Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) Initiatives• National Supply Chain Workshops – encourage new nuclear

suppliers• Workforce Requirements - QA / QC Personnel – estimated

>5000• 2009 – COLAs for 31 New Reactors• AP1000 – Westinghouse• ESBWR – General Electric• EPR – Areva• USAPWR - Mitsuibishi

Nuclear Industry Today• 2014 – Four nuclear units currently under construction• 2 Units at Vogtle (GA)• 2 Units at V. C. Summer (SC)

• 2013 – year started with 104 operating nuclear units• 4 units were closed in 2013• San Onofre (CA) -2 units• Crystal River (FL) – 1 unit• Kewaunee (WI) – 1 unit

• Closing of 2 other units announced• Vermont Yankee (VT) – in 2014• Oyster Creek (NJ) – by 2019

• The economic viability of 44 other units in question – market issues

Nuclear Plant Economics•As recently as mid-2008, competing sources of generation had very high costs relative to nuclear•As fossil fuel costs came down, nuclear lost a lot of its cost advantage•At Exelon’s Clinton Plant, power prices plummeted from $42 per megawatt hour in 2008 to $22 in 2009

What Happened to the Nuclear Renaissance?

• Financial Environment• Nuclear Units costs $ 8 – 12 Billion depending on

technology selected• Utilities require level of confidence in regulatory

process• Regulatory Uncertainty• Yucca Mountain Waste Repository• Waste confidence

• Fukushima Daiichi Accident• Earthquake• Tsunami

Yucca Mountain Geological Waste Repository

• 1982 – Nuclear Waster Policy Act – Gave DOE responsibility to construct and operate a geological repository for high level waste

• 1987 – Congress directed DOE to focus on Yucca Mountain (NV)

• 2002 – DOE determined that Yucca Mountain would be a suitable location

• 2008 – DOE submitted license application to NRC

Yucca Mountain Geological Waste Repository

• 2009 – New Administration appoints new Head of DOE and NRC• 2009 – Senate cuts all funding to DOE for Yucca

Mountain• 2010 – DOE files motion to withdraw license

application• 2010 – US Court directed that license application

process proceed• 2011 – NRC ceases review of license application

citing lack of funding• 2013 – US Court of Appeals directs NRC to complete

review of license application

Fukushima Daiichi Accident – March 11, 2011

•9.0 Earthquake• Most powerful earthquake known to hit Japan• 5th most powerful earthquake in world since modern record-keeping

started in 1900• Epicenter 43 miles east of Tohoku• Units satisfactorily survived earthquake (which exceeded design

basis)

• Tsunami arrived 50 minutes later• Generated maximum tsunami waves of 40 meters high• Seawall 10 meters high (Design Basis)• Tsunami waves 14 meters high (at plant location)

Fukushima Daiichi Accident – March 2011

• Status of the plants six units at time of earthquake

• Unit 4 had been de-fueled

• Units 5 & 6 were in cold shutdown for maintenance

• Units 1 -3 automatically shutdown after earthquake

Fukushima Daiichi Accident – March 2011

• Tsunami arrived 50 minutes later• Tsunami water flooded low-lying rooms in which the

EDG were housed• EDGs failed, thereby cutting power to primary

circulating coolant pumps• Fuel rods remained hot enough to melt themselves• Secondary emergency pumps (run by back-up

electrical batteries) continued to run for one day• After battery power was exhausted, the

secondary pumps stopped and the reactor began to overheat

Fukushima Daiichi Accident – March 2011

• Reaction between hot zirconium fuel cladding and water produced hydrogen•March 12 -15 – multiple hydrogen- air chemical explosions occurred in all the upper secondary containments•Debris obscured spent fuel pools raising concerns about water levels

NRC Response to Fukushima Daiichi Accident

•NRC Report – Assessment & Recommendations – July 12, 2011•Three Tiers of Recommendations•Tier 1

NRC Tier 1 Recommendations

• Containment Venting System• Spent Fuel Pool Instrumentation• Seismic re-evaluations• Flooding Hazard Re-evaluations• Seismic and Flooding walkdowns• Emergency preparedness – staffing &

communications• Station Blackout Mitigation Strategies (FLEX)• Onsite Emergency Response Capabilities• Filtration and Confinement strategies

NRC Draft Waste Confidence Rule • Policy on storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel• By law, DOE was required to take custody of spent nuclear fuel by 1998.

• Without a functioning geological waste repository, utilities have • Continued to store spent fuel in fuel pools • Constructed Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installations (ISFSI),

consisting of casks stored on concrete pads• Draft policy issued for comment in November endorses the

continued storage of spent fuel beyond the licensed life for operation of a reactor and to have a mined geological repository within 60 years following the licensed life of the reactor.• Policy currently open for public comment is to be issued by no

later than October 3, 2014.

Nuclear Energy Institute Initiatives• Counterfeit and Fraudulent Items – Mitigating the Increasing Risk• Recently identified incidents• Contributors to Counterfeiting and Fraud

• Profiteering• Globalization of the Supply Chain• Low cost Items• Lack of Awareness, Complacency or Loosening of Existing Controls• Changes in Technology• Enforcement Challenges

• Prevention• Detection• Incident Data Sharing – Industry database

• Commercial Grade Dedication Guidance Update

The Future - Small Modular Reactors• Smaller in size (> 300 megawatts)• Passive design• Totally shop fabricated• Installed underground•DOE has issued funding grants to two suppliers:• B&W mPower • NuScale

• Locally Holtec (Marlton, NJ) is developing a SMR design

Questions?