- Hefty Australian penguin chick 'Pesto' becomes star
- Fashion's fun 'Frankenstein' flies after Olympic triumph
- Volkswagen crisis pits homegrown leaders against each other
- Princess Zelda takes the lead in 'Echoes of Wisdom'
- Astros clinch division title, Yankees kept waiting
- Asian markets boosted again after another Chinese rate cut
- The struggle to keep track of Gaza war deaths
- China cuts another key interest rate to boost economy
- Restarting nuclear power plants: the unprecedented gamble in the US
- US state executes man despite conviction doubts
- Asylum seeker lifts South Korea hopes at Homeless World Cup
- Hostages freed in Gaza truce pine for those left behind
- Pope offers refuge to Myanmar's jailed Suu Kyi: report
- Tragic tale of two West Bank teenagers freed in Gaza truce
- US intel warns of Iran threats to assassinate Trump: campaign
- In election, Hollywood is about cash not endorsements
- UK foreign minister Lammy seeks 'strongest position' for Ukraine
- Macron presses Iran president for Lebanon de-escalation
- UNRWA fears new 'tragedy' as Lebanon violence adds strain: chief to AFP
- Russia mulls ban on 'childless propaganda'
- Blackwater founder probed by Venezuela over anti-Maduro campaign
- Crypto CEO and Bankman-Fried ex Caroline Ellison gets two-year sentence
- Hezbollah announces death of commander after strike on south Beirut
- Tatum hungry for more after breakthrough Celtics success
- Sean 'Diddy' Combs sued for alleged 2001 rape
- Biden pleads for democracy in emotional UN farewell
- New York area port prepares for possible US strike disruption
- Rodri 'irreplaceable' but Guardiola confident Man City will still compete
- Brook 'relieved' as maiden ODI hundred sets up first win as England captain
- Dior's arrows and Amazons as Saint Laurent revives its master
- Mbappe strikes again as Madrid hold off Alaves
- Nkunku hits Chelsea hat-trick, Man City edge into League Cup last 16
- Amnesty calls for commission to probe Kenya protest deaths
- Bolivian government rejects Morales ultimatum for cabinet reshuffle
- US Congress calls on Novo Nordisk to lower drug prices
- Stock markets advance on China stimulus
- Russia 'can only be forced into peace," Zelensky tells UN
- Hundred hero Brook keeps England alive in Australia ODI series
- Biden pleads for democracy in final UN address
- Brook's hundred sees England beat Australia in 3rd ODI
- Alarm grows as Israel and Hezbollah exchange intense fire
- NFL legend Favre reveals Parkinson's diagnosis
- Biden urges world to 'stop arming generals' in Sudan
- Defying experts, Trump vows tariff-driven US economic boom
- Stokes open to England white-ball return
- No peak oil demand 'on the horizon', phaseout a 'fantasy': OPEC
- Sri Lanka's new leftist leader dissolves parliament, calls snap polls
- England scrum-half Mitchell to see specialist on neck injury
- Under-pressure Masood to lead Pakistan in England Tests
- Storm Helene on track to hit Florida as major hurricane
Restarting nuclear power plants: the unprecedented gamble in the US
Two American energy companies are each preparing to bring a nuclear power station back into service, an unprecedented operation which should help meet the growing need for electricity in the United States.
With demand for nuclear energy rising in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the US government eager to transition to carbon-free resources, the calculus has changed on the shuttered nuclear plants.
On Friday, Constellation Energy unveiled plans to restart a reactor at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island, which was closed for economic reasons in 2019. The plant was the site of the worst commercial nuclear power accident in US history in 1979.
The relaunch initiative is part of a 20-year electricity supply contract with Microsoft.
Last October, Holtec started the ball rolling by filing an application with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to resume operation of the Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan, which was shut down in 2022.
According to several specialists, restarting this plant would be a world first.
"Everyone's kind of watching what we're doing with this project and seeing how viable it is," said Holtec spokesperson Patrick O'Brien. "So it's something that if we can show it's done, the international stage might start looking at the same kind of thing."
Contacted by AFP, the NRC said that only one application for restart had been submitted to it to date, that of Holtec, which is aiming for the end of 2025.
The dismantling of a power plant takes several decades, and in the case of Holtec's Palisades site it had not begun in full.
At Three Mile Island the fuel was removed from the reactor, but "major equipment removal or demolition activities have not started," a Constellation spokesperson told AFP.
"There is a lot that you can reuse at a site, even if you have to rebuild the nuclear plant," said Jacopo Buongiorno, professor of nuclear science and engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Holtec estimates the cost of the operation at around $2 billion, according to its spokesman, while Constellation puts the bill for the Three Mile Island restart at $1.6 billion.
By comparison, the construction of the two most recent reactors in the US, to be connected to the grid in 2023 and 2024 at the Vogtle site in Georgia, cost more than $30 billion.
- More to come? -
With the global energy balance affected by Russia's war in Ukraine and energy transition policies now incorporating nuclear fission more frequently and more widely, nuclear energy is gaining momentum.
Around 56 percent of Americans are in favor of developing nuclear energy in the US, compared with 43 percent just four years ago, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center published in August.
The future seemed reserved for the new generation of small modular reactors (SMRs), with their shorter construction times and the possibility of mass production.
But the initial design and construction of these pocket-sized power plants is proving costly because they are still prototypes.
The first Natrium from start-up TerraPower, currently positioned to be the first operational SMR in the US in 2030, is expected to cost around $4 billion.
Thus, restarting an existing power station appears to be the quickest and cheapest route, which could inspire other projects -- where possible.
"I don't think there are that many mothballed nuclear plants out there that you'll be able to restart," said Jacopo Buongiorno from MIT.
In response to a query from AFP, NextEra Energy Resources said it was "evaluating this opportunity" of restarting the Duane Arnold power station in the midwestern US state of Iowa, which closed in 2020, but that it "needed to make an informed decision about resuming operations at the facility."
As for the Indian Point nuclear site north of New York City which was shut down in 2021 under pressure from the state's then-governor, Andrew Cuomo, "nothing is impossible with time and resources," according to Holtec's Patrick O'Brien.
But, he added, it would be much more complicated to resurrect than Palisades or Three Mile Island.
Reactivating an existing facility raises the question of safety for plants that were originally intended to have a 40-year lifespan.
While people may think "it must be unsafe, it must be crumbling," that's simply not true, he said.
"Because, with the exception of the concrete containment, which is of course monitored and the reactor pressure vessel, again, heavily monitored, virtually everything else in these plants has been replaced at one point or another," he added.
And the project has the backing of the federal government, with the Biden-Harris administration earlier this year agreeing to provide a $1.5 billion loan to Holtec for the Palisades project "for our nation's historic transition to a safe and secure clean energy future," according to an Department of Energy spokesperson.
D.Schneider--BTB