Why Nuclear Power is Making a Comeback

foreign it's a site that hasn't been seen in the US for over 30 years a new nuclear reactor nearing completion two of them in fact yes the country that has more of these than anywhere else has now finally started building them again and it couldn't come at a better time with fossil fuels falling out of favor nuclear faces a possible comeback but this monster of a construction project has been a long time in the making costs have spiraled sharply and mistakes have been made Fogel is well behind its originally intended schedule double the original budget people didn't know how to pour concrete correctly the design wasn't finished enough techniques had to be invented and then changed on the job and yet it could still Mark the beginning of an American nuclear Revival that not too long ago seemed impossible foreign energy you'll probably imagine wind turbines solar panels or maybe a hydroelectric Dam but what about this that's right nuclear power it's not everyone's idea of clean the errors of the past and concerns about waste have made many of us skeptical about these places and the people operating them now if you excuse me my fondue is just about but this is no joke when the wind isn't blowing and the sun isn't shining we need a reliable source of emission free energy to fall back on one that isn't years away from reality call is now extremely expensive natural gas is now extremely expensive wind and solar do not replace the functions of coal and natural gas which is on-demand power marks a nuclear engineer and managing director of radiant energy funds which advises governments and companies or nuclear energy even gas being on demand has been brought into question with the Texas blackouts of 2021 when we just didn't have the ability to deliver enough natural gas in very cold conditions to keep the whole grid going now we've been building nuclear reactors since the 50s and it all started in the US it was here that electricity was generated with a nuclear reactor for the first time in a period when Atomic power was still mostly known for weapons the peaceful atom is here and now to serve what President Eisenhower has termed the needs rather than the fears of mankind today the U.S has by far the largest nuclear capacity of any country in the world and yet it hasn't built any new nuclear plants for over 30 years there are almost 100 reactors in operation across the country but they were all made decades ago a second reactor at Watts Bar in Tennessee was completed in 2015 but construction started on that back in the 1970s so it's not seen as completely new now there are reasons for America's nuclear Decline and they apply pretty much everywhere in short new reactors have become extremely expensive and they take a long time to complete which isn't helpful when experts say we could do with more of them these days there are also a lot more regulatory hurdles and safety procedures to follow that's largely down to what happened at Three Mile Island in 1970 9 where one reactor in Pennsylvania had a partial meltdown and became one of the worst nuclear accidents in history after that nuclear's popularity began to decline and plans to build dozens of new reactors across the country were canceled on mass in a developing country you're desperate you take whatever power plants that you can get whatever power plants the rich world will finance for you but in the rich world we got a little bit complacent and it meant that if enough people didn't like nuclear why go through all that effort as a as a national leader or as a political party why put up with the opposition of nuclear when you could just not build anything or build something more popular like winter solar the nuclear power plants of today are also built with more modern digital systems than their predecessors they come with a lot of benefits and one pretty significant risk cyber security that's something nordvpn our partner for today's video knows a thing or two about now you may not be running a nuclear power plant but that doesn't mean you shouldn't give yourself some peace of mind that your personal data and internet activity is secure especially if you you're on public Wi-Fi there are a lot of cyber security threats out there such as hackers who steal data using public Wi-Fi nordvpn works at super fast speeds to keep you private and secure online hiding your IP address and routing your internet traffic through an encrypted connection to a VPN server you can connect up to six devices to access TV shows movies and games that aren't available in your country from anywhere in the world right now users can get a huge discount on a two-year plan and if you sign up through nordvpn.com forward slash the b1m you'll get an additional four months free with a 30-day money-back guarantee again that's nordvpn.com forward slash the b1m now let's get back to the video it's not just the US that's finding it difficult to revive this industry Hinckley Point C the only nuclear power plant being built in the UK is at least 18 months behind schedule even in France which has a greater share of nuclear power than any other country a new reactor at flemenville is expected to cost 300 million euros more than first forecast it's fair to say the U.S nuclear sector has never fully recovered the last power plant to begin construction here was back in 1978 having any new reactors let alone whole new plants was starting to feel like a thing of the past but that's all about to change America America we are back America is finally getting its first new reactors in decades built on the site of the existing plant Vogel in Georgia which has been home to two since 1989. located east of Waynesboro close to the border with South Carolina units three and four Vogel are the only nuclear reactors currently under construction in the whole United States once finished they'll provide enough clean energy through nuclear fission to power half a million homes and businesses for 60 to 80 years when combined with units 1 and 2 Vogel will generate more electricity than any other nuclear facility in the US the products being managed by Southern nuclear and Georgia Power with Bechtel handling the construction as you can imagine building a nuclear reactor involves bringing together a whole lot of components some of them small and others very large indeed by far the biggest piece on each unit is the ca20 module five stories high and weighing almost a thousand tons they store used fuel exchange heat and collect wastes wooden floor sections were prefabricated on sites and putting the modules in place required the heaviest lifts on the whole project using one of the largest cranes in the world installing the two steam generators needed for each reactor was another complex task assembled in South Korea they had to be transported from the coast to the site by train they're 25 meters long and also had to be craned into place so how much has all this heavy lifting cost and has it remained on schedule well a lot and no back in 2009 when the project was first approved it was set to Total around 14 billion US dollars with a Target completion date of 2016 for unit 3 and 2017 for unit 4. now we're in 2022 and the work is only just wrapping up and as for that price tank well it's looking closer to 30 billion US dollars that makes it a contender for the most expensive nuclear power product ever and it's not even an entire plant just an extension albeit a big one to be fair a large public infrastructure project going over budgets is not exactly unusual it's kind of normal for the final cost to be somewhat higher than the original estimates especially when the Project's been running for years or even decades but now it's costing more than double what it was supposed to you can see why some people are a bit annoyed as for the delays well a lot of it comes down to the way it's been managed the company that makes the reactors and that was previously the main contractor has had a part to play Vogel 3 and 4 are the first AP 1000 units from the Westinghouse electric company to be built in the US however in 2017 the company filed for bankruptcy due to heavy losses from Vogel and the VC saw plants in South Carolina where it was supplying a further two reactions although work on Vogel 3 and 4 was able to continue during this period a new contractor Bechtel had to be appointed for the rest of the build we forgot how to build now the theory was that because several ap-1000s the reactor design that was being used were in construction in other countries we could learn from those countries and learn how to construct it ourselves but with the supply chains different management teams different engineering teams different we just didn't learn from the ap-1000s under construction in China construction productivity was another challenge that's led to delays at Vogel along with the significant amount of remediation that's had to be done by that we mean having to redo certain jobs and on a nuclear reactor that can be somewhat time consuming according to one report almost 100 miles of cable around eight percent of the total used had to be cut or replaced another report revealed how on one part of the project an inspection to check bolts were tightened to a specific degree didn't happen that meant they all had to be loosened and retained correctly before the inspection record could be signed off then in December 2021 it emerged that tens of thousands of these records had not been completed creating a massive backlog the tasks had been carried out but the paperwork hadn't been done but today with these problems now sorted the mood is a lot more positive and the end is finally in sight construction of unit 3 is now officially complete and in August 2022 unit 4 was at 96 that same month Southern Company received some much needed good news the nuclear Regulatory Commission confirmed that unit 3 conformed its regulations that gave the plant clearance to start loading Fuel and begin the startup sequence for the Reactor with commercial operation now expect in the first quarter of 2023 the plan is to have unit 4 up and running by December that year it may have taken much longer and cost far more than expected but the conclusion of this project will be a big moment not just for the people of Georgia but the entire us while there's no sign yet of a mad rush to build more of these things more will surely follow and several are already planned or proposed but they're yet to begin construction once Vogel crosses the finish line and lessons have been learned it could help kick these other schemes into gear if Vogel is being finished in a time when the alternatives to vocal are extremely expensive or only a partial substitute for what nuclear power would be the conditions are right to move on and start other large-scale nuclear plants or to start on some new designs that people have been proposing for building around the U.S we now have proof the US remains serious about this importance and still quite divisive form of energy thanks to the hard work that's been carried out with this project it proves that nuclear power has a future in America but to what extent we'll just have to wait and see this video was made possible by nordvpn you can learn more about that at the link below and as always if you liked this video and you want to get more from the definitive video channel for construction make sure you subscribed to the b1m [Music] foreign

Channel: The B1M

Views: 705,608

Keywords: B1M, TheB1M, Construction, architecture, engineering, The B1M, Fred Mills, building, nuclear power, energy, vogtle 3 and 4, plant vogtle, westinghouse, nuclear reactors, chernobyl, three mile island, america, united states of america, nuclear energy, nuclear power plants, ap1000, south korea, france, uk, flamanville, hs2, hinkley point c, edf, georgia, south carolina, the simpsons, texas blackouts, fossil fuels, climate change, clean energy, green energy, renewables, renewable energy, nuclear

Id: dyQMNVSxbNo

Length: 12min 35sec (755 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 12 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/paulfdietz]

Saying nuclear is making a comeback, then starting with drone footage of Vogtle 3&4. Not supporting your thesis, man.

[u/rwright07]

Link??

[u/TyrialFrost]

This video is so rediculous.

"We need power that isn't years away", Nuclear is the answer, conviently ignoring that fission construction time is measured in decades.

States that Hinkly is only delayed 18 months and that Flamenville is only €300M overbudget.

Lets check that.

Hinkly Point C was meant to hit criticality in early 2020, it is now expected in late 2028.

Flamanville 3 was budgeted at €3.3 billion, it is now expected to cost €12.7 billion

If they cant get that right, why would anyone think the rest of the video or the claim that Nuclear is "Making a Comeback".

[u/spikedpsycho]

Repairing the environment....is a gargantuan task.... The two biggest environmental issues we have to deal with are Air pollution in developing nations and heavy industrial places. Water pollution be it oceanic or rivers. As a supporter of nuclear power, we have opportunity for both.

People whom like me watch Star Trek the Earth, despite ungodly and appalling sets of futuristic architecture…… Still Earth is unbearably clean…. writers point out Earth got CLEANED UP. Virtually all industry has been relegated underground, transportation infrastructure and the like integrated into the environment, as super fast trains, maglev, hovering vehicles eliminate the need for comprehensive highway  and road network. you can build artificial islands for what it costs for the infrastructure of major highrise laden cities.

Nuclear powered dredging you can harvest 250 million cubic meters of muck and rock a year at minimal energy cost.

Beyond that, it’s being widely investigated the idea of floating cities on water.

The surge in housing demand is people who wanna live near the shore.

Just as a case of public works projects, islands would serve numerous purposes.

– parks/gardens in crowded urban areas. – additional housing(Hong Kong, Jamaica, bermuda) – purging muck and filtering water would restore estuary ecosystems. Chesapeake bay could enjoy blue, crystal clear waters again. Poplar Island is already being built from dredge spoil from widened ship channels. Digging up decades of surface muck….several feet thick you could build an island 500+ acres as wildlife, wetlands seasonal nesting birds.

The Nuclear atom produces 1 million times more energy than a hydrogen/carbon bond…..

[u/Turbulent-Macaron372]

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