#Sunday #UK #electricty #renewablesnow
@rippleenergy

3 yr payback at this rate!

Accident Possibilities at #Gentilly2 and Other #CANDU Reactors

BACKGROUND INFORMATION ~ AUGUST 1995

by Gordon Edwards, Ph.D., President, Canadian Coalition for #Nuclear Responsibility

"When Gentilly-2 was built, nobody thought about the possibility that an accident could kill everybody in the control room of the nuclear reactor, possibly resulting in a catastrophic accident. (Even if the reactor is shut down, the heat still has to be removed from the core to prevent a catastrophe -- and that cannot be guaranteed if the operators are dead.) A few years ago, AECB discovered that a sudden break in one of the steam pipes passing over the roof of the control room could, in fact, kill everyone inside and make the control room unusable. Obviously, this improbable situation could be extremely hazardous for the population at large.

"At first, AECB wanted Hydro-Quebec to relocate the steam pipes, but Hydro-Quebec argued that this would be too expensive. Instead they offered to make some substantial alterations to the interior design of the building so as to minimize the effects of such a break in the steam pipes, and to carefully monitor the pipes so as to detect any weakening which might (or might not) occur before such a break would happen. Those corrective actions are still being carried out. Whether they are adequate to eliminate the possibility of a catastrophic accident caused by a steam pipe rupture is a matter of judgment.

"One of the most serious kinds of accidents in any nuclear reactor is a Loss of Coolant Accident, or LOCA. It is caused by a pipe break or an open valve, allowing the water normally used to remove the heat from the core of the reactor to escape. Without adequate cooling, the core of the reactor will overheat and fission products will be released from the damaged fuel, many of them in the form of radioactive gases and vapours. If these materials escape into the environment in large enough quantities, a nuclear catastrophe will result.

"Every CANDU reactor has an Emergency Core Cooling System (ECCS) which is supposed to flood the core of the reactor with ordinary water in case of a large LOCA to prevent it from overheating. Sometimes, however, the ECCS is not available. The AECB allows the ECCS to be unavailable for up to eight hours in any given year, and in some cases it is unavailable for a much longer period of time. If a large LOCA were to happen at such a time, serious core damage could occur and a nuclear catastrophe could result.

"The first LOCA in a Canadian nuclear generating station was at Pickering, just outside of Toronto, in 1983, when a pressure tube burst without warning in the core of the reactor. A few years earlier, nuclear experts had insisted that a pressure tube could not burst suddenly, because it would begin to leak long before it would break, giving the operators enough time to shut the reactor down and correct the situation. But the experts were wrong.

"Fortunately, it was not a very large LOCA, and the ECCS was not needed to keep the fuel from overheating. Most of the fuel remained undamaged and so not much radioactivity was released. However, repairs to the core of the Pickering reactor took four years and cost more than 500 million dollars. All of the pressure tubes had to be replaced, since many of them were showing signs of serious deterioration and some were developing blisters. If several pressure tubes had burst at the same time, a much more frightening situation would have to be dealt with.

"All CANDU reactors have pressure tubes, and all of them deteriorate with time. But the cost of replacing all the pressure tubes is so great that Ontario Hydro has decided to shut down some of its reactors permanently rather than spend the money needed to repair them. At Gentilly-2, until recently, Hydro-Quebec was also planning to replace all the pressure tubes; but now, to save money, they have decided to try something less expensive -- to re-adjust the "garter springs" which support the pressure tubes inside the core of the reactor, so they will not sag as much and, hopefully, will not develop the same kind of blisters that were seen in the pressure tubes at Pickering. This approach does not halt or reverse the deterioration of the pressure tubes, but it will perhaps slow it down.

"In December, 1994, a second LOCA occurred at a Canadian nuclear reactor. This time, it was not a pressure tube, but a relief valve that broke at Pickering.As the superheated mixture of water and steam escaped through the broken valve, a powerful vibration shook the pipe so hard that it broke, resulting in a large LOCA that required -- for the first time in Canadian history -- the use of the ECCS to prevent damage to the nuclear fuel. Similarly accidents involving broken relief valves in CANDU reactors have also occurred in #SouthKorea, and -- in May 1995 -- at one of the Bruce reactors in #Ontario. In these situations, however, the vibrations did not result in broken pipes.

"In June 1995, the AECB made public its analysis of these accidents. They have concluded that a similar accident could occur at any time at Gentilly-2, and that the resulting vibrations would very likely result in either broken pipes or damage to other valves, thus resulting in a serious LOCA. Hydro-Quebec has made no statement about the situation, and may not agree with the AECB as to the possibility of such an accident or the necessity of undertaking the necessary repair work which would involve redesigning that portion of the pressure relief system."

http://www.ccnr.org/Gentilly_Safety.html

#NuclearPlants #Canada #WaterIsLife #RenewablesNow

This sounds promising... #CarbonDioxide batteries!

Carbon dioxide battery provides long-term renewable energy storage

by: Keely Khoury, 14th June 2022

"As worldwide demand for #lithium soars, production remains unpredictable and unsustainable. Current reliance on lithium-ion batteries for #RenewablesNow energy storage, smart devices, and more, must shift to alternative means and materials. One solution is from Energy Dome, an Italian company that recently launched a long-term energy storage facility that uses pollution as a highly efficient battery.

"Called the CO2 Battery, the system uses carbon dioxide’s two states, liquid and gas, to hold and release energy as required. The process is a closed thermodynamic transformation that requires ambient, as opposed to cryogenic, temperatures. That difference in temperature makes the CO2 Battery much easier to situate in a range of environments as well as less expensive to build and maintain.

"When the carbon dioxide gas is compressed, the process generates heat that is stored in thermal energy storage systems. When power is needed, the gas is released into the Dome where it is heated by the storage systems, returning electricity to the grid.

"Located in Sardinia, the CO2 Battery stores more than one megawatt of energy and is currently undergoing final preparations for commercial use. Energy Dome’s development plans include building a 20 to 200 megawatt battery to be ready for use in late 2023, and the company has plans for projects in Africa, the Middle East, Germany, and elsewhere in Italy. "
#RenewablesNow #EnergyStorage

https://www.springwise.com/innovation/agriculture-energy/world%27s-first-CO2-battery-for-long-duration-energy-storage/

We can at least make good use of the Vanadium we already have. And yes, this a press release -- but I've been following the progress of Vanadium Flow batteries for over 10 years and I've seen a tremendous amount of progress in perfecting the technology.

2021: U.S. #Vanadium Successfully Recycles Electrolyte From Vanadium Redox Flow Batteries at a 97% Recovery Rate

"Because of their nearly unlimited energy storage capacity, high efficiency, zero emissions, very long cycle lives, and relatively low cost of available electricity on a lifecycle basis, VRFB energy storage systems are enabling consumers to utilize #renewable energy systems for 100% of their actual power needs without having to rely on renewable energy credits and other accounting offsets.

“'VRFB technologies are key to the U.S. and other nations in moving closer to truly 100% grid-level renewable energy power generation systems,' said Mark A. Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Hot Springs, Ark.-based U.S. Vanadium.

"Against a background of increasingly prevalent waste disposal issues faced by #lithium-ion batteries, VRFBs have the important benefit of its liquid electrolyte being nearly 100% #recyclable. Vanadium electrolyte, and its ability to be recycled for continuing use, is considered to be a key advantage for the technology that is expected lead to increased worldwide adoption of VRFBs as an alternative to lithium-ion batteries."
#Solar #RenewablesNow

https://usvanadium.com/u-s-vanadium-successfully-recycles-electrolyte-from-vanadium-redox-flow-batteries-at-a-97-recovery-rate/

An activist group is spreading misinformation to stop solar projects in rural America

"Citizens for Responsible Solar is part of a growing backlash against renewable energy in rural communities across the United States. The group, which was started in 2019 and appears to use strategies honed by other activists in campaigns against the wind industry, has helped local groups fighting solar projects in at least 10 states including Ohio, Kentucky and Pennsylvania, according to its website.

"Analysts who follow the industry say Citizens for Responsible Solar stokes opposition to solar projects by spreading misinformation online about health and environmental risks. The group's website says solar requires too much land for 'unreliable energy,' ignoring data showing power grids can run dependably on lots of renewables. And it claims large solar projects in rural areas wreck the land and contribute to climate change, despite evidence to the contrary.

"#CitizensForResponsibleSolar was founded in an exurb of Washington, D.C., by a longtime political operative named Susan Ralston who worked in the White House under President George W. #Bush and still has deep ties to power players in #conservative politics."

#Renewables #RenewablesNow #Solar

Read more: https://www.npr.org/2023/02/18/1154867064/solar-power-misinformation-activists-rural-america?utm_source=pocket-newtab

#Japan's Jera, partner launch solar power generation predicting system
#renewablesnow
https://renewablesnow.com/news/japans-jera-partner-launch-solar-power-generation-predicting-system-806189/

@coonavass good tip thx rosemary. See you in the jungle #nonewgas #renewablesnow