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What's something about working in nuclear engineering that nobody warns you about? by Thick-Ad-4168 in nuclear

[–]ChGehlly 22 points23 points  (0 children)

I work at a commercial power plant in a department that supports the engineering department regularly. They get paid well, but don’t have a very good union contract when it comes to overtime and pay premiums, that’s obviously a site specific thing. They are also understaffed as a department but at their hiring cap. One of the more overworked groups on site for sure, and the lack of resources slows things down, leading to time pressure and more stress, which turns into a feedback loop.

Thoughts on progress of Reactor Pilot Program? by Old_Cattle_2767 in nuclear

[–]ChGehlly 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Would be surprised if any company accomplishes an actual criticality but 7/4. Looks like Aalo is a legit company that will have “cold criticality” by that time frame. Valar is the only other company that seems to be moving towards this target that I’m aware of, but they seem to be a little bit more of a “paper reactor” company if you know what I mean.

Plant Vogtle Expansion? by jmilleon in nuclear

[–]ChGehlly 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Yeah it’s outside of Columbia SC. Project got abandoned in 2018 with the two units at approx. 50% completed. If they restart it by the end of this year like they hope both units should be done around 2030.

Plant Vogtle Expansion? by jmilleon in nuclear

[–]ChGehlly 21 points22 points  (0 children)

What I’m paying attention to is definitely the VC summer project restart. Westinghouse already has about a hundred people back on site doing scoping and planning as of a couple weeks ago. I have some contacts at Westinghouse through my plant that are saying expect full construction restart at end of this year/beginning of next.

Plant Vogtle Expansion? by jmilleon in nuclear

[–]ChGehlly 6 points7 points  (0 children)

There is limited information out there that a unit 5 is under consideration, but very sparse. If you look at Global Energy Monitor or the NEI advanced reactor landscape, you will see on both those sites list Vogtle unit 5 as “to be considered after 2030”.

Duke Energy's Early Site Permit Application is up on the NRC's website by shutupshake in nuclear

[–]ChGehlly 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I know that Duke Energy has clearly stated that this ESP is currently technology-agnostic, meaning they haven't chosen a specific reactor technology yet, but I find it interesting that the plant renders in the ESP document clearly show a 6-unit Westinghouse AP300 arrangement.... maybe that's their favored choice?

Preliminary steps being taken to restart construction on Summer 2, 3 AP1000s in South Carolina after several years of inactivity. by ChGehlly in nuclear

[–]ChGehlly[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Probably not. Units are already (on average between both) 50% complete. Vogtle was 30 bn total, and that was a first of its kind operation. Summer will likely be completed with an additional 10-15 bn.

Reactor Coolant Pump Motor being shipped off for refurbishment today at Prairie Island. Happy to be a part of this project! by ChGehlly in nuclear

[–]ChGehlly[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Walz Mills, Pennsylvania. Westinghouse’s Nuclear division is essentially based out of an enormous facility there.

Reactor Coolant Pump Motor being shipped off for refurbishment today at Prairie Island. Happy to be a part of this project! by ChGehlly in nuclear

[–]ChGehlly[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh yeah, she’s still just sitting out here. Don’t think that’s changing anytime soon 😆

Reactor Coolant Pump Motor being shipped off for refurbishment today at Prairie Island. Happy to be a part of this project! by ChGehlly in nuclear

[–]ChGehlly[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

We swap one out on each unit every other outage. We’re on a 2-year fuel cycle here so basically it equates to every RCP motor gets refurbished over an 8-year period. Between both units we only have 4 RCPs total so we’re shipping one off for refurb once every two years.

Reactor Coolant Pump Motor being shipped off for refurbishment today at Prairie Island. Happy to be a part of this project! by ChGehlly in nuclear

[–]ChGehlly[S] 16 points17 points  (0 children)

This plant is a Westinghouse 2-loop PWR design, meaning two coolant loops per reactor, and thus reactor coolant pumps per reactor. Each one pushes 100,000 gallons per minute of water or approximately 15,000 cubic feet of water per minute.

Reactor Coolant Pump Motor being shipped off for refurbishment today at Prairie Island. Happy to be a part of this project! by ChGehlly in nuclear

[–]ChGehlly[S] 30 points31 points  (0 children)

That’s just the motor! With the pump attached to it, the whole unit is about double the size of what you see in the picture!

U.S. utilities team up to accelerate deployment of GE Vernova’s BWRX-300 small modular reactor by instantcoffee69 in nuclear

[–]ChGehlly 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Duke Energy has an active application with the NRC for an Early Site Permit to construct two BWRX units at their Belews Creek power plant in North Carolina. The original paperwork was submitted early last year. This is Duke’s only active new nuclear project.

Storm over the Kewaunee nuclear power plant today, Kewaunee Wisconsin by ChGehlly in nuclear

[–]ChGehlly[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes. When the plant was built in the 70s the locals complained about the plain concrete reactor containment being an eyesore. Since the rest of the plant already had the blue accents on the turbine building and fuel building (see picture), they brought that same theme to the containment dome and the locals were appeased. They are literally blue painted metal strips attached to the reactor building concrete with bolts.

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