The basis for the project is founded on the facts that in the near future:
- Demand for electricity is projected to increase significantly;
- The U.S. has goals to significantly lower carbon dioxide emissions.
Nuclear power was the largest contributor of non-greenhouse-gas-emitting electric power generation in the United States
in 2009, comprising nearly three-quarters of the non-emitting sources.
Energy efficiency, renewable energy, and carbon capture and storage
technologies are expected to play increasing roles in providing clean
and reliable energy.
During his presidential campaign, Barack Obama stated, "Nuclear power
represents more than 70% of our noncarbon generated electricity. It is
unlikely that we can meet our aggressive climate goals if we eliminate
nuclear power as an option." The LWRS Program operates on the premise that electricity from nuclear generating stations, as a zero-carbon
source, can and must play a critical role as part of an overall
solution to both of these needs. The LWRS Program focuses on four main
areas: Materials Aging and Degradation, Advanced Instrumentation,
Information, and Control Systems Technologies, Advanced Light Water
Reactor Nuclear Fuels, and finally, Risk-Informed Safety Margin Characterization.
Projected Increase in Demand
Domestic demand for electric energy
is expected to grow by more than 30% from 2009 to 2035. At the same
time, most of the currently operating nuclear power plants will begin
reaching the end of their initial 20-year extension to their original
40-year operating license, for a total of 60 years of operation.
According to one study,
demand will increase by 30-40% by the year 2030. Other studies suggest an even higher increase in the world in general: above 80% by 2035.
Goals to lower carbon dioxide emissions
President Obama made clear the U.S.'s national stance on carbon dioxide emissions
on the White House's website which stated, "We must take immediate
action to reduce the carbon pollution that threatens our climate and
sustains our dependence on fossil fuels." The President has set a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 80% below 1990 levels by the year 2050.
Where it is happening
Idaho National Laboratory (INL) near Idaho Falls, Idaho and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory
(ORNL) are the primary research facilities involved. Other labs and
universities across the country are involved in specific parts of the
research (see below).
Who is involved
Program Management
- Trevor Cook, LWRS Program Federal Project Director
- Bruce P. Hallbert, Director, LWRS Program Technical Integration Office
- Donald L. Williams, Jr., Deputy Director, LWRS Program Technical Integration Office
- Cathy J. Barnard, Operations Manager, LWRS Program Technical Integration Office
- Keith J. Leonard, Pathway Lead, Materials Aging and Degradation
- Bruce P. Hallbert, Pathway Lead, Advanced Instrumentation, Information, and Control Systems Technologies
- Curtis L. Smith, Risk-Informed Safety Margin Characterization
- Mitchell T. Farmer, Reactor Safety Technologies
Government
- U.S. Department of Energy Office of Nuclear Energy
- U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
National Laboratories
- Idaho National Laboratory (INL)
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL)
- Sandia National Laboratories (SNL)
Related Department of Energy Research and Development Programs
- Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) National Scientific User Facility
- Center for Advanced Energy Studies (CAES)
- Consortium for Advanced Simulation of LWRs (CASL)
Industry
Universities
- California State University, San Bernardino
- Colorado School of Mines
- Georgia Tech
- Mississippi State University
- Missouri State University
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Ohio State University
- Oregon State University
- Texas A&M University
- University of California at Berkeley
- University of California Santa Barbara
- University of Michigan
- University of Wisconsin, Madison
International
- European Nuclear Plant Life Prediction
- Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (Halden Reactor Project)
- International Atomic Energy Agency Plant Life Management
- International Forum for Reactor Aging Management
- Materials Ageing Institute
- Nuclear Energy Agency Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installation
- Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
- U.S.-Argentina Binational Energy Working Group
Primary Technical Areas of Research and Development
Materials Aging and Degradation
The
Materials Aging and Degradation Pathway conducts research to develop
the scientific basis for understanding and predicting long-term
environmental degradation behavior of materials in nuclear power plants.
Provide data and methods to assess performance of systems, structures,
and components essential to safe and sustained nuclear power plant
operation, providing key input to both regulators and industry.
Background
Nuclear reactors
present a very challenging service environment. Components within the
containment of an operating reactor must tolerate high-temperature
water, stress, vibration, and an intense neutron field. Degradation of
materials in this environment can lead to reduced performance and, in
some cases, sudden failure.
Clearly, the demanding environments of an operating nuclear reactor
may impact the ability of a broad range of materials to perform their
intended function over extended service periods. Routine surveillance
and repair/replacement activities can mitigate the impact of this
degradation; however, failures still occur.
While all components potentially can be replaced, decisions to
simply replace components may not be practical or the most economically
favorable option. Therefore, understanding, controlling, and mitigating
materials degradation processes and establishing a sound technical basis
for long-range planning of necessary replacements are key priorities
for extended nuclear power plants operations and power uprate
considerations.
Purpose and Goals
The
Materials Aging and Degradation Pathway provides research in many areas
of materials science and technology, all supporting multiple Department of Energy
missions and providing unique input to the evaluation of nuclear power
plant life extension while complementing research and development
efforts of the nuclear industry and regulators. The strategic goals of
the pathway are to develop the scientific basis for understanding and
predicting long-term environmental degradation behavior of materials in
nuclear power plants and to provide data and methods to assess
performance of systems, structures, and components essential to safe and
sustained nuclear power plant operations.
The Department of Energy (through the Materials Aging and
Degradation Pathway) is involved in this research and development
activity to provide improved mechanistic understanding of key
degradation modes and sufficient experimental data to provide and
validate operational limits; provide new methods of monitoring
degradation; and develop advanced mitigation techniques to provide
improved performance, reliability, and economics.
Advanced Instrumentation, Information, and Control Systems Technologies
The Advanced Instrumentation,
Information, and Control Systems Technologies Pathway conducts research
to develop, demonstrate, and deploy new digital technologies for
instrumentation and control architectures and provide monitoring
capabilities to ensure the continued safe, reliable, and economic
operation of the nation's operating nuclear power plants.
Background
Reliable
instrumentation, information, and control systems technologies are
essential to ensuring safe and efficient operation of the U.S. LWR
fleet. These technologies affect every aspect of nuclear power plant and
balance-of-plant operations. Current instrumentation and human-machine
interfaces employ analog systems in the nuclear power sector. These
systems, though generally considered by other industries to be obsolete,
continue to function reliably, but do not enable utilities to take full
advantage of digital technologies to achieve performance gains. Beyond
control systems, new technologies are needed to monitor and characterize
the effects of aging and degradation in critical areas of key systems,
structures, and components. The objective of these efforts is to
develop, demonstrate, and deploy new digital technologies for
instrumentation information and control architectures and provide
monitoring capabilities to ensure the continued safe, reliable, and
economic operation of the nation's 104 nuclear power plants.
Purpose and Goals
The
purpose of the Advanced Instrumentation, Information, and Control
Systems Technologies Pathway is to enable the modernization of the
legacy instrumentation information and control systems in a manner that
creates a seamless digital environment encompassing all aspects of plant
operations and support – building a three-dimensional information
architecture that integrates plant systems, plant processes, and plant
workers in an array of interconnected technologies.
Risk-Informed Safety Margin Characterization
The
Risk-Informed Safety Margin Characterization Pathway conducts research
to develop and deploy approaches to support the management of
uncertainty in safety margins quantification to improve decision making
for nuclear power plants. This pathway will (1) develop and demonstrate a
risk-assessment method tied to safety margins quantification and (2)
create advanced tools for safety assessment that enable more accurate
representation of a nuclear power plant safety margin.
Background
Safety is central to the design, licensing, operation, and economics of nuclear power plants.
As the current LWR nuclear power plants age beyond 60 years, there are
possibilities for increased frequency of system, structures, and
components failures that initiate safety-significant events, reduce
existing accident mitigation capabilities, or create new failure modes.
Plant designers commonly "over-design" portions of nuclear power plants
and provide robustness in the form of redundant and diverse engineered
safety features to ensure that, even in the case of well-beyond design basis scenarios, public health and safety will be protected with a very high degree of assurance.
The ability to better characterize and quantify safety margin
holds the key to improved decision making about LWR design, operation,
and plant life extension. A systematic approach to characterization of
safety margins represents a vital input to the licensee and regulatory
analysis and decision making that will be involved. In addition, as
research and development in the LWRS Program and other collaborative
efforts yield new data and improved scientific understanding of physical
processes that govern the aging and degradation of plant systems,
structures, and components (and concurrently support technological
advances in nuclear reactor fuel
and plant instrumentation, information, and control systems) needs and
opportunities to better optimize plant safety and performance will
become known.
Purpose
The
purpose of the Risk-Informed Safety Margin Characterization Pathway is
to develop and deploy approaches to support the management of
uncertainty in safety margins quantification to improve decision making
for nuclear power plants. Management of uncertainty implies the ability
to (a) understand and (b) control risks related to safety. Consequently,
the RISMC Pathway is dedicated to improving both aspects of safety
management.
Advanced Light Water Reactor Nuclear Fuels
Conventional nuclear fuel pellet
The Advanced Nuclear Fuels Pathway conducts research to improve
scientific knowledge basis for understanding and predicting fundamental
nuclear fuel and cladding
performance in nuclear power plants. Apply this information to
development of high-performance, high burn-up fuels with improved
safety, cladding integrity, and improved nuclear fuel cycle economics.
Background
Nuclear fuel
performance is a significant driver of nuclear power plant operational
performance, safety, operating economics, and waste disposal
requirements (Over the past two decades, the nuclear power industry has
improved plant capacity factors with incremental improvements achieved
in fuel reliability and use or burnup). However, these upgrades are
reaching their maximum achievable impact to achieve significant safety
margin improvements while improving operating margins and economics,
significant steps beyond incremental improvements in the current
generation of nuclear fuel are required. Fundamental changes are
required in the areas of nuclear fuel composition, cladding integrity,
and the fuel/cladding interaction to reach the next levels of fuel
performance. The technological improvements being developed in the
Advanced LWR Nuclear Fuels Pathway center on development of
revolutionary cladding materials supported by enhanced fuel mechanical
designs and alternate fuel compositions. If realized, the changes would
have substantial beneficial improvements in nuclear power plant
economics, operation, and safety.
Purpose and Goals
The
Advanced LWR Nuclear Fuels Pathway performs research on improving
reactor safety, increasing fuel economics, producing advanced cladding
designs, and developing enhanced computational models to predict fuel
performance. Strategic research and development goals are directed at
improving the scientific knowledge basis for understanding and
predicting fundamental nuclear fuel and cladding performance in nuclear
power plants, and applying the information to development of
high-performance, high-burnup fuels with improved safety, cladding,
integrity, and nuclear fuel cycle economics. This research is further
designed to demonstrate each of the technology advancements while
satisfying all safety and regulatory limits through rigorous testing and
analysis.
