Yes Leap I did, He reminded me of you so I just ignored him. 
Andy
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You are doing a lousy job of that too.
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The Dow Chemical executives at the Seadrift facility are not “shunning” new nuclear. They plan to install one or more high temperature gas-cooled nuclear reactors at their manufacturing site near Port Lavaca, Texas.
From the link:
Texas governor Greg Abbott said: “This SMR project further cements Texas’s position as a global energy leader and will bring good-paying jobs and more economic opportunity to hardworking Texans in the Coastal Bend.”
The governor of Texas doesn’t seem to be “shunning” new nuclear either.
Also from the link:
Dow Chairman and CEO Jim Fitterling said: “Advanced nuclear has attractive advantages over other sources of clean power, including a compact footprint, competitive cost, and enhanced power and steam reliability. The Seadrift site plays an important role in further advancing Dow’s sustainability goals, as evidenced by our increasing growth and investment at the site.”
- Pete
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WOW! They have a lot of hoops to jump through before this project is completed. NRC has not completed all reviews of the Xe-100 reactor plant. They will need to prepare a Safety Analysis Report before getting a construction permit. I am curios why they chose to not go for a COL (construction and operating) license.
X-energy’s Xe-100 reactor is a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor featuring four 80 MWe electric units that can operate individually or be scaled into a four-pack 320 MWe power plant. In 2020, the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP) awarded X-energy $80 million to develop, license, build, and demonstrate the technology. Dow was named a sub-awardee under the program.
Dow and X-Energy signed a joint development agreement earlier this year to deploy the four-unit Xe-100 facility at one of Dow’s U.S. Gulf Coast sites by 2030. The agreement includes up to $50 million in funding, up to half of which is eligible through ARDP, and the other half by Dow.
Finalization of the site selection process now paves the way for the two companies to prepare and submit a Part 50 construction permit application to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Construction on the four-reactor plant is expected to begin in 2026 and finish by the end of the decade.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is currently engaged in pre-application activities with X Energy, LLC. (X-energy) starting in September 2018. X-energy is a Rockville, MD company designing the Xe-100 reactor which is a pebble-bed, high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR). Each reactor will generate 200MWt and approximately 80MWe. The standard Xe-100 “four-pack” plant generates approximately 320MWe.
I have my doubts about their having these reactors in full operation by 2030.
Jaak
P.S. - DOW is famous for its investment in the large Midland nuclear power plant in the 1980s that was a construction nightmare for Bechtel and B&W. Midland nuclear power plant construction was about 85% completed when it was abandoned due to escalating cost and schedule.
The directors of Consumers Power Company announced the cancellation of the Midland nuclear plant on July 16th, 1984; making it the most costly power plan ever abandoned in the United States. The plant was 85% complete, 13 years behind schedule and over 20 times the original cost estimate. Consumers Power Company, went from being the nation’s 11th largest utility company to being on the verge of bankruptcy. Many factors were considered in the cancellation of the nuclear power plant. Financial problems surrounded the plant since the early 1970’s.
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I’m still waiting for someone to show me how the recent high temperatures in Texas are causing problems for the state’s nuclear power plants. Is the “Texas heat dome too much for three nuclear power plants”? I don’t see it.
As of yesterday, all four of the nuclear plants in Texas are on-line and at 100% of their allowed reactor power output. They can’t do any better.
South Texas 1 100% South Texas 2 100% Comanche Peak 1 100% Comanche Peak 2 100%
https://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/event-status/reactor-status/2023/20230703ps.html#R4
As previously shown, three of those four plants have been at 100% for several weeks. The heat doesn’t seem to be affecting them. The one unit at Comanche Peak that had a feedwater pump problem was back in service soon after a plant trip in June, and is now back up to 100%. How was the feedwater pump problem or the recent operation at 78% power associated with or caused by the heat wave?
The temperature in Fort Worth is 97 degrees F today, and has been in that range since the middle of June. The Comanche Peak plants are located 40 miles southwest of Fort Worth.
The temperature in Houston, the closest large city to the South Texas nuclear plants, has also been quite high lately. This is nothing new for Texas, after all.
https://www.wunderground.com/calendar/us/tx/fort-worth/KFTW/date/2023-7
- Pete
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NOAA distances itself from that claim.
On Thursday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration distanced itself from the designation, compiled by the University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyzer, which uses satellite data and computer simulations to measure the world’s condition…
NOAA, whose figures are considered the gold standard in climate data, said in a statement Thursday that it cannot validate the unofficial numbers. It noted that the reanalyzer uses model output data, which it called “not suitable” as substitutes for actual temperatures and climate records.
DB2
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Bob,
Where does that leave us?
The odd thing last year this time we were having a month of 95 degree weather. I had never seen anything like it in CT. This year one day two days in the 95 degree area.
I get we are a pocket of the global weather systems here in CT and not representative of the global but still.
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Nothing but more media “severe weather” hysteria?
Steve
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Steve, or another Dr. Bob article to make things murkier again. It is not like he posts facts much of the time.
No offense bob you are one of my favorite Russian bots.
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With click bait?
DB2
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