Energy, Risk, Sustainability, Interdisciplinary Research, Father. Director of Nuclear Energy Innovation at the Breakthrough Institute Alum. Carnegie Mellon EPP
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Posting a bunch of op-eds and editorials does not qualify as background. Nor would I consider Dorfman an expert on nuclear energy. I have expertise in engineering, nuclear energy, and regulation. I have been directly engaged from the beginning and was invited to speak at the NRC's own conference
An interesting, if improbable, assertion. What are your qualifications and experience with both nuclear power and this facility in particular?
You are clearly unfamiliar with the situation, energy purchasers, technology, costs, or wastes.
Not idiocy if you care about the environment, climate, energy, jobs, or human health. I will have to assume you don't think those are important. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
In regulatory terms, these coincide. However, I interpret your use of restart to be actually starting the reactor and producing power. That will likely happen within the next two months.
Palisades expects to start producing electricity later this year.
Palisades nuclear plant officially returned to operational status today after receiving appropriate approvals from the NRC. This is the first plant to officially transition from decommissioning status back to operational. Truly blazing a trail for other restarts to follow.
I really appreciated working with my excellent colleagues and committee members. Learn more and download the proceedings: www.nationalacademies.org/event/44002_...
These barriers include technical challenges, regulatory hurdles, and investment risks that complicate decision-making timelines. There is no single barrier or one thing to focus on. The workshop brought the diverse challenges to the surface with proposed fixes.
I was honored to be part of the planning committee for the recent @nationalacademies.org workshop Pathways for New Nuclear Deployment. There are new opportunities for building next-generation reactors to produce reliable, clean energy. However, significant, but solvable, barriers remain.
You can find the otherwise useful report here! energywallet.epri.com
Additionally, the size of the hexagon used to represent total household expenditures is not easily discernible from one state to another. Only the number in the center helps, which indicates this should be a table.
Pie charts are already hard for people to interpret correctly. Proportional interpretation depends on position in the circle. By using hexagons the area of the fuel source is no longer related to the value. All you can really see is that gasoline dominates expenditures.
How do you make pie charts worse? By making them hexagons instead! Sorry EPRI, great report, but this is a chart crime.
Hermes 2 already has a construction permit from the NRC for two-reactor design with a 28 MWe power conversion system.
A first PPA by a utility for power from a Gen IV nuclear plant was announced today. @kairospower.bsky.social will sell power to TVA for use by Google. The Hermes 2 project will change to a single reactor and increase to 50 MWe, operational in 2030. kairospower.com/external_upd...
Thanks to @kbrigham.bsky.social for letting me help with this article. There is a lot of optimism right now and announcements. Those announcements still have challenges ahead before they turn into reactors. The market should expect some to drop out, just like other sectors.
Ho Nieh is nominated to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Neih was the former Director of the NRC Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, and is currently working for Southern Company and INPO. www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...
Commissioner Caputo resigned from the NRC a year before her term ends. This is a loss as her votes were substantive, and she was willing to identify issues that others were not and push for improvements, rather than simply accepting the status quo. thebreakthrough.org/press/releas...
Extensive sensitivity analysis shows that the program is robust to many potential variables. These include the timing of milestones relative to capital outlays, project cost, and even missed milestones.
The program efficiently uses government funds, maximizing the return on every dollar spent. Funds are transferred internally from DOE to the Treasury, without direct outlays to the private sector.
A technology-neutral approach mitigates risks and costs for taxpayers by allowing for a diverse portfolio of designs, projects, and technologies while significantly lowering project costs for buyers, utilities, and developers of all sizes.
The scalable program can support enough projects to reach commercial scale and is technology-neutral. The goal is to support 20 GW of projects by 2035. This value is sufficient for at least three technologies to move down the learning curve, reduce costs, and reach cost certainty
It works by providing an interest rate reduction on an LPO loan as milestones are achieved on time. Projects that qualify for ACTION will automatically qualify for support from LPO.
Two primary drivers of cost overrun are finance cost and labor cost, which are incurred during delays. This program requires appropriate upfront planning to achieve on-time construction and provides an incentive to reach milestones on time.
Cost overruns are a key concern for utilities, financiers, and public utility commissions. This has created hesitancy and slowed deployment. The appropriate approach to create confidence in costs, in our view, is to address the cause of the overruns, not provide a cost backstop.
Read the full report here: thebreakthrough.org/issues/energ... By myself, Deric Tilson, Joy Jiang, and Spencer Toohill
🏗️Trilled to finally introduce ACTION, to accelerate nuclear energy deployment. It is a milestone-based program to address the root causes of project risk for advanced nuclear energy projects. 🔌💡
The full whitepaper is available here: thebreakthrough.org/issues/energ...
If NRC radiation protection regulations were made today instead of decades ago, the standards would be very different. It would be aligned with other hazards in a tiered approach, based on direction from Congress for acceptable risk. We provide an option to create that framework.
🚨New paper out on reconsidering the radiation protection model at the NRC. The paper discusses what science indicates, what it cannot demonstrate, and how policy is separate but informed by science. We recommend a pragmatic, tiered approach that aligns with other hazards. 🔌💡
Returning Palisades and a few other nuclear power plants to operation is technically feasible, the lowest possible environmental impact, the fastest path to clean firm power, and a regulatory pathway is being constructed. 🔌💡 www.eenews.net/articles/mot...
Most of the reduction in timeline is due to streamlined reviews by management and the Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards. Importantly, this is enabled by productive and responsive engagement by the applicant and NRC.
The projected date to finish the Construction Permit for the first TerraPower reactor is now the end of 2025, 8 months early. This demonstrates both the slack in the existing NRC process, and the potential to improve efficiency while not "cutting corners" on the technical review
Link to the FRN www.federalregister.gov/documents/20...
Several other groups helped as well. @ClearPathAction also submitted a substantive comment and collaborated. @KairosPower for supporting both of our comments. @ThirdWayEnergy and @theNIAorg provided supporting comments.
This was the first test of the NRC following its updated mission statement, and it went in the opposite direction. It is unfortunate that the NRC was so far off the mark that such in-depth comments were necessary.
We provided substantive comments that identified the specific issues in the proposed rule, legal context, and provided solutions. Many of those issues were addressed in the final rule.
The updated fee rule, as initially proposed, was unworkable. It was not even close to following the letter of existing laws and regulations - including the Atomic Energy Act, NEIMA, and the ADVANCE Act. As proposed, only a handful of licenses would qualify thebreakthrough.org/issues/energ...
Major changes were made to the NRC FY 2025 fee recovery rule to implement reduced fees for advanced reactors, based on our substantive comments and several others.
The Breakthrough Institute and Good Energy Collective support the renomination of David Wright to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission www.breakthroughjournal.org/p/the-wright...
The NRC prevailed on the Interim Storage of spent fuel. The Supreme Court found that Texas and Fasken Land and Minerals did not meet the standard of an aggrieved party and overturned the decision of the 5th Circuit court.
Update since last night, David Wright was renominated. It's unlikely that the Senate could process his nomination before his term ends, which will lead to a gap. Typically, commissioners will wait on votes if a colleague is expected to return, slowing down the commission.
To implement congressional direction and the recent EOs, the Commission must be efficient. The NRC will soon only have three commissioners. In our analysis of vote records, a three-member commission takes almost twice as long to take action as a full five-member commission.
The unprecedented step to remove Commissioner Hanson from the NRC could upend the current bipartisan support for nuclear energy. A return to partisan polarization will almost certainly cripple efforts to make progress. thebreakthrough.org/press/releas...
By comparison, the NRC estimated a 27-month review, using 27,000 staff hours and $4 million in contractor support for the Terrapower Kemmerer construction permit. This review uses a full Environmental Impact Statement NEPA review, which is the primary driver for the longer timeline.
The ADVANCE Act called for reduced licensing fees for advanced reactors, but the proposed rule excludes most agency actions, including construction permit applications. So, the full $323/hr rate is assumed. More information on the Fee rule here: thebreakthrough.org/issues/energ...
The NRC accepted X-Energy's application for a construction permit for the first facility at Dow's Long Mott site. 18 months, 28,500 staff hours totalling $9.2M at $323/hr, and $1.3M in outside support. The review uses an environmental assessment instead of an EIS. www.nrc.gov/docs/ML2515/...
Several approaches can be used now to appropriately manage risk. 1) Flexible risk thresholds, already in law, that balance benefits to society 2) Tiered dose limits in regulation that are evidence-based 3) Recognize that there are risks imposed by alternatives
Risk is managed on a continuum. Science is at the base, policy provides "high-level" directives, safety regulators are in the middle, providing risk assessment and management. That is the NRC's role and limitation.
In this article, we try to give the reader a better understanding of this topic and potential solutions. www.breakthroughjournal.org/p/how-to-reg...
LNT and ALARA, two polarizing terms in nuclear energy. The NRC was tasked with reconsidering both the LNT radiation model and ALARA requirement by a recent executive order. But, many misunderstand what LNT and ALARA are, and what pragmatic evidence-based solutions are available 🔌💡
Meta purchases the output +30MW uprate of Clinton nuclear plant in IL from Constellation with a 20 year PPA starting in 2027. Previously slated for retirement for being barely more expensive than fossil generation, nuclear now gets a premium price. 🔌💡 www.wsj.com/business/ene...
Vogtle 3&4 are the only plants operating under the Part 52 pathway. Although there are several designs with design certifications (with rigid rulemaking finality) and several standard design approvals (staff level approval without the same finality)
I hope this post helps to answer your question bsky.app/profile/aste...
John, what you said is accurate but might be missing context. The part 52 SDA gives approval for major portions of a near final generic design and nearly replaces the safety eval. A part 50 construction permit is site specific and included safety and environmental approval for a preliminary design
As I said earlier, the nuclear plants were not the cause of the outage
The NRC published the Standard Design Approval for the NuScale US460 plant design, which uses up to 6 of the uprated 77 MWe modules. A standard design approval is primarily a safety evaluation for a generic design and can be referenced in site specific applications www.nrc.gov/docs/ML2512/...
Kairos has two construction permits from the NRC for demonstration plants
Will Trump’s dreams of quadrupling U.S. nuclear capacity be fulfilled? It all depends on the project sites. @zeitlin.bsky.social and @kbrigham.bsky.social report, feat. @astein.bsky.social and @beazyrampezy.bsky.social.
Recent nuclear related executive orders are intended to drive change. There is some positive and negative. Some saying the quiet part out loud, acknowledging tradeoffs, and benefits to society. The key will be implementation and a broader strategy www.breakthroughjournal.org/p/can-trump-...
You are correct
I posted evidence. You are asserting without evidence. Third order is conservative. MISO planning and margin, N -1, N -2, system action alerts to call for more supply, voluntary demand response... all come before blaming a generator in an outage, especially in shoulder season.
See this short thread bsky.app/profile/aste...
I haven't seen a good explanation for the blackouts so far. It is my sense that the margin got tighter than expected, it wasn't managed quickly, and a N-1 event was enough to require load shedding. We need more data.
Here is the report from River Bend to the NRC on the small leak which required they shutdown to inspect. www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/d... You can also track the output as a single point snapshot per day here www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/d...
In reality the system operator is required to make sure enough resources are avaliable. The River Bend outage had days of advanced notice. The grid operator didn't issue an alert due to low capacity. Outages reduced by 6GW (10%) between River Bend ramp down and the event.
In a pedantic sense any generation that was offline for any reason 'played a role' but this headline singles out nuclear when it was a third order issue at most. It is misrepresenting the situation for clicks.
This is not accurate - both nuclear plants were offline for maintenance. Grand Gulf was in a refueling outage. River Bend shutdown normally (ramped down) on May 21 to inspect a check valve that could not be addressed at operating pressure, days before the blackouts, and required by regulations
This is not accurate - both nuclear plants were offline for maintenance. Grand Gulf was in a refueling outage. River Bend shutdown normally (ramped down) on May 21 to inspect a check valve that could not be addressed at operating pressure, days before the blackouts, and required by regulations
This is not accurate - both nuclear plants were offline for maintenance. Grand Gulf was in a refueling outage. River Bend shutdown normally (ramped down) on May 21 to inspect a check valve that could not be addressed at operating pressure, days before the blackouts, and required by regulations
Four executive orders related to nuclear energy were signed today. There are a lot of good provisions that move toward the nation's original vision, for atomic energy to "make the maximum contribution" to benefit society. Short thread to come... thebreakthrough.org/press/releas...
Yes! Or get firm contracts for long lead items that cost at least 5% of project cost, which counts as starting construction under the credits
Correcting seven misconceptions about building new nuclear energy. Some people are very entrenched on a few of these misconceptions. www.breakthroughjournal.org/p/seven-more...
Would the end of the IRA credits end all hope of building new nuclear energy? Instead of hot takes, Deric Tilson and I walk through the substance behind this question. 🔌💡 www.breakthroughjournal.org/p/does-nucle...
Executive orders for nuclear energy are being considered www.npr.org/2025/05/09/n...
GE Hitachi receives approval to build the first BWRX-300 from the Province of Ontario and Ontario Power Generation (OPG) at the Darlington nuclear site in Ontario, Canada. vernova.is/3GVWrca
Kairos, which partnered with Google to provide reactors, has also reached a major milestone by starting safety-related construction. bsky.app/profile/aste...
Kairos has started safety-related construction of their Hermes demonstration reactor! This is an important milestone for any nuclear energy facility. It is also an important milestone for advanced nuclear energy in the U.S. 🔌💡 kairospower.com/external_upd...
Google and Elementl team up to find 3 sites that each can support 600 MW of advanced nuclear power. This continues the trend of off-takers leading deployment and requires a different solution. Conventional wisdom won't always be useful. 🔌💡 subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eene...
They have already made the necessary decisions for this stage. However TVA has not approved the project as a whole and will need a quorum to do that.
It is unclear why TVA requested such a long timeline with an existing ESP, and calls into question the value either TVA or the NRC is placing on the ESP. This is concerning because several other utilities are currently pursuing ESPs, including Duke and Constellation.
The letter states that the rest of the construction permit application will be submitted by June 2025.
The 24-month timeline is notable because the Clinch River site already has an early site permit, which includes an environmental report. The existing ESP used a plant-parameter-envelope approach, intended to be flexible to any future design www.nrc.gov/reactors/new...
TVA submitted an environmental report to support a NRC construction permit application for a GE-Hitachi BWRX-300 small modular reactor (SMR) at the Clinch River Nuclear Site in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. TVA requested a 24-month timeline 🔌💡 www.nrc.gov/docs/ML2511/...
Thanks @nuclearanna.bsky.social !
Congress already defined both "acceptable risk" and "ample margin of safety" for nuclear power. However, the NRC has both refused to implement this clear threshold form Congress or define the term in the Atomic Energy Act "adequate protection" thebreakthrough.org/issues/energ...
This case raises important questions but misses the broader legal issues. It could also fragment nuclear energy regulation at the state level without achieving better efficiency. www.wired.com/story/nrc-la... by @mollytaft.com
Is this the moment for nuclear energy at the World Bank? Let's hope so. I had the opportunity to talk to Adva Saldinger about the issue in this informative article that includes many other experts. Here is one quote www.devex.com/news/is-this...
In reality, the challenges to build more nuclear are real. There are many issues to address in a sector that has been neglected for decades. There are no one size fits all solutions. The market needs options. Pragmatism is the only viable path forward.
If you think that to build more nuclear power we need to just - abolish the NRC, build large light water reactors, or eliminate LNT - this article is for you! (Or you just like South Park... don't worry the post explains it) www.breakthroughjournal.org/p/nuclear-un...
I support new nuclear plants and have visited many sites. Compared to other sources the impacts are small. However, legacy uranium mines, primarily for weapons production had a large impact, before regulation started. Those practices are no longer used thebreakthrough.org/issues/energ...
Full acceptance letter here www.nrc.gov/docs/ML2509/...
We recommended an alternative approach. Ultimately the Commission accepted that option, enabling a path forward. We are still engaged on how to implement the decision in a way that provides benefits, while still protecting the public environment thebreakthrough.org/issues/energ...
There was a stalemate on a path forward for licensing this new technology. The existing regulatory path required a license for each of the thousands of abandoned mines. This is a logistical barrier (and has been for decades) and ignores the benefits to society of remediation
Progress on abandoned uranium mine remediation! The NRC accepted an application for review for a new process to remediate inactive and abandoned mines from Disa Technologies with a 6-month review time. This is a potentially huge step for mine remediation, which has been stalled for decades. 🔌💡
A push for more coal mining and generation while blocking worker protections against black lung because it isn't 'deregulation' and cutting the workforce needed to review and finalize the rule. This is in who's best interest? subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eene...
Good article in why Amazon chose to partner with X-Energy and challenges that remain “If we want the power, we need to address the shortfall in the market, which is capital for development, licensing, and construction” www.latitudemedia.com/news/inside-...
Thanks Eric!
