Thread by @US_NIC

We are live tweeting for the #Ready4Nuclear US/Canada #Nuclear Energy Leadership Summit!

Great slate of speaker today-- stay tuned.

First Speaker, Marco Presutti of Natural Resources Canada reminds us that $140B in trade and 9 million jobs result from US/Canada Nuclear Partnership.

Next up, Dr. John Barrett, CEO of Canadian Nuclear Association. "After a great advocacy effort at #COP21, nuclear was included in the clean energy efforts of Mission: Innovation."

@TalkNuclear

Next up-- @suzyjaws , Senior Advisor from @ENERGY. "Fy18 budget for nuclear energy is $1.2B, over $100M to #advancednuclear projects through private/public partnerships. However, we will not meet these opportunities without confronting the realities of the global market."

.@suzyjaws we've been having meetings across the country to facilitate discussions between young people and young professionals in #nuclear. All in support of the President's mandate to revive, revitalize, and expand.

Next up, perspectives from the new leader of the Canadian regulatory agency, Ms. Rumina Velshi. She reminds us that Canada has 19 reactors that produce 20% off Canadian electricity. The Bruce Power site has 8 reactors, putting out 6.4 GWe, the largest nuclear plant in the world.

Ms Velshi says that Canadian regulatory framework is already adequate to evaluate #SMRs, and has been praised widely for this.

The Vendor Design Review Process has also been a bright spot.

A bit earlier, Ms. Velshi accepted an @NRCgov medallion in the spirit of collaboration and friendship between their offices from one of her American counterparts, Hon. David Wright.

Ms. Velshi concludes with a strong call for more women in #STEM and in #nuclear in general.

Next, David Wright tells a few stories from his first 91 days at the NRC. "In my view, an agency that becomes [too much of] a barrier to new builds is not doing its duty to the public." "...if the future is non-lwrs or lwr smrs, the NRC will be ready."

Hon. Jeff Merrifield takes the stage, "The US plants are running better than ever, but are shutting down for reasons beyond their control, in particular the low cost of gas that resulted from the fracking revolution,

with one exception, Diablo Canyon. Which the state of California is senselessly throwing overboard. This is one of the dumbest public policy decisions in history, as it relates to energy."

Hon. Jeff Merrifield says, "#nafta isn't all automobiles, forestry products, and milk. An extraordinary amount of nuclear commerce goes over the Canadian border. We must not be forgotten in this discussion...The relationship between Canada and the US is too important."

Hon. @timechols quotes a union rep who worked on VC Summer project, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Depending on which side of the Georgia line you live. Shutting that plant down was a gut kick to families, and they're left with nothing but a rusting hole."

Hon. @timechols says people come into his office asking him to deal with mining issues, coal pollution, nuclear waste, climate change, electricity rates... His response? "Pick two."

#nuclear #allcleanenergy #splitdontemit #Ready4Nuclear

"airconditioning-side" chat with Mr. Jeff Lyash and Mr. Mike Rencheck of @opg and @Bruce_Power sharing lessons learned during the refurbishment process. At this moment they're over 30 days ahead of schedule.

"We save lives every day with nuclear. We sterilize 40% of single use medical equipment in the world. When we invest in nuclear we are not only investing in a clean energy future, but in live saving medical technology." -- Mike Rencheck

Jeff Lyash, cites @EPRINews study on electricity as percent of energy use in 1950, 2%
Present, 22%
In the year 2050, 52%

Mike Rencheck-- @opg and @Bruce_Power have signed an MOU investigating advanced nuclear to help accommodate this.

Daniel Brady of Natural Resources Canada talks about how the Canadian government involves Canadians in what their future energy should look like: here are some stats on their outreach.

Dr. Corey McDaniel takes the stage to lay out the vision for @CNL_LNC .
--they're pushing to demonstrate a commercially viable #smr by 2026. They have room to site 10 designs, and a huge market for this technology with over 200 remote communities that reliant on diesel in Canada.

Dr. Neil Alexander of Bucephalus Consulting reminds us that, if SMRs aren't built as a fleet, the economics won't work. So how to get a fleet? Structure the market so there are big incentives to build, and get community buy in so there are lower barriers to getting it done.

You can focus on creating the best #technology, but if you neglect creating the environment in which it will succeed, it will fail. -Dr. Neil Alexander. #Ready4Nuclear

Rita Baranwal articulates the vision of @GAINnuclear , to provide the equipment and expertise of the US national labs to accelerate the development and deployment of #advancedreactors.

109 companies involved so far!

#Ready4Nuclear
#innovate #technology #science

Mr. Jon Ball of @gehnuclear gives a run down of their new reactor, designed to undersell Combined Cycle Natural Gas electricity. The cost savings come from its passive safety, which makes a traditional containment unnecessary.

Additional cost savings come from the construction process-- the containment structure is poured concrete in a shape similar to a missile silo. #Ready4Nuclear

.@gehnuclear has another reactor with passive safety, and it can fission nuclear waste! In this case, sodium is #makingnuclearcoolagain. #prism.

Final panel of the day!

Day 2 -- David Blee, "We're going to need High Assay LEU, it could come from recycling navy fuel, but there needs to be gov't incentives for developing a commercial line."

Jeff Merrifield adds,
"Most reactors use fuel enriched to 4.8% today
We need 8-19.8% for advanced reactors"

Ed Davis of Pegasus Group reminds us that we're approaching a decommissioning cliff. Even if utilities opt for additional license renewals (which many in deregulated markets aren't ).

Many plants are being forced to close before they should. It's an economic and environmental tragedy.

Art Rob, VP of Decommissioning at @opg gives a rundown of Pickering Nuclear Plant decommisioning. It will be shut down from 2022 to 2024, where it will be in a state of Safe Storage until 2050, when it will be dismantled & the site will be restored back into it's original state.

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