PNNL: PNNL Nuclear Technologies for a Carbon-Free Energy Future – India Education | Latest education news | Global education news

The country is increasing its focus on sustainable energy, including the goal of eliminating greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Here in Washington state, the Clean Energy Transformation Act 2019 sets the course for carbon-free electricity by 2045.

As we embark on the journey to decarbonize energy, the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is helping advance the science and technology necessary to make nuclear power safe and reliable. This carbon-free energy source is becoming increasingly important given the changing dynamics of energy supply, demand and consumption on the horizon. For example, the demand for electricity will increase with the spread of electric vehicles and the electrification of buildings.

To meet this need for clean electricity, more carbon-free energy resources will be integrated into the system – including renewable energies like solar and wind. In addition, the need for stable base load electricity will increase to replace the electricity generated from coal and natural gas. This is where nuclear comes in.

A tech-economic report recently published by PNNL and its industry and science staff concluded that advanced small modular reactors in Washington State can be cost competitive, especially where existing infrastructure can be used. Home to the state’s only operational commercial nuclear reactor, the Tri-Cities provides this infrastructure and has an in-depth nuclear knowledge and trained workforce.

Chemist Amanda Lines
Chemist Amanda Lines is one of PNNL researchers using her strengths in chemistry, materials and nuclear sciences to advance solutions for safe and reliable nuclear power – a source of carbon-free energy that will help meet the country’s climate and clean energy goals to reach. (Photo by Andrea Starr | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)
Last month, Energy Northwest, Grant County Public Utility District and X-energy partnered to develop and commercially demonstrate one of the country’s first advanced nuclear reactors near the Columbia Generating Station in Richland.

Although PNNL is not directly involved in this demonstration project, the considerable skills of our researchers – dating back to the establishment of the laboratory in 1965 – are applied to challenges related to reactor fuel supply, regulatory issues and spent fuel management. They also make contributions that are consistent with the report’s finding that innovation is needed to accelerate development and reduce the cost of the advanced reactor concepts under study.

For example, PNNL has developed real-time monitoring tools that can make it easier to test and improve new reactor designs. All nuclear reactors produce radioactive iodine gases as a by-product of fission. In conventional reactors, these gases are enclosed in the fuel rods for later disposal. However, new molten salt reactor concepts use a liquid fuel and require real-time processing to remove the gases as they are made.

Materials scientist Ramprashad Prabhakaran
Materials scientist Ramprashad Prabhakaran examines nuclear materials that are part of PNNL’s broad research and development portfolio, which addresses challenges related to nuclear energy, including new innovations for advanced reactor concepts. (Photo by Andrea Starr | Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)
The novel approach developed by PNNL researchers quickly and easily ingests iodine and other chemical species. Using common techniques for chemical analysis based on spectroscopy, they identified the chemical fingerprints for two common forms of iodine. The researchers then developed software that converts this spectroscopic data into information that plant operators can quickly scan and easily understand.

In other research aimed at capturing the by-products of fission in advanced reactors, PNNL scientists developed a radiation-resistant material that efficiently and selectively captures xenon and krypton. This promising approach is less expensive than the current method, which uses large equipment to cool the waste so that the gases can be separated. The PNNL approach would also reduce the amount of waste that has to be stored for decades before the radioactivity decays. As a bonus, the non-radioactive xenon gas trapped with this material could be used in medicine and lighting.

Today nuclear energy accounts for almost 20 percent of the electricity produced in our country. This is almost certain to increase as advanced reactor technologies become part of our evolving clean energy landscape. Along the way, PNNL will continue to leverage its strengths in chemistry, materials and nuclear science to deliver innovative solutions for the reactors that will fuel our future.

Steven Ashby, director of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, writes this column monthly. To read previous columns from the director, visit pnnl.gov/news and filter for the director’s columns from our latest stories.