Atomic transients: Meta, TEPCO, NuScale Power

Meta’s plans for a hookup between a company AI data center and a nuclear power plant is generating a lot of buzz, according to London’s Financial Times. The source of the buzz, according to the FT, is a population of endangered bees. The paper reported, “The discovery of the rare bee species on a location next to the plant where the data centre was to be built would have complicated the project, Zuckerberg told a Meta all-hands meeting last week, according to two people familiar with the meeting.”

rusty patched bumble bee (Bombas affinis)

The report did not identify the problem pollinator. But there is only one officially endangered bee species in the continental U.S., according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the rusty patched bumble bee (Bombus affinis). There are eight endangered bee species in Hawaii, and no Hawaiian nuclear power plants.

Meta had no comment on the story and did not identify the nuclear plant it hoped to get cozy with. The FT wrote, “Zuckerberg told staffers at the all-hands that, had the deal gone ahead, Meta would have been the first Big Tech group to wield nuclear-powered AI, and would have had the largest nuclear plant available to power data centres, two people said.”

The FWS’s now-limited range of the endangered bumble bee suggests the general location of Meta’s candidate nuclear plant. The bees are mostly found around Chicago and a bit smaller population around Milwaukee. Illinois has the largest fleet of U.S. nuclear plants: six, housing 11 reactors. All are owned by Constellation Energy, the Baltimore-based generating spinoff from Chicago-based Exelon: Braidwood, Byron, Clinton, Dresden, LaSalle, and Quad Cities.

The only nuclear plant in Wisconsin is Point Beach, a two-reactor station located in the middle of the state on Lake Michigan, largely serving Green Bay.

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In Japan, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) has managed to grab a tiny piece of melted fuel debris from the devasted Fukushima Daiichi Unit 2 nuclear plant. It was a tricky operation, first attempted in August, when it failed from a mismatch of sections of the pipe used to push into the reactor chamber. When fixed in mid-September, the camera at the end of the gripper used to guide it during the collection failed, adding further delay. The attempt succeeded late last month, World Nuclear News reported.

TEPCO reported last week (Nov. 6) that the sample of a few grams had a radiation dose rate of less than 24 mSv/h (millisieverts/hour) – highly dangerous according to a standard rating of radiation exposures – the criteria TEPCO set for further analysis. The sample then went into a safety container for transportation for off-site analysis, which should help in plans for full-scale removing from the three destroyed nuclear units.

According to WNN, “There is an estimated total of 880 tonnes of fuel debris in units 1-3….The removal technique, which is being used for the first time in unit 2, will be gradually extended to unit 3, where a large-scale recovery is expected in the early 2030s.”

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NuScale Power (NYSE:SMR) is starting to look a bit old. The small modular reactor promoter based in Corvallis, Ore., founded in 2007, last week (Nov. 7) reported third-quarter financial results, continuing a life-long flow of red ink.

For the third quarter, NuScale reported $0.5 million in revenue and a net loss of $45.5 million. In the prior year period, SMR reported revenue of $7.0 million and a net loss of $58.3 million. NuScale reported an operating loss of $41.0 million, compared to an operating loss of $92.9 million in the year-earlier period. NuScale scaled back its losses by laying off 40% of its workers (some 200 out of a total of 350) workers in January.

One of the pioneer SMR purveyors, NuScale has yet to produce an actual reactor or a signed-sealed-delivered contract for a power plant. Nor has its latest slightly up-sized 77-MW small reactor won approval from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. It’s first 50-MW got a green light from the NRC, but the company found that the economics didn’t work at that small size. The only real deal the company has ever inked, with the Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS), fell apart almost exactly a year ago.

–Kennedy Maize

The Quad Report

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