MC Hammond

Go Vols!

It’s a nice spring day, but hardly peak cherry blossom crowds down by the National Mall and Tidal Basin. But the 15th Street protected lane that the Trump administration will start tearing out next week was still busy with people on bikes and scooters; locals and tourists alike.

@whatisnuclear @AlexCKaufman Oh, good idea! I will when I am back in the office!

@mchammo @AlexCKaufman If you scan it in high res and want me to add it to The Museum let me know! whatisnuclear.com/museum/

So, I am sure that @whatisnuclear already knew this, but I always thought the first commercial nuclear power in the U.S. was in 1957 from an Army reactor, and then Shippingport a few months later. But I was reading old transcripts and Admiral Rickover talked…

@whatisnuclear @AlexCKaufman I couldn’t help myself and bought this original photo of the event on eBay! Atomic Hamburgers!

About sending 750,000 kw over the Niagara Mohawk wires from a naval prototype reactor in West Milton in 1955! And then I found this delightful video of the event: share.google/9j8l37YqbJBpYT…

So far my own gut-based bracket is handily beating my ChatGPT bracket.

Scoop in today's @heatmap_news AM newsletter: Oklo has received its first license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, allowing the nuclear startup to begin producing and selling isotopes from “across medicine, research, advanced manufacturing, and national security.” The approval makes the California-based company the first of the cohort of fourth-generation reactor startups whose technologies use coolants other than water to get the green light to start up a commercial operation of any kind. Once operational, it will also allow $Oklo to begin generating revenue for the first time. The NRC has given out permits to rival fourth-generation companies only for construction activities. The Bill Gates-backed TerraPower, for instance, was granted permission to begin construction on its first commercial power plant in Wyoming, as was the Google-backed Kairos Power for its demonstration facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The permit for the facility, dubbed Atomic Alchemy and located at the Idaho Radiochemistry Laboratory, authorizes the company to “receive, possess, use, store, and conduct” chemical and mechanical processing, packing, manufacturing, and distribution of a limited amount of Radium-226, which is used to make advanced cancer treatments. “Demand for critical isotopes is rising, but U.S. supply remains limited,” Jacob DeWitte, Oklo’s chief executive and co-founder, said in a statement. “This work helps create a more resilient and dependable domestic supply chain of isotopes and supports the transition from early operations to durable, commercial isotope production in the United States.” The license grants the company a foothold in one of its core businesses. On top of designing liquid sodium-cooled microreactors the startup plans to own and operate for electricity production, Oklo is building out a division to reprocess and recycle nuclear waste into fresh fuel for its power plants. That business, too, would involve extracting and selling high-priced medical isotopes from spent fuel, and Atomic Alchemy lays the groundwork for that future effort. To construct this debut facility, Oklo plans to build four non-power Versatile Isotope Production Reactors systems with a capacity of about 15 megawatts-thermal each.

@whatisnuclear I knew you would have it! GE was just like “yo can I get some of that steam if I build a turbine” and the AEC said go for it.

@mchammo A super-exotic sodium-cooled beryllium-moderated reactor no less! (prototype for the Seawolf). This was called the first 'commercially distributed nuclear electricity'. I believe BORAX-III sent 'commercial' power to Arco ID a few months earlier x.com/whatisnuclear/…

@ryan_pickering_ Oh, the 750,000 kw was over the 3 month contract it operated under!

@mchammo That spherical containment still stands today, and the site is still active for naval reactor research. Wasn’t able to find how much energy it was sending to the grid. 750MW sounds high..

OK folks, i am just going to start retweeting this. this 1 minute on the straits is more accurate and to the point than the continents full of right wing spin you are getting from the war. 60 Minutes nails it. Watch.

@whatisnuclear @AlexCKaufman Your quotes were phenomenal. Synthesized everything going on in the background.

As the guy quoted said, let's bring ourselves out of the dark ages!

GRIP RETURNS! New DOE proposal to invest in reconductoring, advanced transmission technologies, and new interregional transmission projects. Utilizes $1.9b from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) of 2022. Warm up the concept paper machine - due April 2!

okay, @WMSymposia is the first conference I have ever been to with a robotic dog park, and it is peak.

@Easy_Tyger They had the original menu!

@mchammo I can't express how badly I want to create a themed cocktail menu for that bar.

Had an amazing day on the Nucear Ship Savannah in Baltimore yesterday. They used Section 106 of the NHPA to preserve the reactor internals, so you can actually go inside the containment and see inside the reactor vessel! It is really a rare wonder.

@WSJFreeEx @NicXTempore What incredible nonsense.

The Potomac River is oozing liquid feces. If there is any reason to look skeptically on D.C.’s push for statehood, this is it, writes @NicXTempore on.wsj.com/4aEDJkJ

There was a huge sewage spill in Milwaukee last year, bigger in part than what D.C. is now dealing with, but no one thinks Wisconsin residents should be second-class citizens because of it.

Updating some slides and thought it was interesting that if Texas data centers (operating + in construction, ~19 GW) were a county, they would consume about as much electricity as Norway (~133 TWh, assuming an 80% utilization factor). Det er Texas, alle sammen.