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Holtec Signs Strategic Cooperation Agreement with Utah and Hi Tech Solutions to Deploy Nuclear SMRs

LCG, May 1, 2025--Holtec International (Holtec) announced the signing on April 29 of a strategic cooperation agreement with the State of Utah and Hi Tech Solutions, a leading nuclear services provider based in Kennewick, Washington, to collaborate in the deployment of Holtec's SMR-300s (small modular reactor) in Utah and the broader Mountain West region. Hi Tech will play a leading role in the project development and workforce training to support the rise of new nuclear power generation in the region.

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EPA and Texas Railroad Commission Sign Memorandum of Agreement for Permitting Geologic Storage of Carbon Dioxide

LCG, April 29, 2025--Officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Texas Railroad Commission (RRC) signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) today outlining the state’s plans to administer programs related to carbon storage wells, known as Class VI wells. The MOA signing is a required step in the RRC’s application to be granted authority to permit Class VI wells in the state of Texas. EPA is currently preparing a proposed approval of RRC’s primacy application.

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Industry News

Mini Nuclear Power Plants in the Basement?

LCG, Aug. 23, 2001--Move aside, fuel cells, Japan's Atomic Energy Research Institute is funding development of a nuclear power plant so small it will fit into the basement of an apartment building, New Scientist Magazine says in its issue bearing Saturday's date.

The 200 kilowatt reactor, conceived of as a power source for colonies on the moon, measures only six and one-half feet by 20 feet, and would not look out of place beside other service equipment located in the cellar of a commercial building.

The Japanese scientists are pursuing development of the Rapid-L because of growing difficulty in licensing new conventional or nuclear power plants.

"In the future it will be quite difficult to construct further large nuclear power plants because of site restrictions," Mitsuru Kambe, head of the research team at Japan's Central Research Institute of Electrical Power Industry told New Scientist.

"To relieve peak loads in the future, I believe small, modular reactors located in urban areas such as Tokyo Bay will be effective," he said.
The Rapid-L is not a scaled-down version of your everyday nuke. For one thing, it uses molten lithium-6 as a coolant in a system which the researchers say will automatically shut down if it overheats. Conventional nuclear reactors use solid rods made of hafnium to control the rate at which the nuclear fuel releases energy and thereby control the temperature of the reactor.

The rods, which control the reaction by absorbing neutrons which split nuclei of uranium-235 and release more neutrons to split more uranium nuclei, which is the chain reaction. When hafnium control rods are inserted among zirconium fuel rods filled with uranium pellets, the reaction is stopped. When they are withdrawn, the reaction resumes.

Power plant operators and their equipment move the control rods in and out of the bundles of fuel rods to control conventional nuclear power plants within precise limits.

Japanese researchers intend to make the process automatic by using molten lithium-6. As the reactor temperature rises, the molten metal expands and rises through tubes into the reactor core, absorbing neutrons and controlling the chain reaction. To picture the lithium-6 rising as it heats, imagine a thermometer filled with mercury.

Kambe is optimistic about the Rapid-L and realistic about its future -- they are not the same.

"Rapid-L power plants could be used in developing countries where remote regions cannot be conveniently connected to the main grid," he told the magazine.

But noting Japan's recent history of nuclear accidents, he added "The success of such a reactor depends on the acceptance of the public, the electricity utilities and the government."

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