RULES

Welcome to the r/nuclear weekly discussion post! Here you can comment on anything r/nuclear related, including but not limited to concerns about how the subreddit is run, thoughts about nuclear power discussion on the rest of reddit, etc.

Compilation of "I was banned" posts:

https://www.reddit.com/r/nuclear/comments/1ibjr0l/guys_i_did_it_i_got_banned_on_rnuclearpower_that/

https://www.reddit.com/r/nuclear/comments/1i8pjhs/got_my_medal_too/

https://www.reddit.com/r/nuclear/comments/1i8k723/lol_posted_one_comment_on_a_nuclearpower_thread/

https://www.reddit.com/r/nuclear/comments/1i8hlqg/i_was_banned_from_rnuclearpower_again_first_they/

https://www.reddit.com/r/nuclear/comments/1i89cgm/got_put_in_r_nuclearpower_jail/

https://www.reddit.com/r/nuclear/comments/1i7jvr1/got_banned_from_rnuclearpower_for_this_kinda/

https://www.reddit.com/r/nuclear/comments/1i7kppr/lol/

https://www.reddit.com/r/nuclear/comments/1i6ubp3/i_did_it_no_warning_no_explanations_just_honest/

https://www.reddit.com/r/nuclear/comments/1h7varb/2_in_one_day/

https://www.reddit.com/r/nuclear/comments/1h7lj4u/it_happened_to_me/

https://www.reddit.com/r/nuclear/comments/1h7lglx/just_got_my_wings/

https://www.reddit.com/r/nuclear/comments/1h7lez0/banned_from_rnuclearpower/

https://www.reddit.com/r/nuclear/comments/1h7i1jp/called_it/

https://www.reddit.com/r/nuclear/comments/1h7flz3/im_one_of_todays_lucky_few/

https://www.reddit.com/r/nuclear/comments/1gun71t/can_anyone_tell_me_how_this_is_misinformation/

https://www.reddit.com/r/nuclear/comments/1gfnq5r/same_with_me_on_rnuclearpower/

https://www.reddit.com/r/nuclear/comments/1gcys12/permanently_banned_from_rnuclearpower/

https://www.reddit.com/r/nuclear/comments/1e0djgl/kyle_hill_explains_the_ban/

https://www.reddit.com/r/nuclear/comments/1dypfp4/i_joined_the_club/

https://www.reddit.com/r/nuclear/comments/1dyg2jm/kyle_hill_responding_to_the_downfall_of/

https://www.reddit.com/r/nuclear/comments/1dr5lxt/kyle_hill_got_banned_from_rnuclearpower/

https://www.reddit.com/r/nuclear/comments/1cgqbbo/moderator_of_rnuclearpower_accuses_rnuclear_mods/

https://www.reddit.com/r/nuclear/comments/1cfz6ry/rnuclearpower_lost_to_antinuclear_activists/

If you have more feel free to leave a comment and I will add to the list.

This is leaving out older ones, but you can find them here: https://www.reddit.com/r/nuclear/search/?q=banned&sort=new

I remember the First Energy scandal a few years back, and the Ohio statehouse and governor rescinding the subsidies for Perry and DB. Then when they were Energy Harbor, apparently they said they didn't need the subsidies anymore anyway and were staying open. The only news articles about the Ohio plants and their financial status I can find are from a couple years ago. And if I recall correctly, and I am going entirely off of memory here, Beaver Valley is included in whatever deal PA and other northeast plants struck for subsidies (unsure of time frame or if it still applies).

Can anyone in the know fill me in on the current status of the future of these plants? I did read recently that DB is trying to start up a hydrogen production facility on site, so that's a good sign for them. Is Vistra pretty confident they are all staying open? Are the people working there confident in them staying open?

Mostly concerned with DB and Perry, because I am considering a move from current location to Ohio.

Thanks in advance.

Isn't HALEU much more expensive and difficult to produce compared to LEU? How will that affect the expansion of reactors that use HALEU?

I saw an explanation of how to derive what size and mass you'd need for a uniform sphere of U-235 to make it critical mass, and thought it was really interesting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIuoFAW9H3E

Feel like I understood fairly well except for a boundary assumption that wasn't explained, namely that at the boundary of the sphere of radius R the neutron density N(r,t) at r=R must satisfy

N(R,t) <= -2/3λ(∂N/∂r)(R,t)

where λ is the mean free path of transport. Can anyone point me to a source that derives that bound at the boundary of the sphere?

"Alexander Ugryumov, Senior Vice President for Scientific and Technical Activities of TVEL, Rosatom's fuel company, said: "The justification of MOX fuel for VVER solves two key problems. The first is to increase the economic efficiency of closing the fuel cycle. The world knows the practice of using MOX fuel in light-water reactors with a load of up to a third of the core, but these full-scale MOX fuel assemblies, unlike irradiated REMIX fuel, cannot be reprocessed after operation to produce similar fuel. However, hybrid fuel assemblies with MOX fuel elements (the so-called "heterogeneous REMIX") can be recycled multiple times. The second task is related to the full loading of VVER-S reactors with MOX fuel."

The VVER-S is a 600 MWe water-cooled reactor.The fundamental difference for VVER-S compared with other VVER reactors is in spectral regulation "of the change in the reactivity margin of the core during fuel burnout due to a change in the water-uranium ratio and the complete rejection of liquid boron regulation during reactor operation at power. In the VVER-S, excess neutrons, instead of being absorbed in boric acid, are absorbed by uranium-238" which produces plutonium, a new fissile fuel. The first two units are planned as part of Kola 2 in the Murmansk region, with construction due to begin in 2028 with a commissioning target for 2035."

Source: https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/articles/expansion-of-test-programme-for-mox-fuel-for-vver-reactors

I’m an aspiring nuclear engineer going into college and I wanna know if having gone through cancer restricts you from the job in some way.

I’ve had cancer 2 times throughout my life (same cancer, relapse). The cancer wasn’t due to any kind of lifestyle I had, the cancer is Ewing sarcoma which is caused by a random genetic mutation.

I’ve gone through radiation therapy twice, one for part of my lung and one for full lung.

I’ve also gone through many radiation based scans like CT scans, CAT scans, and PET scans.

I don’t know if this makes me more susceptible to radiation or anything.

I am now free of disease and am not going through any kind of treatment (besides a thyroid medicine I take daily as of now, but will probably go away in the future). The only problem I have is that I get physically tired pretty easily (from things like light exercise)

I just wanted to know if there are any known regulations for nuclear engineers who’ve had cancer.

I know the answer is probably that I can but better safe then sorry

I think distributed SMRs can be great for meeting rural power needs. A huge roadblock is maintaining the necessary staff that the NRC requires. I've wondered about remote control rooms and technical support and how that could work within the bounds of the NRC requirements. Does anyone have insight into how this might be managed, if they have already reviewed these options or plan to review them?

Hi everyone, as a physics student (2nd year) who took part in a lot of data science projects, I have been interested in nuclear physics for a long time now and want to pursue it if possible.

I have read on International Atomic Energy Agency's article that there are a lot of upcoming uses of machine learning on anomaly detections on operating nuclear reactors, by employing filters of simulation trained machine learning algorithms to sift through giant amount of data and then find the anomaly neutron detections to be investigated further. This really picked my interest and I genuinely want to specialize in this kind of data science/nuclear physics area.

What are the other openings/opportunities/fields for physics students in nuclear industry? Would it be possible to go into such a specialized field in the industry as I've explained above? How plausible is it for a physics student to get into the nuclear industry? What skills would be expected? Ty

I recently graduate from my master in nuclear engineering and i am looking for my first job in Europe. I got an interview for a job that asks for 2 to 5 years experience ideally in the field (i don't have this). The only real experience i have is a 6 month internship in fuel simulation (tbh it had to do more with programming and numbers than physics).

In the job description it says i have to:

• Act as the interface with the supplier for the management of study and examination contracts
• Leading fuel evolution projects
• Leading design projects
• Contributing to fuel feedback analysis (REX)

I checked my cover letter and i mention that after my internship i had a good idea of fuel management or something like that lol this isn't true tbh

Any ideas?

Hi all,

I'm looking to get into plant ops, and TVA & Energy Northwest have positions posted for NLOs. I applied for both just last week. I'd love to hear from anyone that works at either. What the culture is like, pay (especially long-term), OT, etc.

Energy Northwest lists two positions ("Equipment Operator" and "Equipment Operator - In Grade")

• Equipment Operator - In Grade shows pay of $44.64 - $56.54 Hourly (I applied for this one)
• Equipment Operator shows pay of $59.52 (I presume this is the one that is already qualified for the position, did not apply)

TVA showed something interesting. A Student Generating Plant Operator is paid $86,665 salary while in training (12-18 months in duration), then $115,540 when a "fully-qualified Assistant Unit Operator". Does this mean there is no OT pay? Or is this an estimated yearly pay with 40 hours and OT?

A bit about me, I'm a new grad in nuclear engineering. I haven't got any internships, but I have plenty of [not very relevant] work experience since I went back to school at 26. I'm looking to learn as much as I can, work a lot of OT, and scale the nuclear mountain.

Thanks in advance, everyone!

Edit: I think these are NLO positions, not sure of the technical jargon just yet.