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Neopanora

The word “Neopanora” combines the acronym NEOP, which stands for Nuclear Energy of the Populace, and the word panorama, in the sense of “a comprehensive perspective.” It is the name of the philosophy that guides the Neopanora Institute-Network of Energy Technology (NINET).

The NINET is a non-profit organization. It facilitates international collaboration in the research and development of a new breed of nuclear power systems, which it calls Sustainable Integrated Energy (SUSTINE) systems. The NINET believes that these new, integrated energy systems will be key to global sustainable development.

Philosophy and Goals

The Neopanora Philosophy

The Neopanora philosophy holds that sustainable, accessible nuclear power is key to solving the world’s emerging energy crisis, and that the only viable solution to this crisis is the worldwide development of locally based, interconnected energy systems. These systems are called Sustainable Integrated Energy (SUSTINE) systems. They will consist of locally available renewable energies, a new breed of nuclear energy systems called NEOP systems and locally appropriate methods of storing excess energy. For example, excess energy could be used to desalinate sea water or produce hydrogen. These processes would be carried out only with excess energy generated from the renewable energy sources.

The NINET believes that this integration with nuclear energy and energy storage mechanisms will provide renewable energy technologies with badly needed support. This support will enable them to be economical faster, and therefore not dependent on from government subsidies.

The Neopanora philosophy also contends that nuclear energy is currently out of reach of emerging users, many of whom live in developing countries, even though these users are driving the increasing demand. According to this philosophy, global effort must be organized to develop a new breed of nuclear energy systems that follow the principles of sustainable development: economic sustainability, environmental sustainability and social sustainability. As part of its commitment to supporting global sustainable development, the NINET is launching a service package to help developing countries establish integrated energy systems.

Environmental protection is another key tenet of the Neopanora Philosophy. The NINET’s focus is on protecting the environment from large industrial undertakings, such as mining, chemical plants and power plants, as well as on environmental remediation.

NEOP Systems

One of the overall objectives of the NINET is to facilitate the creation of NEOP systems and to help modify existing nuclear reactor technology to have more characteristics of NEOP systems. NEOP systems are nuclear power generation systems designed to meet the needs of this century’s emerging energy users. They are designed with a number of key features to make them

  • affordable and accessible
  • user-friendly
  • safe and environmentally responsible
  • proliferation-resistant
  • useful for a wide range of applications
  • quick to order and build

The Use of Thorium Fuel

The NINET promotes the use of thorium fuel to supplement traditional uranium fuel. It sets the flexible use of fuel, including thorium, as a design goal of NEOP systems, and considers it essential for integrating nuclear power into worldwide locally integrated energy systems. The following are the main advantages of thorium fuel, as described by the NINET:

  • The world supply of uranium will become insufficient to meet our increasing energy demands, unless the plutonium in spent fuel from reactors using uranium is reprocessed and used in fast reactors. This, however, will significantly increase the risk of proliferation. The world supply of thorium is at least three times greater than that of uranium[1].
  • Thorium is a more efficient fuel than uranium. Although Th-232 is not fissile, it can be irradiated to create fissile U-233. Doing so increases the available fissile material by several hundred times, making nuclear energy virtually “renewable.”
  • Thorium is more proliferation-resistant than uranium. Its fuel cycles do not produce plutonium, and they produce few minor actinides than uranium-based fuel cycles do. Some reactors can “consume” plutonium, or “recycle” U-233 internally.
  • Thorium-based systems can be more economical than uranium-based systems. On a small scale the handling of U-233 and U-232 will likely be costly, but as production increases the process can be automated, reducing the associated costs. Unlike uranium fuel, thorium fuel does not require enrichment, and the process for converting thorium oxide into fuel is less complex than the uranium conversion process, and therefore less expensive.
  • Thorium-based systems can be more environmentally responsible than uranium-based systems. They produce less radioactive waste, and what they do generate has a shorter half-life than spent uranium fuel.[2]


The Paradigm Shift in the Nuclear Industry

The NINET believes that the current generation of nuclear energy systems, including the Generation III and III+ reactors, do not meet the needs of emerging energy users. They are prohibitively expensive to build, and require a great deal of technical skill to build, operate, and maintain. Following the Three Mile Island accident and the Chernobyl accident, concerns about the safety of nuclear power plants have been raised, and as a result of this and the new product development strategy adopted by all vendors of nuclear power plants, complex safety measures were added that only increased the cost and complexity of the plants. The cost and expertise needed makes these plants inaccessible to emerging energy users and small-scale users, who will come to represent the majority of energy users in this century.

According to the NINET, the new product development strategy used in the current generation of nuclear power systems is essentially driven by the so-called “Evolutionary Design Change” approach. The Generation III systems are adaptations of earlier systems[3] with limited additional design improvements dictated by newly imposed regulations. As the current nuclear energy systems are extremely complex, any design change to one part of the system will result in a chain of changes to many parts of the system. The system becomes more and more convoluted, and the only way to make it more economical is to increase its size. This is why all Generation III reactors are larger than their predecessors and therefore less affordable for general energy users.

The NINET believes that a new approach must be taken, and new systems must be designed from the ground up, with lessons learned in the past incorporated at the design concept level, not at the engineering-design level.

To complement this paradigm shift in design, an innovative approach to deployment is needed as well. The commercial success of the current nuclear energy systems at the end of the last century has created momentum behind industrial and institutional practices that have come to dominate the industry. These practices include

  • a lengthy process for licensing nuclear power plants
  • a decision-making process based on a capital investment micro-economical model
  • requiring extensive infrastructure in a location before a plant is developed and built

Many of these practices stand in the way of implementing the design and technology changes needed in the new generation of nuclear energy systems. The NINET believes that these processes and practices must be reviewed against the design objectives set out above.

Projects and Activities

Since June 2009, the NINET has established a number of projects and businesses based on collaborations with other organizations. These include

  • modifying an existing High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactor design for different applications
  • developing innovative techniques for generating medical isotopes more efficiently
  • facilitating international cooperation for technology development
  • launching the Neopanora Sustainable Growth Service Package for developing countries and regions.

Technology-based Projects and Activities

Several technology-based projects and activities are being undertaken by Neopanora Members in 2010. Several of them are related to the High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactor (HTGR). These HTGR activities focus mainly on studies of electricity/heat co-generation, with applications such as desalination, oil sands steam supply (the steam assisted gravity drainage technique) and hydrogen production. With the inherent safety resulting from the pebble-bed fuel concept, the small size of the reactor and its higher operating temperature, the HTGR is expected to have unique advantages over the conventional large nuclear reactor for these applications. This will also make HTGR closer to meeting Neopanora's requirements for the design attributes of NEOP systems.

Several additional activities are being planned to advance HTGR toward becoming a true NEOP system. These include the use of thorium fuel, further modularization of the HTGR station for semi-portability, and development of an artificial-neural-network-based tool for predicting reactor system transients. The semi-portability is useful for certain applications such as oil sand steam supply and for Green Remediation after the end of the system life. The transient predicting capability will enable the use of a centralized monitoring center serving multiple HTGR stations.

The other group of technology-based activities in 2010 is related to collaborative effort with other organizations toward resolving the global Mo-99 supply crisis. The NINET considers distributed and smaller-scale isotope production facilities to be important supplements for ensuring the security of the medical isotope supply, and therefore focuses its efforts on the development of enabling technologies for distributed and small-scale isotope production facilities.

In addition, some NINET Members are providing ongoing support to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and other international organizations on a contractual basis. An example of this is the conversion of small research reactors from using highly enriched uranium (HEU) fuel to using low enriched uranium (LEU) fuel. As HEU fuel could potentially be used as nuclear weapons material, the conversion program is a positive step toward reducing proliferation.

Sustainable Growth Model and Service Package for Developing Countries

A program of activities called the Sustainable Growth Service Package for developing countries and regions has been organized by a number of Neopanora Members, following the disappointing outcomes of the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.

The program is based on the sustainable growth model, a belief that for a country or society to develop in a sustainable way (economically, socially and environmentally), certain key infrastructure elements must be provided under a central planning system. They include clean water systems, food and basic agriculture systems, energy systems, education systems, health protection, communication systems, transportation systems, governance and social security and the manufacturing of essential supplies. The other elements of prosperity and well-being can develop more naturally, driven by market forces and social maturity, if these key infrastructure elements are in place.

The objective of the Neopanora Sustainable Growth Service Package is to mobilize effort and expertise worldwide, through the Neopanora network, to help countries and regions in need establish these key infrastructure elements. The service package focuses on the development of energy systems, from the use of locally available renewable energy sources to nuclear energy. The expansion of energy systems drives the development of other key infrastructure elements, which in turn will enable further development of the energy systems.

The service package includes a consultancy service for the planning and strategic development of the key infrastructure elements, arrangement of suitable expertise for the development and human resource development through internships in projects undertaken by Neopanora.

Environmental Protection and Remediation

Many industrial activities in the world were developed without consideration of long-term environmental issues. As a result, many contaminated sites have been created, leading to undesired health effects for members of the public and the environment. The cost of remediating these sites can vary tremendously, and many of those affected do not have the capacity to cope with these challenges.

Environmental remediation is the implementation of effective measures to minimize damage to the environment. It should be integrated into any industrial development from the beginning, with continuous management over the operational life-cycle, to avoid contamination of the environment and extensive post-operational work. The NINET is using the Neopanora network to coordinate the efforts of its members with relevant international organizations to increase awareness, exchange information and share resources.

Organizational History and Structure

Neopanora’s Founders and History

Led by Dr. Ray Sollychin, the NINET was founded in 2009 by a group of engineers, scientists and business people with many years of experience in energy technologies.

The Neopanora Network

The NINET takes a uniquely collaborative approach to implementing its activities. Through networking (and networking tools such as the Neopanora Lattice), it brings together experts in nuclear and other energy technologies, and people with different areas of expertise from around the world. NINET also has a network of partnerships with a number of research, design and engineering institutes. These partner-institutes are contracted to work on specific projects and tasks. In addition, the NINET encourages the public to participate in its activities through a web-based ThinkTank Forum.

The NINET does not employ most of its workers in traditional ways. Instead, most are freelancers who work on projects or tasks as commissioned by the NINET. This freelance work may be full-time or part-time.

Sponsorships and Commercialization of Technologies

As a non-profit organization, the NINET is not directly involved in the commercialization of technology, but does collect royalties from commercialized technology to be shared by its members. The NINET is administered by the Neopanora Technology and Resource GmbH. To facilitate information exchange with potential investors, a number of investment organizations and forums for investors have been organized. The first one is Neopanora Investment Canada Inc (NICI) which is now part of the Neopanora Group. It supports the NINET by investing in technologies incubated through the NINET.

Internships and Mentoring by Retirees

In an attempt to address the human resource crisis in the field of nuclear power technology, the NINET administers a mentorship/internship program. It creates task teams to work on assigned tasks, and these teams include supervisors, often recent retirees, and interns, often educated personnel who lack on-the-job experience.


Neopanora Membership

The Membership Application Process

Neopanora Membership is free of charge, and is open to anybody interested or with expertise in nuclear energy technology. Applications for membership are made through the Neopanora Lattice.

References

  1. ^ http://www.thorium.tv/en/
  2. ^ http://www.neopanora.com/en/thorium.html
  3. ^ http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf08.html
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