NEWS |
round up
RADWASTE CAVENDISH NUCLEAR AND Jacobs have signed a MOU with Japan Atomic Energy Agency for the treatment and re-use in the UK of sodium coolant from Japan’s Monju fast reactor, which ceased operations in 2010.
ENERGYSOLUTIONS CANADA HAS signed a contract with Laurentis Energy Partners, a subsidiary of Ontario Power Generation, to provide licence support for the Western Clean-Energy Sorting and Recycling nuclear-materials sorting facility in Kincardine, Ontario.
FRANCE’S ORANO HAS delivered the first batch of equipment to Russia’s Electrochemical Plant in Zelenogorsk for the construction of a second unit for defluorination of uranium hexafluoride.
THE SWEDISH GOVERNMENT has approved SKB’s application to extend the final repository for short-lived radioactive waste (SFR) in Forsmark. The facility needs to be extended to accommodate decommissioning waste.
DEEP BOREHOLE DISPOSAL is a viable, cost-effective solution for all the high-and intermediate-level long-lived nuclear waste that is being temporarily stored by five countries, according to a feasibility study by Deep Isolation published by Norwegian Nuclear Decommissioning.
NAC INTERNATIONAL HAS received US NRC certification for the OPTIMUS®
-L
version of its versatile OPTImal Modular Universal Shipping transport packaging system. The system is licensed in Canada.
D&D
WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC COMPANY said it has recently completed dismantling the first of two reactor vessels at Bohunice V1 nuclear plant in Slovakia. The annular water tanks that ensured bio-shield protection of the two reactor pressure vessels have also been dismantled.
THE US NRC has approved the transfer of the Palisades NPP licences from Entergy Nuclear Operations to Holtec International, as owner, and Holtec Decommissioning International, as decommissioning operator.
WESTINGHOUSE WILL INVEST $131 million in its Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility in South Carolina under a plan that includes improving pollution controls at the facility.
V Germany
Germany closes three of its six reactors Germany shut down three nuclear power plants on 31 December. It will have just three nuclear power plants operating in 2022: Emsland (1406MW PWR) in Lower Saxony, Isar 2 (1485MW PWR) in Bavaria and Neckarwestheim 2 (1400MW PWR) in Baden-Württemberg. Their closures by the end of 2022 will officially end the nuclear phaseout started under former German Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2011. The reactors taken off the grid were
Brokdorf (1480MW PWR) in Schleswig-Holstein, Grohnde (1430MW PWR) in Lower Saxony and Gundremmingen C (1344MW BWR) in Bavaria. All started up in the mid-1980s. Decommissioning is expected to take 20 years and cost around €1.1 billion ($1.25 billion) per plant. While some jobs will be lost, RWE said
more than two-thirds of the 600 workers at Gundremmingen will continue to be involved in post-shutdown operations through to the 2030s. In December Westinghouse Electric Company signed a contract with RWE to dismantle Gundremmingen’s two reactors. The contract includes dismantling and packaging of the reactor pressure vessels, reactor heads, reactor internals, storage racks and adjacent concrete shielding structures.
Poland Site selected for Poland’s first nuclear plant Polskie Elektrownie Jadrowe (PEJ), the Polish government company responsible for plans to deploy up to six reactors by 2040, has selected Lubiatowo-Kopalino in Pomerania near Wejherowo for the first reactor. An environmental impact statement will be submitted to the General Director of Environmental Protection in Q1 2022. Poland’s Energy Policy assumes that the first nuclear power plant unit will be put into operation in 2033. “We are operating as planned and the choice
of location confirms this. Poland needs nuclear energy and the construction of the first power plant of this type in Poland is important for the entire country, both in terms of energy transformation and security of energy supply”, said Anna Moskwa, Minister of Climate and Environment.
The study initially investigated 92 potential
sites. The coastal location was chosen following four years of environmental and location studies. The other shortlisted location was on Lake Zarnowieckie. PEJ will now apply for the necessary permits and approval. The government’s plenipotentiary for
strategic energy infrastructure, Piotr Naimski, said: “The use of this safe, zero-emission and stable source of energy production, which is nuclear energy, was announced from the beginning and confirmed in strategic documents, such as the Polish Energy Policy to 2040 and the Polish Nuclear Power Programme”.
8 | February 2022 |
www.neimagazine.com Under the Polish Nuclear Power Programme,
Poland plans to build six proven large pressurised water reactors (PWRs) by 2040 to total 9GWe, with the first 1-1.6GWe unit in operation in 2033. Subsequent units will be implemented every two or three years. The Polish government wants a partner that
will take up 49% of the shares in a special company, provide adequate financing and will participate in plant operation as well as construction. Meanwhile, GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH),
BWXT Canada Ltd and Poland-based Synthos Green Energy (SGE) have signed a letter of intent to cooperate in deploying BWRX-300 small modular reactors in Poland. SGE wants to deploy at least ten BWRX-300 units in Poland by the early 2030s. BWXT said it could manufacture the units’ key components including reactor pressure vessels and reactor internals.
Russia Kursk 1 permanently shuts down After 45 years of operation, Russia’s Kursk 1 stopped generating power on 19 December. The RBMK-1000 unit is now operating in a mode without generation under a new licence issued by the Federal Service for Environmental, Technological and Nuclear Supervision of Russia (Rostekhnadzor). The unit was disconnected from the Unified Energy System of Russia. “During its operation since 19 December 1976, the unit has generated more than 251TWh of electricity,” said Kursk acting director Alexander Uvakin. “This is enough to ensure the energy consumption of the Kursk region for 30 years, given the current consumption. The unit has worked reliably and safely.” Kursk-II is a replacement station for the
current Kursk nuclear plant. Commissioning of the first two units with the new 1300MWe design VVER-TOI reactors was intended to be synchronised with the decommissioning of the RBMK reactors at Kursk 1&2. AEM-Technology manufactured the reactor
vessel and steam generators for Kursk II-1 in 2020 and they were shipped in April 2021. But no date has been given for the commissioning of Kursk-II 1. Manufacturing of equipment for the Kursk II-2 is under way and its steam generators will be shipped in the first half of 2022.
United Kingdom Final shutdown for Hunterston B Unit B2 (Reactor 4) at Hunterston in Scotland, was permanently shut down on 7 January after generating electricity for 46 years. Its fellow, Hunterston B1 (Reactor 3) was closed in November. Both units are 490MWe advanced gas-cooled reactors (AGRs). Station director Paul Forrest said: “It was
originally thought Hunterston B would run for 25 years but investment in the plant and the people who work here mean we’ve been able to safely extend that to 46 years.” In 2012, plant owner EDF Energy said
Hunterston’s was expected to operate to 2023 U
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