NEWS |


round up


PLANT OPERATION EDF, IN ITS annual fleet update, said it plans to invest a further £1.3bn ($1.65bn) in the UK’s five generating NPPs over 2024-26, taking the total invested in the fleet to nearly £9bn since 2009. “The ambition is to further extend the lives of the four generating AGR [advanced gas-cooled reactor] stations, subject to inspections and regulatory approvals; a decision will be taken by the end of 2024.” The plants are Torness, Heysham 2, Heysham 1 and Hartlepool.


THE DIRECTOR OF Russia’s Kola NPP Vasily Omelchuk told a press conference that Kola NPP in the Murmansk region is considering the possibility of extending operation of units 1&2 until 2038 although they had been expected to close in 2033-2034. Kola NPP, with four VVER-440 reactors, was the first nuclear power plant to be built in the harsh climatic conditions of the Arctic.


UPGRADES A CRITICAL PROJECT to upgrade electrical power network at the UK’s Sellafield site has achieved an important milestone, according to Sellafield Ltd. The Electrical Distribution Network Upgrade Project (EDNUP) is working to refurbish the Sellafield site’s electricity system. Teams working on the project installed 33 concrete base slabs in 2023, achieving a key target.


ROMANIAN NUCLEAR UTILITY Societatea Nationala Nuclearelectrica and the European Investment Bank have signed a loan agreement worth €145m ($159m) to support completion of Europe’s first Tritium Removal Facility (CTRF) at the Cernavoda NPP. The CTRF will remove tritium from the Candu reactors’ coolant and moderator (heavy water).


EQUIPMENT A SMALL-ANGLE neutron scattering instrument (SANS) has been delivered to the Argentine Neutron Beam Laboratory at the Ezeiza Atomic Centre. Argentina’s National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA) said the SANS was donated by the German Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin (HZB) institute following the closure of the BER-II reactor in 2019.


BULGARIA IS WAITING for “more sensible common EU stance on Ukraine” before it sells equipment from the unfinished Belene NPP to Kyiv, Energy Minister Rumen Radev told journalists after a ceremony marking the centenary of the Boyana Hydroelectric Power Plant. Radev specified that he was referring to the EU financial package for Ukraine


advance Alberta SMRs Capital and OPG to


North American power producer Capital Power Corporation and Canada’s Ontario Power Generation (OPG) have agreed to jointly assess the development and deployment of grid-scale small modular reactors (SMRs) in Alberta. The two companies will examine the feasibility of developing SMRs in Alberta, including possible ownership and operating structures. SMRs are being pursued by jurisdictions in Canada and around the world to power the growing demand for clean electricity and energy security. Capital Power and OPG will complete the feasibility assessment within two years, while continuing to work on the next stages of SMR development. OPG is building North America’s first fleet


of SMRs at its Darlington New Nuclear site in Ontario. The construction of the first of four SMRs is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2028 and to be online by the end of 2029. In 2022, the governments of Alberta, Ontario, Saskatchewan, and New Brunswick jointly released a Strategic Plan for SMR deployment. The new agreement supports this plan. In 2023, Alberta announced a CAD7m ($5m) investment in a multi-year study of the deployment of SMRs for the province’s oil sands operations. Capital Power President & CEO Avik Dey


said: “We are at the forefront of electrification which will drive continual growth in demand for power. The deployment of SMR technology will provide an important source of safe, reliable, flexible, affordable, and clean base


Russia Brest-OD-300 progress update Rosatom says it has achieved a milestone in construction of the 300 MWe lead-cooled fast neutron Brest-OD-300 reactor at the Siberian Chemical Combine (SCC – part of Rosatom’s TVEL fuel company) in Seversk, Tomsk Region. The steel reactor baseplate weighing 165 tonnes has been installed and workers have also loaded the first part of the reactor vessel into the reactor shaft – the lower tier of the containment. The structure is the outer part of the reactor


vessel, retaining heat-insulating concrete and forming an additional barrier which surrounds the coolant circuit. On its surface, the temperature should not exceed 600C, and radiation is equal to the natural background. The Brest reactor is part of the pilot demonstration power complex (ODEK - Opitno Demonstratsionovo Energo-Kompleksa), which SCC has been implementing since 2011 as part of the Breakthrough (Proryv) project intended to demonstrate closed fuel cycle technology. ODEK will also include a module for fabrication and refabrication of nuclear fuel (MFR) and a module for reprocessing irradiated fuel.


8 | February 2024 | www.neimagazine.com


load electricity in Alberta in the future.” Ken Hartwick, OPG President & CEO said that through collaborations like this, “we will share expertise related to SMR development and deployment, to build energy security and economic growth in both provinces”. Nathan Neudorf, Minister of Affordability & Utilities in the Government of Alberta believes SMRs have the potential to play a major role in the province’s search for the right energy mix to supply clean, reliable and affordable electricity. He added: “This partnership represents an exciting and important step forward in our efforts to decarbonise the grid while maintaining on-demand baseload power.” Whether SMR units would be located at one location, or several, would the considered during the feasibility stage, Neudorf said, but an “attractive” quality of SMR technology is the ability to do both, with units grouped together or deployed singly in more remote locations. “Alberta is focused on being a leader in delivering a reliable, affordable and decarbonised energy system so our province can grow, prosper and excite others to do the same. SMRs are a critical component of the clean power generation supply mix and hold promise for the oil sands,” said Brian Jean, Alberta’s Minister of Energy & Minerals. “We look forward to working with Capital Power and OPG in creating the right framework to eventually bring SMRs onto Alberta’s power grid.” ■


“We have started installation of the world’s


first lead-cooled fast reactor, the fourth generation reactor Brest-OD-300. Unlike traditional light-water VVER thermal reactors, Brest has an integral layout,” said Vadim Lemekhov, Chief Designer of the BREST- OD-300 reactor unit and General Designer of the Breakthrough project team. “Its vessel is not an all-metal structure like the VVER, but a metal-concrete structure with metal cavities to accommodate the primary circuit equipment. The space between the cavities should be gradually filled with concrete filler during construction. In addition, the BREST vessel is larger in size, it can be delivered only in parts, and the final assembly is only possible at the ODEK construction site.” The project will demonstrate a closed nuclear fuel cycle based on fast neutron reactors. Fast reactors can produce more fuel than they use and can also be used to burn highly radioactive minor actinides, which remain after conventional reprocessing. The specially developed dense uranium-plutonium nitride (MNUP) fuel produced at the MFR will be reprocessed, recycled and reused at the site.


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