| NEWS
United Kingdom Consent Order for Sizewell C The UK’s Sizewell C NPP has triggered its Development Consent Order (DCO), opening the way to formal construction of the new 3.2 GWe power station on the Suffolk coast. The project was granted permission to build in July 2022 allowing preparatory works to begin, but many obligations remained to be satisfied before construction could start under the DCO. Those obligations were set out in a Deed of
Obligation document with East Suffolk Council and Suffolk County Council. They included activities such as road surveys and establishing Governance Groups. All are now satisfied. “This is a significant moment for our project,”
said Julia Pyke and Nigel Cann, Joint Managing Directors at Sizewell C. “We’ve had a really successful year of pre-commencement works on site, and we’ve been working hard with local partners and organisations to ensure we’re ready to take this next step for the project.” In September 2023, the Government, Sizewell C and EDF, which is building the plant, launched an equity raise process to attract private investors. While triggering the DCO and entering the construction phase is not dependent on a final investment decision (FID), that is expected later in 2024. The project is expected to cost £20bn ($25.5bn). The start of construction will make available a £250m package of funding for the local community to be released in phases. The funding includes £23m for community projects, £100m for the environment, £12m for local tourism, and a £12m housing fund. Four new Sizewell C Forums have launched so residents can discuss key issues with the project team.
United States Kairos begins molten salt system ops Kairos Power has completed 1,000 hours of pumped salt operations after loading 12 tonnes of FLiBe molten fluoride into its Engineering Test Unit (ETU) at its testing and manufacturing facility in Albuquerque, New Mexico. FLiBe comprises a mixture of lithium fluoride (LiF) and beryllium fluoride (BeF2
). It is both a reactor
coolant and solvent for fertile or fissile material. It served both purposes in the Molten-Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE) at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in 1969. The ETU will inform the design, construction, and operation of Kairos’s Hermes low-power reactor that the company is using to advance development of its planned fluoride salt-cooled high-temperature reactor (KP-FHR). ETU, the largest FLiBe molten salt system ever built, is a non-nuclear prototype of the KP-FHR used to demonstrate integration of principal systems, structures, and components. Lessons learned from ETU will be integrated into Hermes and future iterations on the path to commercialising KP-FHR technology. This advanced 140 MWe reactor will use TRISO (TRI-structural ISOtropic) fuel in pebble form combined with low-pressure fluoride salt coolant.
Kairos Power manufactured 14 tonnes of
FLiBe for ETU at its Molten Salt Purification Plant in Elmore, Ohio. “Gaining experience with FLiBe production and operations is fundamental to taking risk off the table towards KP-FHR commercialisation,” said Mike Laufer, Kairos Power co-founder and CEO. “Iterative development with real hardware systems like ETU 1.0 is a pillar of our strategy to deliver a clean, safe, affordable technology with true cost certainty and, when combined with in-house manufacturing, provides a unique opportunity to move quickly so we can make an impact in the fight against climate change.” The Hermes project is part of the US
Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program. Kairos plans to operate the ETU for about five months before decommissioning the unit and constructing a second iteration, ETU 2.0. The company plans to build a third iteration at Oak Ridge in 2024 to lay the groundwork for Hermes operations starting in 2026. Kairos says the KP-FHR commercial reactor could be operational in the early 2030s. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission
recently issued a construction permit for the Hermes 35 MWt non-power test reactor to be built at the Heritage Center Industrial Park in Oak Ridge. Kairos will have to submit a separate application for an operating licence.
France
Eight new EPRs planned France’s Minister for Energy Transition, Agnes Pannier-Runacher told La Tribune Dimanche that a new draft law on energy security will propose construction of eight more EPR reactors in addition to the six already planned. “It is a question of getting France out of its dependence on fossil fuels, which represent more than 60% of the energy we consume. My ambition is to lower this figure to 40% in 2035,” she said. The text sets ambitious targets for the deployment of nuclear and renewables. “It breaks with the previous programming law, which reduced the share of nuclear power in the electrical mix to 50% by 2025 [the date was amended to 2035 in 2019]”, she noted. “The text gives pride of place to nuclear power by asserting the intention to deploy eight EPR reactors in addition to the six already announced, without setting a specific target on the share of renewables by 2030. It takes nuclear power beyond the first six EPRs since the historic park will not continue for ever.” She noted that the technology was not specified in the text but said it is a question of committing, after 2026, to construction of an additional 13 GWe “which corresponds well to the power of eight EPRs, without engraving in marble this or that technology”. She stressed the need for a minimum base
of controllable energies, in particular nuclear, hydraulic, biomass, or storage. “These sources of energy do not depend on weather conditions, unlike wind and solar. The final goal is to produce more electricity than we consume.”
round up
SOFTWARE/DIGITAL US RESEARCHERS AT the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and Idaho State University (ISU) have jointly developed the world’s first nuclear reactor digital twin – a virtual replica of ISU’s AGN-201 reactor. INL says digital twins allow researchers to understand how certain changes affect the entire system, without making an irreversible change to the physical reactor.
POLICY THE FINAL REPORT of Estonia’s Working Group on Nuclear Energy has concluded that the introduction of nuclear energy would support the achievement of climate objectives, security of supply and stability of the energy system. For two and a half years, the National Nuclear Energy Working Group analysed the potential of small modular reactors (SMRs) in line with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Milestones Approach.
SAFETY & SECURITY KENYA HAS MADE significant progress in the development of the national nuclear infrastructure for its new research reactor programme, according to an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Integrated Nuclear Infrastructure Review for Research Reactors (INIR-RR) mission. The team reviewed the status of nuclear infrastructure development in accordance with the IAEA’s Milestones Approach for research reactors.
SAFETY UPGRADES AT unit 2 of Japan’s Onagawa NPP in Miyagi Prefecture will not be completed in February as planned. Tohoku Electric Power Company said the target had been to restart commercial operation in May but it now expects a delay of several months for completion of the safety measures.
IN THE AFTERMATH of the 7.6 magnitude earthquake that struck the west coast of Japan on New Year’s day, an oil slick was observed on the sea’s surface in front of the Shika NPP in Ishikawa. Plant owner Hokuriku Electric said the leak was treated with a neutralising agent and a small amount of oil film was also found in the gutter near the unit 2 reactor. Hokuriku Electric said the oil slick probably resulted from transformer insulating oil leakage during the earthquake,
NORWAY HAS SIGNED practical arrangements to join the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Member State Support Programme. Under the partnership Norway will work closely with the IAEA to address challenges and opportunities in the field of nuclear safeguards.
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