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NUCLEAR FUEL THE INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC Energy Agency (IAEA) has extended its partnership with the UK National Nuclear Laboratory (UKNNL), as an IAEA Collaborating Centre. Following four years of existing collaboration, the IAEA has signed a new four-year agreement to develop work around future fuels and sustainable fuel cycles. UKNNL is dedicated to advanced fuel cycles, addressing key issues, such as recycling.


RADWASTE THE STATE INSPECTORATE for Nuclear Regulation of Ukraine has amended the licence issued to Chornobyl NPP (ChNPP) for the right to conduct activities for processing and storage of radioactive waste through the commissioning of an Industrial Complex for Solid Radioactive Waste Management. This entitles ChNPP to start the industrial operation of the facility and to recycle solid radioactive waste accumulated during the decommissioning of the ChNPP as well as operational waste from the Shelter facility.


D&D


WORK AT GERMANY’S Brunsbüttel NPP n Schleswig-Holstein to segment and package the steel reactor pressure vessel head was completed in less than two months, according to Vattenfall. The 70-tonne lid of the vessel with a diameter of more than six metres was heavier than any of its internal components and, like the internal components, it has now been dismantled and packed. The metal will now be recycled, Vattenfall noted.


THE NUCLEAR INDUSTRIES of Brazil (INB – Indústrias Nucleares do Brasil) has received an operating licence (No 1709/2025) to decommission the Caldas uranium mine in Minas Gerais. The licence, issued by the Brazilian Institute of Environment & Renewable Natural Resources (Ibama – Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais Renováveis) to the Caldas Decommissioning Unit (UDC – Unidade de Descomissionamento de Caldas), is valid until January 2031.


THE US DEPARTMENT of Energy (DOE) Office of Environmental Management (EM) and its contractor at the Idaho Clean-up Project have removed an important support structure of the Submarine first generation Westinghouse (S1W) naval propulsion prototype in preparation for the facility’s demolition. EM contractor Idaho Environmental Coalition has completed demolition of the seven-foot-thick concrete S1W hot cell at the Naval Reactors Facility at Idaho National Laboratory Site.


10 | February 2025 | www.neimagazine.com


Sweden Fuel repository construction begins A ground-breaking ceremony has taken place marking construction of Sweden’s final repository for used nuclear fuel in Forsmark, in Östhammar municipality, according to radioactive waste management company Svensk Kärnbränslehantering (SKB). The final repository will be ready for disposal in the 2030s, and will be fully extended in the 2080s. SKB, which is owned by the Swedish


NPPs, has been researching and developing technology for the geological final disposal of nuclear waste for more than 40 years. In autumn 2024, SKB received a permit and an enforcement order from the Land & Environmental Court, so that work could begin. Construction of the repository will take 10


years before disposal can begin, after which it will be gradually extended over a long period. The ground-breaking marks the start of two years of preparatory work above ground, including the construction of a rock mass storage and water treatment plant, a bridge over the cooling water canal and forest clearing. After that, work will begin in the bedrock. The final repository will be located at a depth of around 500 metres in rock that is 1.9bn years old. It is planned to hold approximately 12,000 tonnes of used fuel in 6000 canisters. The surface section will cover a total area of 24 hectares. When fully extended, the repository will contain more than 60 km of tunnels. Before SKB can start tunnelling, an approved


safety report from the Radiation Safety Authority (SSM – Strålsäkerhetsmyndigheten) is required. Construction of the repository will begin two years before the associated encapsulation facility in Oskarshamn, as the construction times are of different lengths. Both facilities are expected to be put into operation in the mid-2030s. The permit for the repository applies to


radioactive waste from the 12 reactors (six in operation) that are part of the ongoing Swedish nuclear power programme. It does not apply to waste from a possible new reactor programme.


Slovakia Mochovce district heating plan Slovak power utility Slovenské Elektrárne (SE) is reviewing a new project to increase the energy supply of the Mochovce NPP with district heating. SE says it is considering “the efficient use of the so-called waste heat from the cooling circulating water from the non-nuclear part of the power plant for a year-round heat supply for the city of Tlmač”. This would help reduce the carbon footprint of heating in the city. “The project includes the construction of a hot water pipeline and technology for heat transfer between NPP Mochovce and Tlmač”. SE will be responsible for any investment


related to the territory of the NPP. Private heating company Esi Tlmač (part of the Esi group and formerly National Energy) will take care of investments in technology from


the connection point to the Lipník estate, six kilometres away from the power plant. Esi Tlmač has already submitted an environmental impact assessment for the project to the licensing authorities. The company will also replace the existing biomass and gas boilers with new water/water heat pumps. The aim is to install an optical network for data transmission at the same time as the pipeline. The technical solution of the project


envisages the connection to the cooling circulating water discharge pipes and the construction of an exchange station. The water taken from Hron and used to cool the NPP is currently returned to the river. The plan is for this circulating water with a temperature of 25- 36 °C to transfer its heat to a closed secondary circuit. This heat will be sold to Tlmač through the subsidiary Slovenské elektrárne – energetické služby. The project is in the initial phase, the selection of the technical solution and the economic evaluation of the project are now underway. Implementation is currently planned for 2027 and completion early in 2028. While this is the first such project in the Mochovce region, since 1987, SE has been producing heat from the Jaslovské Bohunice NPP. This plant produced 429 GWh of heat in 2023. The 10 km-long hot water pipe between Bohunice and the Trnava heating plant was put into operation at the end of 1987. While this project was state funded, the project at Mochovce will be supported by private investment.


Russian Federation Rosatom in TRISO milestone Scientists at Rosatom have successfully completed the first stage of reactor testing of laboratory fuel samples for a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) under extremely high temperature conditions. Development of HTGRs is seen as key to developing technology for the production of low-carbon hydrogen and ammonia using HTGR heat. Rosatom is also developing HTGR fuel and pilot industrial technology as part of an investment project to create domestic technologies for large-scale production and consumption of hydrogen and hydrogen-containing products. Reactor tests of laboratory samples of HTGR fuel at a temperature that can be reached in the event of a violation of the normal operating conditions of the HTGR reactor have been carried out since 2024 in the SM-3 reactor at the Scientific Research Institute of Atomic Reactors (NIIAR – Nauchno Issledovatelskii Institut Atomnikh Reaktorov) in Dimitrovgrad. The programme for reactor testing of HTGR fuel under extreme and emergency operating conditions was prepared by Dimitrovgrad scientists and others. At the first stage of research, HTGR fuel


samples previously tested in the SM-3 reactor (for more than 400 effective days at a temperature in the range of 1000 -1200°C)


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