NEWS |
round up
NUCLEAR FUEL TERRESTRIAL ENERGY USA has extended its testing programme at Argonne National Laboratory for measurements of fuel salt properties used in its Integral Molten Salt Reactor.
US-BASED BWX Technologies has been awarded a $4.9 million contract amendment by Battelle Energy Alliance to manufacture TRISO nuclear fuel. BEA manages Idaho National Laboratory on behalf of the US Department of Energy.
RADWASTE NEW MEXICO LAWMAKERS are seeking to block the storage of high-level nuclear waste in the state. Senate Bill 54 and House Bill 127 would prohibit State agencies from issuing permits for high-level nuclear waste storage facilities.
THE AUSTRALIAN NUCLEAR Science and Technology Organisation and Canada’s Terrestrial Energy agreed to explore ANSTO Synroc (synthetic rock) proprietary waste treatment technology for used fuel management.
NEWLY ESTABLISHED UK Nuclear Waste Services brings together in a single organisation the expertise of site operator Low Level Waste Repository Limited, Geological Disposal Facility developer Radioactive Waste Management Limited and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) group’s Integrated Waste Management Programme.
GEOSCIENTISTS FROM THE US Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and from the Sandia and Los Alamos national labs, are collaborating on HotBENT — an international field experiment to evaluate how well bentonite placed around canisters of buried, HLW retains its safety functions when exposed to simulated long-term heating.
RUSSIAN SCIENTISTS AT the Ural Federal University have developed a new method for separating uranium from radioactive uranium-containing sludge using sulphuric acid leaching.
GERMANY’S FEDERAL ASSOCIATION for Final Storage (BGE) has taken another step towards retrieving the radioactive waste from the former Asse II salt mine in the district of Wolfenbüttel, Lower Saxony.
K-TIG HAS SIGNED a formal agreement with the UK’s Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre to develop a turnkey robotic welding cell which may be used for the production of nuclear storage containers,
V United Kingdom Government awards £100m to proposed Sizewell C Plans to build the 3.2GW Sizewell C nuclear power plant have been backed by £100 million ($135 million) of government funding to try and attract further financing from private investors. The project, estimated to cost £20 billion,
has been undergoing assessment for the past year and a half with a final decision expected in April. Negotiations between the government and developer EDF Energy started last year. The government’s approach was summed up by business and energy secretary Kwasi Kwarteng, who said: “In light of high global gas prices, we need to ensure Britain’s future energy supply is bolstered by reliable, affordable, low-carbon power that is generated in this country. New nuclear is not only an important part of our plans to ensure greater energy independence, but to create high-quality jobs and drive economic growth. The funding announced today will further support the development of Sizewell C during this important phase of negotiations as we seek to maximise investor confidence in this nationally significant project.” The £100 million option fee will be invested by EDF into the Sizewell C project to help bring it to maturity, attract investors, and advance to the next phase in negotiations. In return, the government will take certain rights over the land of the Sizewell C site and EDF’s shares in the Sizewell C company, providing opportunities to continue to develop nuclear or alternative low carbon energy infrastructure on the site should the project not ultimately be successful. The government has made up to £1.7 billion of new direct funding available for developing a large-scale nuclear project to the point of a final investment decision in this parliamentary session.
Russia ATF developments in Russia Specialists at Russia’s AA Bochvar Research Institute of Inorganic Materials (VNIINM) have developed a technology and manufactured experimental fuel pellets from uranium disilicide for light water reactors. VNIINM, part of Rosatom’s TVEL fuel company,
said uranium disilicide fuel has several advantages including high density and uranium content, which enables longer fuel cycles without increasing uranium-235 enrichment levels. Moreover, high thermal conductivity combined with low heat capacity means less heat stored in the reactor core and lower fuel cladding temperatures in emergency situations. Fuel performance is also improved by the lower operating temperature of the fuel pellet compared with uranium dioxide. Rosatom has been undertaking reactor
tests of Russian ATF fuel since early 2019. Experimental fuel assemblies, which have passed three full cycles of reactor tests in the MIR research reactor at the Research Institute
8 | March 2022 |
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of Atomic Reactors (NIIAR) in Dimitrovgrad contain fuel elements with four combinations of cladding and fuel pellet materials. In September 2021, the commercial VVER-1000 reactor at Rostov 2 began operation of combined TVS-2M, each containing 12 ATF fuel rods. VNIINM has also developed samples
of experimental fuel claddings made of a composite material based on silicon carbide as part of its ATF fuel programme. Elsewhere in Russia, scientists at Tomsk
Polytechnic University (TPU) are working to prevent the destruction of fuel element cladding and spacer grids made of zirconium alloy. Chrome coatings are a thin film 10 micrometres thick were applied using a vacuum ion-plasma installation developed by the staff at the Weinberg laboratory. TPU scientists are studying the possibilities of optimising the elemental composition and structure of protective coatings to improve their protective properties.
United States Vogtle to test 6%-enriched fuel US-based Southern Nuclear has agreed to install four higher-enriched fuel lead test assemblies into one of its commercial reactors. This will be the first of its kind to test a new fuel concept that is being developed by Westinghouse through the Department of Energy’s ATF programme. The lead test assemblies will include a higher enrichment of uranium-235 than is currently used in US commercial reactors, which will allow for higher fuel burnup and longer operational cycles between refuelling. The lead assemblies will be loaded into unit 2 at Georgia Power’s Plant Vogtle in Waynesboro by 2023. Oak Ridge National Laboratory is currently
performing post-irradiation experiments on Westinghouse’s fuel to support licensing efforts with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The regulator is also reviewing the company’s topical report on its ADOPT fuel pellet which was accepted in 2021 as part of the licence review process. Westinghouse, GE, and Framatome are working with DOE to develop new cladding and fuel designs that significantly increase the performance and enhance the safety response to severe accidents. All three vendors are on track to have their accident tolerant fuels ready for batch loading by the mid-2020s and commercially available for widespread adoption by 2030.
United States INL assembles microreactor prototype Machinists at US Idaho National Laboratory’s Materials and Fuels Complex (MFC) have fabricated a full-scale, electrically heated prototype for the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Microreactor Applications Research Validation and Evaluation (MARVEL) project in just nine months. U
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