NEWS |
round up
REGULATION AND LAW THE NUCLEAR REGULATORS of Poland and Canada have signed a memorandum extending their existing supervisory
cooperation.The agreement was signed by the Acting President of Poland’s National Atomic Energy Agency (PAA -Panstwowa Agencja Atomistyki) and Rumina Velshi, Chair of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC).
THE GOVERNMENT OF Armenia has signed a nuclear safety co-operation agreement with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Under the agreement with the Nuclear Safety Regulatory Committee of Armenia, NRC will support Armenia to strengthen its regulatory body.
POLICY
IAEA HAS ISSUED a report on Nuclear Safety, Security & Safeguards in Ukraine, covering the period between February 2022 and February 2023. The 52-page report provides an overview of the situation and the IAEA’s activities to reduce the likelihood of a nuclear accident during the armed conflict.
THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION (EC) has abandoned plans to sanction Russia’s nuclear sector or its representatives in its next (10th) sanctions package, Politico reported citing “three diplomats”. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had urged the EU at least to issue sanctions against Rosatom.
THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION has published new rules that could allow some hydrogen produced in nuclear-based energy systems to count towards EU renewable energy goals. The question of what the EU will consider “renewable” has been a matter of contention for several months between France and countries such as Germany that want nuclear-based fuels excluded.
SAFETY AND SECURITY THE FRENCH GOVERNMENT has announced plans to transfer the competences of the Institute for Radiation Protection & Nuclear Safety (IRSN- Institut de radioprotection et de sûreté nucléaire) to other institutions. The aim is to strengthen synergies at a time when France is seeking to expand its nuclear programme.
AN IAEA OPERATIONAL Safety Review Team (OSART) team has concluded a mission to the Borssele NPP in the Netherlands. “Managers and employees of the Borssele NPP are very committed to further improving the operational safety and reliability of their plant,” said team leader Yury Martynenko.
V Netherlands Pallas gets construction licence The Netherlands Nuclear and Radiation Protection Authority (ANVS – Autoriteit Nucleaire Veiligheid en Stralingsbescherming) has granted a construction licence for the Pallas reactor. Rijkswaterstaat has also issued the Water Act permit for the intake and discharge of cooling water. This means the permit under the Environmental Law (General Provisions) Act for the construction of the buildings and cooling water pipes will also come into force. The Pallas reactor will be built at Petten, in the municipality of Schagen, to replace the existing 45 MWt High Flux Reactor (HFR). HFR, operated by NRG on behalf of the European Union’s Joint Research Centre, began operation in September 1960. It has provided about 60% of European and 30% of the world’s use of medical radioactive sources. The new 55 MWt tank-in- pool type Pallas reactor will be able to deploy the neutron flux more efficiently and effectively than the HFR. A construction licence application was
submitted to ANVS and the Department of Public Works in June 2022. The decision on funding for the overall Pallas programme is being debated by the government and is expected to be made this year. ANVS said the final permit for the
construction of the Pallas marks “the first time in decades that a permit has been granted in the Netherlands for the construction of a new nuclear reactor”. ANVS stressed that this is only a permit for construction and a further permit will be required for operation..
United Kingdom Forgemasters in Holtec SMR-160 deal Sheffield Forgemasters International (SFI) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Holtec Britain to design components for Holtec’s SMR-160 small modular reactor (SMR) and identify the best routes to manufacture. The MOU is the latest in a series of similar
agreements with other SMR developers. In July 2016, SFI and NuScale Power agreed to co-operate to develop the manufacturing techniques needed for the planned deployment of NuScale’s SMR in the UK. Another MOU was signed in December 2021 with Rolls-Royce SMR to jointly explore commercial mechanisms on the supply of forgings. In September 2022 SFI signed an MOU with GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy to support of the potential deployment of the BWRX-300 SMR in the UK. SFI Head of Strategy & Business Development
for Clean Energy Dominic Ashmore said: “We’ll work with Holtec to jointly develop the design for manufacture and purchase specifications for specific forgings, with specific attention on providing components which reduce the required machining, assembly, welding, and in- service inspection requirements.” Holtec plans to deploy a 5 GWe fleet of SMR- 160s in the UK by 2050, with first operations planned for the early 2030s.
12 | March 2023 |
www.neimagazine.com
Russia Mayak relaunches Ruslan reactor Russia has relaunched its Ruslan reactor, originally started up in 1979 at the Mayak production association in Ozersk. After completing its 30-year design life, Ruslan was shut down in October 2011 for modernisation. This entailed a large amount of construction work, equipment replacement and upgrading of vital safety systems. Much of the work was undertaken by NPP
Dosa, which developed and delivered new UDI-1B radiometric installations; UDA-1AB installations for measuring the activity of radioactive aerosols; DBG-S101D photon radiation dosimeters; and radiometers to monitor contamination of surfaces with alpha and beta particles. The equipment controls the tightness, fluid release and the power of the core in the reactor’s primary circuit. Moscow-based company NPP Dosa was
founded in 1991 by employees of the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute for Physical- Engineering and Radiotechnical Metrology (VNIIFTRI). Federal State Unitary Enterprise Production
Association Mayak was originally established in 1945 as part of the Soviet nuclear weapons complex, primarily to produce plutonium. Like atomic weapons complexes the world over its operation resulted in significant environmental contamination and a number of serious accidents exacerbated the situation. Today it is part of Rosatom and major clean- up programmes have been completed, with others still underway. Its priority areas still include annual fulfilment of the defence order. However, it is now also a key centre for used fuel reprocessing and for the production of radioisotopes as well as small scale mox. In total, over the years, 10 reactors of various designs operated at the site. In 1948, the first of seven uranium-graphite industrial (plutonium production) reactors AB-1, began operation. These are now all closed down and only two reactors remain – Ruslan and Lyudmilla. Ruslan, which was formally commissioned
in 1982, is a light water pool-type two-loop reactor cooled and moderated using highly purified water (bidistillate). Lyudmilla ( LF-2), commissioned in 1988 is a heavy-water bypass reactor. Both have unique neutron-physical characteristics which make it possible to obtain a wide range of radioactive isotopes. Both reactors have been converted to no longer produce plutonium.
Slovakia Grid connection for Mochovce 3 Unit 3 at Slovakia’s Mochovce NPP has been connected to the grid for the first time at 20% of its nominal power. This followed successful start-up tests less than three weeks after Slovakia’s Nuclear Regulatory Authority (Úrad jadrového dozoru) approved start-up. Following the initial start-up, power was gradually increased with tests performed at
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