NEWS |
round up
RADWASTE SWITZERLAND’S NATIONAL COOPERATIVE for Disposal of Radioactive Waste has completed its deep drilling campaign and is now considering site proposal. Nagra has examined the three potential siting regions of Jura Ost, Nördlich Lägern and Zürich Nordost all of which are suitable for a repository.
WESTINGHOUSE AND PERMA-Fix Environmental Services have signed a term sheet signalling plans to develop a nuclear materials treatment facility at Westinghouse’s Springfields site in the UK.
D&D
NORWEGIAN NUCLEAR DECOMMISSIONING (NND) has awarded NOK123 million ($13.6m) over a 12-year contract to international consortium, ICCircle, for the design, development, and maintenance of a software system to support nuclear decommissioning and waste management.
UK-BASED TURNER & Townsend and Arcadis have been re-appointed to provide project controls and commercial services to support decommissioning and management at UK nuclear sites by Magnox Ltd.
THE US DEPARTMENT of Energy Office of Environmental Management (EM) has released its Strategic Vision outlining goals for 2022-2032 focused on safety, environmental clean-up priorities, innovation, and improved performance.
ADVANCED REACTORS US TERRAPOWER AND Southern Company have finalised a subrecipient agreement to design, construct and operate the Molten Chloride Reactor Experiment (MCRE) at Idaho National Laboratory (INL).
WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC CANADA announced an investment of CAD27.2 million ($21.5) from the Government of Canada’s Strategic Innovation Fund. This investment will support funding for Westinghouse’s eVinci micro-reactor.
KÄRNFULL NEXT, SWEDEN’S first project development company focusing on SMRs, has signed a memorandum of understanding with US-based GE Hitachi regarding the BWRX-300.
THE USA AND Ghana have partnered under the US Foundational Infrastructure for Responsible Use of Small Modular Reactor Technology (FIRST) programme to support Ghana’s adoption of SMR technology.
V operating elsewhere in China. One at Haiyang in Shandong began providing regular district heat in November 2020. A trial provided heat to 700,000 square metres of housing and the project now provides heating to the entire Haiyang city. In a demonstration project at Qinshan in Zhejiang the first phase was commissioned in December 2021 and supplies heating to 460,000 square metres of accommodation in three residential areas and 5000 square metres of apartments for nearly 4000 residents of Haiyan County. By 2025 it is expected to provide heating to the urban area of Haiyan County and Shupu Town.
India Fast Breeder Test Reactor attains design power level India’s Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR) at the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) in Kalpakkam, has achieved its design power level of 40MWt. The FBTR is a sodium-cooled loop-type
reactor, powered by plutonium-uranium carbide fuel. The budget for the FBTR was approved by the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) in 1971, with a planned commissioning date of 1976. It finally attained criticality in 1985, and it was eight more years before its steam generator began operating. The final cost was more than triple the initial estimate. FBTR’s operation has been interrupted by several accidents and the associated delays have been long. The FBTR is one of two civil research reactors at IGCAR and is based on the French Rapsodie- type reactor. It was the first to use mixed plutonium uranium carbide as a driver fuel. In 1985 FBTR began operating with a small core of 22 Mark-I fuel subassemblies rated for 10.5MWt and the power was gradually raised in steps by adding fresh fuel subassemblies based on the performance of mixed carbide fuel in terms of fuel linear heat rating and burn-up. In 2005, the fuel cycle for the FBTR was closed, with the reprocessing of 100GWd/t fuel. In 2011 it was announced that FBTR was to undergo a 20-year lifetime extension, to 2030, to carry out large-scale irradiation of advanced metallic fuels and core structural materials required for the next generation fast reactors. However, with the limitation on reactivity in the core, the maximum power was limited to 32MWt, which was finally achieved in 2018. To increase FBTR power to 40MWt, a novel
core was designed with some subassemblies containing neutron poisons which have an increased capacity for absorbing neutrons. Following a safety analysis and approval from India’s Atomic Energy Regulatory Board’s, the FBTR core was converted. Work on a larger 500MWe prototype fast
breeder reactor — the PFBR — began at Kalpakkam in 2004. In December 2021, India’s Minister of State in the Department of Space and DAE, Jitendra Singh, said the target for completing the project was October 2022.
10 | April 2022 |
www.neimagazine.com Saudi Arabia
Saudis launch nuclear company Saudi Arabia has established a holding company to develop nuclear power projects in the Kingdom. Prince Abdullah bin Khalid bin Sultan, Saudi ambassador to Austria and permanent representative to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said the Saudi Nuclear Energy Holding Company (SNEHC) would participate in nuclear economic projects locally and internationally. It aimed to develop nuclear power plants to produce electricity, desalinate seawater and for thermal energy applications. Prince Abdullah said the Kingdom is working
on a 2022-2027 framework programme for nuclear energy, which includes capacity building and collaboration with international institutes for research and development. The King Abdullah City for Atomic and
Renewable Energy (KACARE), which is headed by the Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources, describes the nuclear holding company on its website as “an independent legal entity to follow up and achieve the commercial interests of the National Atomic Energy Project in the Kingdom by participating and investing in projects and assets of economic feasibility locally and globally, in addition to developing, owning and operating nuclear assets for the production of electric power and desalination of saline water through companies affiliated or jointly established”. It adds: “The company represents an
important component in localising technology, building human capabilities in the nuclear industry, and enhancing local content according to performance indicators and standards set by the city.”
United Kingdom Tokamak Energy moves closer to commercial fusion UK-based Tokamak Energy has demonstrated a plasma temperature of 100 million degrees Celsius, the threshold required for commercial fusion energy, at its privately-funded ST40 spherical tokamak. “This is by far the highest temperature ever achieved in a spherical tokamak and by any privately funded tokamak. While several government laboratories have reported plasma temperatures above 100 million degrees in conventional tokamaks, this milestone has been achieved in just five years, for a cost of less than £50 million ($70m), in a much more compact fusion device,” Tokamak Energy said. The temperature was verified by an independent advisory board consisting of international experts. The ST40 device will now undergo an upgrade and be used to develop technologies for future devices. Tokamak Energy is planning to build ST-HTS, which will be the world’s first spherical tokamak to demonstrate the full potential of high temperature superconducting magnets. It is due to be commissioned in the mid-2020s. ■
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