NEWS |
round up
SMRS
THE US NUCLEAR Regulatory Commission (NRC) will begin reviewing most of NuScale Power’s application for standard design approval of its 77 MWe SMR design. “The remainder” of the review will begin once the company provides additional details on a key safety topic.
POLISH FUELS CONCERN PKN Orlen and Michal Solowow’s Orlen Synthos Green Energy have teamed up with Poland’s National Fund for Environmental Protection & Water Management to cooperate in the deployment of small modular reactors.
THE CANADIAN NUCLEAR Safety Commission has completed a combined phases 1 & 2 vendor design review (VDR) of GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy’s BWRX-300 boiling water reactor. The VDR takes place during the design process and gives CNSC an opportunity to provide early feedback.
CANADIAN RESEARCH CENTRE TRIUMF and Canadian-German nuclear technology company Dual Fluid have signed a memorandum of understanding to advance the development of a small modular reactor based on Dual Fluid technology. TRIUMF is Canada’s particle accelerator centre and a leading research centre for subatomic physics.
US-BASED NUSCALE Power Corporation says it has placed the first upper reactor pressure vessel (RPV) long lead material (LLM) production order with Doosan Enerbility. The materials are needed to begin manufacturing the first NuScale Power Modules.
US-BASED X-Energy Reactor Company plans to open its first Xe-100 reactor fleet management, monitoring, and training facility in Frederick, Maryland. This Plant Support Centre-East is seen as the first step in X-energy’s Commercial Operations Services business. It will support the initial deployment of SMRs.
NUCLEAR FUEL
UKRAINIAN NUCLEAR UTILITY Energoatom has signed contracts with Canada’s Cameco to extend agreements on fuel supplies. Between 2024 and 2035 Energoatom will be fully provided by Cameco with natural uranium hexafluoride.
TRIGA INTERNATIONAL, A joint venture between France’s Framatome and US General Atomics, has manufactured its first fuel element in more than 10 years. The fuel was fabricated at Framatome’s recently restored manufacturing facility at Romans-sur-Isère in France.
V France New crack found at Penly EDF has been asked to “revise its strategy” for repairing plants affected by stress corrosion issues after a new crack was found at unit 1 of the Penly NPP. France’s Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN - l’Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire) made the request after EDF reported the finding in a recent update of its significant safety event declaration relating to stress corrosion cracking. The update related to unit 3 at Cattenom and reactors at the Civaux, Chooz B and Penly plants. As to Penly 1, ASN said the crack is located
near a weld in a line located in the hot leg of the safety injection system. The crack extends over 155mm, or about a quarter of the circumference of the pipe, and its maximum depth is 23mm, for a pipe thickness of 27mm. ASN noted that the line had been considered
by EDF “as not susceptible to stress corrosion cracking due in particular to its geometry”. However, the weld had undergone a double repair during construction of the reactor, “which is likely to modify its mechanical properties and the internal stresses of the metal in this zone”. The presence of the crack “means that the resistance of the piping is no longer demonstrated”. The EDF update also indicated that inspections had detected the presence of thermal fatigue cracks, on lines considered to be sensitive to stress corrosion of the safety injection circuit of the Penly 2 reactor and reactor 3 at the Cattenom plant. ASN said this had no consequences on the personnel or on the environment. “Nevertheless, it affects the safety function related to reactor cooling. Due to its potential consequences and the increased probability of a rupture, the ASN classifies it at level 2 on the INES scale with regard to reactor 1 of the Penly NPP and at level 1 for the other reactors concerned.”
Inspections were continuing under a
programme which started in 2023 for all the reactors. Corrosion problems were first detected in 2021, sparking a campaign of inspections and repair works, with 32 of France’s 56 reactors simultaneously shut down in the summer of 2022 either for maintenance or because of corrosion. An investigation found that EDF’s 16 newest units – including the two Penly reactors – were more prone to the phenomenon mostly because of the design of their emergency cooling pipes.
United States Tritium water leak at Monticello Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant near Minneapolis suffered a radioactive water spill involving more than 1.5m litres of tritiated water from the plant. Plant owner Xcel Energy is working to clean up the spill and says there is no danger to the general public. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) said that the triated water had
12 | April 2023 |
www.neimagazine.com
leaked from a broken pipe at the facility. The was first discovered on 21 November but not made public. The company said it notified the Nuclear Regulatory Commission NRC and the state the next day. The source of the leak was found on 19 December and was reportedly plugged “soon after”. The authorities agreed not to publicise the incident while Xcel Energy and the state were “actively managing” the situation to prevent the underground plume of water spreading to the nearby Mississippi River, MPCA assistant commissioner for land and strategic initiatives Kirk Koudelka told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. He noted, “We are working to ensure this clean- up is concluded as thoroughly as possible with minimal or no risk to drinking water supplies.” Xcel’s president for Minnesota Christopher
Clark insisted that “this does not present a public health or drinking water issue”. However, he admitted the tritiated water was “well above” the 20,000 picocuries standard mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The steel pipe that leaked carries condensate
water away from the steam turbine. Xcel will analyse the pipe to try to identify the cause of the break during a scheduled refuelling outage that starts in mid-April. An estimated 25% of the water has been
recovered and pumped into a treatment system on site. The company is considering building storage tanks or a retention pond for the project, which could take a year or more. Xcel said recovery efforts will continue and that it will install a permanent solution this spring.
Uganda 2031 nuclear power plan Uganda expects to start generating at least 1000 MWe from nuclear power by 2031 as part of moves to diversify sources of electricity and accelerate its energy transition response. The first nuclear project, Buyende NPP, would
be located at Buyende, about 150 km north of the capital Kampala. “Preparation to evaluate the Buyende NPP site is ongoing to pave the way for the first nuclear power project expected to generate 2,000 MWe, with the first 1000 MWe to be connected to the national grid by 2031,” Ugandan Energy & Minerals Minister Ruth Nankabirwa Ssentamu said, adding: “Uganda is making firm steps to integrate nuclear energy into the electricity generation mix to ensure energy security and provide sufficient electricity for industrialisation”. The Ministry of Energy & Mineral Development has warned residents of Buyende District not to sell their land to speculators who aim to benefit from government compensation schemes before the UGX34,000bn ($9bn) power plant is built.
Buyende is one of the eight sites identified
for the construction of a 2000 MWe nuclear project during pre-feasibility studies in 2019. About 30 African countries are currently
considering nuclear power as part of their energy mix. Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Niger,
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47
