NEWS |
round up
COMPANIES NUSCALE’S FINANCIAL RESULTS for 2023 said the balance sheet includes cash and equivalents of $125.4m ($5.1m of which is restricted), and no debt. NuScale reported revenue of $22.8m and a net loss of $180.1m for the 12-month period ended 31 December 2023, compared with revenue of $11.8m and a net loss of $141.6m for the same period in 2022.
US-BASED ENERGYSOLUTIONS has completed its acquisition of Cabrera Services, a provider of environmental and radiological remediation services. Cabrera established in 1994, provides services to commercial and federal clients and will be fully integrated into EnergySolutions’ federal programme. Cabrera office locations include Buffalo, New York; Sacramento, California; and Hartford, Connecticut. Clients include the US Army Corps of Engineers, Navy, Air Force, Department of Energy, and multiple other federal and state government agencies.
US-BASED VISTRA has completed the acquisition of Energy Harbor Corp, adding approximately 4,000 MWe of 24/7 nuclear generation and approximately 1m additional retail customers. This follows receipt of all required regulatory approvals. Energy Harbor’s nuclear fleet comprises the two-unit Beaver Valley NPP in Pennsylvania, as well as the single-unit Davis-Besse and Perry plants in Ohio. Vistra operates the Comanche Peak plant and its used fuel storage facilities in Texas.
REGULATION AN OFFICIAL INTERNATIONAL Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) certificate handover ceremony has been held at the Akkuyu NPP construction site in Turkiye confirming compliance of project company Akkuyu Nukleer’s management system with ISO standards. ISO certificates are a requirement of both the Nuclear Regulatory Authority of Türkiye and Rosatom. Independent certification audit was conducted by Kalitest, a certification body accredited by the Turkish Accreditation Agency (Türkak).
THE UK OFFICE for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) has signed a trilateral Memorandum of Cooperation with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (to collaborate on the assessment of small modular reactor (SMR) and advanced modular reactor (AMR) designs. The memorandum will enable both good practice and experience of reviewing SMR/AMR designs to be shared between regulators.
Canada
NWMO issues potential sites reports Canada’s Nuclear Waste Management Organisation (NWMO) has published new research – the 2023 Confidence in Safety reports – on the two potential sites under consideration to host a deep geological repository (DGR) for used nuclear fuel. NWMO says the reports reinforce confidence in safety of both sites, building on the previous 2022 Confidence in Safety reports. They support the conclusion that the NWMO is confident a DGR can be constructed at either site. The proposed DGR will be constructed
roughly 650-800 metres below ground level and incorporates a series of engineered barriers to ensure the fuel can be isolated safely. The site selection process began in 2010 when
22 communities expressed interest exploring their potential to host the GDR. Following years of technical assessment and community engagement, two potential sites remain in the process: one in the Wabigoon Lake Ojibway Nation-Ignace area in northwestern Ontario and the other in the Saugeen Ojibway Nation-South Bruce area in southern Ontario. Both potential sites are situated in stable,
seismically quiet settings with rock formations of the necessary depth, breadth and volume. In addition, the studies found no economically viable resources within the rock, reducing the possibility of human intrusion in the future. The updated Confidence in Safety reports
provide a comprehensive summary of the NWMO’s understanding of each potential siting area. The reports also include initial site-specific safety assessment results and additional research on the geology and engineering for both potential sites. Once a site is chosen additional technical studies will be conducted to provide more precise information for the repository design and formal safety case. The regulatory and licensing process is expected to take approximately 10 years to complete.
Germany Funding for fusion announced Germany’s Federal Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger has announced a new funding programme “Fusion 2040” to support research for development of a nuclear fusion power plant. “I want us to be among the first in Germany to build a fusion power plant,” she said. “Fusion is the huge opportunity to solve all of our energy problems.” The Federal Ministry of Education and
Research (BMBF – Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung) has long been promoting fusion research at the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP) in Garching and Greifswald, at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and at the Jülich Research Centre (FZJ - Forschungszentrum Jülich). This institutional funding is now being
supplemented with the new project funding programme intended to advance technologies,
10 | April 2024 |
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components and materials needed for a fusion power plant in the first phase up to the early 2030s. In the second phase, the focus will be on integration into a power plant design. The funding programme is open on technology and addresses both magnetic and laser fusion. In order to achieve the construction of a fusion power plant as quickly as possible, the programme is essentially based on application- oriented collaborative research as a form of public-private partnership (PPP). Projects on specific sub-technologies at research institutions, universities and industry will be carried out together. “New knowledge from research can be taken up at an early stage and know-how transferred to the domestic industry for further exploitation,” BMFB noted. In September 2023, Stark-Watzinger
announced the intention to “invest massively and openly in fusion technology” including steps towards a fusion power plant. She announced an additional €370m ($403m) will be contributed to the German fusion programme over the next five years. Combined with the existing funding, this will exceed €1bn for fusion research from 2024 to 2028.
Russia Leningrad NPP unit 7 building starts First concrete has been poured for the foundation of unit 7 of the Leningrad NPP (also known as Leningrad-II unit 3) three months ahead of schedule. Currently Leningrad NPP has four units in
operation – units 3&4 with Soviet RBMK-1000 reactors, as well units 5&6 with new VVER- 1200 units (also known as Leningrad-II 1&2). Units 5&6 replaced units 1&2 with RBMK-1000 reactors, which were decommissioned in 2018 and 2020. New VVER-1200 units (7&8) will replace units 3&4. They are scheduled to be put into commercial operation in 2030 and 2032. Ground preparation for their construction began in 2022. Excavation of the foundation pit for unit 7 was completed in September 2023. Concreting the foundation of the building of the unit 7 reactor will be conducted round the clock. To concrete the plate with an area of 2,100 square metres, builders will need almost 5,500 cubic metres of concrete. Rosatom noted that the quality of the concrete determines the strength and durability of the building, the integrity of its building structures, as well as the reliability of further operation of the reactor systems and equipment. The entire foundation will be ready this summer. After that, the construction of the internal and external protective shells of the reactor building, the ceilings and equipment installation will begin. According to Rosatom Director General Alexey Likhachev, by starting construction of Leningrad 7, Rosatom is embarking on a new stage in fulfilling Russia’s target of increasing the share of nuclear energy in the energy balance to 25% by 2045. “We will significantly increase the atomic generation in the Urals and go to Siberia and the Far East.”
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