NEWS |
round up
RADWASTE GERMAN RADIOACTIVE WASTE specialist GNS and US-based EnergySolutions signed a MOU on future cooperation in Asia. The companies will offer nuclear services in the Asian markets in the future to dispose of large components from the upcoming dismantling of Asian NPPs by EnergySolutions in the USA. GNS will be responsible for transporting the components to the US.
A MAJOR PROJECT involving the UK’s Nuclear Waste Services (NWS), Nuclear Restoration Services (NRS) and Nuclear Transport Solutions (NTS) to permanently dispose of more than 1,000 drums of waste, has been completed earlier than expected. The project involved 11 consignments of low level radioactive waste, transported by rail from the NRS site at Winfrith in Dorset, to the Low Level Waste Repository in Cumbria for final disposal. The waste originated from the Steam Generating Heavy Water Reactor at Winfrith, which shut down in 1990.
US-BASED NUCLEAR waste storage and disposal company Deep Isolation has been selected by Shine Technologies as its preferred solution for storage and disposal of the high-level waste that will remain as a residue after deployment of Shine’s technology for recycling used nuclear fuel. The two companies signed a MOU to jointly drive forward used fuel recycling supported by a safe and scalable solution for the resulting waste streams.
THE US DEPARTMENT of Energy (DOE) Office of Environmental Management (EM) has awarded $27.3m for research & development to accelerate the Hanford Site’s tank waste clean-up mission. The funds are for 13 projects led by six national laboratories. Project duration is from two to three years. First-year funding ranges from $1.3m to $3m per project. Based on a solicitation issued in June, projects were selected that are aimed at developing breakthrough technologies to drastically reduce the life-cycle cost and schedule of the Hanford tank waste cleanup mission.
FUSION
PREPARATIONS ARE UNDERWAY for the first shipment of equipment in 2024 for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), which is being built in France, from Russia’s DV Efremov Institute of Electrophysical Apparatus (NIIEFA). The equipment was developed and manufactured by order of Rosatom, as part of its contribution to the ITER project.
advanced reactor and fuel fabrication facility by the end of the decade. X-Energy has since completed the reactor engineering and basic design and is developing a fuel fabrication facility in Oak Ridge in Tennessee. ARDP is supporting X-energy’s initial
deployment of the Xe-100 at Dow’s Seadrift, Texas facility as well as a new commercial facility to manufacture TRISO-X high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) fuel for next- generation reactors. The project in Seadrift aims to be the first grid-scale advanced nuclear reactor deployed to serve an industrial site in North America. X-Energy in 2023 also signed a joint development agreement with utility Energy Northwest for up to 12 Xe-100 SMRs. The PSC is designed to train up to 52
operators at one time offering a hands-on experiential learning environment. X-energy’s training programme will employ virtual and simulated environments, providing trainees with invaluable experience before entering the field. The control room simulator aims to replicate the real-world plant and includes automated digital systems “aiming to enhance operator experience and increase cost efficiencies”. The technology builds upon years of
collaboration with the US Department of Energy programmes, including Advanced Reactor Concepts 2015, the Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E), and the ARDP. Before accepting its first trainees, X-energy will use the PSC for the final development of its training programme and reactor operating procedures. X-energy says that as plants become operational, the facility will host continuing education programmes leveraging real performance and operating data collected in the field to enhance training and professional development.
Germany X-energy opens SMR training centre Bavaria’s Ministry of the Environment has issued an approval notice to begin dismantling unit 2 of Germany’s Isar NPP. In accordance with the requirements of the Federal Atomic Energy Act. The 1400 MWe pressurised water reactor at Isar 2 was one of Germany’s last three nuclear plants to be shut down in April 2023. PreussenElektra – which is responsible for the decommissioning of eight nuclear plants in Germany – had already submitted the application to decommission and dismantle the plant in July 2019. Isar 2 was closed in line with Germany’s decision to phase out nuclear power, taken in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima accident in Japan. Eight nuclear units were permanently shut down in 2012. The remaining nine reactors were to close by the end of 2022. While PreussenElektra welcomed the approval, Bavaria’s Environment Minister Thorsten Glauber said “the shutdown of the last nuclear power plants in April 2023 was wrong”. He added: “It is not understandable why the federal government does not want to see this and instead relies on more coal.”
12 | April 2024 |
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PreussenElektra said dismantling would begin shortly. “Seven of our eight power plant blocks are now being dismantled. With the knowledge from these dismantling projects and our fleet-optimised approach, we ensure that the dismantling at the Essenbach site will be completed at the end of the 2030s and that the power plant site will be available for new uses,” said PreussenElektra CEO Guido Knott. Since the shutdown of Isar 2, all 193 fuel elements have been removed from the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) and placed in the fuel element storage basin. In addition, the primary cooling circuit was decontaminated at the beginning of this year. The first work will be dismantling in the area of the main coolant pumps. In addition, the main coolant lines will be separated from the RPV to enable dismantling of the RPV internals.
France Molten salt reactor plans Two nuclear start-ups, Stellaria and Thorizon, each in consortium with Orano, have won the call for projects to develop molten salt reactors as part of the France 2030 investment plan. Each consortium has been awarded a €10m ($10,8m) grant. The two projects are the result of a collaboration of several months bringing together these three companies with the aim of developing a European molten salt reactor (MSR) sector. MSRs use molten fluoride salts as primary
coolant, at low pressure and can operate with epithermal or fast neutron spectrums using a range of fuels. There are a growing number of different concepts, all still in the design stage. The France 2030 re-industrialisation plan, launched by President Emmanuel Macron in October 2021, is endowed with €54bn in funding schemes to be deployed over five years. In February 2022, Macron said €1bn would be made available for France’s Nuward small modular reactor (SMR) project and “innovative reactors to close the fuel cycle and produce less waste”. He set “an ambitious goal” to construct a first prototype in France by 2030. As well as providing grants, the France 2030 programme provides access to expertise in nuclear research. Following a call for projects, Thorizon and Stellaria were awarded the €10m grants. Amsterdam-based Thorizon was spun out of Netherlands research institute NRG, which operates the High Flux Reactor in Petten. It is designing a 250 MWt/100 MWe MSR intended for large industrial customers and utilities. Thorizon aims to construct a pilot reactor before 2035. Meanwhile, French chloride molten salt
reactor developer Stellaria – a spin-off from the CEA is partnering with CEA, Technip Energies and Schneider Electric. The reactor it is proposing will be very compact – measuring four cubic metres – and will be able to use a diversified range of nuclear fuels (uranium, plutonium, mixed plutonium-uranium oxide (mox), minor actinides and thorium). The reactor will produce 250 MWt/110 MWe. ■
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