NEWS |
round up
SMRs PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY (PSU) has announced plans to make the Westinghouse eVinci microreactor a research priority, according to Andrew Read, Senior Vice President for Research at Penn State. PSU and Westinghouse have been collaborating since 2022 on FRONTIER – Forging a Renaissance of Nuclear Through Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Research.
US-BASED START-up NANO Nuclear Energy announced that the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has updated the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I) project landing page (NRC Project No. 99902094) relating to the KRONOS MMR Energy System pre-application engagement, officially designating NANO Nuclear as the reactor’s designer.
A STUDY BY Dutch research and production organisation NRG PALLAS commissioned by Gelderland province has identified four regions suitable for hosting a small modular reactor (SMR). The 58-page study looked at the technical conditions for constructing an SMR in Gelderland.
DATA4 OWNED BY Canada-based Brookfield, has signed a memorandum of understanding to explore the use of Westinghouse Electric Company’s AP300 small modular reactor (SMR) to power future data centres in Europe. Established in 2006 by Colony Capital (now DigitalBridge) and owned by Brookfield since April 2023, Data4 currently operates around 30 data centres in France, Italy, Spain, Poland, and Luxembourg.
FUSION REPRESENTATIVES FROM POLITICS, business and science have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to establish a laser-based nuclear fusion demonstration power plant by 2035 at the former Biblis NPP in the German state of Hesse. The MOU commits to pursuing commercial fusion energy in Hesse, establishing the state as a focus for research and the development of laser-based nuclear fusion.
US ITER – THE United States Domestic Agency for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, under construction at Cadarache in France, has completed delivery to the site of all components for the support structure of the central solenoid. The support structure was manufactured by eight US suppliers across six states and comprises more than 9,000 individual parts.
China
First concrete for Lufeng unit 1 CGN Power Co Ltd announced that first concrete has been poured for the nuclear island of unit 1 at China’s Lufeng NPP in Guangdong province marking “the official start of the main project of the unit and the full start of construction. Unit 1 will have a CAP1000 reactor – the Chinese version of the Westinghouse AP1000. The proposed construction of four 1,250 MWe
CAP1000 reactors (units 1-4) at the Lufeng site was approved by China’s National Development & Reform Commission in September 2014 but construction of units 1&2 did not receive State Council approval until 19 August 2024. Approval for units 3&4 is still pending. The site will eventually host six units, two of which are already under construction. In April 2022 the State Council approved construction of two Hualong One units at Lufeng as units 5&6. First concrete for Lufeng 5 was poured the following September and for Lufeng 6 in August 2023. The two units are expected to be connected to the grid in 2028 and 2029. With all six units in operation, the plant will generate about 52 TWh, which will reduce standard coal consumption by almost 16m tonnes and carbon dioxide emissions by more than 42m tonnes.
Australia HIFAR decommissioning begins The Australian Nuclear Science & Technology Organisation (ANSTO) has launched a key decommissioning project marking the end of an era for Australia’s first nuclear research reactor at Lucas Heights, the High Flux Australian Reactor (HIFAR). The start of the decommissioning project follows a licence issued by the Australian Radiation Protection & Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) in late 2024, for the initial stages of the works. HIFAR was opened by Australian Prime
Minister Sir Robert Menzies in 1958 and operated safely until 2007 when it was replaced by the Open Pool Australian Light water (OPAL) reactor supplied by Argentina’s INVAP. ANSTO CEO Shaun Jenkinson said Australia’s
nuclear age was formally ushered in with the commissioning of HIFAR, he noted. “As a multi-purpose 10 MW reactor, HIFAR pioneered Australia’s nuclear medicine production and silicon irradiation capabilities, and housed the first neutron beam research instruments – all of which paved the way for the sovereign capabilities we have here at ANSTO today.” Initial decommissioning has already begun
under Phase A (Stage 1) to remove the neutron beam instruments, control room, fuel assembly station, and other peripheral equipment. In stages 2&3 of Phase A, the HIFAR Circuits will be removed along with the contents of No 1 Storage Block. Phase B will see the decommissioning of the reactor core, subject to further licence approvals with ARPANSA and a future national waste disposal pathway. Senior Project Manager Brett Wheeler said the decommissioning project involved 10 years
12 | April 2025 |
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of planning and preparations. “HIFAR has been in a state of shutdown since 2007. Within the first 12 months of its closure, ANSTO removed the reactor fuel and control arms, and drained the heavy water that cooled the reactor core,” he said. “The job at hand for now is to remove only the internal infrastructure and radioactive components inside the 21-metre-tall facility. The white exterior shell of HIFAR won’t be going anywhere soon. There are no plans to dismantle the exterior structure until much further down the track. A driving factor in starting the decommissioning work was to take advantage of the collective knowledge of the HIFAR team, many of whom are now approaching retirement.”
Most of the waste generated from Phase A
decommissioning will be solids can be safely recycled after final characterisation, ANSTO said. The small quantity of radiological waste will be managed and stored safely onsite at Lucas Heights in existing purpose-built facilities, while any hazardous (non-radiological) waste, such as lead and lead-based paints, will be disposed of offsite at a purpose-built facility. Stage 1 of Phase A is expected to be
completed by 2026. This will mark the second research reactor decommissioned in-house at ANSTO, following the decommissioning and dismantling of the Moata reactor in 2012, which operated for 24 years until 1995.
United States DOE HALEU for five developers The US Department of Energy (DOE) has made conditional commitments to provide high- assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) to five US nuclear developers to meet their near-term needs. Many advanced reactors need HALEU but it is not currently available from domestic suppliers. To help fill this gap, DOE created the HALEU
allocation process for developers to request HALEU material from DOE sources, including material from the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). DOE received HALEU requests from 15 companies and identified five that met prioritisation criteria, with three of them requiring fuel delivery in 2025. The five companies that received conditional
commitments are: ● TRISO-X ● Kairos Power ● Radiant Industries ● Westinghouse Electric Company ● TerraPower
Energy Secretary Chris Wright, said:
“Allocating this HALEU material will help US nuclear developers deploy their advanced reactors with materials sourced from secure supply chains.” As a next step, DOE will initiate the process to
allocate the material, some could receive their HALEU as early as this autumn. The allocation process is ongoing and DOE plans to continue HALEU allocations to additional companies in the future. ■
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