| NEWS
Canada Darlington refurbishment completed Unit 4 at Ontario Power Generation’s (OPG’s) Darlington Nuclear Generating Station has been reconnected to the grid at 100% power, generating power for the first time since July 2023, when the unit was taken offline for refurbishment. This marks completion of the four-unit Darlington Refurbishment project, which began in October 2016. The C$12.8bn (US$9.4bn) project was achieved C$150m (US$110m) under budget and four months ahead of schedule enabling the station to continue to provide roughly 20% of Ontario’s electricity until at least 2055. The four Candu pressurised heavy water
reactors (PHWRs) at Darlington were constructed in the 1980s and entered commercial service in the early 1990s. Each unit has a net capacity of 878 MWe (roughly 934 MWe nameplate). Unit 2, the first to be refurbished, was returned to service in June 2020; unit 3 returned to service in July 2023; and unit 1 in November 2024. Refurbishment of unit 4 was completed in 968 days – the first Darlington unit to be completed in under 1,000 days. OPG said this was a culmination of meticulous planning and preparation, millions of hours worked, and the dedication of thousands of people. With approximately 8000 lessons learned from the refurbishment, OPG will leverage this experience to execute future projects, including the Pickering Nuclear refurbishment, the deployment of four small modular reactors (SMRs) at Darlington, and the proposed large nuclear development in Port Hope. Candu units are designed to operate for 30
years before refurbishment, which is a major undertaking. It includes replacement of key reactor components such as steam generators, pressure tubes, calandria tubes and feeder tubes. All the reactor’s fuel and heavy water has to be removed, isolating it from the rest of the station before it is dismantled. Thousands of components are inspected before the plant is rebuilt. During the refurbishment, a total of 1920 fuel channels and 3840 feeder pipes were replaced. A major refurbishment project for Pickering units 5-8 (Pickering B) was approved by the provincial government in November 2025 and the four units will be removed from service at the end of the third quarter of 2026. Following defueling, the refurbishment project will begin in January 2027 with unit 5 expected to return to service in 2031 and the rest by 2034. The budget to refurbish the four units is C$26.8bn “including interest, cost escalation, and contingency”. Pickering B began operations in the mid-1980s
and was scheduled to end electricity production in 2025. However, in 2022, the provincial government directed OPG to keep the units in operation until 2026 to reassess the feasibility of their refurbishment. OPG received approval for the initiation phase of the refurbishment project in January 2024, and for the start of the project definition phase in 2025. The project will enable the plant to continue in operation for up to 38 more years.
United Kingdom Nuclear regulation streamlining plan The UK Government has published its response to recommendations made by a taskforce, led by John Fingleton, considering reform of the civil and defence nuclear framework and regulations. The taskforce’s final report notes that “urgent change is needed if we are to capitalise on the opportunities nuclear technology can provide”. According to a statement by HM Treasury:
“The government is taking forward all of the taskforce’s recommendations and is publishing an implementation plan. This includes immediately putting in place one lead regulator for nuclear projects, with all reforms expected to be completed by the end of 2027. The plan is expected to reduce the cost and timeframe of delivering new civil and defence nuclear projects, without compromising safety standards and environmental protections.” Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves
said implementing the nuclear regulatory taskforce review “will require substantial change from government, from regulators and from industry at all levels of the supply chain”. She noted: “The government will work with
regulators and industry to ensure that we all take time and cost efficiency as seriously as if they were in a competitive market. We must all put serious effort into stripping away duplicative or gold-plated processes, overly complex guidance, rules, and regulations, both in our own organisations and in supply chains. We should focus resources on the most safety-critical issues. We should evolve from a culture that resists new technology and practice to one that actively enables their safe implementation.” She said the Nuclear Regulatory Taskforce
Review makes clear that an essential route to better outcomes is a more joined-up and collaborative set of work across organisational boundaries. “We should move immediately towards more transparent information and advice sharing, with an emphasis on a culture of constructive problem-solving. This should include coordinating actions, and sharing lessons and best practice to ensure that this new culture is embedded across the industry.” Reeves asked regulators and Industry “to
rigorously review your internal processes, incentives and performance management approach to identify where complexity, delay, or uncertainty can be reduced, and to ensure that responsibility for decision-making is understood and supported by clear timelines and effective oversight” and to respond within six months. She noted that, in addition to implementing the task force recommendations, “we are merging the Defence Nuclear Safety Regulator with the ONR [Office of Nuclear Regulation]”. A joint statement from the Department for
Energy Security & Net Zero (DESNZ) and the Ministry of Defence (MOD) said: “Nuclear projects will be built faster and cheaper, boosting national and energy security and protecting households from volatile global fossil fuel markets.”
round up
SAFETY AND SECURITY A CHEMICAL SPILL at unit 1 of Constellation’s Byron Clean Energy Center in Illinois resulted in eight workers being hospitalised. Ogle County Sheriff’s Office said multiple ambulances responded to the scene and transported the employees to local hospitals for evaluation and treatment. A spokesperson for the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission said that the incident was not related to nuclear operations
A POTENTIAL SEQUENCE OF events affecting safety, beginning with a grid disturbance, was identified in the safety analyses of unit 3 at Finland’s Olkiluoto NPP. Immediate corrective actions were taken to ensure the continuation of electricity production without interruption, Finnish power utility Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO) said. Immediate corrective measures were implemented, and electricity production at the OL3 plant unit continued without interruption.
NUCLEAR FUEL SCIENTISTS AT ROSATOM’S Fuel Division, TVEL, have developed an industrial method for producing the nitrogen-15 isotope, which is needed to produce the next generation uranium- plutonium nitride nuclear fuel being developed for use in fast neutron reactors. This will make it possible to organise industrial production of the isotope, which is a promising component for high-density uranium-plutonium nitride fuel.
FRANCE’S FRAMATOME and US-based NuScale Power Corporation have expanded their longstanding partnership. The agreement establishes a global supply chain for NuScale’s small modular reactor (SMR) fuel. The agreement directs Framatome to produce at least 444 fuel assemblies for NuScale’s first US customer, with deliveries expected to begin as early as 2030.
RADWASTE TOKYO ELECTRIC POWER Company Holdings (Tepco) has begun the 18th discharge of Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS)-treated water from the Fukushima Daiichi NPP into the Pacific Ocean. The operation will result in the release of about 7800 tonnes of treated water containing tritium diluted with seawater.
D&D
THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION Joint Research Centre (JRC) has awarded a $112m contract to a joint venture led by US-based Amentum to provide decommissioning solutions to accelerate the clean-up efforts of JRC sites in Ispra (Italy), Karlsruhe (Germany), Geel (Belgium) and Petten (The Netherlands)..
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