| NEWS
Russia Kursk 1&2 decommissioning Specialists from ODITs-RBMK and Kursk NPP are preparing for the decommissioning units 1&2 at Russia’s Kursk NPP. The NPP comprises four ageing RBMK-1000 units, two of which are now closed. The station’s units were connected to the grid in 1976, 1979, 1983 and 1985. In 1994- 2009, all units underwent thorough technical modernisation. Unit 1 was closed in 2021 and unit 2 in January 2024. ODITs-RBMK (Opitno-Demonstratsionnii Inzhenernii Tsentr RBMK) was set up in 2020 by Rosnergoatom specifically to decommission uranium-graphite channel RBMK-1000 reactors. It is based at Leningrad NPP where two of four RBMK units have been closed. The decommissioning of Leningrad 1&2 will begin in 2025 after obtaining the necessary licences. At this point, fuel and nuclear materials from units are being removed and transported to storage. This is Russia’s second specialist decommissioning centre. The first was established in 2013 at the Novovoronezh NPP for work on units with VVER reactors. The ODITs-RBMK specialists visiting Kursk
will prepare a report with proposals to create infrastructure at the plant, which will then be used by Atomenergoproekt project developer to devise a decommissioning plan for the RBMK- 1000 units. Valeria Zelevskaya, Leading Engineer of
the Technology Support Department noted: “In the controlled access zone, we looked at a number of rooms that were of interest for reprofiling. The configuration coincides with the premises of the first and second power units of the Leningrad NPP. This pleased us, because for some of the medium-active and all highly active equipment, the handling of which is not provided for at the Kursk NPP we can use sites similar to those in the design documentation of the Leningrad NPP (developed by the NA Dollezhal Scientific Research & Design Institute of Power Engineering – NIKIET).” She noted that there are not enough sites for handling equipment fragments contaminated with radionuclides, but not related to radwaste. “For these fragments, it is advisable to offer a decontamination/washing area to reduce the amount of waste and convert it into reusable materials after passing a radiation control procedure. Everything that is not washed clean will become very low-level waste.” The specialists visited the solid radioactive
waste processing complex, which is due to be commissioned this year. The complex will accept radwaste from the operating and closed RBMK-1000 units. Zelevskaya noted that it was a unique opportunity to visit the facility before it was commissioned “while everything is clean there”. Later it would not be possible to visit most of the rooms, because monitoring operations will only be remote: via video or through viewing windows, and managed using manipulators or remote launch buttons.
France
ITER poloidal field coils complete The manufacture of poloidal field coil No 3 (PF3) for ITER, which is being built in France, has been completed. It is the final poloidal field coil and was produced at the Poloidal Field Coils Winding Facility at the site in Cadarache. Six poloidal field coils will be positioned
horizontally around the ITER vacuum vessel and D-shaped toroidal field coils to help shape the plasma and keep it away from the walls. The fabrication of PF3 – one of the two
largest ring-shaped coils, measuring 24 metres in diameter – marked the high point of technical and organisational expertise that had been accumulated since manufacturing began in the Winding Facility in late March 2017. The first coil to come off the production line in 2021 (PF5) had required three and half years of work. Although 30% larger and wound with 20% more superconducting cable, PF3 was finalised in two years and nine months, a reduction of 15 months in fabrication time. The smaller PF1 coil – measuring 9 metres in diameter and weighing 200 tonnes – was produced by Russia under a contract signed in 2011. It was delivered to the ITER site in February. The PF6 coil – weighing 350 tonnes and
having an external diameter of about 11.2 metres – was manufactured by the Institute of Plasma Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a member of the China-France TAC1 consortium led by China National Nuclear Corporation subsidiary China Nuclear Power Engineering. The PF6 coil is the heaviest of ITER’s superconducting magnets and the bottom-most of the six circular magnets surrounding ITER’s vacuum chamber and the first one to be inserted in the tokamak pit. Installation of the PF6 coil was completed in April by TAC1. The four other coils – PF2, PF3, PF4 and PF5
– have been produced at the Cadarache site. Ranging in diameter from 17 to 24 metres and weighing 200 to 400 tonnes, these coils are too big to be manufactured off site and shipped. In April 2021, the first European-made coil, PF5, completed all manufacturing and testing and stored until its installation in September 2021. PF2 and PF4 have also been completed and put into storage. PF3 has now been safely stored next to its quasi twin PF4 and the smaller PF2. In a related development, Japan’s Mitsubishi
Heavy Industries (MHI) has been awarded a contract to supply an additional 12 outer vertical targets for the divertor to be used in ITER. The contract was awarded by Japan’s National Institutes for Quantum Science & Technology (QST) This order follows the initial production order
for manufacture of six units (Unit 1 – Unit 6) received in 2021. With the additional 12 units (Unit 7 – Unit 18), MHI will be responsible for the manufacture of 18 of the total 54 units. Production of these units will be completed successively, with delivery due to begin in 2026.
round up
COMPANIES NUSCALE SAYS IT has implemented a series of strategic initiatives “to better align resources with the Company’s primary objective of transitioning towards commercialisation and revenue-producing commercial contracts”. These actions further long-term financial stability by generating $50-60m in annualised savings, starting in the second quarter of 2024.
US-BASED SPECIAL purpose acquisition company (SPAC) AltC Acquisition Corp stockholders have voted to approve the business combination between AltC and fission technology company Oklo. Almost 100% of the votes cast at the meeting, representing approximately 72.7% of AltC’s outstanding shares, voted to approve the transaction.
US COMPANY HOLTEC International has established a wholly-owned subsidiary, Holtec Maintenance & Modification International (HMI), with the initial focus being the restart of the Palisades NPP. Holtec said the mission of HMI is “to meet the time-critical maintenance and modification needs of the world’s operating nuclear power plants with assured performance certainty”.
NUCLEAR FUEL IDAHO NATIONAL LABORATORY (INL) and US company Lightbridge have demonstrated the production of a partial-length rod sample using an alloy of depleted uranium and zirconium. INL and Lightbridge will work together to analyse the extruded rod to confirm the extrusion process parameters prior to performing additional extrusions using an alloy of depleted uranium and zirconium materials later this year.
CHICAGO-BASED CLEAN Core Thorium Energy (CCTE) has extended its collaboration with Canadian Nuclear Laboratories on its ANEEL fuel technology. The fuel is made of thorium and high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU), developed for use in pressurised heavy water reactors and Canada deuterium uranium (Candu) reactors.
RADWASTE NETHERLANDS NUCLEAR REGULATOR, the Authority for Nuclear Safety & Radiation Protection (ANVS) has granted the final permit to enrichment company Urenco for the construction and operation of a new radioactive waste storage facility at its Almelo site. In addition ANVS also made three amendments to Urenco’s licence for the Almelo enrichment plant permitting capacity increase.
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