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ITER completes record magnet The ITER Organisation has completed all components for the world’s largest, most powerful pulsed superconducting electromagnet system for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), under construction in France. ITER is an international collaboration of more than 30 countries to demonstrate the viability of fusion. The final component of the electromagnet


system was the sixth module of the Central Solenoid, built and tested in the US. When it is assembled at the ITER site, the Central Solenoid will be the system’s most powerful magnet, strong enough to lift an aircraft carrier. The Central Solenoid will work in tandem with six ring-shaped Poloidal Field (PF) magnets, built and delivered by Russia, Europe, and China. The fully assembled pulsed magnet system will weigh nearly 3,000 tonnes and will function as the electromagnetic heart of ITER’s Tokamak reactor. At full operation, ITER is expected to produce 500 MW of fusion power from only 50 MW of input heating power, a tenfold gain. Under the ITER Agreement, members


contribute most of the cost of construction in the form of building and supplying components. This means that financing from each member goes primarily to their own companies in order to manufacture ITER’s challenging technology. Europe, as the Host Member, contributes 45% of the cost of the ITER Tokamak and its support systems. China, India, Japan, Korea, Russia, and the US each contribute 9% but all members get access to 100% of the intellectual property. The US built the Central Solenoid (comprising six modules, plus a spare) and delivered the exoskeleton support structure that will enable the Central Solenoid to withstand the extreme forces it will generate. The exoskeleton is comprised of more than 9,000 individual parts, manufactured by eight US suppliers. The US has also fabricated about 8% of the Niobium- Tin (Nb3Sn) superconductors used the Toroidal Field (TF) magnets. In total, ITER’s magnet systems will comprise


10,000 tonnes of superconducting magnets, with a combined stored magnetic energy of 51 Gigajoules. The raw material to fabricate these magnets consisted of more than 100,000 kilometres of superconducting strand, fabricated in nine factories in six countries. According to the updated project development strategy, the first experiments at ITER will begin in 2034, and the full operation of this installation is scheduled By integrating all the systems needed for fusion at industrial scale, ITER is serving as a massive, complex research laboratory for its 30-plus member countries, providing the knowledge and data needed to optimise commercial fusion power. ITER says its geopolitical achievement is


also remarkable, involving the sustained collaboration its seven members – China, Europe, India, Japan, Korea, Russia, and the US – with components from three continents.


Canada Darlington SMR construction deal Aecon Kiewit Nuclear Partners has been awarded a construction contract by Ontario Power Generation (OPG) for the execution phase on the Darlington New Nuclear Project (DNNP) in the Canadian province. Aecon Kiewit Nuclear Partners is a general


partnership between Aecon and Kiewit Nuclear Canada with Aecon as the lead partner. The contract was awarded after OPG approved construction of GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy’s (GVH’s) BWRX-300 small modular reactor at DNNP. Four units are eventually planned for the site


adjacent to OPG’s existing Darlington Nuclear Station and are expected to be operating by 2035. The total project cost is put at CAD20.9bn ($15.06bn), Ontario Energy Minister Stephen Lecce told a news briefing. OPG had received a Licence to Construct the


first of four planned BWRX-300s at Darlington from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission in April. Aecon said its share of the contract is


approximately CAD1.3bn ($934m), which will be added to its Construction segment backlog in the second quarter of 2025. The project is being delivered under an Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) model. During the execution phase, Aecon Kiewit Nuclear Partners will work collaboratively with OPG (owner and licence holder), GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy and AtkinsRéalis to what is expected to be North America’s first grid-scale small modular reactor (SMR). Aecon Kiewit Nuclear Partners will be responsible for project management, construction planning and execution, with completion and commercial operation expected in 2030. Aecon is also the leading constructor for the


three largest nuclear refurbishment projects in Ontario, including those at the Darlington, Pickering and the Bruce NPPs.


United States Kairos pours first Hermes concrete US-based Kairos Power has poured first concrete for its Hermes Low-Power Demonstration Reactor, marking the start of “nuclear construction” on the project in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Kairos Power broke ground at the Hermes site in July 2024 and completed excavation in October. Hermes is a scaled demonstration of a fluoride salt-cooled high-temperature reactor technology and is the first advanced nuclear reactor to receive a construction permit from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Safety-related construction activities, which


are subject to NRC oversight and require a construction permit, have now begun with a focus on the building’s foundation. To ensure structural soundness, Hermes will have 51 six- foot-diameter (2 metre) drilled piers extending approximately 40 feet (12 metres) below grade to anchor the building to bedrock. Two earlier projects at the Oak Ridge site served as


round up


REGULATION


THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION has tightened its control over the US Nuclear Regulatory Authority (NRC) and is considering an executive order that could further erode its autonomy, NPR reported, citing “two US officials who declined to speak publicly”. In future, NRC must send new rules regarding reactor safety to the White House, where they will be reviewed and possibly edited.


COMPANIES SOUTH KOREA’S DOOSAN Enerbility has signed a preferred vendor agreement with Canada’s Candu Energy (part of AtkinsRéalis) to pursue collaboration on nuclear projects. Candu Energy had shortlisted nine companies from some 2,000 vendors for the role of preferred vendor. Doosan Enerbility was the only non-Canadian company among the nine.


NUCLEAR FUEL US-BASED GLOBAL Laser Enrichment, jointly owned by Australia’s Silex Systems (51%) and Canada’s Cameco (49%), has begun TRL-6 demonstration testing at its Test Loop facility in Wilmington, North Carolina. The testing programme is intended to demonstrate large-scale enrichment performance under operationally relevant conditions.


USED FUEL SPAIN’S NUCLEAR SAFETY Council (CNS) has approved expansion of the on-site used fuel interim dry storage facility at the Santa María de Garoña NPP. The expansion is required to accommodate the fuel storage needs of the plant during its decommissioning. CNS conditionally approved a design modification to expand the capacity of the Individualised Temporary Storage Facility and associated revisions to the Safety Study and the Technical Operating Specifications.


BELGIAN ENGINEERING FIRM Tractebel and nuclear operator Electrabel, (both part of Engie) have filled the first High Integrity Container (HIC) as part of the project to empty the used fuel pools at the unit 3 of Belgium’s Doel NPP. Doel 3, which was closed in September 2022, is now undergoing decommissioning.


RADWASTE FRANCE’S NATIONAL AGENCY for the management of radioactive waste (Andra) has revised its cost estimate for the Centre Industriel de Stockage Géologique (Cigéo) deep geological disposal facility. It now estimates the overall cost of constructing, operating and closing Cigéo at between €26.1bn ($29.1bn) and €37.5bn (at 2012 prices).


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