NEWS |


round up


ROSATOM’S ENGINEERING DIVISION (ASE – Atomstroyexport) has completed concreting the 16th tier of the inner containment (VZO) at unit 2 of the Rooppur NPP under construction in Bangladesh. Alexey Deriy, ASE Vice President said: “In the near future, work will begin on tension of the ropes for the prestress system of the containment shell. Work is underway on the construction of the outer protective shell – enlargement assembly of the metal structures of its domed part.”


THE PAKISTAN NUCLEAR Regulatory Authority has granted an operating licence for unit 3 of Pakistan’s Karachi NPP (K-3). The licensing process included a review of licensing submissions, inspections during initial fuel loading, initial criticality, low power and power ascension tests, and operation at full power. K-3 is a 1,100 MWe Chinese designed (Hualong One) pressurised water reactor and is the second such unit to begin operating at the Karachi site.


CONCRETING OF THE dome of the inner containment has been completed at unit 1 of the Akkuyu NPP under construction in Turkiye. The IEC ensures the tightness of the reactor building. To maximise the strength of the containment dome, 422 tonnes of rebar and over 3,200 cubic metres of concrete were laid.


US-BASED GEORGIA Power says unit 3 at the Vogtle NPP has reached 100% power, marking a major milestone towards commercial operation. “This milestone marks the maximum energy the unit is licensed to produce in the reactor core and is the first time the unit has reached its expected output of approximately 1,100 MWe,” the company notes.


PLANT OPERATION ARGENTINA’S NUCLEAR UTILITY Nucleoeléctrica says it expects to begin repairs at the Atucha II NPP in June. In preparation, special tools have been designed and manufactured, and a full-scale mock-up has been built to train the personnel who will carry out the repairs. Atucha II has been closed since October when a vibration was detected inside the reactor and caused one of four supports (spacers) to fall to the bottom of the reactor.


reactor launched New training


The Faculty of Nuclear Sciences & Physical Engineering (FNSPE) of the Czech Technical University (CTU) in Prague has launched its second research and training reactor, VR-2. In addition to the two training reactors, the CTU in Řež operates two research reactors. FNSPE launched the VR-2 exactly a year after it announced that its construction had been authorised by the State Office for Nuclear Safety (SÚJB). The new reactor is situated in the same reactor hall as VR-1, which has been operated by the faculty since 1990. The VR-2 reactor is a subcritical facility, and so without an external source of neutrons it cannot sustain a fission chain reaction. This makes operation easier, and safer, and its design parameters are significantly less demanding. The fuel for VR-2 was donated in 2018 by the Aalto University of Finland. Its construction was facilitated by situating the VR-2 reactor in the same reactor hall as the VR-1, which already complies with siting regulations. “We can say that a nuclear renaissance is dawning in the world because more and more people are becoming aware that without nuclear energy, mankind cannot generate enough clean energy, and this also implies that we need qualified experts,” said CTU Rector,


United States DOE pushes ahead with HALEU The US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Nuclear has released a Notice of Intent (NOI) inviting public comment on the scope of an upcoming draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) in accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The EIS will analyse the impacts of DOE’s proposed action to acquire high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) through procurement from commercial sources and to facilitate the establishment of commercial HALEU fuel production. DOE says HALEU is a crucial material required by most US advanced reactors to achieve smaller designs, longer operating cycles, and increased efficiencies over current nuclear energy technologies. However, it is not currently available at commercial scale from domestic suppliers, which could significantly impact the development and deployment of advanced nuclear reactors. Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy


Dr Kathryn Huff said: “Spurring the nation’s capability to produce HALEU will set the stage for larger, commercial scale production. This will bring us closer to deploying advanced nuclear technologies .” The 2020 Energy Act directs DOE to establish and implement a programme to support the


8 | July 2023 | www.neimagazine.com


Associate Professor Vojtěch Petráček. “It is their training and education the VR-2 will serve above all.” He added that CTU is the only university worldwide operating not only two fission reactors – VR-1 and VR-2 – but also a fusion reactor, the Golem tokamak. “With the new VR-2 fission reactor, teaching


and research activities will be easier to schedule, because with the VR-1 we have been facing capacity limits,” explained FNSPE Dean, Associate Professor Václav Čuba. “VR-1 serves not only students from our home faculty but also students from other faculties at CTU and other universities; it is available to train foreign students and even staff from industry.” In cooperation with the International Atomic


Energy Agency (IAEA) VR-1 was equipped with the Internet Reactor Laboratory System, so on- line teaching and training is also possible and is used by students from abroad. “Launching VR-2 is the climax of a


process we started in 2014,” said the Head of the Department of Nuclear Reactors, Jan Rataj. “The construction was very quick and took approximately one year due to the small size of the facility, which cannot compare with the VR-1. But it is still a nuclear facility subject to various regulations.” ■


availability of HALEU. The NOI, therefore, focuses on the acquisition of HALEU produced by a commercial entity. The development of a commercial HALEU fuel cycle would involve uranium ore production, conversion, enrichment to HALEU, conversion for fuel fabrication, transportation and storage. The EIS will evaluate implementation of the Proposed Action of facilitating the commercialisation of HALEU production and DOE’s acquisition of HALEU, including thedirect and reasonably foreseeable indirect effects of that acquisition. Initially, existing DOE stockpiles of highly enriched uranium (HEU) could be processed or down-blended into HALEU to meet the requirements of the department’s HALEU Availability Program, but as these stockpiles are depleted, production would need to be supplemented by or transition to commercially operated facilities. DOE recommends an initial public/private partnership to address “the high-fidelity” (high-confidence demand) HALEU market - such as fuel for demonstration reactors - plus some of the projected commercial demand for power reactors. “The private sector could incrementally expand the capacity in a modular fashion to establish HALEU enrichment and supply that are sufficient to meet future needs,” it says.


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