NEWS |
round up
COMPANY NEWS FRANCE’S EDF HAS opened an office in Warsaw to prepare a comprehensive proposal for the Polish government concerning the construction of Poland’s first nuclear power plant.
RADWASTE US-BASED HOLTEC International said its manufacturing facilities in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio were gearing up for increased production of HI-STAR casks following receipt of recent regulatory approvals and new orders in Europe.
THE AUSTRALIAN NUCLEAR Science and Technology Organisation is applying to the Australian regulator to amend its licence for its Interim Waste Store so that it can receive a second TN-81 cask of intermediate level radioactive waste, which will to be repatriated in the 2022 financial year from the UK.
THE UK’S NUCLEAR Decommissioning Authority (NDA) said the Low Level Waste Repository Ltd has become an NDA subsidiary.
CAVENDISH NUCLEAR HAS been awarded a contract worth nearly £3 million to help provide Magnox’s Hinkley Point A site in Somerset with capability to immobilise intermediate level waste and encapsulate it for safe long-term storage.
THE CANADIAN NUCLEAR Safety Commission announced acceptance of the Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Near Surface Disposal Facility (NSDF) from Canadian Nuclear Laboratories. CNL says the NSDF is key to improving the state of legacy waste at the Chalk River Laboratories site.
ADVANCED REACTORS US KAIROS POWER and the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development announced that Kairos Power will establish its low-power demonstration Hermes reactor in Oak Ridge.
THE US DEPARTMENT of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy said Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Analysis and Measurement Services Corporation have completed testing of sensors for small light-water reactor systems.
GE HITACHI NUCLEAR Energy is creating 80 jobs in Ontario to support deployment of BWRX-300 SMRs in Canada and around the world. Earlier Cameco, GEH and Global Nuclear Fuel-Americas signed a MOU to explore areas of cooperation to advance commercialisation of BWRX-300 SMRs.
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China ACP100 SMR begins construction China has begun construction of the world’s first commercial small modular reactor (SMR) project at the Changjiang NPP in the southern- most island province of Hainan. The project is based on China National Nuclear Corporation’s (CNNC’s) Linglong One (ACP100) technology. The multi-purpose, 125MWe SMR is a
pressurised water reactor designed for electricity generation, urban heating, urban cooling, industrial steam production, or seawater desalination. CNNC began development of the Linglong One in 2010, and it was the first SMR project to pass an independent safety assessment by International Atomic Energy Agency experts in 2016. Its integrated PWR design was completed in 2014 and it was identified as a ‘key project’ in China’s 12th Five-Year Plan. The design, which has 57 fuel assemblies and integral steam generators, was developed from the larger ACP1000 PWR. It incorporates passive safety features and could be installed underground. China’s state council approved the project
earlier this year. The preliminary safety analysis report for the Hainan Changjiang Multipurpose Small Modular Reactor (ACP100) Science and Technology Demonstration Project was reviewed and approved by the National Nuclear Safety Administration in 2020. The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) formally approved its construction in June. The demonstration project is owned by CNNC Hainan Nuclear Power Company, a subsidiary of CNNP. Construction is expected to take 65 months, for startup in May 2025, subject to relevant government approvals.
Canada CNL to develop ‘finned’ Candu fuel Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) said the use of 3D printing had opened a new range of possibilities for fuel, with new geometries, new materials, new fuel blends, and the ability to embed other materials into the fuel itself. Over the past year, CNL’s Fuel Development
team has been exploring through modelling a concept which would see the embedding of metallic fins into a conventional fuel pellet. These fins would help transfer the heat from the centre of the fuel to the exterior of the fuel, and into the reactor coolant. “In nuclear fuel for power generation purposes, one of the limiting factors is known as centreline temperature,” said Andrew Bergeron, a chemist in CNL’s Fuel Development branch. “Just as it sounds, the centreline temperature refers to the temperature of the fuel in the dead centre, horizontally, in the fuel pellet. Too hot in the centre could cause premature fuel failure; too cool and your fuel isn’t being used efficiently.” Before the fuel is created, and certainly
before it is put into a reactor for testing, it will be thoroughly examined through computer modelling.
10 | August 2021 |
www.neimagazine.com “The models are based on conventional
heat transfer models,” said computational materials scientist Nana Ofori-Opoku. “The really interesting part is the implementing the specific design of the inserts and matching the materials specific properties across the different materials. This is accomplished by building the modelling framework in COMSOL, a modelling software.” The modelling results to date show that the
temperature across the fuel can be greatly reduced through the embedding of these metallic fins. This can result in a reduction of up to 35% of the peak temperature with respect to a high linear power density of 500W/ cm (standard operating condition for a Candu power reactor). The modelling is currently looking at conventional UO2
and ThO2 -UO2
pellets. The metals chosen for the fins — molybdenum and zirconium — were selected because they have good thermal conductivity and are compatible with UO2
fuel. So, with the modelling well advanced, the
next step is to begin fabricating the fuel, a project which will be undertaken in the coming year. For this, CNL will call on the 3D printing expertise within two groups. The fuel portion will be printed in the fuel development laboratories, and the metallic fins will be printed using a metal printer operated by the Mechanical Equipment Development team. CNL said that, although the work focuses on
a Candu pellet, the outcome of this project has applications well beyond the heavy-water fleet. In principle, this could be expanded to include research on PWR and BWR reactor fuels as well.
United States US to decommission reactor in Alaska The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is set to begin decommissioning the SM-1A mothballed nuclear power reactor at Fort Greely in Alaska from 2022. The project is expected to take six years. USACE said it expects to release a request for proposals soliciting contractor bids for the decommissioning and dismantlement project by late summer. The USACE issued a final environmental
assessment and finding of no significant impact for the SMA-1 decommissioning on 28 June, beginning a 30-day wait period before the plan is officially finalised. USACE intends to decommission the deactivated plant site to a level that will allow it to be released for unrestricted use. Construction of SM-1A, a 20.2MWt PWR, began in 1958. First criticality was achieved in March 1962 and final shutdown was performed just ten years later. This involved removal of the nuclear fuel, minor decontamination, shipment of pre- packaged radioactive waste, encasing certain reactor components, sealing the pressure vessel, and installing appropriate warning signs and monitoring devices. Further remediation was due to take place at a time when radiation levels and quantities of radioactive waste were significantly reduced due to radioactive decay. ■
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