NEWS |
round up
UPGRADES
BRUCE POWER’S MAJOR Component Replacement is entering into a new phase. The reactor removal work has been completed at Bruce 6 in preparation for the installation of new parts that will extend the life of the unit for 40 years.
WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC COMPANY has signed an instrumentation and control contract with Dominion Energy for the implementation of a Digital Modernisation Program at Surry in the USA.
EQUIPMENT SOUTH KOREA’S MINISTRY of Science and ICT said the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI) has won a deal worth $3.88 million to deliver digital instrumentation and control systems for the Bangladesh Training and Research Reactor.
US-BASED DOMINION Engineering has been awarded a contract to supply vacuum canister fuel sipping equipment and services at nuclear reactors in South Korea. Dominion will cooperate with Kepco Nuclear Fuel for domestic market development and delivery.
INDIA’S BHARAT HEAVY Electricals Limited won a major order from Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited against stiff competitive bidding. The order, valued at around $188m, is for twelve steam generators for India’s indigenously-developed 700MWe PHWRs being built at four locations.
WESTINGHOUSE ELECTRIC COMPANY has signed a contract with Harbin Turbine Company Limited Automation Control Company to supply turbine control and protection systems to China’s Changjiang 3&4 in Hainan Province.
THE STEAM GENERATOR Replacement Team, a 50/50 joint venture between Aecon and SGT (a partnership between Framatome and United Engineers & Constructors), had been awarded a $350 million contract by Bruce Power to replace steam generators at Bruce 3&4.
POLICY CANADA’S NUCLEAR INNOVATION Institute and Bruce Power have launched the Net Zero Partnerships (NZP) programme to identify and support local opportunities for carbon reduction, sequestration and offset projects.
Rosatom consolidates its role in the Arctic
Rosatom and GDK Baimskaya have signed an agreement to jointly implement a project to supply power to the Baimsky mining and processing plant in Russia’s Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. The agreement was signed by Rosatom deputy director general and director of the Northern Sea Route (NSR) directorate Vyacheslav Ruksha and GDK Baimskaya Board chairman Oleg Novachuk during Rosatom’s Arctic Day on 23 July. The parties agreed that they would conclude
a long-term “take-or-pay” contract for the sale and purchase of electricity by April 2022. Rosatom has proposed using optimised
floating NPPs with a capacity of 106MW based on RITM-200 reactors to provide electricity to the Baimsky GOK. These units are already under construction at Rosatom’s mechanical engineering division, Atomenergomash. “We expect to build four power units: three main units and one standby unit that will be used during the repair or refuelling of one of the main units,” said Ruksha. The first two units are expected to be delivered to their working location in the Cape Nagleynyn and connected to power lines leading to the Baimsky GOK at the end of 2026; the third unit will be connected at the end of 2027, he added. GDK Baimskaya is developing the large
Peschanka copper deposit, which is estimated to contain 9.9 million tonnes of copper with an average grade of 0.39% and 16.6 million ounces of gold with an average grade of 0.21 g/t.
Developing the NSR Rosatom signed several other agreements during Arctic Day, many related to development of the NSR. Russia’s government has designated Rosatom as single infrastructure operator of the NSR until 2035. Rosatomflot provides nuclear icebreaker support along the NSR route. Rosatom subsidiary Atomenergoprom and Aeon Infrastructure Corporation concluded a
China China starts building underground lab China has begun constructing its first underground research laboratory in the Gobi Desert, to determine the area’s suitability for future geological disposal of high-level radioactive waste (HLW), the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported. This will include used nuclear fuel, generated
in China’s 51 operational nuclear power units. Its construction follows more than three decades of research with the support of the IAEA. Scientists will use the laboratory to characterise and assess the geological, hydrological,
6 | August 2021 |
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preliminary agreement to implement joint Arctic shipping projects including construction of vessels for the delivery of both general cargo and the products of the Syradasay coal deposit from the Taymyr Peninsula. An agreement was signed between Rosatom
and UAE-based logistics company DP World on joint development of pilot container traffic between North-Western Europe and East Asia using the backbone transport infrastructure in the Arctic. Rosatom and Norilsk Nickel signed an amendment to their 2018 cooperation agreement, which will be valid until 2030. Currently nuclear-powered icebreakers Taimyr and Vaigach operate from January to May. This will now be extended to enable operation from November to May. A cooperation agreement was also signed with Moscow State University’s Marine Research Centre in St Petersburg to make possible pilot projects for the comprehensive research and monitoring of surface and underwater environmental safety in the water area of Russia’s Arctic region.
An SMR for Yakutia Elsewhere in the Arctic, the Ministry for the Development of the Russian Far East plans to create an interdepartmental working group for the construction of a small nuclear power plant in Yakutia. The Yakutia project, which will use a
land-based version of the RITM-200 reactor, is being developed under a September 2019 agreement of intent signed between Yakutia and Rosatom. In 2020, the field stage of the survey was completed, and office work is underway. Rosatom reported that a low-power nuclear power plant will be built in Yakutia by 2028. It is planned to obtain a licence for the construction of the facility in 2024, after which the construction of the SMR will begin. ■
geochemical, and engineering characteristics of the rocks at the site. China has been working on identifying
a suitable site for a HLW repository since 1985, and since 1999 those efforts have been supported by the IAEA. “The safe disposal of high-level radioactive waste is one of the critical missions for the sustainable development of China’s nuclear industry,” said Liang Chen, vice president of the Beijing Research Institute of Uranium Geology (BRIUG), which is constructing the laboratory. China’s strategy for HLW disposal comprises
three stages, and stage one — laboratory studies and preliminary site selection — U
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