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New ITER timeline proposed At the 34th meeting of the ITER Council, the ITER Organisation, with support from the Domestic Agencies, submitted a proposed update to the project baseline for the Council’s consideration. The previous baseline, established in 2016, was for first plasma in 2025. As the host, Europe contributes almost half
of the costs of its construction (45.6%), while the other six members of the joint international venture (China, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the US), contribute equally to the remaining expenses (9.1% each). However, in practice, the members deliver little monetary contribution to the project, instead providing ‘in-kind’ contributions. The goal of ITER is to operate at 500 MW (for
at least 400 seconds continuously) with 50 MW of plasma heating power input. Some 33 nations are collaborating on the construction. The proposed new baseline “designs a path
to a scientifically and technically robust initial phase of operations, including deuterium- deuterium fusion operation in 2035 followed by full magnetic energy and plasma current operation”. The proposed baseline will be further evaluated, including the cost and schedule implications, before the Council reconvenes in November 2024. ITER Director-General Pietro Barabaschi
reported on the progress of the ITER Project. In November 2022, he had launched a programme of project reform including streamlined project management, heightened attention to quality control, and enhanced reporting. This came after defects had been identified in two key tokamak components, the thermal shields and the vacuum vessel sectors. Fixing the problems “is not a question of weeks, but months, even years,” he had noted. The proposed new baseline would prioritise
the start of substantial research operations as rapidly as possible. This would be achieved by consolidating tokamak assembly stages, enhancing pre-assembly testing, and reducing machine assembly and commissioning risks. Throughout this phase of assembly, the project will continually progress through critical technical milestones. As to the current situation, the Council
noted progress achieved on repairs to the vacuum vessel sectors and thermal shield, as well as ongoing manufacturing, assembly, and installation. Manufacturing of all poloidal field coils has also been completed. The first three central solenoid modules have been stacked and are being aligned while the fourth central solenoid module has arrived at ITER. Installation of magnet feeders is ongoing in the tokamak pit. Multiple support systems have been commissioned or are in the commissioning process. The Council noted the ongoing challenges
facing the project and expressed appreciation that all ITER members are continuing to meet their in-kind and in-cash commitments.
Russian Federation Rosatom loads BN-800 actinides mox The world’s first fuel assemblies containing uranium-plutonium mixed oxide (mox) fuel along with minor actinides have been loaded into Russia’s BN-800 fast reactor. Minor actinides are the most radiotoxic and long-lived components contained in used fuel. Three experimental mox assemblies containing americium-241 and neptunium-237 manufactured at Rosatom’s Mining & Chemical Combine (MCC) were loaded into the reactor. The Federal Service for Ecological, Technological and Nuclear Supervision (Rostekhnadzor) confirmed the safety of the operation of innovative assemblies. In the BN-800 reactor at unit 4 of Beloyarsk
NPP, the assemblies will undergo experimental industrial operation during three micro- campaigns (tentatively – one and a half years). “The micro-campaign in the BN-800 reactor should experimentally confirm the possibility of industrial disposal of minor actinides. The possibility of eliminating minor actinides using fast neutron reactors will reduce the volume of radioactive waste from the entire infrastructure of the nuclear fuel cycle resulting from the operation of nuclear power plants,” said Beloyarsk Director Ivan Sidorov. According to scientists, burning minor actinides will make it possible to achieve radiation equivalence between the source uranium and stored nuclear waste in just 300 years – 2,300 times faster compared with the 700,000 years required using an open fuel cycle. The technology of combining mox fuel with minor actinides was developed by Rosatom’s Fuel Division TVEL. To produce mox fuel assemblies with minor actinides using standard technology 38 methods for the analytical control of the mox fuel were validated. “Mox fuel with minor actinides produced
by Rosatom for an industrial fast neutron reactor has no analogues in the world and demonstrates a fundamental technological ability to implement the most important component of generation IV nuclear energy systems. The service for afterburning minor actinides in nuclear fuel from fast reactors is a completely new product for the global nuclear industry,” said Alexander Ugryumov, TVEL’s Senior VP for Scientific & Technical Activities. “Uranium-plutonium fuel itself makes it
possible to expand the raw material base of nuclear energy, reprocessing used fuel instead of storing it, and reducing the volume of nuclear waste generation. And the utilisation of minor actinides provides an opportunity to also significantly reduce the level of radioactivity of the waste, which will make it possible in the future to abandon complex and expensive deep burial,” he added. At Beloyarsk a larger fast reactor is being designed based on the operating experience of the BN-600 (unit 3) and BN-800 (unit 4). A generation IV fast reactor, the BN-1200M reactor will be built as unit 5.
round up
COMPANIES THE DECISION TO sell Nukem was made in 2022 in face of the difficult geopolitical situation and the challenges involved in continuing the company under a Russian owner. Since then, intensive negotiations have been held with potential buyers.
GERMANY-BASED GNS Gesellschaft für Nuklear-Service mbH, an international provider of nuclear decommissioning and waste management solutions, is taking over the Aachen Institute for Nuclear Training GmbH (AiNT). GNS said AiNT will continue in an unchanged corporate and organisational form together with the GNS Group.
NUCLEAR FUEL RUSSIA’S MACHINE-BUILDING Plant in Elektrostal has shipped fresh nuclear fuel for the second reactor of the floating NPP Akademik Lomonosov in the city of Pevek, Chukotka. The nuclear plant includes two KLT-40S reactor units in which fuel is replaced once every few years with a full load of fresh fuel.
THE REPLACEMENT OF nuclear fuel at the first reactor took place at the end of 2023.
THE FIRST NUCLEAR fuel simulators, an exact copy of industrial fuel assemblies but without uranium, have been loaded into the core of the VVER-TOI reactor at unit 1 of Russia’s Kursk NPP-II. This is one of the final operations in preparation for cold-hot testing of reactor equipment, preceding the physical start-up of the reactor.
USED FUEL THE TOWNSHIP OF Ignace in Canada’s Ontario province has confirmed its willingness to progress to the next phase of the site selection process to host a deep geological repository for used nuclear fuel. The decision comes following more than a decade of engagement with the Nuclear Waste Management Organisation.
RADWASTE BRAZIL IS EXPECTED to establish a permanent repository for low- and intermediate-level nuclear waste by early 2029. The repository will be executed by the Nuclear Regulatory Authority (CNEN). It is a key component of the Nuclear and Environmental Technology Centre (Centena) project.
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