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THE DECOMMISSIONING OF unit 1 at Taiwan’s Maanshan NPP will begin as scheduled on 27 July when its operating licence expires, according to Cabinet spokesperson Chen Shih-kai. Maanshan is the only operating NPP in Taiwan, but the operating licences for its two 936 MWe pressurised water reactors expire in July 2024 and May 2025.
CLEAN-UP THE US DEPARTMENT of Energy Office of Environmental Management is draining the last large concrete basin at the Hanford Site that stored reactor fuel rods during the World War II and Cold War era plutonium production mission.
WORKERS ARE PUMPING out contaminated water from the 1.2m gallon basin in the K West Reactor and hauling it by tanker truck to a nearby treatment facility.
INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY Agency experts confirmed that the tritium concentration in seawater samples taken from a popular beach destination in the city of Minamisoma in the Fukushima Prefecture is far below Japan’s operational limit. Minamisoma is about 30 kilometres north of the Fukushima NPP, where Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) has been discharging diluted treated water since August 2023.
HEATING A RECENT STUDY by Finland’s VTT Technical Research Centre has concluded that nuclear energy can become a viable option for replacing fossil fuels in heat production. The study looked at the LDR-50 low-temperature nuclear reactor, which is designed for the Finnish and European district heating markets.
SMRS ROLLS-ROYCE SMR has signed a $1.5m contract with US-based GSE Solutions to develop a power station simulator to support the design of its small modular reactor (SMR) technology. The simulator will play a key role in Rolls-Royce SMR’s programme to develop, verify and validate the performance and control systems of its planned factory-built NPP.
US DOMINION ENERGY Virginia has issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) from leading small modular reactor (SMR) nuclear technology companies to evaluate the feasibility of developing an SMR at the North Anna Power Station in Louisa County. Although the RFP is not a commitment to build an SMR at North Anna, it is a first step in evaluating the technology.
12 | August 2024 |
www.neimagazine.com Japan
Tsuruga 2 restart rejected Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) has instructed its secretariat to go ahead with steps to formally reject a plan to restart unit 2 of Japan Atomic Power Co’s (JAPC’s) the Tsuruga NPP in Fukui Prefecture. Earlier NRA officials concluded that the unit did not meet the strict safety regulations introduced following the 2011 Fukushima disaster. Current safety standards do not permit the
installation of safety-critical equipment on an active fault line and NRA said it could not rule out the possibility that a fault line running under the reactor building may be connected to the nearby active “K Fault” some 300 metres north of the unit 2 reactor building. The conclusion was reported to NRA commissioners who have now upheld the judgment. JAPC had asked for additional surveys to
expand data on the fault and revisions to the application to restart the reactor. Regulatory officials interviewed JAPC President Muramatsu Mamoru about details of the additional surveys. Muramatsu said the surveys would take more than one year, and that the company would formally present its plan in about two months. Noting that the explanation lacked concrete details, NRA officials decided not to accept the request for the additional surveys and instructed the secretariat to draw up a draft assessment saying that the reactor did not meet regulatory standards. The draft assessment is expected to be
compiled in about one month and will be the first time a nuclear reactor has been refused permission to restart since the NRA was established in 2012. JAPC can then either apply for a fresh round of screening, or decommission the reactor. President Muramatsu told reporters that the company still hoped to restart the plant.
India
FBR criticality approved India’s Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) has given its approval for the “first approach to criticality” for the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR), following a final review. The PFBR is a 500 MWe sodium-cooled fast
breeder nuclear reactor at Kokkilamedu, near Kalpakkam. The Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) designed the reactor based on experience gained from operating the lower power Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR). The PFBR was developed by BHAVINI
(Bharatiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Limited), a government enterprise set up in 2003 under the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) to focus on fast breeder reactors. Construction began in 2004 and was originally expected to be completed in September 2010, but faced delays. It is now scheduled to be put into service in December 2024. As a result, the project’s cost has doubled from INR 35bn ($422m) to INR77bn. DAE said: “In line with the true spirit of Aatmanirbhar Bharat [Indian self-reliance],
PFBR has been fully designed and constructed indigenously by BHAVINI with significant contribution from more than 200 Indian industries including MSMEs [micro, small and medium enterprises]. Once commissioned, India will only be the second country after Russia to have a commercial operating Fast Breeder Reactor.”
In the final stage of core loading, fuel
sub-assemblies will be fitted into the core, following which the nuclear fission process will begin. On attaining a sustained nuclear chain reactor – known as criticality – the reactor will be declared operational and a few lower power physics experiments will be conducted. Subsequently, AERB’s approval will be sought to generate electricity on a commercial scale and connect the reactor to the grid. Once DAE is confident in the reactor’s operation, two more fast breeder reactors will be constructed at Kalpakkam. Fast breeder reactors form the second stage
of India’s three-stage nuclear programme, with the long-term goal of deploying a thorium- based closed nuclear fuel cycle. The first stage is based on pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWRs), fuelled by natural uranium, and light water reactors. The second stage involves reprocessing used fuel from the first stage to recover the plutonium to fuel FBRs. In the final stage, Advanced Heavy Water Reactors (AHWRs) will burn thorium-plutonium fuels and breed fissile uranium-233.
United States Comanche Peak gets life extension The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has approved a request to extend the operation of Comanche Peak NPP until 2053; an additional 20 years beyond its original licence. Plant owner Vistra had applied for licence renewal in October 2022. The two-unit Comanche Peak is the third of
Vistra’s four nuclear plants to receive a licence extension. Comanche Peak units 1&2 can now operate until 2050 and 2053. The company’s Beaver Valley NPP units 1&2 in Pennsylvania are licensed to 2036 and 2047, and Davis-Besse in Ohio is licensed to 2037. Perry NPP in Ohio applied for renewal in 2023 and is undergoing the NRC review process. NRC staff noted that Vistra’s “proactive and voluntary efforts” helped improve the timeliness and efficiency of the licence renewal process. The company voluntarily submitted three supplements to the applications, which the staff said contributed to a 70% reduction in its requests for information compared with previous licence renewals. Comanche Peak, in Somervell County,
Texas, is operated by Luminant Generation, a subsidiary of Vistra Corp. Unit 1 began operation in 1990 and unit 2 in 1993. In 2008, NRC approved a request to increase the capacity of the units by approximately 4.5% each. Unit 1 was uprated to 1,259 MWe and unit 2’s capacity increased to 1,245 MWe.
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