NEWS |
round up
COMPANY NEWS EDF HAS COMPLETED the sale of its 49.99% interest in Constellation Energy Nuclear Group to its joint venture partner, Exelon Generation for $885 million.
JACOBS HAS JOINED the UK’s Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre as a tier-one member. They will collaborate on manufacturing and material engineering projects for new build, decommissioning, equipment qualification and cyber.
FRANCE’S FRAMATOME HAS acquired the nuclear power systems division of RCM Technologies Canada Corp, expanding its Candu design expertise and its presence in Canada.
US-BASED TALEN Energy Corporation has entered a joint venture with TeraWulf, a US-based bitcoin mining company, to develop up to 300MW of zero-carbon bitcoin mining capacity. The joint venture is known as Nautilus Cryptomine.
TETRA TECH, INC has been reappointed to two frameworks at Sellafield. The frameworks, which cover civil inspections and topographical and GIS services are for a three-year period with an option for a one-year extension.
NUCLEAR FUEL THE US NRC is seeking public comment on its draft environmental impact statement for the proposed 40-year licence renewal of Westinghouse’s Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility in South Carolina.
EQUIPMENT TO PRODUCE mixed dense nitride uranium-plutonium fuel pellets has been installed at the construction site of the pilot demonstration energy complex (ODEK) under construction at the Siberian Chemical Combine.
UKRAINE’S CABINET OF Ministers has approved the state economic programme for the management of used nuclear fuel until 2025, which will end the need to export it to Russia.
THE US DEPARTMENT of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory is to examine Westinghouse Accident Tolerant Fuel. ORNL recently received several nuclear fuel test rods that were irradiated in a commercial reactor.
FINLAND’S GOVERNMENT AND its nuclear regulator have published a draft of the national programme for used fuel and radioactive waste management.
V pebbles the same size are included. They are correspondingly removed from the bottom, broken ones are separated, the burn-up is measured, and used fuel elements are screened out and transferred to storage. China Huaneng is the lead organisation in
the consortium building the HTR-PM units (with a 47.5% stake), together China Nuclear Engineering Corporation (CNEC) (32.5%) and Tsinghua University’s Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology (20%), which is the research and development leader. Chinergy, a joint venture of Tsinghua and CNEC, is the main contractor. Cold functional tests were completed at
the HTR-PM’s two reactors in October and November 2020 and hot functional tests began in January to simulate the thermal working conditions of the plant and verify that nuclear island and conventional equipment and systems meet design requirements. Testing of the steam turbine took place earlier in August. A further 18 HTR-PM units are planned for the Shidaowan site. China is also planning a larger HTGR. The HTR-PM600 will have a 650MWe turbine driven by some six HTR-PM reactor units. Feasibility studies on HTR- PM600 deployment are under way for Sanmen, Zhejiang province; Ruijin, Jiangxi province; Xiapu and Wan’an, in Fujian province; and Bai’an, Guangdong province.
United Kingdom UKAEA releases Fusion Materials Roadmap The UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) and The Henry Royce Institute for advanced materials have published a roadmap for developing materials for fusion energy. The roadmap, developed with the input of over a hundred materials experts from the UK research community and industry, highlights five major areas of work required to enable the materials for future fusion power plants. Identifying, developing, and qualifying the right materials is key to delivering commercial fusion for two reasons. First, plant efficiencies, safety and availability often hinge on the quality of the component materials. Second, a sustainable fuel cycle requires highly productive fuel breeding materials. Both plant components and fuel breeder materials will need to withstand a highly challenging combination of neutron bombardment and thermal, magnetic, electric, and mechanical loads in a tokamak power plant. Five priority areas identified by the UK Fusion
Materials Roadmap are: ● Novel materials to minimise the amount
of activation in the structure of the fusion power plant;
● Compounds that can be used within the power plant to optimise breeding of tritium fuel to sustain the fusion process;
● Magnets and insulators that are resistant to irradiation from fusion reactions – especially under cryogenic conditions;
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● Structural materials able to retain their strength under neutron bombardment at high operating temperatures (over 550°C); and
● Engineering assurance for fusion materials – providing irradiated sample data and modelled predictions such that plant designers, operators and regulators have confidence that materials are suitable for use in future commercial power stations.
Dr Amanda Quadling, director of materials at UKAEA said: “This roadmap is a national tool that aims to give UK materials researchers common themes to collaborate around. We hope to generate momentum in the testing, mechanistic understanding, and surmounting of, irradiation damage from fusion.”
United Arab Emirates Grid connection for Barakah 2 The Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation’s operating and maintenance subsidiary, Nawah Energy Company has started operation of a 1400MW APR1400 reactor at unit 2 of the Barakah nuclear plant in the Al Dhafra Region of Abu Dhabi. Nawah progressed through a comprehensive
testing programme, prior to completing the start-up of Barakah 2. Testing was undertaken with the continued oversight of the UAE’s independent nuclear regulator, the Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR), and followed completion of a Pre Start-up Review (PSUR) by the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO). “Preparations will now continue as we work
safely and steadily towards grid connection and eventually the start of commercial operations,” said Nawah CEO Ali Al Hammadi. Construction of the $20 billion Barakah NPP
began in 2011 after South Korea won a tender for the project in 2009. Korea Electric Power Company led the consortium that is building the plant comprising four APR1400 reactors. Construction of unit 1 began in July 2012, unit 2 in May 2013, unit 3 in September 2014 and unit 4 in September 2015. Unit 3 is now 94% complete and unit 4 is 87% complete.
United States Oak Ridge former enrichment site ready for reuse The US Department of Energy’s Office (DOE’s) Office of Environmental Management (EM) said that the former Oak Ridge centrifuge complex site is ready for reuse. EM Oak Ridge clean-up contractor UCOR used nearly 5500 trucks to bring in approximately 65,000 cubic yards of backfill soil to complete the site restoration. The site that once housed one of the tallest, most visible buildings at East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP) is now cleared and ready for industrial development. The complex was one of the final collections
of buildings to be demolished in 2020 as workers completed the first-ever clean-up of a former uranium enrichment complex. U
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