NEWS |
round up
NEW BUILD THE DEFLECTOR (DOME part) of the passive heat removal system has been installed at unit 1 of Russia’s Kursk-II NPP, according to Rosatom’s engineering division. This is an aerodynamic device designed to increase draft in the ventilation duct and boost the efficiency of the ventilation system. Meanwhile, a VVER-TOI reactor pressure vessel is being shipped from Atommash for installation in unit 2.
PROGRESS IS CONTINUING at unit 4 of China’s Sanmen NPP in Zhejiang province, according to the Shanghai Nuclear Engineering Research & Design Institute. The largest and heaviest of the six major components comprising the steel containment vessel – the 1,024- tonne CV1R module – has been hoisted into place. The CV1R contains various components such as permeable casing, equipment gates and other accessories.
PLANT OPERATION A LONG-TERM power purchase agreement signed between Holtec Palisades Energy and the non-profit Wolverine Power Cooperative may be a significant step towards restarting the US Palisades NPP. The single-unit 800 MWe pressurised water reactor at Palisades NPP in Michigan began commercial operation in 1971 and was removed from service by Entergy in May 2022.
JAPAN’S CHUGOKU ELECTRIC Power Co announced that it will restart unit 2 at its Shimane NPP in the prefectural capital of Matsue in August 2024. This will be the first time the reactor has been operational in 12 years and seven months. The 820 MWe boiling water reactor (BWR) will be the first BWR to be restarted since the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi NPP in 2011
REGULATION & LAW AN INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC Energy Agency (IAEA) Integrated Regulatory Review Service team has found Poland’s nuclear regulatory framework to be in line with IAEA safety standards and that its regulatory body is competent and prepared for the launch of Poland’s first NPP programme.
THE WASHINGTON STATE Department of Ecology says a settlement agreement has finally been reached with the US Department of Energy to ensure access to critical federal data about the Hanford Site. This brings to conclusion the $1.065m penalty Ecology issued to Energy in 2020 for restricting the state’s legally mandated direct access to important facility data.
Military looks to microreactors
X-Energy Reactor Company and the US Department of Defense (DOD) have agreed to expand a contract under the Project Pele initiative to develop a transportable, cost- effective advanced nuclear microreactor prototype for use in remote military locations. In addition, the US Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), on behalf of the US Air Force and DOD, has issued a notice of intent to award a contract to US-based fission technology company Oklo to provide heat and electricity to the Eielson Air Force Base near Fairbanks in Alaska as part of the Air Force’s micro-reactor pilot programme. X-energy said it expects to advance the design of its prototype – which could also be used for commercial or industrial use in civilian applications – through an award of $17.49m within an existing DOD contract. This will be a second design to be developed under Pele. DOD’s Strategic Capabilities Office (SCO) launched Project Pele in 2019 to develop a fourth-generation nuclear microreactor to deliver energy to support remote and austere environments. The project is based on the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, in which Congress directed DOD and the Department of Energy (DOE) to develop a plan to design, build, and test a microreactor at a DOD installation by December 2027. In April 2022 SCO formally released a record of decision (ROD) to proceed with the programme specifying a high-temperature gas-cooled (HTGR) mobile microreactor able to produce 1-5 MWe for more than three years without refuelling. SCO considered two designs selected in
a preliminary competition - an HTGR design from BWX Technologies (BWXT) Advanced Technologies and X-energy’s Mobile Nuclear Power Plant. In June 2022 BWXT’s microreactor was selected for development. The design was for a HTGR fuelled by TRISO (TRIstructural- ISOtropic) high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) transportable in commercially available shipping containers. The prototype is expected to be completed in 2024 for operation in 2025, SCO Programme Manager Jeff Waksman told an American Nuclear Society webinar in August. “We are now ordering hardware, we are making fuel, we are forging the containment vessel, we’re making moderator blocks… we are no longer a paper reactor,” he said. By early 2025, the reactor is expected to be shipped to Idaho National Laboratory (INL) where it will be fuelled and shipped to a desert location for initial testing before undergoing a final operational readiness review. Testing and operation of the prototype reactor will be regulated by the DOE rather than the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Reactor fuel for Project Pele is to be
8 | October 2023 |
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produced from DOE highly enriched uranium (HEU) currently stored at the Y–12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The fuel will be converted from a metal to an oxide at BWXT’s Nuclear Fuel Services facility in Erwin, Tennessee, and then down-blended to HALEU and fabricated into TRISO reactor fuel at the BWXT facility in Lynchburg, Virginia. The DOD estimates that it uses approximately 30 TWh of electricity a year and more than 10m gallons of fuel a day. These figures are expected to increase due to anticipated electrification of the vehicle fleet and maturation of future energy-intensive capabilities. Small, transportable nuclear reactors are expected to help address this growing demand while supporting “mission-critical operations” in remote and austere environments. X-energy’s transportable microreactor is designed to generate in the range of 3-5MWe and should be cost-competitive with remote diesel power. X-energy will initiate pre-licensing engagement with the NRC, in order to enable a broad range of deployment possibilities to decarbonise off-grid, remote, or small-scale grid resiliency needs. It is expected to use X-energy’s proprietary TRISO-X fuel. The DOD has initiated the acquisition process
to potentially award a contract to Oklo under a long-term power purchase agreement. Oklo is developing the Aurora microreactor, which uses heat pipes to transport heat from the reactor core to a supercritical carbon dioxide power conversion system to generate electricity. It will use HALEU fuel. Oklo says the reactor builds on the Experimental Breeder Reactor-II (EBR-II) and space reactor legacy. Oklo initially marketed a 1.5 MWe microreactor version of the Aurora but has now expanded its capacity offerings from 15 MWe to 100 MWe. Oklo received a site permit in 2019 from the DOE to build its first Aurora facility at INL. In 2020, Oklo submitted a combined licence application to NRC to build and operate the Aurora microreactor at INL. However, NRC denied the application, citing the company’s failure to provide sufficient design information. A revised application was submitted in September 2022. The DLA contract may be conditional on Oklo receiving and NRC licence. In August 2018, the Air Force office of energy
assurance recommended Eielson Air Force Base for the microreactor pilot. The project will be coordinated with the Air Force Office of Energy Assurance, the office of the deputy assistant secretary of Defense for Environment & Energy Resilience, DOE and NRC. The groups will also be working together to oversee safety. The microreactor is expected to be operational by the end of 2027. ■
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