| NEWS
Canada Bruce unit 6 commercially operational Unit 6 at Canada’s Bruce Power NPP has been declared commercially operational, 39 years to the day of its first in-service date on 14 September 1984. The unit was recently reconnected to Ontario’s electricity grid following completion of its Major Component Replacement (MCR) outage, which began in January 2020. Bruce Power said the unit has met all operational and contractual obligations of the company’s agreement with the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) to be declared in commercial operation. The MCR work was completed ahead of schedule and on budget despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is the first unit to be returned to service as part of Bruce Power’s Life-Extension Program, which will see Units 3-8 refurbished over the next decade, extending their operation period to 2064 and beyond. The eight pressurised heavy-water Candu
reactor units at the Bruce site in Ontario (Bruce A – units 1-4, and Bruce B – units 4-8) began commercial operation between 1977 and 1987. Bruce Power’s C$13bn (US$10bn) Life Extension Programme, which includes Asset Management and MCR, began in 2016. MCR, which began with unit 6 and also includes units 3-8, will extend the life of the site until 2064. Units 1&2 have already been refurbished and were returned to service in 2012. Work began on unit 3 in March and progressing on schedule using innovation and efficiencies gained in unit 6. Bruce Power President and CEO Mike
Rencheck commented: “Returning this renewed unit to service 39 years after it was originally declared operational is symbolic in that it makes the case for nuclear as the right choice for the people of Ontario in the past and moving forward.”
Japan Takahama Unit 2 restart Japan’s Kansai Electric Power has restarted unit 2 of its Takahama NPP in Fukui Prefecture for the first time since 2011. The 780 MWe pressurised water reactor (PWR), which began operation in 1975, is the 12th unit to be restarted since all NPPs were closed in the wake of the March 2011 Fukushima Daiichi disaster. Kansai has now resumed operating all of its seven reactors since the more stringent post- Fukushima safety standards were introduced. Takahama 2 unit is the second oldest in Japan after the 48-year-old Takahama 1 unit, which was restarted in July. The restart of the ageing reactors reflects
the government’s policy of using nuclear power generation to cut carbon emissions and ensure a secure energy supply. In May, parliament adopted a bill to allow nuclear reactors to operate beyond the current limit of 60 years. Commercial operation of Takahama 2 is scheduled for 16 October. Takahama 1 was closed for regular
maintenance two months before the Fukushima
accident. Unit 2 was taken offline in November 2011. In 2015, Kansai applied to the Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) to restart both reactors. NRA confirmed both units met new safety regulations in 2016 approved their operation for up to 60 years. Takahama 3&4 (1,180 MWe PWRs), which began operation in 1985, restarted in 2016 and 2017. In April Kansai requested NRA’s permission to extend their lifespan by 20 years.
United Kingdom Tokamak Energy magnet test pass Tokamak Energy’s superconducting magnet system, which is being built to replicate fusion energy power plant forces, has passed significant milestone cryogenic tests. Creating fusion energy requires strong magnetic fields to confine and control the extremely hot hydrogen fuel, which becomes a plasma several times hotter than the centre of the Sun. In a major achievement, Tokamak Energy engineers, working on its Demo4 system, have validated electromagnetic current test results on the first of 14 toroidal field (TF) limbs in liquid nitrogen. The engineers evaluated the performance of the superconducting TF limb at -200 degrees Celsius, which included examining the resistance of the joints required to pass the operational current between coils. Demo4 will be a complete balanced set of magnets shaped in a tokamak configuration with 12m amps of electricity running through its central column when fully assembled. Demo4 will consist of 44 individual magnetic
coils using 38 kilometres of 12mm wide high temperature superconducting (HTS) tape, which carries currents with zero electrical resistance and requires five times less cooling power than traditional superconducting materials. A TF limb consists of two coils being joined, resin moulded, and embedded into a structural steel ‘clam shell’. The system will operate in a vacuum at a temperature of -253°C achieved by 10 closed-cycle cryocoolers. Final Demo4 assembly and testing at
Tokamak Energy’s headquarters in Milton Park, near Oxford, will take place in 2024. In February Tokamak Energy announced that it had built the first set of new generation HTS magnets to be assembled and tested in fusion power plant-relevant scenarios. Although most radiation from high-energy
plasma neutrons will be absorbed by the tokamak’s shielding, the magnets must be able to withstand secondary gamma rays. Tokamak Energy, therefore, built and commissioned a specialist gamma radiation cryostat system – a vacuum device to provide thermal insulation for the magnets. This test system is being disassembled, shipped, and will be rebuilt at the Gamma Irradiation Facility (GIF) based at the US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Tokamak says its aim is to have commercial fusion power plants deployed in the 2030s.
round up
POLICY US UTILITY COMMONWEALTH Edison (ComEd – part of Exelon) and Constellation have announced an agreement that will help ComEd, power all of its 54 offices and metered facilities with locally produced carbon-free nuclear energy, every hour of every day.
SOUTH KOREA’S GOVERNMENT will offer a comprehensive support programme valued at up to KRW400m ($300,639) a year to local nuclear companies, with the aim of encouraging 60 new nuclear equipment exporters by 2027. The goal is to help smaller companies reduce dependence on government projects, therefore securing global market competitiveness amid rising demand for nuclear facilities worldwide.
US SPECIAL PRESIDENTIAL Envoy for Climate John Kerry, on the of the Three Seas Initiative Summit in Bucharest, announced US actions “to further the role of new, secure, and safe nuclear technologies in accelerating the clean energy transition”. Kerry also launched the Nuclear Expediting the Energy Transition (NEXT) One Stop Shop for SMR Support.
MEMBER STATES OF the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) now owe more than €200m ($214m), according to Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi. Addressing the recent Borad of Governors’ meeting he warned that unless payments are made, then in a month’s time “we will run out of money ... I will not be able to pay salaries or for the lights ... we will grind to a halt”.
SAFETY & SECURITY THE BARGE CARRYING two steam generators for units 5&6 of India’s Kudankulam NPP is been stuck on a rock close to the plant’s purpose built jetty. The ongoing operation to rescue the barge suffered a setback recently resulting in the
bottom of the barge being damaged.
JAPAN ATOMIC ENERGY Agency announced that a pool of radioactive water had been found in the radiation uncontrolled area of its materials test reactor in Oarai, Ibaraki Prefecture. The amount of radiation in the water was small and posed no threat to the environment or people, the agency said.
THE INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC Energy Agency’s first independent sampling and analysis of seawater near the Fukushima Daiichi NPP since discharges of treated water started on 24 August confirms that the tritium levels are below Japan’s operational limit.
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