NEWS |
round up
POLICY BRAZIL’S EMPRESA BRASILEIRA de Participações em Energia Nuclear e Binacional (ENBPar ) and Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which seeks to promote energy nuclear as a “green” energy source, safe and inducing socioeconomic growth.
THE BULGARIAN AUTHORITIES have excluded from anti-Russian sanctions the work of Russia’s Atomstroyexport (ASE) at the Kozloduy and Belene NPPs and have extended the contract between ASE and the Belene NPP. The government has allowed the National Electric Company and the Kozloduy NPP to continue to work within the framework of agreements and contracts with Russian companies.
SAFETY AND SECURITY AN INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC Energy Agency (IAEA) Emergency Preparedness Review (EPREV) team of experts has concluded a follow-up mission to review the emergency preparedness and response framework for nuclear and radiological emergencies in Slovenia. The team observed a commitment at all levels to emergency preparedness and noted that Slovenia has made significant progress in developing and revising emergency arrangements.
COMPANY NEWS FRANCE’S FRAMATOME SAID it had renewed its 2017 cooperation agreements with Technicatome. Loïc Rocard, President and CEO of TechnicAtome and Bernard Fontana, CEO of Framatome, reaffirmed their commitment to continue their partnership in the conduct of their industrial activities related to National Defense.
NUCLEAR FUEL TESTS OF NUCLEAR fuel for Russia lead-cooled Brest-300 fast reactor are proceeding successfully, Valery Shamansky, Deputy Chief Engineer for Safety and Reliability of the Beloyarsk NPP, said. He noted that Beloyarsk NPP is testing a new nitride nuclear fuel for the Brest reactor, which is is being built at the Siberian Chemical Combine.
RUSSIA’S INSTITUTE OF Materials Science of JSC (NPO TsNIITMASH (part of Rosatom) said it had completed, throw tests of a transport packaging kit (TUK) model for handling irradiated fuel assemblies from the Brest-OD-300 reactor. The condition of the mock-up (scale 1:10) was studied after it was dropped from a height of nine metres onto the lower transport damper.
V Germany is now restarting some of its coal plants. Earlier in October climate activist Greta Thunberg said it was a “mistake” for Germany to press on with nuclear decommissioning while resorting to coal again. Germany’s economy and environment ministries drafted a law to extend the lifespan of the country’s remaining three nuclear power plants until 15 April, 2023, after Chancellor Olaf Scholz ordered the ministries to lay the legal framework to keep them operational. After amending the Atomic Energy Act to extend the lifespan of the plants, the draft bill is expected to pass the upper and lower houses of parliament by the end of November. The operators of the plants are now taking
steps to ensure that the reactors can run until April, adding that this requires a change in current law. EnBW said Neckarwestheim 2 could in principle run until mid-April given remaining fuel supplies. E.ON’s Isar 2 will run until March based on current fuel rods, the company said, adding a rearranged set-up could in theory have enabled a run-time until August 2023. “For the time after that, fresh fuel elements would have to be procured,” E.ON said. That, however, requires some lead time - it usually takes around a year for fresh fuel rods to be delivered.
United Arab Emirates Barakah unit 3 connected The Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (Enec) saidits operations and maintenance subsidiary, Nawah Energy Company (Nawah), has connected unit 3 of the Barakah NPP to the UAE’s transmission grid. Unit 3, which started up in September, will sujpply an additional 1,400MWe to the grid in addition to units 1&2 which together supply 2,800MWe. Enec Managing Director and CEO Mohamed
Ibrahim Al Hammadi, said: “Our leadership’s long-term vision and decisions more than 13 years ago are paying dividends today as we celebrate another proud moment for the UAE Peaceful Nuclear Energy Programme.” He noted that electricity from unit 3 will replace the need to burn $4bn worth of gas “which can be diverted for export, and through Clean Energy Certification, gives many companies in the UAE a unique competitive advantage”. Following grid connection, the Korean- designed APR-1400 unit will undergo the process of gradually raising power levels, known as power ascension testing, or PAT. The process will be continuously monitored and tested until maximum electricity production is reached Work to construct the four-unit Barakah plant began in 2012. Unit 1 started up and was connected to the grid in 2020, followed by unit 2 in 2021. Both those units are now in full commercial operation. Unit 4 is in the final stages of commissioning. Once all four units are operating, they will contribute up to 25% of the UAE’s National Determined Contributions to Net Zero and be the largest source of dispatchable clean electricity.
12 | November 2022 |
www.neimagazine.com
USA Melter starts up at US Hanford site The US Hanford site vitrification plant has started heating the first of two 300-tonne melters at the $17 billion plant’s Low Activity Waste Facility with the goal of starting to treat radioactive waste by the end of 2023, according to the US Department of Energy (DOE). Construction of the first melter started 20 years ago and it must now remain hot continuously as it initially makes practice glass and then begins vitrifying low-level radioactive waste. DOE’s goal is to start vitrifying radioactive
waste stored in underground tanks, some since World War II, by the end of 2023. The 580-square-mile Hanford nuclear reservation near Richland in Eastern Washington produced about two-thirds of US plutonium for its nuclear weapons programme from World War II during the Cold War. Uranium fuel irradiated at Hanford was chemically reprocessed to remove plutonium. The mix of radioactive and other hazardous chemical waste from reprocessing has been stored in underground tanks, many of which are prone to leaking. They hold 56 million gallons of the waste until it can be treated for disposal. The melters are expected to operate
continuously for at least five years. “Permanently removing the waste from Hanford’s tanks and solidifying it is one of the most important elements of the entire clean-up mission, and melter heat up is an extremely important step in that process,” said David Reeploeg, the Tri-City Development Council vice president for federal programmes and the executive director for Hanford Communities, a coalition of Hanford area local governments. Initially, the vitrification plant will only
treat only low activity waste. Construction on the plant’s High Level Waste Facility has been mostly stalled since 2012 when technical issues caused DOE to shift its focus to treating low activity waste first. DOE faces a federal court deadline to also be treating high level radioactive waste, in addition to the initial treatment of low activity waste, by 2033 and to have the vitrification plant for that fully operating by 2036. The heating of the melter is done gradually
to slowly dry out the insulation and the temperature cannot be reduced without damaging the insulation, which can harden and become ineffective if the temperature cools. Once the melter temperature reaches 2,100 degrees, there will be up to two months of evaluation and checks. Richland company, Fluid Controls and Components, is supplying 108,000 pounds of the glass beads known as “frit” needed for the nonradioactive commissioning of the facility. It mimics waste by dissolving into a solid form at high temperatures. “It was the first time we dealt with frit,” said
Russ Watson, vice president of the Richland company, as the company worked to make the first delivery. “The chemistry and physical profile of the frit were very complex.” ■
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