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Ohio HALEU project begins enrichment


round up


NEW BUILD THE REACTOR PRESSURE vessel has been installed at unit 7 of China’s Tianwan NPP. This paves the way for installation of the main circulation pumps, steam generators and the main circulation pipeline. The VVER-1200 reactor vessel, was delivered to the construction site in early August.


CONCRETING OF THE dome for the internal containment shell (ICU) has been completed at unit 2 of Russia’s Kursk-II NPP. This is a key element in the safety system. It protects the reactor compartment and also provides support for pipeline penetrations and the polar crane used to service the reactor.


Above: An uranium enrichment centrifuge cascade


Enrichment operations have begun at the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) enrichment facility in Piketon, Ohio. The site is operated by American Centrifuge Operating (ACO), a subsidiary of Centrus Energy Corp. The DOE said the project is on track to produce 20 kilograms of HALEU by the end of 2023. ACO completed its operational readiness


reviews in June with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and received approval to use uranium at the facility. Since then, it has been conducting final systems tests and other preparations to begin enriching limited quantities of uranium hexafluoride gas into HALEU. Production of the first HALEU material is expected within the next few weeks. HALEU fuel contains 5-20% uranium-235 (higher than the 3-5% typically used in light water reactors). It is required by most of the designs being developed under the DOE’s Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program. Currently, there is no commercial supply


chain to support HALEU production, a situation which prompted the DOE to launch a programme to stimulate the development of a domestic supply. Under a competitively- awarded, cost-share contract signed with the DOE in 2022, Centrus was required to begin production of HALEU by the end of this year. The work builds on a three-year project with the DOE to manufacture and assemble 16 advanced centrifuges into an enrichment cascade. ACO expects to meet demonstration requirements by producing 20 kg of 19.75% enriched HALEU by the end of the year. It will then continue production in 2024 at an annual production rate of 900 kg of HALEU, with options to produce more in future. The HALEU will be used to help fuel the initial


cores of two demonstration reactors and will also support fuel qualification.


The Piketon plant is currently the only US


facility licensed to enrich uranium up to HALEU levels of 19.75%. In addition to this demonstration project, the DOE is supporting several other efforts to provide more access to HALEU. Current activities include recycling used nuclear fuel from government-owned research reactors and acquiring HALEU through purchase agreements with domestic industry partners to spur demand for additional HALEU production and private investment in the nuclear fuel supply infrastructure. In September, US-based BWX Technologies


was contracted by the DOE to process thousands of kilograms of government-owned scrap material containing enriched uranium into HALEU. The initial award will total $47m, with a total contract value of up to $116.5m, subject to annual congressional appropriations. BWXT will produce the HALEU over the next five years, with several hundred kilograms expected to be available as early as 2024. The DOE is also working to recycle used fuel


from the closed EBR-II reactor to make HALEU. It plans to recover approximately 10 tonnes of HALEU from EBR-II fuel by December 2028 using an electrochemical process that was perfected over the years at Idaho National Laboratory (INL). EBR-II operated from 1964 to 1994 using a metallic alloy fuel containing highly enriched uranium (HEU). US-based fission technology company Oklo


has expressed interest in receiving five tonnes of HALEU pending a cooperative agreement with INL that was competitively awarded in 2019. The recovered material from EBR-II will be used in the initial core of its Aurora microreactor that is expected to be first demonstrated at the INL in 2026. The DOE will retain ownership over the material before, during, and after its use. ■


A MELT LOCALISATION device (melt trap or core catcher) has been installed at unit 4 of the Akkuyu NPP under construction in Turkiye. This is paves the way for construction of the reactor shaft. The melt trap is a 144-tonne container in the form of a steel cone with a height of 6.14 metres and a diameter of 5.83 metres.


IRAN HAS POURED concrete for a new section of the second nuclear reactor at its Bushehr NPP. In June concrete was poured for the wall of the second Bushehr unit. The Head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran, Mohammad Eslami Eslami said then that plans had been put in place to expedite the construction of units 2&3 at the plant.


ROSATOM IS INSTALLING the melt localisation device – melt trap – at unit 1 of the El-Dabaa NPP under construction in Egypt. The 700-tonne, 6.1-metre diameter melt trap is a key component of the VVER-1200 reactor passive safety system. The equipment was delivered to the reactor site in March.


THE PRESIDENT OF Brazil’s National Nuclear Energy Commission, Francisco Rondinelli Jr, during a visit to Argentina, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the President of the Argentine Atomic Energy Commission, Adriana Serquis, to strengthen bilateral cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear technology.


FIRST CONCRETE HAS been poured for the first phase of China’s Lianjiang NPP in Guangdong Province. It will be China’s first NPP to have a recirculating seawater cooling system and super-large cooling towers, which reduces the amount of sea water used.


www.neimagazine.com | November 2023 | 7


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