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round up
USED FUEL THE DRYING STATION for used nuclear fuel became the first commissioning process in the equipment installation sub-project to be completed with regulatory approval at the encapsulation plant being built by Finnish waste management company Posiva at Olkiluoto.
RADWASTE THE US DEPARTMENT of Energy Office of Environmental Management crews have begun emplacing defence-related transuranic (TRU) waste in Panel 8 of EM’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico.
THE US DEPARTMENT of Energy Office of Environmental Management along with the Environmental Protection Agency and state of Idaho have agreed to expand the Idaho CERCLA Disposal Facility at the Idaho National Laboratory Site. The Site’s largest, active landfill will be expanded to accommodate the disposal of contaminated soil, debris and even reactor vessels for an additional 25 years.
AN INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC Energy Agency Integrated Review Service for Radioactive Waste and Spent Fuel Management, Decommissioning and Remediation (ARTEMIS) team said Germany demonstrated commitment to continued development of its national radioactive waste management programme since a previous 2019 review.
D&D
UNIT 3 OF Belgium’s Doel NPP was shut down earlier this year in accordance with the 2003 Belgian law on nuclear phase-out, and work to prepare the reactor for dismantling has now begun and can continue in line with a ruling from the Brussels Court of First Instance.
NORWEGIAN NUCLEAR DECOMMISSIONING (NND), which is responsible for radioactive waste management in Norway, has awarded an extensive framework agreement to Geological Repositories for Norway (GeoReN) will support NND with expertise in developing radioactive waste management concepts and solutions.
THE UK’S CUMBRIA-based Forth Engineering has secured two separate contracts to carry out work on behalf of Nuclear Decommissioning Authority company Magnox. Forth is to design, manufacture and provide waste retrieval solutions in Magnox wet vaults at the Hinkley Point NPP, and also design and install active effluent pumping facilities at Magnox’s SGHWR and Dragon reactors.
V Infra will use innovative machinery that does not cause vibrations, thus minimizing inconvenience. KWS Infra is carrying out the preparations for the work site which is expected to be completed in early 2023. The building permit for the Pallas-reactor with buildings has been granted by the municipality of Schagen. On ‘Prinsjesdag’ (budget day), the Dutch Government took the decision to reserve financial resources for Pallas. In doing so it was agreed that preparations for the work site can continue. Final decision-making on the full funding of the project is expected to take place in the spring of 2023.
Brazil Work resumes at Angra 3 Civil works have resumed at Angra dos Reis NPP 3. An event at the plant marking the restart of the concreting process was attended by Eduardo Grand Court, the new president of Brazilian nuclear utility Eletronuclear (formerly part of Eletrobras). Work on Angra 3, a Siemens/KWU 1405 MWe unit, began in 1984 but was suspended two years later. Work resumed in 2006 but was subsequently suspended a number of times for financial, and political reasons. It was stopped again in 2015 when it was 65% complete. Preparation for the restart of concreting began in February 2022 with the signing of a contract between Eletronuclear and the AGIs consortium, comprising Ferreira Guedes, Matricial and ADtranz. This included the assembly of a concrete plant on site in September and numerous field and laboratory tests. The pouring of first concrete signalled the
start of the Angra 3 Critical Path Acceleration Plan, which aims to complete the civil works of the main buildings. In addition, part of the electromechanical assembly, such as the closure of the containment and the installation of key equipment like the used fuel pool, the polar bridge and the semi-gantry crane, will be completed. The unit will, as originally planned, use German-origin technology developed by Siemens/KWU, which is now owned by the French company Framatome. Angra 3 is expected to be ready in 2028. According to the financial statements of
Eletrobras, then the controller of Eletronuclear, investments in Angra 3 totalled BRL1.24bn (US$233m) in 2021. Although the privatisation of Eletrobras was concluded in 2022, Eletronuclear was part of a group of subsidiaries maintained under the control of the State. They were integrated into a new state-owned company, Empresa Brasileira de Participacoes em Energia Nuclear e Binacional (ENBpar), which led the resumption of the Angra 3 works. Currently, Brazil has two nuclear power plants
in operation, both in Angra dos Reis, on the Costa Verde, in Rio de Janeiro. Angra 1&2, with a total capacity of 1.9 GWe, generate 1.1% of the energy of the Brazilian Interconnected System (SIN).
12 | December 2022 |
www.neimagazine.com Poland
KHNP begins NPP site investigation Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) has begun a site investigation for the new Pątnów NPP project in Poland. A letter of intent (LOI) was signed in October in Seoul by the presidents of three companies: the Polish private energy group ZE PAK, the state-owned energy company PGE and KHNP. It assumes the development of a plan for the construction of a NPP in Pątnów based on APR1400 technology. The preliminary plan for the development of the power plant is to be ready by the end of this year. The LOI was signed after the Polish government announced that its first NPP would be built by US Westinghouse. KHNP and France’s EDF had also tendered for the contract. While Westinghouse will proceed with the state project, KHNP is developing a private project with Polish partners. KHNP formed a site investigation team with
related companies including Kepco Technology to visit the Pątnów power plant, the site of the planned new NPP, on the 9 November. The 10-member investigation team checked the suitability of the site, such as cooling capacity, power grid, and environment, together with working-level officials from ZE PAK and met with ZE PAK Chairman Zygmunt Solorz to discuss business cooperation plans. The Pątnów-Adamów-Konin Power Plant
Complex plans to abandon lignite in two years and the Pątnów plant, which has been operating for more than 50 years, is now to be used as the basis for the new NPP. “We showed the Koreans that we not only have this old cooling system that we have successfully used over the years in a brown coal power plant, but that we have a tank that holds 120 million cubic metres. Ultimately, it will be 140-145 million cubic meters. We also showed an open pit, from which in March next year we will dig the last ton of coal, and there we will be able to store 220 million cubic metres of water,” said Piotr Woźny, President of the Management Board of ZE PAK. At an APR1400 Supplier Symposium held at the Sheraton Grand Hotel in Warsaw and jointly hosted by KHNP, Korea Nuclear Export Industry Association (KNA), and the Polish Electricity Industry Association (IGEOS), KHNP said it proposes that 20% of the costs would be financed from partners’ equity, shared 49% from KHNP and 51% by the Polish partner. The other 80% of the costs would be debt financing shared 51% from the Polish partner and 49% from Korean export support institutions – K-EXIM and K-SURE, and from other sources.
UK
RR SMR selected for Cumbria Rolls-Royce SMR has been selected as the preferred nuclear technology provider for the newly formed Solway Community Power Company which is planning to bring new nuclear power to West Cumbria in northwest UK. Solway Community Power Company CEO Paul Foster, a former Sellafield Ltd CEO, laid out
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