WNN Daily World Nuclear News November 10, 2020

10 November 2020

 

CORPORATE: Russia retires Leningrad 2 RBMK

The Leningrad 2 nuclear power unit in in Sosnovy Bor in Western Russia was shut down permanently today. The RBMK, which has been in operation for 45 years, is to be replaced by Leningrad II-2, a VVER-1200, which on 6 November received regulatory approval to start pilot operation. Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom said Leningrad 2 was shut down for subsequent decommissioning at 00:31 Moscow time. The reactor was shut down in accordance with the technological regulations and disconnected from the unified power system of Russia without incident, Rosatom said. In accordance with federal regulations, a shutdown power unit is considered to be in operation without generation until the moment of complete removal of nuclear fuel, which is completed within four years, Rosatom said. "As in the case of power unit 1, which was shut down in December 2018, regular operations will be carried out with the second unit. In fact, the procedures performed practically do not differ from ordinary maintenance," Vladimir Pereguda, director of Leningrad NPP said. "Now our task is also to service reliably and safely the shutdown units, unload nuclear fuel from the reactors and prepare them for transfer to the specially created enterprise Experimental Demonstration Engineering Centre." Noting the start-up of Leningrad II-2, Andrey Petrov, the general director of Rosatom's operator subsidiary Rosenergoatom, said: "The replacement of the retired capacities will be imperceptible to electricity consumers." Compared to RBMK power units, the new VVER-1200 power units that are being commissioned have a number of advantages, Rosatom said. They are 20% more powerful, and the service life of their irreplaceable equipment is doubled, to up to 60 years.

NEW NUCLEAR: US firms said to be in talks for Wylfa Newydd project

A US consortium of Bechtel, Southern Company and Westinghouse is in talks with the British government about reviving the Wylfa Newydd nuclear power plant project in north Wales by building AP1000 reactors at the site on Anglesey. Citing an unnamed source, the Financial Times said today that discussions about Wylfa began after the US consortium contacted the British government in September, expressing its wish to take over the project. Horizon Nuclear Power, the UK project developer owned by Japan’s Hitachi, was to develop two UK Advanced Boiling Water Reactor units at Wylfa, but on 16 September Hitachi announced it will end its business operations on the project, which it had suspended in January 2019. The source told the Financial Times that the consortium's plans could deliver power to the electricity grid on both a similar timescale to that proposed by Horizon and at "a market competitive price" per megawatt hour, despite switching to a different reactor technology. "A deal over Wylfa would be dependent on the UK government introducing a new funding model for large nuclear projects in the UK and the US consortium striking an agreement to acquire the site on Anglesey from Hitachi, which spent about GBP2 billion on developing the Wylfa project," the newspaper said. A decision on planning consent for the project was due to be made on 30 September, but Horizon successfully requested that this be delayed until 31 December. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected in the coming weeks to give a speech setting out a 10-point plan for how the UK will meet its net zero by 2050 target.

NEW NUCLEAR: Rolls-Royce enlists Exelon to help deploy SMRs

Rolls-Royce and US utility Exelon Generation have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to pursue the potential for Exelon to operate small modular reactors (SMRs) both in the UK and internationally. The announcement came as the British engineering company also signed an MoU with Czech utility ČEZ to explore the potential for SMRs in the Czech Republic. The consortium comprises Assystem, Atkins, BAM Nuttall, Jacobs, Laing O'Rourke, National Nuclear Laboratory, Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre, Rolls-Royce and TWI. Rolls-Royce is leading a consortium that has designed the UK SMR, a small pressurised water reactor that they say will be able to operate for 60 years and provide 440 MWe. To minimise the construction phase of the programme, the UK SMR is fully modularised to enable the plant to be transported by road, rail or sea. Targeting a 500-day modular build, they say this concept minimises the onsite time and effort required to construct and build the plant. The target cost for each station is GBP1.8 billion (USD2.4 billion) by the time five have been built, with further savings possible, they say. The power plants will be built by the UK SMR consortium, before being handed over to be operated by power generation companies. Exelon Generation will work closely with the consortium during the pre-operation period. "Exelon will add valuable operational experience to the team," Rolls-Royce said. It noted the utility operates 21 reactors in the USA, generating more than 158 TWh of clean electricity annually. Tom Samson, interim CEO of the UK SMR Consortium, said: "Complementing our existing consortium partnerships with one of the world's largest nuclear operator adds an important dimension to our growth ambitions, embodies the strength of the UK and USA alliance on nuclear matters and offers our future customers the ability to achieve the highest performance standards associated with Exelon's outstanding operational track record." Rolls-Royce has already signed a number of MoU with overseas utilities and organisations to cooperate on SMRs. Yesterday it announced the signing of an MoU with Czech utility ČEZ to explore the potential for SMRs in the Czech Republic. In March, Turkey's state-owned EUAS International ICC signed an MoU with Rolls-Royce to evaluate the technical, economical and legal applicability of SMRs. In addition, they will consider the possibility of joint production of such reactors. In November 2017, Rolls-Royce signed an MoU with state-owned Jordan Atomic Energy Commission to conduct a technical feasibility study for the construction of a Rolls-Royce SMR in the Middle Eastern country.

URANIUM & FUEL: BWXT completes TRISO fuel line restart

BWXT Nuclear Operations Group, Inc has completed its TRISO nuclear fuel line restart project and is actively producing fuel at its facility in Lynchburg, Virginia, BWX Technologies, Inc (BWXT) has announced. TRISO - standing for TRIstructural-ISOtropic - particles contain a spherical kernel of enriched uranium oxycarbide surrounded by layers of carbon and silicon carbide, which contains fission products. TRISO particles are stable to very high temperatures and are used to manufacture fuel for high-temperature reactors which operate at 750 to 950°C. BWXT says it is the only US company to manufacture irradiation-tested uranium oxycarbide TRISO fuel using production-scale equipment. "The restart of our TRISO line positions BWXT as the only company in the US that is currently executing production contracts for TRISO fuel," Nuclear Operations Group President Joel Duling said. BWXT announced in October 2019 it was restarting its existing TRISO nuclear fuel production line, and also planned to expand its capacity. In March of this year, the US Department of Energy (DOE) awarded a contract to BWXT to fabricate high assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) TRISO fuel to support development of the DOE's Transformational Challenge Reactor, and in June the company was awarded a contract from the Idaho National Laboratory to expand and upgrade BWXT's TRISO manufacturing capacity. The full restart of the TRISO fuel line means that BWXT is now manufacturing fuel across four commercial and government business lines, the company said. In addition to the TRISO line, these are: BWXT Nuclear Energy Canada, which manufactures about half of the fuel that powers the commercial reactor fleet in Ontario; BWXT subsidiary Nuclear Fuel Services, Inc, which provides nuclear fuel for the US Navy; and BWXT Uranium Processing and Research Reactors, which is the only North American supplier of research reactor fuel elements for colleges, universities and national laboratories.

Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) has completed the excavation and transfer of historic low-level radioactive waste away from the Lake Ontario shoreline to a new long-term waste management facility. The waste removal marks a milestone for the Port Hope Area Initiative (PHAI) which CNL is implementing through its Historic Waste Program Management Office on behalf of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL). The Port Granby Project involves the relocation of some 1.3 million tonnes of historic low-level radioactive waste from the legacy storage site on the shoreline of Lake Ontario in Southeast Clarington, to a new, engineered aboveground mound. Remediation of the legacy site began in 2016. CNL President and CEO Joe McBrearty said completion of the remediation fulfilled a key commitment by the government of Canada to restore the land for the local community. "This milestone represents continued progress in one of the largest and most complex environmental clean-up missions ever undertaken in Canada," he said. The waste is from over 50 years of radium and uranium refining operations of the former Crown corporation Eldorado Nuclear and its private sector predecessors, which operated from the 1930s to the 1980s. Remediation has been carried out in stages, with each section of the site undergoing a stringent testing process to confirm that all contaminated material had been removed. Verified areas were then backfilled with clean soil and restored by hydroseeding and planting vegetation. The new management facility is an engineered storage mound about 700 metres north of the shoreline site. Work to cap and close the mound is expected to be completed in summer 2021, with final landscaping targeted for summer 2022. Dedicated systems installed within the mound and around the perimeter of the new facility will monitor the safety and performance of the facility for hundreds of years into the future, CNL said. Richard Sexton, president and CEO of AECL, thanked the residents of Port Granby for their support and patience during decades of community consultation followed by the remediation and restoration work. The PHAI represents the federal government's commitment to the cleanup and local, long-term, safe management of historic low-level radioactive waste in the municipalities of Port Hope and Clarington. The initiative was established in 2001.

WASTE & RECYCLING: CNL completes removal of Canadian legacy waste

SPEECH: Established nuclear countries must lead sustainability drive

The world needs countries, such as Brazil, to step up and lead the way by expanding their nuclear capacity to help contribute to a sustainable energy future, said Agneta Rising, former director general of World Nuclear Association. She was speaking ahead of the World Nuclear University Short Course World Nuclear Industry Today to be held online in Brazil on 16-19 November. "I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Brazilian Association for the Development of Nuclear Activities (ABDAN) and its members for the work they have done to promote nuclear energy in Brazil, as well as for their cooperation with the World Nuclear Association throughout the years. It feels like it was only yesterday that we met in Rio de Janeiro for the World Nuclear Spotlight Brazil, when the global nuclear industry and Brazilian decision-makers came together to discuss the great potential for nuclear developments in Brazil. The World Nuclear University plays a key role in educating the future leaders of the nuclear industry and, as its President, I am delighted that we will be hosting the WNU Short Course World Nuclear Industry Today in Brazil next week. The world needs countries, such as Brazil, with a long history of, and great expertise in, nuclear energy, to step up and lead the way by expanding their nuclear capacity to help contribute to a sustainable energy future. As things are now, nuclear is respected, but not wanted. Nuclear power will continue to play a key role in bringing affordable electricity around the world, and is an essential part of the climate change solution. However, nuclear is still not allowed to be part of the conversation in some places, even if the IEA, several UN bodies and the OECD are more urgently emphasising its importance. However, the picture is changing, thanks in large part to the vision that the World Nuclear Association's Harmony goal provides - that is, 25% of global electricity coming from nuclear power before 2050. People are coming to the nuclear family, wanting nuclear energy to meet their needs and to power their dreams and aspirations. We need to change the image of the industry - both outside and inside the industry itself - and so I am especially proud of the outcome of the Harmony goal, which has been seized upon by the nuclear industry as well as being a reference for policymakers. Over the last few years, there have been more and more discussions around cost, cost and cost, and despite the fact that nuclear is the most cost-effective energy source for society. However, we need to ask ourselves - if we build short-term solutions, like solar panels or wind turbines, which are not effective for the societal system, what will happen to the system itself? They are small scale and cannot resolve the large-scale needs we have. Solar and wind are by nature very dispersed energy forms, which makes it more costly to harvest the energy from them and it cannot be stored (easily). Hydropower is clearly a much more efficient energy source, as the raindrops are concentrated into streams and rivers by nature. Being the most concentrated energy form, nuclear is the most intelligent way to generate electricity and other services. We achieve huge output from nuclear, with very little input. Renewable energy is like a bicycle, it can take you places, and can play a role; however, it also has limitations - it is impossible to build an advanced society based on bicycles. For that task, you will need nuclear, or to follow the transport metaphor - railways - where you can transport huge amounts, but for a small effort. This is how we build a stronger tomorrow, by ensuring that we use the most efficient, most intelligent, energy systems that are currently available to us. In many ways, the future of nuclear energy is much brighter than it has been for many years. We are evermore recognised and valued for the unique services that nuclear energy offers humanity. I am convinced that countries like Brazil will have a key role to play, highlighting that economic prosperity and sustainable development can be delivered hand in hand, because we can do this with the help of the atom."