Olkiluoto expands interim used fuel storage

Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO) is to double capacity for the interim storage of used fuel at its Olkiluoto nuclear power plant. A contract has been awarded for the construction of three new storage pools at the site.

Olkiluoto units 1 and 2 (Image: TVO)

The contract to construct the three new storage pools has been awarded to the TYL KPA consortium, comprising construction companies Skanska Talonrakennus Oy and Hartela Oy.
The expansion will double interim storage capacity at Olkiluoto, TVO said. One of the new three storage pools is reserved for used fuel from the existing Olkiluoto units 1 and 2, while the other two pools will be used to store fuel from unit 3, which is currently under construction. A fourth reactor is also planned at the site. The new storage pools are expected to be ready to start accepting used fuel in 2013.

The expansion project - the total cost of which is some €30 million ($40 million) - has been designed by Poyry Civil Oy.

At Olkiluoto, a surface pool storage for used fuel has been in operation since 1987. This facility is designed to hold up to 1270 tonnes of used fuel for about 40 years. After interim storage, the fuel will finally be disposed of in a deep geological repository, enclosed in heavy copper capsules.

Researched and written
by World Nuclear News

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State Nuclear Profiles 2010 --EIA

State Nuclear Profiles 2010 --EIA

The newly-formatted State Nuclear Profiles contains 2008 final data on nuclear generation and capacity, significant facts about the local nuclear industry, nuclear plant construction costs, dates of commercial reactor operation and license expiration, and type of cooling system. Tables also compare nuclear and other output and capacity.

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US new build plans delayed

US new build plans delayed

17 September 2010

Plans for new nuclear build in the USA have been delayed due to a lack of demand for electricity, according to the head of the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI). Nevertheless,TVA's forward planning sees it increasing its nuclear capacity over the next 20 years.

Watts Bar (Image: TVA)

Speaking in London at the Annual Symposium of the World Nuclear Association, NEI President and CEO Marvin Fertel told the meeting that the economic downturn, along with a decline in the price of natural gas, has caused forward power prices to fall to levels well below those previously predicted. The country now faces a similar situation to the past 15 years, during which time 320 GWe of gas-fired plant capacity was built, compared with a total of only 20 GWe of capacity from all other forms of generation. "Gas is going to be the dominant part of the new supply source," Fertel said.

Although 13 combined construction and operating licence (COL) applications, representing 22 new nuclear reactors, are under active review by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), Fertel said that the industry is not expecting construction to begin on so many reactors in the near future. If four to eight reactors would start up by 2020, this would be a "successful start" to new nuclear construction. Pre-construction activities for new nuclear reactors have begun at Vogtle in Georgia and V.C. Summer in Sourth Carolina. Two Westinghouse AP1000 are planned for each site, the first of which (at Vogtle) is expected to commence operation in late 2016. Meanwhile, work to complete TVA's Watts Bar 2 in Tennessee is due to finish in 2013. Construction on the unit was suspended in 1985 and resumed in 2007. 
More at link

UPDATE 1-China's Sanmen nuclear plant to open Nov. 2013

Westinghouse's Candris: China plants on pace for 2013 opening
Westinghouse is on schedule to complete the construction of two AP1000 reactors in Sanmen, China, by May 2013 and open them six months later, said CEO Aris Candris on Thursday. Westinghouse is assembling two more 1,000-megawatt AP1000 reactors in China's Shandong provinces, and hopes to secure at least three more plants, the company said. Reuters

China has said it wants to raise its nuclear capacity from around 10 gigawatts now to at least 40 GW by 2020, with Westinghouse hoping its new reactor will be favoured over European and Russian competitors for much of the new build. "The AP1000 is going to be the principal reactor (in China's nuclear programme)," Westinghouse CEO Aris Candris told a Nuclear Association conference in London, later saying that Westinghouse's involvement in China's nuclear expansion plans would be diminished by technology transfers the company agreed to when it sealed the Sanmen and Haiyang.

Japan Interested in Technologies to Reduce LLW from Nuclear Power Plants

According to a Japanese News Report, Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) will launch full-scale development of technologies to reduce low-level radioactive waste (LLW) generated from nuclear power plants. The Japan Atomic Energy Agency will undertake the actual technology development with the aim of achieving practical application by the end of fiscal 2015. Given that such technologies have been requested by many countries considering introduction of nuclear power generation for the first time, MEXT hopes to expand nuclear exports by proposing to sell such technologies and plant construction as a set.
LLW consists mainly of work clothes and paper towels used during inspection in nuclear power plants. Conventionally, this waste is disposed of after being incinerated or shredded to reduce its volume, mixed with cement or resin and sealed in drums. MEXT claims that there is still a room for further volume reduction in the processes of incinerating and shredding waste and putting it in drums. If it is possible to further reduce waste volume, disposal costs will be reduced because more waste can be put into each drum.
In pursuing the research and development of new technologies, MEXT is considering inviting engineers from countries newly introducing nuclear power to participate in related projects in Japan.

Pro & Con: Can Georgia Power contain costs of Plant Vogtle reactors?

Improved industry practices and better regulatory policies will work toward ensuring that the cost of Georgia Power's Vogtle expansion project will not spiral out of control, according to Buzz Miller, the company's executive vice president for nuclear development. "The lessons learned at home and abroad have paved the way for a new generation of U.S. nuclear power plants that feature advanced designs, refined construction techniques, early engagement by state public service commissions and a licensing process geared to a mature technology," he writes. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

EXELON’S ROWE SEES ‘DECADE OR TWO’ SLIDE IN U.S. RENAISSANCE By Steve Hedges

EXELON’S ROWE SEES ‘DECADE OR TWO’ SLIDE IN U.S. RENAISSANCE

By Steve Hedges
John Rowe, the chief executive of U.S. nuclear heavyweight Exelon Corporation, has gone public with a blanket conclusion that natural gas prices are going to make building new nuclear power reactors difficult. As long as gas prices stay low, he told Bloomberg in an interview published on Friday, “you can’t economically build a merchant nuclear plant."
The Bloomberg interview highlights Rowe’s bottomline market thesis that — as long as low natural gas prices persist — new U.S. nuclear construction will be postponed by a "decade, maybe two."
Rowe isn’t the first to note that natural gas prices could negatively impact the renewal of nuclear energy in the U.S., which is lagging behind Europe and Asia in the construction of new nuclear power reactors.
What’s striking, though, is that Exelon has 17 nuclear reactors at 10 power stations, which comprise 20% of the U.S. commercial nuclear fleet. Merchant plants, which sell electricity wholesale, are also in a different class than those reactors run by utilities with a dedicated customer base.
Rowe’s take is interesting, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. A recent set of Standard and Poors reports on the cost of nuclear power plant construction found that, in the U.S., the cost of building all plants — coal, gas, wind and nuclear — has risen dramatically. S&P cites an IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates’ index of costs, and notes that, in the U.S., a power plant that cost $10 billion to build in 2000 would cost $21.5 billion today. Base costs in the U.S., the report states, “have grown 20% faster in the U.S compared with Europe over the past decade.”Why the difference between the U.S. and Europe? When it comes to nuclear, S&P states that, “A steady stream of reactors established a relatively cheap supply chain and skilled labor force in Europe and Asia.”
Not so in the U.S., the report states, where a virtual moratorium on nuclear reactor construction has diminished an important skilled labor pool.
“Amid serious doubts over the future of the U.S. nuclear industry during the 1980s, the pool of nuclear construction managers and specialized workers dried up and remains shallow today,” S&P reports. “Several specialized skills (such as highquality welding) that are unique to the construction of nuclear power plants are now hard to come by in the U.S. We expect some specialists to transfer from France, Japan, and other nations to provide expertise and increase the workforce. However, these countries have substantial building programs of their own and may not be able to export experienced manpower.
“The dearth of experienced nuclear engineers and construction workers is a key factor that also increases costs.”
Rowe’s position aside, perhaps the bigger threat to the Nuclear renaissance in the U.S. isn’t the costs of other forms of energy, but the cost of not doing anything.

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Ohio Facility to Starts Operations with AREVA Technology

Ohio Facility to Starts Operations with AREVA Technology

News out of Southern Ohio yesterday— AREVA announced the start-up of operations at a recently completed conversion facility at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site. Constructed by Uranium Disposition Services LLC, a joint venture of AREVA, EnergySolutions and Burns and Roe, the facility will use a proprietary AREVA process to perform conversion. The UDS partnership is also working on a sister plant across the state border in Paducah, Ky., which should be ready in the coming months.
These two facilities will be used to perform an valuable function for the nuclear energy. They will convert depleted uranium hexafluoride, commonly known as DUF6, into uranium oxide. Expected operate until 2037; the Portsmouth facility will convert 13,500 metric tons of DUF6 per year.
The conversion process is detailed in this graphic from the UDS site below:

As a world leader in the design and operations of DUF6 conversion facilities, AREVA supplied proven process technology based on our nuclear fuel conversion facilities operating in Richland, Wash., and Lingen, Germany.
AREVA North America CEO Jacques Besnainou said that this is “an important recognition of AREVA’s expertise in the construction and operation of safe, efficient nuclear facilities.”
For more information on this new facility and its positive impact for the nuclear industry and economy for Southern Ohio, read the full press release http://us.areva.com/scripts/home/publigen/content/templates/Show.asp?P=913&L=EN.

Nuclear reactor at SRS in works Private firm to contribute funds

SRNL eyes construction of S.C. nuclear reactor with Hyperion
The Savannah River National Laboratory has struck a partnership with Hyperion Power to develop a small modular nuclear reactor at Savannah River Site. "This is the first step -- a rather small step but an extremely important step," said Mike Navetta, manager of energy-park initiatives for Savannah River Nuclear Solutions. Executives are optimistic that the project will be completed and launched by 2020. The facility is expected to generate hundreds of jobs, said Pete Knollmeyer, vice president for strategic planning at Savannah River Nuclear Solutions. The Augusta Chronicle (Ga.)

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Dutch provinces eye construction of new nuclear facility

Dutch provinces eye construction of new nuclear facility
Dutch provinces, through their company Energy Resources Holding, plan to file an application to build a second nuclear plant in the Netherlands. The application will include plans to develop a facility with a maximum capacity of 2,500 megawatts, the company said. It wants to secure key permits by 2014 and fire up the plant by 2019. Reuters

Construction of Chinese 'Nuclear City' to start

Construction of Chinese 'Nuclear City' to start

Plans are advancing for the construction of the first industrial park in China to help with the rapid development of the country's nuclear power industry, with detailed engineering and construction preparation work at the site in Haiyan, Zhejiang province, expected to start soon.

The coastal city of Haiyan, on the Yangtze Delta, has been selected to house the 'Nuclear City'. It is some 118 kilometres (70 miles) southwest of Shanghai and close to the cities of Hangzhou, Suzhou and Ningbo. It also lies midway along China’s coast, where several nuclear power plants have been constructed or are planned.

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Nuclear industry takes new path for new plants By RAY HENRY (AP)

Analysis: Industry seeks new approach to buying nuclear plants

 

A standardized design approach for new nuclear reactors could help power companies get through the approval process, according to this analysis. Every existing U.S. commercial reactor is unique, and experts say this is the reason behind lags in construction and regulatory approvals. The situation has prompted industry officials to ask the government to choose several reactor designs for companies to select from. Google/The Associated Press

 

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