Department of Commerce, Rosatom sign draft amendment to uranium agreementNuclear NewsSupply ChainSeptember 15, 2020, 12:03PM|Nuclear News StaffThe U.S. Department of Commerce and Rosatom on September 12 initialed a draft amendment extend the Agreement Suspending the Antidumping Investigation on Uranium from the Russian Federation, signed in 1992. Rosatom is Russia’s state atomic energy corporation.Should the amendment receive final approval, it will extend the agreement to 2040.RossWhat they’re saying: “This draft agreement represents an important step forward for the American nuclear industry,” said Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross. “If finalized, it will contribute to the restoration of America’s nuclear energy advantage and protect the domestic industry from dumped Russian uranium.”Specifics: According to the DOC, the draft amendment would accomplish the following:■ Reduce U.S. imports of uranium from Russia. Under the current agreement, Russian uranium exports are limited to approximately 20 percent of U.S. enrichment demand. Under the amended agreement, the figure would drop to an average of about 17 percent over the next 20 years and would be no higher than 15 percent starting in 2028.■ Strengthen existing protections for the U.S. commercial enrichment industry. By extending and reducing the agreement’s export limits, the draft amendment would enable the U.S. commercial enrichment industry to compete on fair terms.■ Establish unprecedented protections for U.S. uranium miners and the U.S. uranium converter. Under the current agreement, Russia can use its entire export quota for the sale of not only the enrichment component of the low-enriched uranium, but also the natural uranium concentrates and conversion components of the LEU. By contrast, the amended agreement would allow only a portion of the export quota to be used for the sale of the natural uranium components (concentrates and conversion) from Russia. On average, this portion would be equivalent to approximately 7 percent of U.S. enrichment demand and no higher than 5 percent starting in 2026.■ Fix “returned feed” provisions in the existing agreement that prejudice U.S. uranium miners. Under the agreement as it stands, foreign-origin returned feed—i.e., natural uranium delivered by U.S. customers to the Russian exporter in exchange for enriched uranium—can be delivered to the Russian exporter, enriched in Western Europe, and then exported to the United States outside the agreement’s export limits. The amended agreement would require foreign-origin returned feed that is enriched in third countries to be subject to the agreement’s export limits if exported back to the United States.■ Allow for the fulfillment of U.S. customers’ preexisting contracts for Russian uranium. There are U.S. companies that already had contracts to purchase uranium from Russia before the DOC launched negotiations to extend the agreement beyond 2020. The limits in the updated agreement are structured to enable the majority of these contracts to be fulfilled.Comments requested: The DOC is releasing the draft amendment for public comment, with a due date of September 28. The amendment is available to registered users at access.trade.gov (reference case number A-821-802), and it will also be published in the Federal Register. The DOC is seeking to finalize the amendment no later than October 5.Tags:department of commercerosatomuranium dumpingShare:LinkedInTwitterFacebook
Russia seeking customers for floating nuclear plants, report saysTechnicians loading the first reactor aboard the Akademik Lomonosov, Russia's floating nuclear power plant. Credit: Rosatom.The Bellona news site is reporting that Rosatom is marketing its floating nuclear power plants to foreign countries. The news item noted on December 14 that Russia’s Tass newswire had published the information, citing government statements. Rosatom is Russia’s state nuclear corporation.“Rosatom has made proposals for the installation of floating units to a number of foreign countries,” Yury Trutnev, a deputy prime minister and presidential representative to Russia’s Far Eastern Federal District, said earlier this month, according to Tass. “It’s clear that one unit is not enough for us to sell such modules. Their future replication would open a possibility for Russia to open a market niche where there currently is no one.”Go to Article
First RPV for Turkish nuclear plant arrivesThe Unit 1 reactor pressure vessel arrives at the Akkuyu site. Photo: Akkuyu Nuclear JSCRussian company Atommash has delivered the reactor pressure vessel for Unit 1 of the Akkuyu plant, the nuclear power facility under construction in Turkey, Akkuyu Nuclear JSC announced recently.Atommash is a branch of AEM Technologies, which is part of Atomenergomash, the equipment-building division of Rosatom, Russia’s state atomic energy corporation. Akkuyu Nuclear, based in Ankara, was established to implement the Russian-Turkish project.It took some three years to manufacture the 330-metric ton, 12-meter-long reactor pressure vessel and 20 days to transport it from the Atommash plant in Volgodonsk, Russia, to the eastern cargo terminal at the Akkuyu plant site, according to Akkuyu Nuclear.Go to Article
Russia retires reactor at Leningrad plantThe Leningrad nuclear power plant’s Unit I-2, a 925-MWe RBMK-1000 light-water–cooled graphite-moderated reactor, was permanently shut down on November 10, according to Rosatom, Russia’s state atomic energy corporation. The shutdown occurred at 12:30 a.m. Moscow time.The unit was the oldest operating reactor at the plant, having achieved initial criticality in May 1975 and entered commercial operation in February 1976. Two additional RBMK-1000s remain in operation at Leningrad—Units I-3 and I-4, both of which have been in operation for about 40 years.The retired reactor is to be replaced by Unit II-2, one of two 1,085-MWe Generation III+ VVER-1200 pressurized water reactors at the Leningrad site. The new unit was connected to the Russian grid in October, and on November 6 it received regulatory approval to begin pilot operation. (Leningrad’s other VVER-1200, Unit II-1, started commercial operation in 2018.) Following the trial operation, Unit II-2 will be shut down for an additional equipment inspection by a state commission before being put into commercial operation early next year, according to Rosenergoatom, Rosatom’s electric power division.Go to Article
Newly connected Belarusian reactor powers downOn November 8, less than a week after becoming Belarus’s first nuclear reactor to be connected to the power grid, and only one day after a visit to the Belarusian site from the country’s president, Alexander Lukashenko, to celebrate the accomplishment, Belarusian-1 was forced to cease power production, a report from the Associated Press states.Go to Article
Belarus’s first nuclear reactor connects to gridThe Belarusian nuclear power plant. Photo: RosatomBelarus on November 3 became the latest nation to begin generating electricity with nuclear energy when Unit 1 of the Belarusian nuclear plant was connected to the country’s power grid.The Belarusian construction project, located in the Grodno region of Belarus, features twin 1,109-MWe pressurized water reactors, supplied by Rosatom, Russia’s state-owned nuclear energy corporation. The units are VVER-1200 Generation III+ designs, model AES 2006. Just last week, a VVER-1200 was connected to the Russian grid at the Leningrad plant.The start-up program for Unit 1 began on August 7, when the first fuel assembly with fresh nuclear fuel was loaded into the reactor, according to a Rosatom press release. The reactor achieved first criticality on October 11.Once fully completed, the plant is expected to supply approximately 18 billion kWh of low-carbon electricity to the Belarus national grid every year, Rosatom said.Go to Article
New unit delivers first electricity to Russian gridRosenergoatom, the electric power division of Russia’s state-owned nuclear power corporation Rosatom, announced on October 23 that Leningrad II-2 has been connected to the grid. The unit is one of two Generation III+ VVER-1200 pressurized water reactors at the Leningrad nuclear plant.The reactor will replace Leningrad I-2, a 925-MWe RBMK-1000 light-water–cooled graphite-moderated reactor that will permanently cease operation at the end of 2020 after 45 years of service. Fuel loading at Leningrad II-2 began in July, and initial criticality was achieved in August. Following the trial operation, the unit will be shut down for an additional equipment inspection by a state commission before being put into commercial operation early next year, according to Rosenergoatom.Go to Article
U.S., Russia finalize amendment to uranium import agreementThe U.S. Department of Commerce and Rosatom, Russia’s state atomic energy corporation, have signed a final amendment to the Agreement Suspending the Antidumping Investigation on Uranium from the Russian Federation. The amendment extends the 1992 pact through 2040 and reduces U.S. reliance on uranium from Russia during that time period, the DOC announced October 6.Previously, the agreement was set to expire on December 31 of this year. According to the DOC, the document’s expiration “would have resulted in unchecked imports of Russian uranium, potentially decimating the front-end of the nuclear fuel cycle in the United States.”The final amendment is unchanged from the draft version, released for public comment on September 11. (For more specifics on the amendment, see our story on the draft here.)Go to Article
TVEL develops new fuel for Hungarian reactorsTVEL Fuel Company, a division of Russian atomic energy corporation Rosatom, has completed a project to develop and validate a new nuclear fuel modification for the Paks nuclear power plant in Hungary, the company announced on October 13.According to TVEL, the full package of modification documents has been handed over to MVM Paks Ltd., the plant’s operator, for further licensing of the new fuel by Hungary’s national nuclear power regulator. TVEL added that the project’s first fuel assemblies passed acceptance testing at the company’s Elemash Machine-Building plant, a fuel fabrication facility in Elektrostal, near Moscow.The first consignment of the modified fuel is scheduled for delivery to Paks later this year. The contract between TVEL and MVM Paks for development of the new fuel was signed in late 2017.Go to Article
Reactor pressure vessel for Akkuyu-1 shipped, steam generators deliveredThe reactor pressure vessel for Akkuyu-1. Photo: RosatomRosatom, Russia’s state atomic energy corporation, announced last week that the reactor pressure vessel for Unit 1 of Turkey’s Akkuyu plant has been shipped from the Atommash plant in Volgodonsk, Russia. Also, the four steam generators for the reactor have arrived at the Vostochny Cargo Terminal, near the port of Mersin in southern Turkey. Atommash has shipped all the most important large-sized equipment for the primary circuit of the reactor for Akkuyu-1, Rosatom said.Atommash is a branch of AEM Technologies, which is part of Atomenergomash, the equipment-building division of Rosatom.Go to Article
Newest Russian icebreaker ready to hit the iceThe Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker Arktika. Photo: RosatomThe Arktika, Russia’s latest nuclear-powered icebreaker, sailed from the Baltic Shipyard in St. Petersburg last week, bound for the Murmansk seaport. The voyage is scheduled to take approximately two weeks, during which time the vessel will be tested “in ice conditions,” according to Rosatom, Russia’s state-owned atomic energy corporation.Go to Article