Power & Operations

Rosatom, Russia’s state-owned atomic energy corporation, announced on June 18 that it has teamed up with France’s Framatome and General Electric’s GE Steam Power to participate in a tender to construct the Belene nuclear plant in northern Bulgaria. The Belene project would involve the construction of two AES-92 units, similar to the reactors that Rosatom supplied to India.

While there has been some good news recently regarding the historically troubled nuclear new-build project at the Vogtle site in Waynesboro, Ga. (see here and here), the latest news on the subject does not fall into that category.

Artist’s conception of Oklo’s Aurora. (Image: Gensler)

Oklo's 1.5-MWe fast spectrum design known as Aurora is the first advanced non–light-water reactor to be accepted for a licensing review by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Both the reactor’s design and the anticipated licensing process mark a major departure from large light-water reactor design and licensing.

The United Kingdom’s Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) issued an improvement notice to EDF Energy Nuclear Generation Ltd. earlier this month for a problem involving the pressure systems safety regulations (PSSR) at the two-unit Heysham 1 nuclear power station. The notice was served following an inspection of the Unit 1 pressure vessel at the Lancashire site.

Citing reports that China has recently threatened to pull its support for new nuclear build in the United Kingdom, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on June 9 offered assistance from the United States and vehement criticism of Beijing.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has published its annual report to Congress on “abnormal occurrences” for the previous fiscal year, identifying a total of nine incidents in FY 2019.

An abnormal occurrence is defined by the NRC as an unscheduled incident or event that it determines to be significant from a public health or safety standpoint. The NRC uses specific criteria, updated in October 2017, for determining which events qualify.

Framatome’s digital instrumentation and control (I&C) systems at the Doel nuclear power plant in Belgium have passed the final site acceptance test, the company announced on June 11. The news marks the completion of the project to modernize the control and emergency systems of Units 1 and 2, both of which entered commercial operation in 1975.

The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) has initiated a 30-day public notice and comment period on a proposed change to the agency’s Environmental and Social Policy and Procedures that would allow it to consider support for nuclear power projects, according to a June 10 press release. Currently, DFC is specifically prohibited from offering support for such projects.

Global First Power (GFP), Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation (USNC), and Ontario Power Generation (OPG) have announced the formation of a joint venture to construct, own, and operate USNC’s Micro Modular Reactor (MMR) at Canadian Nuclear Laboratories’ Chalk River Laboratories site in Ontario. The venture, known as the Global First Power Limited Partnership, is owned equally by OPG and USNC-Power, the Canadian subsidiary of USNC.

Hanson

The vacant seat on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission was filled on June 8, when Christopher T. Hanson was sworn in as the agency’s fifth commissioner. The vacancy was created in April 2019 with the resignation of Stephen Burns. Hanson will serve the remainder of Burns’s term, which expires on June 30, 2024.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) for Westinghouse Electric Company’s application to renew the operating license of its Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility (CFFF) in South Carolina, the agency announced in a June 5 press release. The plant produces fuel assemblies for use in commercial nuclear power reactors.

More than a thousand participants joined a Department of Energy webinar on May 29 for a discussion of the Trump administration’s strategy for restoring the United States to a globally predominant position in the field of nuclear energy. The strategy was laid out in the Nuclear Fuel Working Group’s recent report, Restoring America’s Competitive Nuclear Energy Advantage. (For details on the NRWG’s report, see our coverage here.)

Rendering of a Russian Project 22220 icebreaker. Image: Hanko/Wikimedia Commons

The keel for Rosatomflot’s Yakutia, the third Project 22220 nuclear-powered icebreaker, was laid at the United Shipbuilding Corporation’s Baltic Shipyard in St. Petersburg on May 26, according to a press release from Rosatom, Russia’s state-owned atomic energy corporation. Rosatomflot is a subsidiary of Rosatom.

A fish-eye view of the refurbished Darlington-2. Photo: Ontario Power Generation

Ontario Power Generation’s (OPG) massive project to refurbish all of its Darlington nuclear power plant reactors has reached its first major milestone with the successful completion of Unit 2’s refurbishment and reconnection to Ontario’s electricity grid, the utility stated in a June 4 media release.

The Darlington plant, located in Clarington, Ontario, Canada, houses four 878-MWe PHWR CANDU reactors, all of which entered commercial operation in the early 1990s. The 10-year refurbishment project, which also was 10 years in the planning, began in earnest in October 2016, when Unit 2 was taken off line (NN, Dec. 2016, pg. 45).

The European Commission released a plan for rejuvenating Europe’s pandemic-damaged economy, including a green energy program that calls for “rolling out renewable energy projects, especially wind [and] solar, and kick-starting a clean hydrogen economy.” No mention was made of nuclear energy, however, an omission for which the commission was taken to task that same day by Foratom, the Brussels-based trade association for the European nuclear energy industry.

Concrete pour at the Hinkley Point C2 reactor. Photo: EDF Energy

Workers at the Hinkley Point C nuclear construction project in the United Kingdom have completed the 49,000-ton base for the station’s second reactor, Unit C2, hitting a target date set more than four years ago, according to EDF Energy.

Gender Champions in Nuclear Policy (GCNP), launched in November 2018, has released a report on the progress made during its inaugural year toward its goal of achieving gender equity in the nuclear policy field. According to a May 28 announcement, the group has had “mostly positive results.”

Artist’s rendering of the Sizewell site, with Sizewell C at right. Image: EDF Energy

Électricité de France subsidiary EDF Energy has submitted an application to the United Kingdom government’s Planning Inspectorate for a development consent order (DCO) to build a new power station, Sizewell C, at the Sizewell nuclear site in Suffolk. The agency received the application on May 27, after it had been deferred for two months because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Robert J. Feitel was sworn in on May 28 by Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Kristine Svinicki as the agency’s new inspector general. Feitel replaces Hubert T. Bell, who retired in 2019.

The Akademik Lomonosov, the world’s only floating nuclear power plant, has been fully commissioned, reports Rosatom, Russia’s state atomic energy corporation.