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Studsvik announces partnership to deploy four BWRX-300s in Sweden
Swedish engineering services firm Studsvik and its partners have teamed up on a four-unit BWRX-300 new build project in southern Sweden. On Thursday, Studsvik entered into a joint development agreement with GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy, GE Vernova Financial Services, DS Investment Partners, and Samsung C&T to advance the 1.2-GW ReFirm program, with the expectation the first unit will commence operations in the mid-2030s.
G. Bonny, P. Blanpain, D. Rozzia, S. Billiet, M. Verwerft, B. Boer
Nuclear Technology | Volume 210 | Number 2 | February 2024 | Pages 216-231
Research Article | doi.org/10.1080/00295450.2023.2264505
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
In this work, a detailed reevaluation of a past power-to-melt experiment performed within the so-called High Burnup Chemistry project is provided. A pressurized water reactor–type UO2 fuel rod was base irradiated in Belgian Reactor 3 up to a peak pellet burnup of 60 MWd/kgU. After base irradiation, the rod experienced a power ramp experiment in Belgian Reactor 2, reaching a ramp terminal level of 70 kW/m (later adjusted to 66 kW/m). Extensive post-irradiation examination was performed after both the base irradiation and the power ramp experiment. After the power ramp experiment, rod cladding failure and local fuel melting were observed. Fuel melting was observed in an 85-mm region around the peak power pellet with a normalized molten fuel radius in the range r/r0 = 0.20 to 0.27. The threshold power for melting derived from this experiment was 63.0 ± 4.4 kW/m.