Westinghouse Celebrates Grand Opening of First-of-a-Kind Startup Test Engineer Training Facility

PITTSBURGH, Aug. 27 /PRNewswire/ — Westinghouse Electric Company celebrated the grand opening of a First-of-a-Kind Startup Test Engineer Training Facility at its headquarters in Cranberry Township, Pa. on August 25, 2010.  The grand opening celebration included a ribbon-cutting ceremony, followed by facility tours featuring the facility’s diagnostic lab room that comes complete with a flow loop.

The Westinghouse Startup Test Engineer (WeSTETM) Training Facility will be used to train Westinghouse employees, customers and industry representatives on the proper testing and safe maintenance of Westinghouse AP1000 nuclear power plant systems, structures, and components.  The Westinghouse Startup Test Engineer Training Facility is comprised of a state-of-the-art AP1000 simulator that replicates the AP1000 digital control, protection and monitoring systems for component testing and diagnostics training.  In addition to the simulator, which is comprised of a digital lab room and a flow loop lab room, the facility includes two traditional training classrooms.

Deva Chari, senior vice president, Nuclear Power Plants, cut the ribbon at the entrance of the facility with the assistance of several leaders from Westinghouse Electric Company.

“The opening of this Startup Test Engineer Training Facility is an exciting step in the nuclear renaissance.  This facility serves as an important opportunity for our customers, our industry and Westinghouse to provide a high-quality Startup Test Engineer training and qualification program for the Westinghouse AP1000TM nuclear power plant,” said Mr. Chari.

The first class of 26 students will begin training at this facility at Westinghouse headquarters on August 30.  The training facility has the capacity to train approximately 100 students each year.  Each group of students will complete the training within approximately four months.  After the training and qualification program is complete, students will be qualified as Westinghouse Startup Test Engineers (WeSTEs). WeSTE qualification exceeds the minimum requirements for Level III Test Engineers as specified in ANSI/ASME NQA-1.

Source: Westinghouse Electric Company

UK: Areva and Westinghouse reactor designs likely to be selected

Areva SA’s EPR and Westinghouse Electric Co.’s AP1000 nuclear reactor designs are likely to be approved for use in the U.K. next year, the country’s Health and Safety Executive said.

“Both reactor designs are capable of being shown to be acceptable in the U.K., subject to satisfactory progress being made on the not insignificant technical issues we have raised,” the authority said in its quarterly update on the design assessment process.

Health and environment regulators are assessing the Areva and Westinghouse designs as utilities including Electricite de France SA, E.ON AG and RWE AG consider building nuclear power plants in the U.K. The country approved 10 sites for nuclear development this year and the first station will be operating by 2018, Energy Secretary Chris Huhne said this month.

Nuclear reactors account for about a fifth of the U.K.’s electricity production, according to the World Nuclear Association.

Today’s health executive report covered the three month period ended June 30. Additional safety work may be carried out after the assessment is completed in June, the authority said.

Source: Bloomberg

Westinghouse works on Chinese AP1000 contracts

Discussions continue for Westinghouse regarding the scope of its involvement in the next wave of AP1000 build in China.

Major contracts were signed last week covering the engineering procurement and construction of two reactors at Xianning, Hubei province but these omitted to mention the US nuclear technology company that originally developed the AP1000 design.

China’s AP1000s will be the biggest standardised fleet in the world

Technology transfer was part of the deal that Westinghouse signed with China National Nuclear Corporation in February 2007 to supply four AP1000s at two sites. This was expected to result in “long term participation” for Westinghouse in the future Chinese domestic market, stakeholder relations manager Adrian Bull told World Nuclear News. However, Chinese statements on the day of the contracts emphasised its move to the next phase in a program to develop self-sufficiency in nuclear technology.

Bull confirmed to WNN that it “continues to engage in discussion” with State Nuclear Power Technology Corporation (SNPTC) as well as its subsidiaries and various manufacturers that have “sought assistance” in their efforts to deploy AP1000s en-masse.

One item Westinghouse would be expected to supply to new AP1000s would be nuclear fuel. In addition, it expects its scope in future projects to include engineering services, automation as well as certain components and materials. Consultation, training and support could also come as part of new “full contracts” which should be finalized within the next few months at the same time as construction permits, said Bull.

While two AP1000s are being built at Sanmen and two more at Haiyang, preparations are under way for new pairs at Xianning (Hubei province), Pengze (Jiangxi province), and Taohuajiang (Hunan province). Beyond those, over 50 AP1000s are currently on the books with many more likely in the further future.

Source: World Nuclear News

India: Panel recommends tougher nuclear liability bill

A parliamentary panel will on Wednesday recommend changes to a bill aimed at opening up a $150 billion nuclear power market, including more compensation for accidents and extending liability to private suppliers.

The panel will recommend the liability cap be trebled to $320 million, a member of the panel who asked not to be named, said.

The recommendations, largely backed by opposition parties, will mean higher costs for firms such as U.S.-based General Electric and Westinghouse Electric, a subsidiary of Japan’s Toshiba Corp, which would have to pay higher insurance premiums.

“The operator will also sign a contract which will hold suppliers liable if any accident is caused by defective equipment,” the member said on condition of anonymity as the report has to be presented to parliament first.

The original draft law had capped liability at about $110 million for the state-run reactor operator without placing any compensation burden on private suppliers and contractors.

State compensation was capped at up to 300 million special drawing rights. Opposition leaders, who had slammed the bill and demanded changes, say the liability of a U.S. operator under U.S. legislation is $12.5 billion.

The bill was introduced in parliament earlier in the year, but opposition protests forced the government to refer it to the panel, composed of members from several parties, for scrutiny.

“We have addressed the concerns of the (main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party) BJP and more or less of the left parties. This report has been more or less unanimously approved,” said Congress’ T. Subbarami Reddy, who chaired the panel.

Communist party members of the panel will submit a note of dissent on the report, as they want no liability caps, but the BJP has said it is willing to support the rewritten bill.

“The government has addressed our concerns on the bill and we have decided to support it,” S.S. Ahluwalia, a BJP member on the panel, said.

The bill has the personal backing of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh whose 2008 deal with former U.S. president George Bush ended India’s isolation in the global nuclear market.

The government is keen on ratifying the bill and smoothing entry for global firms, including those from the United States, before President Barack Obama’s planned November visit to India.

French and Russian firms, whose governments underwrite their liability, are already working on setting up reactors in India.

Source: Reuters/Yahoo! News

Nuclear builders begin race for Wylfa NPP contract

Race hots up to build next generation power station at the Wylfa site in Angelsey

France’s Areva and the Westinghouse-led consortium Nuclear Power Delivery UK have started preparatory studies to be selected to build a nuclear power station in North Wales.

Today both teams said that they had signed early works agreements with Horizon, the joint venture between Eon and RWE npower planning the new power station at Wylfa in Angelsey.

Now the Westinghouse consortium team of Laing O’Rourke, Shaw Group and Toshiba will work up specific site designs using the AP1000 design, while the French Areva group works up proposals based on the European pressurized reactor design.

Once the generic design assessment has been concluded by the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate, Horizon will plump for the reactor type to proceed with by the end of the year.

Horizon said it aims to deliver a total of around 6 gigawatts of new nuclear capacity from two power stations by 2025, at a cost of around £15 billion.
The other site is at Oldbury, Gloucestershire.

Source: Construction Enquirer

Westinghouse wins contract to dismantle Spanish reactor

Westinghouse Electric Co. said Wednesday that it was awarded a contract to dismantle a nuclear reactor in Spain.

The contract, awarded by the Spanish nuclear waste agency Empresa Nacional de Residuos Radiactivos, is for work at the Jose Cabrera Nuclear Power Station located 43 miles east of Spain. It is the second commercial reactor to be dismantled in Spain.

The Westinghouse contract covers dismantling and segmentation of the reactor vessel internals of the facility that operated for 38 years. Also included is work such as plant modifications and the loading of waste into canisters.

Work began in June and is expected to last for 31 months.

Source: Yahoo! Finance/Associated Press

China uses top technology on reactors

China, which is currently building the largest number of nuclear power stations worldwide, is expected to use one of the most advanced technologies for constructing 10 of its nuclear reactors, an energy official said on Monday.

The technology, called AP1000 from US-based nuclear power company Westinghouse, is a third-generation nuclear system. Compared with other reactors already in use in China, those using the third-generation technology are considered to be safer and able to operate longer.

The AP1000 technology will be used on six reactors at three inland nuclear plants in Hunan, Hubei and Jiangxi provinces – the country’s first batch of inland nuclear power projects.

The technology will also be applied for two pairs of reactors, one in Sanmen in coastal Zhejiang province, and the other in Haiyang, Shandong province, said the official who did not want to be named because of security issues.

Future inland projects are also set to use the same technology and Chinese authorities are considering the AP1000 as a standard, he said.

“The technology will upgrade China’s nuclear power industry, which is seeing its fastest development now,” the official said.

Construction of the projects will need final approval from the central government, he said.

The plan to use advanced technology for more nuclear reactors is in line with the rapid development of the country’s nuclear power sector, analysts said.

“The country’s nuclear power industry has seen accelerated growth since 2005, as it fits well with the country’s objective to build an environmentally friendly economy,” said Lin Boqiang, a professor at Xiamen University.

As the world’s second-largest energy consumer, China now has 11 nuclear power reactors in operation. These reactors have a total capacity of 9.1 gigawatts (gW), accounting for about 1 percent of the country’s total power capacity.

The country has three nuclear power bases: Qinshan in Zhejiang province, Daya Bay in Guangdong province and Tianwan in Jiangsu province.

China plans to increase its nuclear power capacity to 70 gW to 80 gW in 2020, which will account for 5 percent of its total power capacity, officials with the National Energy Administration said.

The development of nuclear power will also be highlighted in the coming 12th Five-Year (2011-2015) Plan for the country’s energy industry, industry insiders said.

“The move to further develop nuclear power is integral for China to achieve its goals in energy conservation and emission control,” said Li Junfeng, deputy director-general of the Energy Research Institute under the National Development and Reform Commission, the country’s top economic planner.

China is currently building 23 nuclear power units. The proportion of nuclear power is expected to account for 15 percent of the country’s total power capacity in 2050, industry sources said.

Still, the security of nuclear plants has been a source of public concern recently.

Last month, the Hong Kong media reported a radiation leak at the Daya Bay Nuclear Power Plant on May 23.

But officials at the plant later said that no radiation leakage occurred at the nuclear station in May, citing continuous environmental monitoring of radioactivity levels on the premise and in surrounding areas.

The company later admitted that a fuel rod at the plant experienced a “very small leakage” on May 23, leading to a slight increase in radioactivity levels in cooling water for the Unit 2 nuclear reactor.

Source: Xinhuan / China Daily

Haiyang 2 construction in progress

Four AP1000 reactors are officially under construction in China after the pouring of first concrete for Haiyang 2.

A ceremony was held at the construction site on 21 June, attended by a plethora of company, state and union officials, as concrete was poured for the basement raft of the power generation unit.

Scenes like this will be familiar to WNN readers.

The forthcoming reactor joins another AP1000 project at Haiyang as well as another two at Sanmen. Further contracts with Westinghouse for the design are expected with Chinese utilities and in future domestic firms will mass-produce the design under the lead of State Nuclear Power Technology Corporation.

The containment vessel bottom head is lifted into Sanmen 2. Unit 1 is visible in the distance

This knowledge and technology transfer is essential to China’s ambitions to become fully self-sufficient in nuclear power. It was described by officials as the largest high-tech cooperation project between China and the USA and a way they are tackling global warming while promoting economic development and changing to a clean-energy infrastructure.

Meanwhile at Sanmen

The other AP1000 construction site has seen visible progress with the lifting in of the containment vessel bottom head of Sanmen 2. The first unit at the plant has also been built up with reactor building structures inside and a further ring of its containment vessel.

Source: World Nuclear News

Westinghouse Steam Generator Cleaning Technology Improves Performance at Seabrook Nuclear Power Station

Westinghouse Electric Company achieved a significant improvement in the thermal performance of the Seabrook Nuclear Power Station in Seabrook, N.H., as a result of cleaning the station’s four steam generators using the Advanced Scale Conditioning Agent (ASCA) process. The cleaning was completed during a fall 2009 plant refueling outage.

The ASCA cleaning at Seabrook was the twenty-fifth application of the technology for Westinghouse or its licensees since 2002. The ASCA cleaning agents are designed to loosen hardened deposits from the in-bundle areas of the steam generator tube bundles.  Seabrook gained 10 pounds per square inch (psi) of steam pressure after the Westinghouse cleaning and the plant restart, which translates to improved operating efficiencies for the plant. Also during the cleaning process, approximately 2,300 pounds of magnetite corrosion product deposits and copper were removed.

Westinghouse cleaned all four of Seabrook’s steam generators in parallel using existing plant connections for the injection and draining of cleaning solutions. The process also integrated the copper and lead removal step into the magnetite removal process, eliminating the need to use a separate copper solvent or solution. Additionally, a reverse osmosis process was used to reduce the waste volume to less than 10,000 gallons, compared to an initial volume of approximately 110,000 gallons.

Using the ASCA process at other locations, Westinghouse has achieved deposit removals of up to 6,000 pounds per plant and accumulated steam pressure increases of greater than 18 psi.  Every application of the ASCA process to date has resulted in clear and sustained increases in steam pressure and reductions in both fouling and tube support blockages.

The ASCA process has been subjected to extensive and essential independent testing and peer reviews over a five-year period in five countries. Applications in the U.S., Japan and Korea are helping utilities to maintain and improve their steam generator performance and thermal hydraulic operating conditions. Qualification testing also is under way in France and Canada.

Westinghouse Electric Company, a group company of Toshiba Corporation (TKY: 6502), is the world’s pioneering nuclear energy company and is a leading supplier of nuclear plant products and technologies to utilities throughout the world.  Westinghouse supplied the world’s first commercial PWR in 1957 in Shippingport, Pa.  Today, Westinghouse technology is the basis for approximately one-half of the world’s operating nuclear plants, including 60 percent of those in the United States.

Source: Westinghouse Electric Company

UK reactor progress

The latest progress report from UK nuclear safety regulators has made the best-case completion of the Generic Design Assessment process seem unlikely.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said detailed examination of the Areva EPR and Westinghouse AP1000 was well underway and making reasonable progress with a rapidly increasing workrate.

AP1000 and EPR

However, it is facing a deadline of June 2011 when it is meant to issue the most meaningful design acceptance certificates that it can for the reactors. While most plant systems and features have posed no substantial problem, there remain some that could potentially have to be dealt with under separate processes which extend the overall GDA effort beyond June 2011. As well as acceptance certificates, the HSE said it is planning to publish “a suite of progress reports” in June 2011 “together with the requesting parties’ resolution plans for any outstanding issues relating to GDA.”

The reactor vendors were praised for stepping up the speed and scope of responses to the HSE’s questions, but the body noted that further improvements were still needed to address every issue in time.

More information is required from the reactor vendors in a number of areas: fault studies, fuel design and electrical systems for AP1000; and mechanical engineering, environment and fuel design for the EPR. For both reactors the HSE wants more information on structural integrity as well as higher active waste and used fuel management. None of this implies known deficiencies in the reactors, but that the HSE requires more information and evidence before it is satisfied enough to certify the design features as safe enough for use in the UK.

Regulators remain confident that Areva will be able to demonstrate sufficient independence of safety and operational control and instrumentation in the EPR, saying the company has proposed changes that are expected to lead to an “acceptable position”. This has been raised as a regulatory issue and confirmed as serious by joint statements by HSE with its Finnish and French counterparts. Another issue for Areva is to show the relative risk contribution from human actions and on this HSE hopes to learn from work undertaken in France where an EPR is under construction at Flamanville.

For AP1000 there remains a regulatory issue requiring more evidence that civil structures are sufficiently robust and Westinghouse has “a considerable amount of work to do” on the safety case for the control and instrumentation system. In the area of mechanical engineering the HSE wants more justification of some new-design squib valves, lifting equipment and testing of the control rod drive mechanism.

HSE has also asked for information on AP1000 reactor chemistry, such as how chemistry controls affect radioactivity in the primary coolant circuit. It said that delivery dates for this information could be too slow for the schedule and that Westinghouse has been asked to deliver faster.

UK government support for nuclear power lapsed in the 1990s and was only brought back in 2006 by concerns over security of supply, climate change and the retirement for the existing fleet. One result of this is an extremely tight timeline for regulatory approval of new reactor designs, backed up by private utilities’ needs to get new build programs in motion as soon as possible, or at least over the next few years.

So far the UK market count Electricité de France’s plans for four Areva EPRs to produce 6600 MWe at Hinkley Point and Sizewell with the first coming online before the end of 2017. EOn and RWE’s joint venture Horizon Nuclear Power wants 6000 MWe by 2025 with the first unit at Wylfa. And Iberdrola, GdF-Suez and Scottish & Southern want to build 3600 MWe at a site alongside Sellafield.

Tight timelines The HSE is cooperating with Electricité de France (EdF) and Areva on their plans to build at Hinkley Point C, on which they intend to break ground before the end of the GDA process. Within weeks, EdF, Areva and the HSE will meet to discuss key issues regarding EPR “before significant contracts are signed.” Technical areas where exclusions from GDA could occur will be identified in Q3. In June 2011 design acceptance confirmation (or an interim version) will be issued for both designs, together with resolution plans for any outstanding areas, “before any nuclear island safety-related construction commences.” “At a future date depending on a program for resolving outstanding issues,” final acceptance could be issued which would then allow the HSE to grant official consent for nuclear island safety-related construction. The HSE said it is working on a milestone program for Hinkley Point C1, for which EdF wants to begin nuclear construction in late 2012. Having been developed with the Environment Agency and the Department for Energy and Climate Change, this program should become the basis of programs for any future new build proposal.

Source: World Nuclear News

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