Two-year study bolsters Japan’s nuclear power plan

• Japan to stick to plans to develop new reactors by 2015

• Demand expected for some 135 advanced reactors in 2030-2050

The Japanese government’s plan to work with the private sector to develop next generation light water nuclear reactors has been given a boost after a two-year study found the scheme was viable.

The joint project to develop an advanced version of the world’s most popular reactor, under which the government would contribute half the total 55 billion yen ($644 million) cost, is a bid to boost energy diversification at home and to help drive Japan’s growth by selling the facilities abroad.

Toshiba Corp (6502.T: Quote), Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd (7011.T: Quote) and Hitachi GE Nuclear Energy Ltd, Hitachi Ltd’s (6501.T: Quote) nuclear unit, have worked together to develop two varieties of the 1,700 to 1,800 mega watt light water type reactors — boiling-water reactors (BWR) and pressurised-water reactors (PWR). Continued…

Read more: Reuters

Toshiba-IHI turbine joint venture

Japan’s Toshiba Corp and IHI Corp have signed a definitive agreement on forming a joint venture to manufacture steam turbine components for nuclear power plants at home and abroad. The two companies signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in April to establish the joint venture. Toshiba and IHI plan to have the new joint venture company – Toshiba IHI Power Systems Corp – in place by January 2011. It will be 52% owned by IHI, while Toshiba will hold the remaining 48%. The company will manufacture casings and nozzles for steam turbines at new nuclear power plants for both pressurised water reactors (PWRs) and boiling water reactors (BWRs) for the domestic and overseas markets, as well as providing maintenance services for installed equipment. Based at Yokohama, within IHI’s Yokohama headquarters representatives office, the joint venture will have a planned capital of ¥310 million ($3.6 million).

Source: World Nuclear News

Three companies team up for Saudi nuclear projects

Shaw Group Inc., Toshiba Corp. and Exelon Nuclear Partners, a unit of Exelon Corp., will team up to pursue nuclear power contracts in Saudi Arabia as the kingdom invests to meet energy demand.

The group wants to provide engineering, procurement, construction and operations for Saudi nuclear power plants under the terms of the agreement, the companies said today in a statement released through Business Newswire.

Saudi Arabia is one of several Arab Gulf countries seeking to develop nuclear energy to meet rising electricity demand. Kuwait and France signed a civil nuclear-energy accord in April and the United Arab Emirates awarded a $20 billion contract in December to a group of companies led by Korea Electric Power Corp. to build four nuclear plants.

Saudi Arabia’s Cabinet gave permission on July 7 for a draft cooperation agreement with France for the development of peaceful uses of nuclear energy, the Saudi Press Agency reported, without giving more details.

Saudi Arabia, the Arab world’s largest economy, said in April it will start a civilian nuclear and renewable energy center to help meet increasing demand for power and to supervise its atomic-energy program. The kingdom will spend $80 billion to increase its power-generation capacity and transmission network in the next decade as demand rises to 65,000 megawatts in 2018, up from 41,200 megawatts last year.

The King Abdullah City for Nuclear and Renewable Energy will be built in Riyadh, the kingdom’s capital, the state-owned Saudi Press Agency said, citing a royal order from King Abdullah. The new center will draft a national policy for nuclear power use and supervise the kingdom’s atomic energy and nuclear waste. It will represent Saudi Arabia at the Vienna- based International Atomic Energy Agency.

Source: Bloomberg

South Texas Project first to receive ABWR pressure vessel in the US

Japanese engineering company IHI Corporation has been awarded a contract by Toshiba to produce the reactor pressure vessel for the first Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR) to be built in the USA.

How STP 3 and 4 could look (Image: STPNOC)

Under the contract, IHI will supply the reactor pressure vessel for the first of two ABWRs planned at the South Texas Project (STP). The contract, the value of which has not been disclosed, was awarded by Toshiba’s US subsidiary Toshiba America Nuclear Energy Corporation (TANE).

The reactor pressure vessel – about 20 metres tall and 7 metres wide and weighing some 900 tonnes – will be manufactured at IHI’s plant in Yokohama. It is scheduled to be delivered to the STP site in 2012. STP unit 3 is set to begin operation in FY2016.

In March 2008, Toshiba was selected by NRG and CPS Energy to be the prime contractor for the development of STP units 3 and 4. The company signed an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract with STP Nuclear Operating Co (STPNOC), operator of the STP plant, in February 2009 for two ABWRs at the site.

The ABWR design is already in use at Tokyo Electric Power Co’s (Tepco’s) Kashiwazaki Kariwa nuclear power plant, where two units started up in 1996 and 1997. Another is at Chubu Electric Power Company’s Hamaoka site and two more are under construction at Lungmen on Taiwan.

The ABWR was developed jointly by GE, Toshiba and Hitachi, following on from GE’s development of the BWR concept in the 1950s. The three firms partnered for build at Kashiwazaki Kariwa and Lungmen and now both GE-Hitachi (which merged their nuclear businesses in 2007) and Toshiba assert the right to build ABWRs. However, GE-Hitachi owns the very specific design certified for use in the USA by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

In April, Toshiba and IHI signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on the formation of a joint venture to manufacture steam turbine components for nuclear power plants at home and abroad. The new company – set to be launched in October 2010 – will be based at Yokohama, within IHI’s Yokohama headquarters representatives office. It will manufacture casings and nozzles for steam turbines at new nuclear power plants for both pressurised water reactors (PWRs) and boiling water reactors (BWRs) for the domestic and overseas markets, as well as providing maintenance services for installed equipment.

Source: World Nuclear News

American Centrifuge to receive much needed support

A deal worth $200 million will see Toshiba and Babcock & Wilcox (B&W) invest in USEC and thereby support the struggling American Centrifuge project.

USEC hailed the move as “a sign that the future of nuclear energy is bright” and said the investment by the pair would “strengthen the deployment of the American Centrifuge Plant and create key new business opportunities throughout the nuclear fuel cycle.”

It is a three-phase investment split equally between the two firms. A first payment of $75 million is subject to regulatory reviews and approvals, the second installment of $50 million depends on the US Department of Energy giving conditional approval to guarantee loans to support completing the American Centrifuge. Thirdly would come $75 million when the DoE finally approves $2 billion in loan guarantees. The sums would be spent on developing the American Centrifuge plant and its AC100 centrifuge units.

In return for their investment Toshiba and B&W would receive “convertible preferred stock as well as warrants to purchase shares of common stock, which would be exercisable in the future,” said USEC.

Inside one of two American Centrifuge production buildings. Here two ‘trains’ are marked out for some 1400 centrifuge units (Image: USEC)

Commenting for Toshiba, Yasuharu Igarashi said the move would strengthen its presence in the front-end of the nuclear fuel cycle. For B&W, Brandon Bethards said the agreement would allow it to “explore broader energy opportunities globally through expanded strategic relationships with Toshiba and USEC.”

In future, USEC would provide enriched uranium for Toshiba’s bids to build nuclear reactors. And if the third phase conditions are met and the American Centrifuge plant is to be completed USEC and B&W would go ahead with a joint venture to manufacture the AC100 centrifuges it requires, continuing B&W’s role in making the current pilot units.

Source: World Nuclear News

Infotech inks pact with n-energy firm Westinghouse

Infotech Enterprises Limited, a leading technology solutions provider, has signed an agreement with Westinghouse Electric Company, the world’s pioneering nuclear energy company, for providing engineering services in India. Infotech will augment the engineering resources of Westinghouse as it prepares for global nuclear energy business growth and will lay the foundation for Westinghouse’s nuclear power plant work in India.

Infotech and Westinghouse Wednesday inaugurated the newly-formed Westinghouse India Engineering Center in the presence of executives from both companies, a statement by Hyderabad-based Infotech said .

Under the terms of the agreement, Westinghouse will further expand its skills infrastructure in India while Infotech will provide high value and competitive engineering services.

“This is the first engagement for outsourced engineering in India in the nuclear industry and further demonstrates Infotech’s strength in working in time and mission critical engineering industries,” said Infotech Chairman and Managing Director B.V.R. Mohan Reddy.

“Our partnership with Infotech will further strengthen Westinghouse’s capabilities in the region, and it serves as another sign of our commitment to the Indian market,” said Aris Candris, President and CEO of Westinghouse.

Westinghouse Electric Company, a group company of Toshiba Corporation, is the world’s pioneering nuclear energy company and is a leading supplier of nuclear plant products and technologies to utilities throughout the world.

Source: Thaindian News

Joint Venture: Toshiba and IHI agreed to set up nuclear turbine equipment

Toshiba Corp. (6502.TO) and IHI Corp. (7013.TO) said Monday they have reached a basic agreement to launch a joint venture to manufacture steam turbine components for nuclear power generating plants in Japan and overseas.

The Japanese companies said the joint venture is scheduled to be launched in Yokohama near Tokyo in October this year. It will manufacture such components as casing and nozzles for nuclear steam turbines. Details such as each other’s stake ratio haven’t been determined.

The move underscores how Toshiba and IHI are stepping up efforts to win the competition for nuclear power plant orders. The two companies have already formed a close relationship in such fields as construction of boiling water reactor-type nuclear power plants.

Toshiba is trying to strengthen its nuclear power operations amid increasing demand for nuclear power plants. Toshiba, along with its U.S. unit Westinghouse, expect to receive orders for 39 nuclear power plants worldwide through 2015.

IHI also holds a 3% stake in Westinghouse.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Mini-nukes may help US achieve a more resilient energy future

Mini-nuke town

Art: Splashlight

Small Town Nukes

They’d be carbon free, relatively cheap, and according to the industry, inherently safe. An underground mini-nuke could power a village.

Most nuclear power plants are behemoths, big enough to power a medium-size city. They are also behemoth investments, costing upwards of several billion dollars each to construct. Small wonder then that dozens of small-reactor prototypes are vying for attention in an industry newly energized by nuclear power’s advantages as a low-emission alternative to fossil fuels.

“Small reactors can’t address all the problems standing in the way of more nuclear investment, but they can address the biggest barriers—the economic ones,” says Richard Lester, head of nuclear science and engineering at MIT. Building giant reactors, he points out, isn’t the only way to achieve economies of scale; another way is to mass produce inexpensive mini-nukes. If they’re designed as modules, a single unit might power a remote town or mine, while a dozen used in tandem could match the output of a traditional nuclear plant. In the developing world, small reactors would place less strain on fragile electrical grids. And the ability to start small and gradually add power modules could appeal to cash-strapped utilities everywhere.

Art: Hiram Henriquez

None of the new small reactors have been deployed yet. Some, like the one designed by NuScale Power, are light-water reactors that resemble ones long used on warships. Others are more novel. Toshiba and the Japanese Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry are working on a liquid-sodium-cooled “nuclear battery.” Delivered partially assembled and installed underground, the reactor would generate ten megawatts for 30 years until it needed refueling. The isolated Alaska village of Galena is in discussions with Toshiba to become its first customer.

Besides costing less to build, some small reactors could be inherently safer, says Vladimir Kuznetsov of the International Atomic Energy Agency. NuScale’s design requires no reactor cooling pumps, while Toshiba’s pumps are electromagnetic, without moving parts; either approach diminishes the possibility of a disastrous failure. Chinese researchers, meanwhile, are developing a small reactor in which the nuclear reaction itself is self-limiting. In a dramatic 2004 demonstration, they turned off the cooling system; the reaction just burned itself out. With any of the new reactors, of course, there will still be radioactive waste to contend with.

There are 56 reactors under construction in the world today, 19 in China alone. But with energy demand soaring—and the threat of climate change looming—even that much construction will not greatly increase nuclear’s share of the global electricity supply. Small reactors could help, Lester says. “The point is to scale up low-carbon energy sources rapidly. Nuclear has great potential to do this.” If regulators go along, that is. In the U.S., officials say some designs may win certification within five years. More innovative ones may take longer. — Chris Carroll

Source: National Geographic

Gates and Toshiba in early talks on small nuclear reactor

A company backed by Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Toshiba are in early talks to jointly develop a small nuclear reactor, the Japanese electronics giant said Tuesday.

The Nikkei business daily earlier reported that the two sides would team up to develop a compact next-generation reactor that can operate for up to 100 years without refueling to provide emission-free energy.

The daily said the joint development would focus on the Traveling-Wave Reactor (TWR), which consumes depleted uranium as fuel. Current light-water reactors require refueling every few years.

“Toshiba has entered into preliminary talks with TerraPower,” said Toshiba spokesman Keisuke Ohmori. “We are looking into the possibility of working together.”

Gates is the principal owner of TerraPower, an expert team based in the US state of Washington that is investigating ways to improve emission-free energy supplies using small nuclear reactors.

Unlike the current reactors at mega power plants, the smaller types could be introduced by cities or states or in developing countries more easily.

Ohmori said Gates, together with other TerraPower executives, had visited a Toshiba laboratory for nuclear power research near Tokyo last year.

“TerraPower is developing a small nuclear reactor and Toshiba is developing a different kind of small reactor. They were interested in Toshiba’s technology and aiming at practical realisation” of small reactors, he said.

Ohmori said the two sides had just begun to “exchange information” but stressed that “nothing concrete has been decided on development or investment.”

Gates is expected to use his personal wealth to back the development of TWRs and his investment could reach several billion dollars, the Nikkei said.

The news boosted Toshiba’s share price by around four percent Tuesday.

The Nikkei said TerraPower had decided to join hands with Toshiba as it lacks the know-how to manufacture nuclear power equipment.

Toshiba, which owns US nuclear plant maker Westinghouse, has developed a design for an ultracompact reactor that can operate continuously for 30 years.

The company is preparing to apply for US approval to start constructing the first such reactor as early as 2014 and put it into practical use by the end of the decade, Ohmori said.

Source: AFP/Yahoo! News

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