Low electricity demand forces another Bruce Power shut down

Bruce Power shut down a reactor yesterday due to low demand for electricity — three days after it was given the green light to restart Unit 8, which had also been offline because of low demand, and six days after it scrapped plans to build new reactors at Tiverton and Nanticoke.

Unit 7 at the Bruce B generating station was taken offline shortly after 2 a. m. at the request of the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO), which continues to report a surplus of baseload generation in the province as Ontario weathers the fallout of a manufacturing industry hard hit by the recession and a cool, wet summer.

“It’s a bit of an anomaly right now, but it’s really reflective of the economic realities of Ontario and the weather,” said Terry Young, vice-president of corporate affairs for the IESO.

“It’s been years since demand has been this low, I actually can’t recall the last time.”

Three years ago Ontario recorded a new high when it used more than 27,000 megawatts of energy in a one-hour period on Aug. 1. On average during the summer months the province uses about 24,000 or more megawatts of electricity an hour.

This year, however, demand has yet to break 23,000 megawatts and Wednesday night it hit a low of 12,000 megawatts.

Bruce Power isn’t the only power generation company to be hit by the low demand, according to Young.

Coal and gas-powered plants have seen regular overnight shutdowns and daytime production reductions as well.

Steven Cannon, a spokesman for Bruce Power, says the company is abiding by all requests from the IESO as everyone works to get through this summer.

“It’s definitely a sign of the times, both of the cool summer and the economic realities of Ontario. This comes at a time that we just announced that we aren’t proceeding with new builds at Nanticoke or Bruce C (at Tiverton) and this really does speak to the situation in Ontario,” he said yesterday.

“Our concern on this is that we don’t want to continually ask our operators . . . to bring units down and up in power as requested. It’s not an ideal situation, these machines are intended to run at a very steady state.”

According to Cannon, since the period of low demand began in late spring/early summer, Bruce Power operators have been asked to do hundreds of manoeuvres in an attempt to balance the province’s lower electricity needs.

There are no plans to lay off staff as the company abides by its third request since June to take a reactor completely offline. This summer marks the first time in Bruce Power’s history that it has been asked to shut down reactors due to low demand.

On Sunday, Bruce Power restarted Unit 8 after a 13-day shutdown, again at the request of the IESO.

Last week, the company announced it was pulling the plug on plans to build new reactors at two Ontario sites, again citing the economic downturn as its chief reason.

Instead, it says it will continue with plans to refurbish its reactors (there are eight units) once it completes the refurbishment of Units 1 and 2 sometime next year at a cost of more than $3 billion.

This most recent shutdown is again expected to be brief, but Cannon says they are anticipating more requests as the summer progresses.

Neither the economic situation in Ontario nor the weather, which is forecast to be cool and wet for the month of August, appear to be on the rebound just yet.

“I think the realities are such that we’ve got to be prepared for future surplus baseload generation. I think that’s where we’re at right now and we’ll continue to monitor that in concert with the IESO,” said Cannon.

Source: The Owen Sound Sun Times

Toshiba/Westinghouse acquires CS Innovations

Toshiba Corp. (OOTC:TOSYY) said Friday its U.S. unit Westinghouse Electric Co. has acquired CS Innovations LLC, a U.S. maker of instrumentation and control systems used in nuclear power plants.

The transaction, involving the purchase by Westinghouse of all CS Innovations’ shares by the end of August, is estimated at billions of yen.

Westinghouse will incorporate CS Innovations’ digital safety control system into the safety systems of existing U.S. nuclear power plants as well as into the system for new plants.

CS Innovations, an Arizona-based company founded in 2004, has annual sales of about $2 million.

Source: Kyodo News International

L-3 MAPPS contributes to Gentilly-2’s life extension

L-3 MAPPS has won an order from Atomic Energy of Canada (AECL) to replace the Gentilly-2 Nuclear Generating Station’s digital control computers (DCCs). DCC systems are used to monitor and control the major reactor and power plant functions at CANDU* nuclear power plants. The DCC replacement project is part of a plant refurbishment project, which will extend the life of Gentilly-2 until approximately the year 2040.

“Through our long-standing relationship with AECL, L-3 MAPPS is pleased to play its part in extending the life of the Gentilly-2 station,” said Michael Chatlani, vice president of marketing and sales for L-3 MAPPS Power Systems and Simulation.

The new DCCs will feature the latest SSCI-890 CPUs and modern VME-based replacements for the existing Ramtek display system and contact scanner. L-3’s DCC CPUs will replace four Varian 73 computer systems and related input/output and ancillary equipment currently in use at Gentilly-2. The system will be delivered to Gentilly-2 in the summer of 2011.

Hydro-Québec has operated Gentilly-2, a 675MW CANDU heavy water reactor, since start-up in 1983. Gentilly-2 is located in Bécancour, Québec, about 90 minutes east of Montreal near the town of Trois-Rivières, and is the only nuclear power plant in the province of Québec.

AECL is one of the world’s leading nuclear technology companies, providing services to nuclear utilities on four continents. Established in 1952, AECL is the designer and builder of CANDU technology, including the CANDU 6, one of the world’s top-performing reactors. There are 48 heavy water reactors based on the CANDU design in operation, under construction, or under refurbishment worldwide. AECL is building on this success with the new advanced CANDU reactor (ACR-1000), an evolutionary reactor based on the proven success of the original CANDU design.

L-3 MAPPS, a division of the L-3 Marine and Power Systems group, has over 25 years of experience in pioneering technological advances in the marine automation field and over 35 years of experience in delivering high-fidelity power plant simulation to leading utilities worldwide. In addition, the company has more than three decades of expertise in supplying plant computer systems for Canadian heavy water reactors. L-3 MAPPS also provides targeted controls and simulation solutions to the space sector.

Source: Power Technology

Milestone at N.B. refurb but still months behind schedule

The refurbishment of Atlantic Canada’s only nuclear power plant has reached an important milestone, but the project is now seven months behind schedule.

NB Power spokeswoman Heather MacLean says crews have completed the removal of 380 tubes from the heart of the reactor at the Point Lepreau facility in New Brunswick, completing the reactor disassembly.

It is the first time a Candu-6 reactor has been refurbished and MacLean says the use of specialized tools for the job took longer than expected.

The project was originally expected to cost $1.4 billion and would have seen the reactor back online in September.

The province is paying about $1 million a day for replacement power while Lepreau is shut down and the province will spread that cost out over the life of the facility – another 25 to 30 years.

Meantime, the province is still looking at the possibility of building a second reactor at Lepreau.

Source: The Canadian Press

Progress at Shimane 3 construction

The reactor pressure vessel has been installed for unit 3 of Chugoku Electric Power Co’s Shimane nuclear power plant in Japan, under construction by Hitachi using modular techniques.

Shimane 3 under a forest of cranes (Image: Hitachi)

The vessel – with an inner diameter of about 7 metres and some 21 metres high – was lowered into position by one of the world’s largest mobile cranes on 17 July. Weighing around 910 tonnes, the vessel was almost the maximum rated load of 930 tonnes for the large crawler crane.

It took nearly three hours for the crane to lift the vessel to about 35 metres above the ground, swing it into position, and lower it into the reactor building, the Japan Atomic Industry Forum (JAIF) reported.

Steel components for the reactor vessel were fabricated by Japan Steel Works at its Muroran plant. The component was then manufactured over a three year period by Babcock-Hitachi at its No.2 plant in Kure City, Hiroshima prefecture. It was completed and transported by sea on 7 July, and unloaded at the power plant site in Shimane prefecture on 14 July.

Hitachi is employing modular construction techniques in the construction of Shimane 3. The company has a dedicated factory for module production that was completed in 2000. Construction at Shimane 3 will use a total of some 190 modules.

One of the modules being manufactured by Hitachi is for the inside of the reinforced concrete containment vessel, which includes valves, pipes, large support structures, and the reactor shield wall to be placed in the upper dry well. This has a total weight of about 650 tonnes. Two hydraulic control unit (HCU) room modules (with a total mass of about 270 tonnes per module) have also been manufactured at the factory and delivered to the Shimane site.

Hitachi uses a large crawler crane to unload modules directly from ships delivering them to the Shimane site. Because construction site is located next to a wharf, the area between the wharf and buildings where the equipment is being delivered is set aside for the use of the crane.

Construction of Shimane 3 – a 1373 MWe advanced boiling water reactor (ABWR) – started in December 2005. It is scheduled to begin commercial operation in December 2011.

As of the end of June, the Shimane 3 unit was 69% complete, according to Chugoku.

Source: World Nuclear News

Alstom and Schneider to bid on Areva’s T&D

France’s Alstom and Schneider Electric have said they are considering a joint bid to acquire Areva’s transmission and distribution (T&D) division. Areva’s supervisory board recently asked the executive board to put the division up for sale.

The T&D division supplies products, systems and services dedicated to electricity transmission and distribution from the power plant to the final user. The division’s customers are electric utilities as well as the oil, mining and metals, wind energy, paper and glass, transportation, and power engineering industries. Areva said that, through its transmission and distribution division, the group appears among the only three global actors in the high- and medium-voltage switchgear markets.

Alstom and Schneider said that they would create a joint venture to bid for Areva T&D. If its bid were successful, the high-voltage transmission activities would then be transferred to Alstom and the medium-voltage distribution activities to Schneider. The companies said that “such a transfer of activities would have no social consequences.”

“This offer will optimise the strategic, industrial and commercial strengths that both Alstom and Schneider can bring to each of the two areas of T&D and maximise the value of the business,” the companies said in a statement. They added, “This offer would consequently be more attractive for the vendor.”

At the beginning of this month, Areva’s supervisory board finalized steps to be taken to finance the group’s long-term development plan. These include selling a stake of about 15% and the possible sale of its T&D operations.

Areva said that an open call for bids will be launched and a decision whether or not to sell the division and the choice of potential buyer will be taken before the end of 2009.

In 2008, the T&D division, with almost 30,000 employees, had sales revenue of €5065 million ($7200 million) and accounted for 38% of the Areva group’s sales.

The sale of its T&D division would leave Areva focussed on the nuclear power industry, with operations in uranium mining, conversion and enrichment; fuel design and fabrication; reactor design and construction; and decommissioning and waste disposal.

Source: World Nuclear News

Bruce power is scrapping plans to build six nuclear reactors

Ontario-based Bruce Power on Thursday said it is scrapping plans to build as many as six reactors in the province because of slumping power demand. It will instead focus on refurbishing six existing units.

The generator has planned to build as many as two units, with combined capacity between 2,000 and 3,000 MW, at its Nanticoke facility on Lake Erie, and as many as four units, which combined capacity of 4,000 MW, at its nuclear facility near Elgin on Lake Huron.

Bruce Power said its decision on the Ontario units has no effect on its proposal to build nuclear units in Alberta or Saskatchewan, where it said both provincial governments are expected to release policy statements later this year on nuclear’s role in the energy mix.

“These are business decisions unique to Ontario and reflect the current realities of the market,” Duncan Hawthorne, Bruce Power president and CEO, said in a statement.

“Our focus has always been to find the best way to provide Ontario with a long-term supply of 6,300 MW,” he said. “For more than five years, we’ve examined our options and refurbishing our existing units has emerged as the most economical.”

Bruce Power spokesman Murray Elston said the decision to pull the plug on the new reactors was, in part, a result of the current economic downturn that has pushed electricity demand in Ontario to record lows.

“We don’t have enough of a definition of how firm the economic recovery will be,” Elston said. While he said the generator believes that demand will ultimately reach levels projected when it proposed the new plants, he said “that is far enough out” that Bruce Power needed to pull back on its new build plans.

The company said it has notified the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission and the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency that it will withdraw its site license applications and suspend its environmental assessments in Bruce County and Nanticoke.

Bruce Power said it will now work with its investors and the Ontario Power Authority to investigate the feasibility of refurbishing Units 3-8 following the successful restart of Units 1 and 2, which will provide the Ontario market with another 1,500 MW of baseload capacity. Units 3-8 are currently operating, but would be decommissioned within the next 10 years if they are not refurbished.

The company said refurbishing its remaining units could create up to 3,000 construction jobs and represent a multi-billion dollar investment over the next 10 years. It also would secure the long-term employment of up to 4,000 people to operate the site’s eight units over their extended lives.

“While we have chosen to pursue the refurbishment option, I want to thank everyone in Bruce, Haldimand and Norfolk counties who supported us,” Hawthorne said. “The work we have done confirmed both sites held great promise for new build if the market conditions were more favorable. However, the time has come to narrow our focus and follow the route that’s best for us, for Ontario and its ratepayers.”

Bruce Power is a partnership of Cameco, TransCanada, BPC Generation Infrastructure Trust — a trust established by the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System — the Power Workers’ Union and The Society of Energy Professionals.

The company’s announcement comes after Ontario’s government in late June suspended a request for proposals for two nuclear reactors at Ontario Power Generation’s Darlington station, citing concerns about pricing and the future of lead bidder Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd.

Deputy Premier and Minister of Energy George Smitherman said in a June 29 statement that, despite the decision, the government remains committed to modernizing the province’s nuclear fleet.

“Emission-free nuclear power remains a crucial aspect of Ontario’s supply mix,” he said. “Unfortunately, the competitive bidding process has not provided Ontario with a suitable option at this time.”

The government in late February received proposals under the second phase of a two-part solicitation that began in 2008 from Areva, AECL and Westinghouse. It later said only AECL’s proposal complied with the terms of the RFP and “the objectives of the government.”

The Canadian government in late May said it was proceeding with a restructuring of AECL.

Under the RFP, the two new units were to replace older units as part of strategy to “renew” Ontario’s nuclear fleet, the provincial government said. Nuclear power accounts for about 50% of Ontario’s power needs.

Source: Platts

MPower mini reactors could bring much needed jobs in Ontario

Go big or go … small?

Industrial energy giant Babcock & Wilcox Co. is bucking a trend among nuclear technology suppliers that has seen reactor sizes swell and their price tags balloon.

As the Ontario government recently learned, buying a two-reactor nuclear plant that generates at least 2,400 megawatts now costs more than $20 billion.

Babcock has designed a more bite-sized reactor that can be built in a factory and shipped by railcar, and its Canadian subsidiary in Cambridge is in the running to help engineer and make the mini nukes.

Called the mPower, the 125-megawatt reactor has a tenth of the power output of most next-generation reactor designs. Measuring five by 25 metres and weighing about 400 tonnes, it would be entombed underground and would require refuelling of enriched uranium every five years over a 60-year life.

“Right now nuclear is so big that only the very largest utilities can afford them,” said Chris Mowry, chief executive of B&W Modular Nuclear Energy LLC, the company set up to bring the mPower to market.

“You can take more of an incremental approach, and this has a lot of appeal to utility customers around the globe,” he said, adding utilities in Ontario and western Canada have expressed an interest.

Steve Aplin, an energy consultant with The HDP Group Inc. in Ottawa, said the small-is-better message resonates with capital and loan guarantees hard to come by.

“This opens all sorts of markets,” said Aplin. “It builds on existing technology and fuel, so it’s not an unproven concept…” Mowry said the light-water reactor has a modular design, can be built in a factory and watt for watt is competitive with larger reactors.

Design work is expected to continue into 2011, when Babcock plans to apply to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission for certification.

And when might the first mPower reactor emerge in Canada? “You’re really talking about a 2014 timeframe, earliest,” Mowry said.

Natalie Cutler, a Babcock spokesperson, said work on the mPower design has started in Cambridge, which has about 750 employees and manufactures components and equipment for Canada’s nuclear industry. “We are optimistic we will be able to use our manufacturing capabilities to produce elements of the reactor system in several years, once the design is complete and licensed,” said Cutler.

Source: Toronto Star

Malaysia to use nuclear power by 2025

Malaysia was set to use alternative energy from nuclear power by 2025 as it was a cheaper source of power in the long run, according to a local newspaper on Wednesday.

The New Straits Times quoted Malaysian Deputy Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Fadillah Yusof as saying that initial costs of building nuclear plants may be one billion U.S. dollars to 3 billion U.S. dollars for a 1,000 megawatt capacity, twice the amount for building a coal-fired plant in the country.

Malaysia currently generates electricity mainly from coal, oil, gas and hydro. Fadillah said that nuclear energy was a cheaper and environmental-friendly source of power with no pollutant produced in the long run.

He said that the nuclear power would produce hydrogen that can be used and it would only produce waste after 20 years of usage.

He said that advantages of using nuclear energy included in hospitals for Computerized Tomography or CT scans and in food technology, adding that some countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) such as Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam would also opt to develop nuclear power.

Fadillah said that some government agencies of Malaysia were working on forming a committee to implement the nuclear energy policy, as approved by the Malaysian Cabinet two weeks ago.

He said that Malaysia would engage professionals and consultants for advise on nuclear power, while linking up with the United Nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency for verification and certification on the policy.

He also said that his ministry would embark on a public awareness campaign to dispel people’s negative perception and doubts on the safety of nuclear energy.

Source: China View

Bruce Power briefly shutdowns due to oversupply

The Bruce Power nuclear generating station in Tiverton, Ont., has shut down one of its reactors.

The problem isn’t mechanical – it’s because there isn’t enough demand for the electricity generated by the station.

Spokesman Steve Cannon says the manufacturing slowdown caused by the recession and a cooler than normal summer have left Bruce Power with a surplus.

Cannon says a 795-megawatt reactor will be offline for at least a few more days and follows a brief shutdown in June for similar reasons.

He says it’s not something they like to do because nuclear plants are designed to run 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Cannon says the shutdown doesn’t affect any jobs and that all other units at Bruce Power remain online and available for service.

Source: The Canadian Press

Next Page »