NRC grants Vogtle an Early Site Permit
Certain work can start immediately towards building two new reactors at Vogtle after the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) granted an Early Site Permit (ESP) as well as permission for limited safety-related construction.
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| The future look of the Vogtle site? (Image: Southern) |
Southern submitted its ESP application for two Westinghouse AP1000 reactors at the existing two-unit Vogtle site to the NRC in August 2006. A year later, the company filed a request with the NRC for Limited Work Authorization (LWA), which permits the company to start safety-related groundwork in preparation for full construction to begin.
The Vogtle ESP is the fourth to be approved by the NRC, but is the first to be based on a specific reactor design. It is also the first to include an LWA.
The completion of the ESP process resolves many site-related safety and environmental issues and determines the site is suitable for possible future construction and operation of a new nuclear power plant. The LWA allows Southern to begin placing engineered backfill, retaining walls, lean concrete, mudmats and a waterproof membrane at the site. However, actual construction of the new plant cannot begin until Southern receives a combined construction and operating licence (COL) from the NRC.
Southern Nuclear lodged an application for a COL for two new AP1000 power reactor units at the Vogtle site in April 2008. The NRC is currently reviewing this application. Southern subsidiary Georgia Power signed an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract for the project in April 2008 with the Shaw and Westinghouse AP1000 consortium. In March 2009, the Georgia Public Service Commission voted to approve the new Vogtle units 3 and 4, which are slated to enter service in 2016 and 2017, respectively.
The Vogtle plant is jointly owned by Georgia Power (45.7%), Oglethorpe Power Corp (30%), Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia (22.7%) and the City of Dalton (1.6%).
Buzz Miller, executive vice president of nuclear development for Georgia Power and Southern Nuclear, commented: “Receiving this ESP on behalf of Plant Vogtle co-owners is a significant accomplishment for Southern Nuclear and for the nuclear industry.”
Unit 1 at Vogtle began commercial operation in May 1987, while unit 2 began in May 1989. Each of the Westinghouse pressurized water reactors (PWRs) is capable of generating 1215 MWe. The two new units will each produce 1105 MWe.
Source: World Nuclear News
Reactor returns to service after quake
Another reactor is repaired and returning to service after the earthquake that shut down all seven at Kashiwazaki Kariwa two years ago.
After gaining approvals from the governor of Niigata prefecture, the mayor of Kashiwazaki and the village chief of Kariwa – as well as the Nuclear Industrial Safety Authority – Tokyo Electric Power Co restarted Kashiwazaki Kariwa 6 at 2.31pm local time today.
The reactor is being operated at low power in order to make functional tests of every single one of its systems. The test program will include a practice emergency shutdown, but given successful results the reactor is expected to soon be increasing power and returning to commercial operation.
The 1315 MWe Advanced Boiling Water Reactor will join its identical neighbour unit 7 in operation while Tepco continue to work on the other five reactors at the huge power plant. Unit 7 returned in early May this year, but Tepco has never announced a draft schedule for all the returns. In the meantime, the utility has suffered enormous bills for replacement power and fuel as well as geologic surveys, engineering and construction..
At the time the Niigata-Chuetsu-Oki earthquake struck, three of the reactors were already shut down for maintenance while the three in operation shut down automatically as did one that was in the process of starting up. All of them remained in a safe state throughout the 6.8 magnitude earthquake, but there was widespread minor damage which necessitated absolutely exhaustive checks and many repairs. Some mildly radioactive cooling water was shaken from pools, many barrels of low-level waste were knocked over and an external transformer failed and caught fire. The site grounds also suffered, with widespread soil liquefaction and structural damage to office buildings.
Source: World Nuclear News
Counterfeit shipment seized at L.A. port
August 27, 2009 by admin
Filed under counterfeit
A shipment from China of close to 13,000 counterfeit routers and Ethernet switches was seized at the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex Friday.
Agents confiscated 5,475 wireless routers and 7,472 Ethernet switches, according to published reports, citing U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The products had logos indistinguishable from those made by Apple and Microsoft, the reports said.
Officials estimated the value of the shipment at more than $650,000, with a retail price topping $850,000.
No arrests have been made.
Source: Circuits Assembly
Belgian reactors receives news steam generators
Two new steam generators have been delivered to Electrabel’s Doel nuclear power plant near Antwerp, Belgium. They were made by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) at its Kobe shipyard.
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| One of two new steam generators for Doel 1 (Image: MHI) |
Steam generators are crucial components of plants based on pressurized water reactors (PWRs), transferring the thermal energy generated in the reactor vessel to the turbine generator by producing steam to drive the turbine.
MHI received the order in February 2006 for the supply of the replacement steam generators for Doel 1. The parts – measuring 20 meters in height and weighing some 270 tonnes – consist of pressure-resistant containers made of low-alloy steel (containing manganese, molybdenum and nickel) surrounding a bundle of 4800 heat transfer tubes manufactured from a thermally treated nickel-chromium-iron alloy.
The steam generators at most of Belgium’s nuclear power plants are being replaced progressively. With the delivery of these two, MHI has now supplied ten out of a total 19 steam generators at Belgium’s seven power reactors. The company delivered three to units 1 and 2 of the Tihange plant, in 1995 and 2001 respectively, and two to unit 2 of the Doel plant in 2004. The replacement of the steam generators at Tihange 2 added 48 MWe to the unit’s capacity.
Doel 1 – a 392.5 MWe PWR which began operating in 1974 – is licensed to operate until 2014 and Electrabel – now part of GdF Suez – recently began preparing the safety case for extending the operating lives of Doel 1 and 2 and Tihange 1 by ten years.
Source: World Nuclear News
Florida gets the greenlight to build nuclear power plant
Florida approved a nuclear plant for the first time in more than three decades. The plant would be built in Levy County.
Over the objections of some residents, elected officials and environmental groups, the governor and the Cabinet on Tuesday embraced Progress Energy’s controversial proposal to build a nuclear plant in Levy County — the first such plant approved in Florida in 33 years.
The vote by Gov. Charlie Crist, Attorney General Bill McCollum and Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink is not the final hurdle for Progress’ plant, which still needs to secure federal approval. But the unanimous Cabinet endorsement — with Agriculture Commissioner Charles Bronson absent — helps cement what is likely to be a new era of nuclear plant construction, with Florida Power & Light also planning to build a new nuclear plant, at Turkey Point in Miami-Dade County.
“We need to diversify our energy resources,” said Crist, who is pushing for new legislation that emphasizes energy production from solar, nuclear, wind, wave and biofuel sources. “The more diversified we are, the more opportunity we have to never suffer when one is less available than the other.”
FPL is still awaiting state and federal approval for its new plant, which would not be operational until 2018 at the earliest.
Jeff Lyash, Progress Energy Florida’s president and CEO, hailed the Levy County plant as a major step toward Florida’s “clean energy” future. He insisted the plant will save customers money over time while creating more than 5,000 jobs and reducing carbon dioxide emissions.
“This will save customers approximately $1 billion a year by lowering fuel costs,” Lyash told the Cabinet. “And it will give this state a much-needed economic boost.”
What Lyash did not mention was the cost to consumers, which will begin years before the plant produces any energy.
Progress has a request before the Public Service Commission to raise its base rate by 30 percent, a move that company spokeswoman Suzanne Grant said would generate about $500 million for improvements to existing power plants and electricity services.
On top of that, the St. Petersburg-based utility wants state approval to bill residential customers a monthly “nuclear charge” of $6.69 per 1,000 kilowatt hours starting in 2010 to help pay for the nuclear plant. FPL is seeking a similar base rate increase and could request a fee to help pay for its new nuclear plant, which would not be up and running for at least eight years.
In January, Progress’ 1.6 million customers saw a monthly increase of $12.11 per 1,000 kilowatt hours to pay for nuclear projects, sparking such an uproar that the utility then lowered its rates, reducing the monthly nuclear charge to $4.31 per 1,000 kilowatt hours.
Critics who spoke out Tuesday seemed more concerned about the plant’s impact on the environment than on their wallets.
Lyash stressed that Progress plans to shut down its coal-burning plant in Crystal River when the nuclear plant opens. Environmental leaders nonetheless worry about the potential dangers of nuclear power. And they are concerned about what the plant will do to wetlands at the 5,100-acre site north of Inglis.
The utility’s plans call for wiping out about 765 acres of wetlands, according to the Army Corps of Engineers.
WATER PERMIT
Mike Sole, head of the Florida Department of Environment Protection, said his department “will work diligently to minimize this impact.”
The Florida DEP still has to approve a water permit for the Progress plant, but the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission has the final stamp of approval.
Progress had hoped to start producing power from the Levy County plant in 2016, but construction is delayed until at least March 2018 because the NRC will not allow Progress to begin building anything before all site and safety reviews are complete.
Three environmental groups — the Ecology Party of Florida, the Green Party of Florida and the Nuclear Energy and Resource Service — have challenged the plant’s federal license.
The NRC’s Atomic Licensing Board recently concluded that the three groups successfully raised “certain major issues” about the environmental impact that warrant a full-fledged hearing.
For example, Progress has not determined where it will send the new plant’s radioactive waste.
“I am concerned about the danger and about the legacy we are leaving to our children,” state Rep. Michelle Rehwinkle-Vasilinda, D-Tallahassee, told Cabinet members. “We are leaving a legacy of waste. It is not truly clean. There is waste, and it has to be permanently disposed. We have not figured out how to do that, and I am concerned.”
FLOOD PLAIN
The NRC also found that the utility may have underestimated the impact of building the plant on a flood plain. That will require filling in and paving over hundreds of acres of wetlands, which may hurt the underground aquifer and the Withlacoochee River, plus the wildlife species that depend on them.
NRC officials also said the utility may not have adequately addressed the impact of “salt drift” into the remaining wetlands on the site.
Cara Campbell, chair of the Ecology Party of Florida, said the Cabinet decision was “pretty premature, considering all the faults we found.”
She said they should have waited to see how the environmental groups’ challenge to the plant’s federal permit turned out.
“I’m disappointed but not surprised,” said Beth Foley, a Levy County resident who opposes the nuclear plant. “I wish our environment was higher on the list of things that our elected officials care about.”
Source: St. Petersburg Times
Areva extends capabilities to US utilities
August 7, 2009 by admin
Filed under Areva, Joint Venture
Areva is expanding its service capabilities to US customers by forming a joint venture focused on balance of plant (BOP) services. It has also opened a new research facility which will analyse corrosion issues at US nuclear power plants.
The company has formed a joint venture with Day & Zimmermann to offer engineering, construction and maintenance services to US nuclear utilities. The joint venture – to be known as Areva DZ – will primarily focus on the balance of plant (BOP), implementing both major and minor nuclear plant modifications.
Major BOP systems include thermal systems and equipment directly involved in converting energy in the steam into electrical power, the process service systems and equipment required to achieve proper performance of the conversion system, and the electrical power systems and equipment that supply the electrical energy to the various plant auxiliaries and also transport the electrical power to the grid.
Areva DZ’s services include design/build BOP projects, standard plant modifications, BOP major component replacements, decommissioning, power uprates, plant upgrades, and other large and complex projects. The new company will be based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and will have offices in Lynchburg, Virginia; Lancaster, Pennsylvania; and Charlotte, North Carolina.
Tackling corrosion
Meanwhile, Areva has opened a new $6.5 million chemistry and materials centre (CMC) in Lynchburg. The company said that the facility will house several laboratories and provide “a key service to Areva customers in their ongoing efforts to reduce corrosion damage to plant components and fuel.”
The CMC will provide general and specialised chemistry, corrosion and metallurgical testing and analysis support for operating nuclear power plants. The facility will also support the design and deployment of the US EPR reactor.
Areva said that the CMC will analyse radioactive and non-radioactive samples of solids, liquids and gases from all locations in pressurised water reactors (PWRs) and boiling water reactors (BWRs), including reactor coolant, secondary plant water, cooling water and consumable materials.
Source: World Nuclear News
Overwhelming support for a research reactor in Saskatchewan
Scientists and legislators in Saskatchewan have proposed to the Canadian federal government that a new research reactor is built in the province. The submission came with 20 letters of support from industry and academia.
At a cost of C$500-C$750 million, said the University of Saskatchewan, a 20 MWt research reactor could be built at their campus in Saskatoon. The cost of this could be split between the country as a whole and the province of Saskatchewan with income from commerical work once in operation. The submission to government was a response to a call for expressions of interest from Natural Resources Canada, although the future of the proposal also depends on the results of a public consultation on the future of uranium in the province.
By producing key medical isotopes, the new unit would bolster global supplies and reduce pressure on the elderly NRU unit at the Chalk River laboratories of Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd, which is currently out of operation pending difficult repairs. It should return by the end of the year, but NRU is due for permanent shutdown in 2016.
The reactor
Dubbed the Canadian Neutron Source (CNS), the reactor would be a 20 MWt unit running on low-enriched uranium. It would be optimised to deliver a preliminary goal of 2000 six-day Curies of molybdenum-99 per week as well as a neutron beam for materials research. That rate of production would meet the Canadian domestic demand more than four times over, leaving much for export and enabling it to fill the global role that NRU had taken.
The scheme’s proponents believe that the CNS could be in operation by 2016 in time to take over isotope production and neutron science work from NRU. It wants the unit to be based on current proven designs, and the submission drew heavily on the experience of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (Ansto) in developing its C$400 million Opal reactor, which was built by Invap of Argentina.
Saskatchewan claims to be a great place for a new reactor, in part because of the University’s relationship with the Canadian Light Source synchotron which was recently build within its campus. In addition, there has long been a Slowpoke-II research reactor on the campus, operated by the Saskatchewan Research Council.
Capital costs for the CNS would be C$500-750 million, with C$314-417 million of that going ‘directly and indirectly’ into Saskatchewan’s GDP. Operational costs per year would be C$45-$70 million, also with the majority going into Saskatchewan’s GDP. Between 125 and 194 person-years of employment would be added to the provinces lot annually.
| Support The submission from the government of Saskatchewan and the University of Saskatchewan carried a number of letters of support from the following:
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Source: World Nuclear News
CNNC head under investigation
Citing state news agencies the Chinese Communist Party has said that Kang Rixin, head of China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), is under investigation for a serious disciplinary matter. No futher details were given.
Source: World Nuclear News
Enel and EDF to develop nuclear plants in Italy
August 5, 2009 by admin
Filed under EdF, Enel, Italy, Joint Venture
The Italian energy company Enel has formed a joint venture with France’s EdF to develop nuclear energy in Italy, the companies said in a joint statement Monday.
The companies billed the move “as the first substantial step” toward establishing nuclear plants in Italy following the approval of an Italian law last month allowing a return to nuclear energy more than two decades after voters shut down the country’s reactors.
The new Enel/EdF joint venture, called Italy Nuclear Development, will run feasibility studies for the construction of at least four nuclear reactors in Italy, which individual companies would then build and operate.
The reactors would be the so-called third generation European Pressurized Reactor or EPR variety, which is meant to eventually replace aging reactors around the world whose designs date from decades ago.
“The creation of this joint venture lays the ground for a concrete comeback of the nuclear in Italy and represents a unique opportunity for contributing to the recovery of the country’s economy, creating specialized jobs and increasing employment,” Enel Fulvio Conti said in a statement.
“In the past few years Enel has been able to rebuild the nuclear skills and expertise, thanks to its international operations and we are now ready to take the lead of the Italian nuclear program in co-operation with EdF, a world key player in this industry,” Conti said.
EdF and Enel have been working together since 2007 on the construction of a third-generation reactor in Flamanville in Normandy, in which Enel owns a 12.5 percent stake. By a separate agreement Enel will take an identical-sized stake in the second EPR reactor that EdF is to build at Penly in Normandy.
“This partnership is in line with EDF’s Group strategy aimed at strengthening its position in Europe and at being the world leader of the revival of nuclear energy,” EDF CEO Pierre Gadonneix said.
Premier Silvio Berlusconi has made nuclear power a key part of his conservative government’s energy plan. Italians pay some of the highest electricity rates in Europe and nuclear power is seen as a way to lower them.
Source: Los Angeles Times
L-3 MAPPS to Upgrade Brazil’s Angra 2 Simulator
MONTREAL, August 4, 2009 – L-3 MAPPS has signed an agreement with Eletrobrás Termonuclear S.A. – Eletronuclear of Brazil to upgrade its Angra 2 simulator at the Almirante Álvaro Alberto Nuclear Power Station. The project will commence in summer 2009 and will span approximately two years.
“L-3 MAPPS is pleased to be involved with the Angra 2 simulator,” said Michael Chatlani, vice president of marketing & sales for L-3 MAPPS Power Systems and Simulation. “We look forward to continuing our expansion in South America.”
The first phase of the project will see the simulator’s software rehosted to PC/Windows-based computers running L-3 MAPPS’ modern Orchid® simulation environment with advanced instructor station capabilities. The legacy models currently programmed in assembly language will be converted to C language. The aging master controller will be replaced, and L-3 MAPPS will implement a new master controller to establish I/O communications with the hard panels. As a second step, the primary system models will be replaced with higher fidelity models. L-3 MAPPS will supply its advanced neutronics model generated by Orchid Core Builder to replace the reactor core model, and use Orchid Modeling Environment to provide the nuclear steam supply system, containment, and HVAC models.
Angra 2, a Siemens-designed Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) with a net output of 1,350 MW, was connected to the grid in 2000. It is located near the town of Angra dos Reis, roughly 200 km south of Rio de Janeiro. The site also houses the Angra 1 unit, a 657 MW PWR designed by Westinghouse. The completion of Angra 3, based on the same German technology as Angra 2, is also expected to proceed in the near future. The Angra 2 simulator is housed at Eletronuclear’s training center in Mambucaba (Municipality of Paraty).
Eletronuclear was established in 1997 for the purpose of operating and building nuclear power plants in Brazil. A subsidiary of Eletrobrás, Eletronuclear is a government-controlled company that accounts for the generation of approximately 3 percent of electric power consumed in Brazil; the balance of which is largely made up from hydro-electrical sources.
L-3 MAPPS, a division of the L-3 Marine & 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.
To learn more about L-3 MAPPS, please visit the company’s Web site at www.L-3com.com/MAPPS.
Headquartered in New York City, L-3 Communications employs over 66,000 people worldwide and is a prime contractor in aircraft modernization and maintenance, C3ISR (Command, Control, Communications, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) systems and government services. L-3 is also a leading provider of high technology products, subsystems and systems. The company reported 2008 sales of $14.9 billion.
To learn more about L-3, please visit the company’s Web site at www.L-3com.com.
Source: L-3 MAPPS
