Constellation pushes gov’t for loan guarantee

A Maryland energy company is pressuring the federal government to expedite approval of a loan guarantee the company needs to build a third nuclear reactor at Calvert Cliffs.

Constellation Energy Group CEO Mayo Shattuck said the multi-billion-dollar project is in jeopardy because the Department of Energy is taking too long to approve the reactor for a loan guarantee.

Shattuck told The Baltimore Sun he has cut back spending on the project for fear he won’t get approval — even though Constellation and its French partner, Electricite de France, have collectively spent $600 million so far on the proposal. He said he needs the guarantee by summer’s end.

The Department of Energy has the authority to finance one nuclear project, and Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer said in early July that Calvert Cliffs is “first in line.”

Hongyanhe plant shifts to phase II

A ceremony was held on 28 July to mark the breaking of ground for the two 1000 MWe CPR-1000 pressurized water reactors which will form Phase II of the Hongyanhe nuclear power plant in Liaoning province in northeast China. The National Development and Reform Commission approved the construction of Phase II in May. The cost of constructing Phase II is 25 billion yuan ($3.7 billion), according to the Xinhua news agency. Over 80% of the equipment to be used in the Phase II units is expected to be sourced domestically. Construction of each of the four CPR-1000 units making up the adjacent Phase I of the Hongyanhe plant is already underway. Yang Xiaofeng, manager of Liaoning Hongyanhe Nuclear Power Co, said that all six units at the site should be in operation by the end of 2016. The plant is jointly owned by China Guangdong Nuclear Power Co (CGNPC) and the China Power Investment Corp, each holding a 45% stake, with the Dalian Municipal Construction Investment Co holding the remaining 10%.

Source: World Nuclear News

Costs overruns and delays plaques Flamanville reactor

Electricite de France SA, Europe’s biggest power producer, will have a cost overrun of 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) and a delay of as many as two years in developing the EPR nuclear reactor at Flamanville in France, two people with knowledge of the project said.

The cost estimate will be raised to 5 billion euros from an initial target of 4 billion euros, according to the people who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public. It will be delayed from its slated commercial start in 2013.

The cost overrun and delay were reported earlier by LCI television today. An EDF spokeswoman declined to comment.

EDF is building a 1,650-megawatt, Areva SA-designed EPR at Flamanville in Normandy and plans similar models in the U.K, the U.S. and China. Areva is developing an EPR in Finland, which is over budget and behind schedule. Getting an EPR in operation is considered key for the French nuclear industry to capture global orders for new reactors, according to a government report.

Areva and EDF should modify the design of the third generation EPR reactor and develop smaller models to win contracts, according to recommendations in the report on France’s nuclear industry by former EDF Chief Executive Officer Francois Roussely published two days ago.

“The credibility of both the EPR and the ability of the French nuclear industry to successfully build new reactors has been seriously undermined by difficulties” at Finland’s Olkiluoto site and Flamanville, according to the report.

Roussely called for “urgent measures” to turn the situation around and get the EPRs completed to benefit plans for another French EPR at Penly and in the U.K.

Areva last month took a provision for cost overruns for the Finnish EPR, taking the total excess cost to about 2.7 billion euros. The world’s biggest reactor builder pledged in 2005 to complete the reactor in 2009 at a total cost of 3 billion euros.

Teollisuuden Voima Oyj is aiming to begin operations at the reactor in 2013.

Source: Bloomberg Businessweek

Fusion reactor agreement finalised

Construction of the Iter reactor will take place at Cadarache in Southern France

The European Union and six member states have reached a deal on the financing and timetable for an experimental nuclear fusion reactor.

An explosion in costs had cast a cloud over the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (Iter).

The project, which is to be based in Cadarache in southern France, aims to harness the same physical process that fuels the Sun.

Additional construction funds will have to come from within the EU’s budget.

The extra 1.4bn euros will cover a shortfall in building costs in 2012-13.

Delegates agreed that the overall costs of the project will be almost US $21bn, (16bn euros/£13bn), some three times the original price.

They also agreed a timeline that would see the first plasma experiments in 2019, with a fusion reactor generating significantly more power than it consumed by 2026/27.

‘Landmark’ day

The organisation also appointed a new director general, Professor Osamu Motojima, who said that he believed the new timeline and budget agreed in Cadarache would make fusion a reality.

“Today is a landmark day for the Iter project, now we are moving into the real construction phase,” he said.

Four years ago, the EU, Russia, China, India, Japan, Korea and the US picked Cadarache in the south of France as the location for the experiment that aimed to produce energy from the fusing of light atomic elements, the same process that makes the Sun shine.

But since the science of how to achieve this type of fusion hasn’t been settled, the plans for the Iter project have been the subject of several revisions in recent years, each one leading to an increased price tag.

Coupled with the increases in costs for raw materials like steel and cement, the budget for the project has spiralled from around 5bn euros to about 16bn euros, as confirmed today.

The EU has agreed to meet a critical short term shortfall of 1.4bn euros by using money that has been allocated to other research programmes.

But the EU has said it will cap its overall contribution to Iter at 6.6bn euros, leaving the fusion project to find cuts in costs of around 600m euros.

“To meet this we need to reduce the construction costs and also reduce some contingency provisions,” said Professor Motojima.

“Cost containment is very important. To get understanding from public we need to reduce costs as much as possible; realising this is my largest responsibility,” he observed.

“My basic attitude to realise cost containment is to simplify everything, I propose to simplify a new management structure of the organisation.”

Professor Motojima agreed that there would be no more bailout in future.

“It’s impossible to look for more money. My expectation is that we can do this within our budgets. I have the prospect we can do this, otherwise I wouldn’t accept my new responsibility.”

The director of research in nuclear energy at the European Commission, Octavio Quintana Trias, suggested that Wednesday marked a landmark for Iter in coming to terms with reality.

“The most important thing is that the designs which were conceptual in 2001, now are much closer to the reality of the industry. I can guarantee nothing but it is less likely that we will have cost surprises when the designs are much closer to the reality than they were ten years ago.”

Mr Quintana Trias said that the while Wednesday’s meeting was a major step forward for research, a commercial fusion reactor wouldn’t happen until 2040 at the earliest.

But despite the large rise in costs, he added that he believed the investment was worth it.

“If you consider the total costs of the machine even in the worst scenario are the bill we pay for energy for one day in the world, then to get a new energy source for this price I think is worth trying.”

Cost concerns

In Europe, some scientists are unhappy with the EU proposal to take funds from unspent budgets to bail Iter out.

In France, a group of physicists – including Nobel prize winner Georges Charpak – have written a letter to the press calling Iter a catastrophe and arguing that it should be shut down.

They suggest that making up the shortfall in Iter’s budget is costing France alone the equivalent of 20 years investment in physics and biology.

According to one of the signatories, Professor Jacques Treiner from Paris University, it was time to call a halt to Iter before any more money was spent.

“The end of Iter would not mean the end of plasma physics or fusion research, just the end of that project which was ill conceived,” Professor Treiner said.

“At a certain point especially when they say they will take money from other fields to fund this one you have to say, really a clear answer and the answer is no, don’t do that.”

Source: BBC News

Fusion test research shows promising results

Purdue nuclear engineering doctoral student Chase Taylor, at left, and Jean Paul Allain, an assistant professor of nuclear engineering, are using this facility in work aimed at developing coatings capable of withstanding the grueling conditions inside nuclear fusion reactors. The research focuses on the “plasma-material interface,” a crucial region where the inner lining of a fusion reactor comes into contact with the extreme heat of the plasma. Credit: Purdue University photo/Mark Simons

Researchers have discovered mechanisms critical to interactions between hot plasma and surfaces facing the plasma inside a thermonuclear fusion reactor, part of work aimed at developing coatings capable of withstanding the grueling conditions inside the reactors.

Fusion powers the stars and could lead to a limitless supply of clean energy. A fusion power plant would produce 10 times more energy than a conventional nuclear fission reactor, and because the deuterium fuel is contained in seawater, a fusion reactor’s fuel supply would be virtually inexhaustible.

Research at Purdue University focuses on the “plasma-material interface,” a crucial region where the inner lining of a fusion reactor comes into contact with the extreme heat of the plasma. Nuclear and materials engineers are harnessing nanotechnology to define tiny features in the coating in work aimed at creating new “plasma-facing” materials tolerant to radiation damage, said Jean Paul Allain, an assistant professor of nuclear engineering.

One lining being considered uses lithium, which is applied to the inner graphite wall of the reactor and diffuses into the graphite, creating an entirely new material called lithiated graphite. The lithiated graphite binds to deuterium atoms in fuel inside fusion reactors known as tokamaks. The machines house a magnetic field to confine a donut-shaped plasma of deuterium, an isotope of hydrogen.

During a fusion reaction, some of the deuterium atoms strike the inner walls of the reactor and are either “pumped,” causing them to bind with the lithiated graphite, or returned to the core and recycled back to the plasma. This process can be “tuned” by these liners to control how much deuterium fuel is retained.

“We now have an understanding of how the lithiated graphite controls the recycling of hydrogen,” Allain said. “This is the first time that anyone has looked systematically at the chemistry and physics of pumping by the lithiated graphite. We are learning, at the atomic level, exactly how it is pumped and what dictates the binding of deuterium in this lithiated graphite. So we now have improved insight on how to recondition the surfaces of the tokamak.” Continued…

Read more: Physorg.com

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

IAEA: Indonesia is ready for nuclear power development

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) considers Indonesia ready to develop nuclear energy, according to a BATAN official.

“The statement was issued last November 2009,” said Dr Taswanda Taryo, deputy head in charge of research and development result empowerment unit of the National Nuclear Power Agency (BATAN), at the Surabaya Institute of Technology (ITS) here, Wednesday.

Dr. Taryo gave the information when speaking in a seminar on “Technology and Safety of Nuclear Power Project”. Other speakers included Prof. Mukhtasor PhD from the National Energy Council (DEN) and Ian Love from the Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL).

The IAEA`s appraisal covered four readiness aspects, namely human resources, stakeholders, industry and regulations, he said.

“It`s because we have carried out a series of researches since 1980an,” he added.
Following the appraisal, Indonesia should enter the next concrete phase, namely the nuclear power project itself, he said.

“The Law No. 17/2007 has mandated the use of nuclear energy in Indonesia by 2015-2019, so at the latest we should have a nuclear power project by 2019,” he said.

Therefore, BATAN has formed a BATAN Incorporation which involves stakeholders such as BATAN, the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, the Research and Technology Ministry, LIPI (Indonesian Institute of Sciences), state Power Utility (PLN), the Environmental Affairs Ministry, and the Industry Ministry.

They will decided the technicalities such as the industry as owner, technology, location, and licensing, he said.

The ownership will be established in 2011, but the form is not yet decided, whether it will be a state owned company or a totally private one.

“For sure, we have researched on the location since 1980an. The conclusion that it should be in the northern Javanese coastal area to avoid the Earth`s plaque,” he said.

BATAN has surveyed 70 locations, and selected into 14 locations, and now just four including Ujung Bumi (Jepara), Banten, and Bangka Belitung.

Prof Mukhtasor PhD, a member of the National Energy Council (DEN), said his agency has hold dialogs with those who are for or against the planned nuclear power project.

Those who are against it, always ask about the safety, he said, adding that he has explained that the nuclear technology is now very different from those used in Chernobyl.

Indonesia will have no longer coal by 2020, while the increasing number of the country`s population will need all kinds of energy from marine, solar, geothermal until nuclear, according to the professor.

Source: ANTARA News/Embassy of Indonesia

Britain supports nuclear deal with India

THE British Government has announced it will allow the export of civil nuclear technology to India as the Prime Minister, David Cameron, began his first visit to the subcontinent.

The decision to allow closer civil nuclear co-operation is a sign of Mr Cameron’s desire to forge a ”new relationship” between the countries. It was announced at a speech in Bangalore yesterday. British nuclear co-operation with India has been limited because Delhi is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Business Secretary Vince Cable, travelling with Mr Cameron, said British companies would benefit from the change. ”There is already a declaration under which a certain amount of modest research can take place. We want to take this to a higher level,” he said.

Britain’s shift follows an historic nuclear co-operation deal between Indian and the US in 2008 that allowed India access to global nuclear commerce even though it is not a NPT signatory.

Australia continues to ban the sale of uranium to India because it is not a signatory.

Source: The Age

Obama’s decision to halt Yucca Mountain plans criticized

Congress was warned Tuesday that the failure to build the planned Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada could delay licensing of the country’s first new nuclear power plants in a generation.

“Without a solution to the storage of spent nuclear fuel — meaning a permanent repository — state regulators may be hesitant to approve the construction of new nuclear units,” David Wright, the head of the Nuclear Waste Strategy Coalition, a group of regulators, attorneys general and electric utilities from 32 states, told the House Budget Committee. “And utilities may be hesitant to construct new nuclear units even if the (federal) Nuclear Regulatory Commission approves the license.”

Rep. John Spratt, D-S.C., the House panel’s chairman, criticized President Barack Obama’s decision last year to halt plans to start building the nuclear waste dump beneath Yucca Mountain, about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

“I am doubtful that there are easy alternatives to the Yucca Mountain site,” Spratt said. “If we abandon Yucca Mountain, where are we going to find a suitable alternative?”

Spratt released a new report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office finding that the federal government faces more than $13 billion in potential liabilities from dozens of lawsuits filed by states over nuclear waste storage.

The 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act required the government to establish a single repository for toxic materials from nuclear weapons production and maintenance at the Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington state, the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, the Idaho National Laboratory, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and similar complexes in other states.

The central repository, which Congress decreed in 1987 would be under Yucca Mountain, is also designed to accept waste from 104 commercial nuclear reactors across the country.

Utilities and states have filed 72 lawsuits over the federal government’s failure to meet the law’s 1998 deadline to start collecting nuclear waste at the Yucca site. Congress later changed the deadline to 2017.

A panel of Nuclear Regulatory Commission administrative law judges last month rejected Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s attempt to withdraw the application that President George W. Bush had submitted to the NRC to start building the Yucca repository.

The full commission is reviewing the judges’ ruling on whether the Obama administration has the authority to pull out of a congressionally mandated project on which the government has spent $10 billion in environmental and design studies.

Kristina Johnson, the U.S. energy undersecretary, predicted Tuesday that the administration will prevail in the NRC case.

“The (Energy) Department remains confident in its legal authority to withdraw the application,” Johnson told the budget panel.

In a separate action, South Carolina, Washington state and Idaho have a case challenging Obama’s Yucca reversal before the U.S. Court of Appeals in the District of Columbia.

At Obama’s direction, Chu set up the Blue Ribbon Commission on America’s Energy Future in January. The panel, led by former Indiana Rep. Lee Hamilton and former national security adviser Brent Scowcroft, will seek alternatives to Yucca Mountain for nuclear waste disposal.

Republican Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, the senior Republican on the House Select Committee on Energy and Global Warming, accused Obama of playing politics.

“Obama is seeking to kill Yucca Mountain before it opens not because it is good for the American people, but because it is good for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who is engaged in a tough re-election campaign in Nevada,” he said.

Reid and most other Nevada leaders maintain that storing the nation’s most toxic nuclear waste under a mountain within 100 miles of Las Vegas would threaten the city’s $28 billion gambling and tourism industry.

B&W to construct test facility for modular reactor

Babcock & Wilcox (B&W) is to construct a test facility for the mPower reactor design in Bedford County, Virginia. The facility – not far from B&W’s headquarters in Lynchburg – will be used to support licensing activities for the small, modular reactor design.

A nuclear power plant utilizing mPower reactors (Image: B&W)

The company said that the mPower Integrated System Test (IST) facility will be built at the Center for Advanced Engineering and Research (CAER), currently being constructed at the New London Business and Technology Center.

The IST facility, which is expected to be operational in 2011, will include a scaled prototype of the mPower reactor that will undergo extensive testing. B&W said that while all the technical features of the mPower integral reactor are included in the IST the source of heat for testing is electric rather than nuclear.

B&W said that the three-year initiative will collect data to verify the reactor design and safety performance, supporting its licensing activities with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Once testing concludes, the company anticipates using the facility for on-going training of utility workers who would be operating mPower reactors.

The CAER was selected for the IST facility after an extensive evaluation of various sites, B&W said in a statement. It added, “One of the key factors in the decision was a $2.4 million grant provided by the Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission (TICRC).”

Chris Mowry, president of B&W Nuclear Energy, commented: “B&W is pleased to have the support of the Virginia Tobacco Commission in locating our IST facility in Bedford County. This facility will play an important role as we move forward with testing and licensing of B&W mPower reactors, while also reaffirming the region as a hub for nuclear technology.”

The CAER, with a focus on nuclear energy and distance education, aims to promote economic development in the region. Commenting on B&W’s decision to construct the test facility there, Bob Bailey, executive director of CAER, said: “This is exactly the type of opportunity we had in mind when we created CAER. Our research facility is designed to support innovation in our region’s industries and strengthen the role of science and technology in our economy.” He added, “B&W’s decision to locate their IST facility here fits this objective like a glove.”

Earlier this month, B&W and Bechtel entered into a formal alliance to design, license and deploy B&W’s mPower design, a 125 MWe modular reactor. Under the alliance – to be known as Generation mPower – B&W will focus on designing and testing the nuclear steam supply system (NSSS) and nuclear island, including the design certification application development and submission, and NSSS production. Bechtel will complement these responsibilities with integrated engineering and project management leadership.

Source: World Nuclear News

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