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Nuclear Engineering International
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Check out the last week's top stories below.
EDF REVAMPS NUWARD SMR DESIGN
EDF ’s NUWARD subsidiary has relaunched development of its small modular reactor (SMR) after announcing plans in 2024 to optimise the reactor design. According to Nuward’s original SMR roadmap, detailed design and formal application for a new nuclear facility was scheduled to begin in 2026 with first concrete in France planned for 2030. Construction of that first unit was expected to take three years. However, in July 2024 EDF said that it planned to optimise the Nuward design focusing on existing and proven technologies to ensure project deadlines and budgets could be met. EDF then withdrew Nuward from Great British Nuclear’s SMR selection contest.
MONTICELLO NPP OPERATING LICENCE RENEWED
The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has renewed for a second time the operating licence of the boiling water reactor (BWR) at unit 1 of the Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant in Minnesota for an additional 20 years. Its operating licence will now expire on 8 September 2050.
The NRC’s review of the application from Northern States Power Company-Minnesota (doing business as Xcel Energy), proceeded on two tracks. A safety evaluation report was issued in March 2024, and a final environmental impact statement was issued in November 2024.
ROSATOM COMPLETES INITIAL TESTING OF HTGR FUEL
Rosatom scientists have successfully completed the first stage of reactor testing of laboratory fuel samples for a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) under extremely high temperature conditions. Development of HTGRs are seen as key to developing technology for the production of low-carbon hydrogen and ammonia using HTGR heat. Rosatom is also developing HTGR fuel and pilot industrial technology as part of an investment project to create domestic technologies for large-scale production and consumption of hydrogen and hydrogen-containing products.
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MOCHOVCE NPP HEAT PROJECT UNVEILED
Slovak power utility Slovenské Elektrárne (SE) is reviewing a new project to increase the energy use of the Mochovce NPP. SE says it is considering “the efficient use of the so-called waste heat from the cooling circulating water from the non-nuclear part of the power plant for a year-round heat supply for the city of Tlma?”. This would help reduce the carbon footprint of heating in the city. “The project includes the construction of a hot water pipeline and technology for heat transfer between NPP Mochovce and Tlma?.
TERRAPOWER, SDC PARTNER TO DEPLOY NATRIUM PLANTS FOR DATA CENTRES
领英推荐
US-based nuclear technology company TerraPower has entered a strategic collaboration with Sabey Data Centres (SDC), a developer, owner, and operator of data centres.
SDC is a large-scale private data centre provider, with more than two decades of experience in developing, constructing, and operating data centres across the US.
The two companies signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to leverage TerraPower’s advanced nuclear Natrium plants into SDC’s existing and future data centres.
The collaboration will explore new Natrium plants in the Rocky Mountain region, and Texas to support growing power needs for SDC-owned data centres.
AECL AND CNL EXPLORE MARKET INTEREST IN SLOWPOKE REACTORS
Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) and Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) have issued a Request for Expression of Interest (RFEOI) to better understand market interest in licensing AECL’s Slowpoke and Nuclear Battery reactor technologies for commercialisation. The RFEOI invites technology developers and other interested stakeholders to submit their insights and feedback about these reactor designs and technologies, which collectively have broad applications that include electricity generation, district heating, isotope production and physics research.
REACTOR VESSEL SHIPPED FOR KUDANKULAM 6
The VVER-1000 reactor pressure vessel (RPV) for unit 6 of India’s Kudankulam NPP in the southern state of Tamil Nadu which is being built with Russian assistance, is being transported to the construction site from the Atommash plant, the Volgodonsk branch of AEM-Technologies (part of Rosatom’s mechanical engineering division Atomenergomash).
Kudankulam NPP will comprise six units with VVER-1000 reactors. Work began following an intergovernmental agreement between India and Russia signed in 1988. Units 1&2 (Phase I) are already in operation and work is underway to build units 3-6 (Phases II and III). The customer and operator of the station is the National Power Company of India Ltd (NPCIL), the general contractor is JSC ASE JSC (Rosatom’s Engineering Division), general designer Atomenergoproject and equipment designer OKB Gidropress.
DEMOLITION OF IDAHO’S NAVAL PROTOTYPE REACTOR ADVANCES
The US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Environmental Management (EM) and its contractor at the Idaho Clean-up Project have removed an important support structure of the Submarine first generation Westinghouse (S1W) naval propulsion prototype in preparation for the facility’s demolition.
EM contractor Idaho Environmental Coalition (IEC) has completed demolition of the S1W hot cell, the seven-foot-thick concrete structure where workers performed high-radiation work and materials inspections while the prototype operated at the Naval Reactors Facility at the Idaho National Laboratory Site.
US DOE AWARDS FIRST GAIN VOUCHERS OF 2025
The US Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Gateway for Accelerated Innovation in Nuclear (GAIN) has awarded four fiscal year 2025 vouchers to support the development of advanced nuclear technologies. Each company will get access to specific capabilities and expertise in the DOE’s national laboratory complex and will be responsible for a minimum 20% cost share, which can be an in-kind contribution. In this round of awards both Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) are named.
Of the four companies receiving awards, three are working on fission reactor designs and one is developing a used fuel recycling process.
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