NUKE NEWZ

Wyoming Breaks Ground on Bill Gates’ Next-Gen Nuclear Facility

By Charles Kennedy - Jun 10, 2024

Bill Gates-backed TerraPower began construction on Monday on what is positioned to become America’s first next-generation nuclear power facility, in Kemmerer, Wyoming, and the most advanced nuclear facility in the world. 

“This is a big step toward safe, abundant, zero-carbon energy,” the Associated Press cited Gates as saying in Kemmerer on Monday. “And it’s important for the future of this country that projects like this succeed.”

Gates told the audience gathered in Wyoming on Monday that they were “standing on what will soon be the bedrock of America’s energy future.” TerraPower, co-founded by Gates, is seeking to “revolutionize” power generation, with ground broken in Wyoming on Monday to prepare the site for reactor construction. TerraPower applied in March for approval of a construction permit for an advanced nuclear reactor using sodium instead of water for cooling. 

While the technology for non-water-cooling reactors has been available for some time, Gates’ work in Wyoming represents the first time in 40 years that a private company has attempted to launch an advanced reactor commercially, AP reported, citing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). 

The new facility is next to a coal-burning power plant, the Naughton Power Plant, which will cease using coal in 2026, shifting to natural gas only, which it will also halt around 2036. Naughton is planning to obtain clean energy from the TerraPower reactor.  

America’s first next-gen nuclear facility is a race against Russia, which is also developing reactors that rely on sodium for cooling. 

Russian state-run Rosatom has just received approval for the site of its new BN-1200M nuclear power facility in the Sverdlovsk region. The BN-1200 is a sodium-cooled fast reactor that will eventually serve as Unit 5 of the Beloyarsk nuclear power plant project in the region. Rosatom plans to obtain a license for the construction for the BN-1200 in 2027, according to Nuclear Engineering International. 

By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com

IAEA mission reviews Sri Lanka siting process

10 June 2024

The seven-day Site and External Events Design Review Service (SEED) mission reviewed Sri Lanka's selection process to identify potential sites for the construction of its first nuclear power plant. The country has already identified six candidate sites from three different regions.

As part of the mission, geophysical studies were carried out at a potential site in Pulmoddai (Image: J Gunatilake, University of Peradeniya)

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) SEED mission was carried out at the request of the Government of Sri Lanka and hosted by the Sri Lanka Atomic Energy Board (SLAEB) under the purview of the Ministry of Power and Energy by a team of experts from Canada, Pakistan and Turkey, as well as one IAEA staff member. As well as reviewing the site survey report, the siting process, siting criteria, data collection process and application of the management system for siting activities, the team also visited and observed one of the candidate sites in Pulmoddai, near the Trincomalee region.

Among its recommendations to optimise the site evaluation process to select the most favourable site, the team suggested that SLAEB should further align the siting process to the IAEA Safety Standard Series No SSG-35, Site Survey and Site Selection for Nuclear Installations. It also recommended that additional site-specific information should be collected and incorporates into the siting process.

The team noted as a good practice that SLAEB has been conducting collaborative siting studies "in an open and transparent manner with stakeholder organisations, such as the Geological Survey and Mines Bureau, Central Environmental Authority and the Department of Geology of University of Peradeniya".

"Sri Lanka is comprehensively screening site-specific external hazards in the site selection process, while following the IAEA safety standards and adopting best practices," mission team leader and IAEA Nuclear Safety Officer Ayhan Altinyollar said.

"Sri Lanka has identified nuclear as a clean and green energy source to fulfil the future electricity demand in Sri Lanka," said SLAEB Chairman Rexy Denzil Rosa. "In March 2024, the Cabinet of Ministers made a strategic and knowledgeable commitment towards the country's nuclear power planning programme. Interpretation and application of IAEA safety standards within the context of site selection for a nuclear power plant is crucial for a strong nuclear power programme in Sri Lanka."

SEED missions are expert review missions that assist countries going through different stages in the development of a nuclear power programme, with a choice of modules offering focused reviews on areas such as site selection, site assessment and design of structures, systems and components, taking into consideration site specific external and internal hazards. The final SEED mission report will be delivered to the Government of Sri Lanka within three months, the IAEA said.

In 2022, a team of IAEA experts carried out a review of Sri Lanka's readiness to commit to a nuclear power programme in an Integrated Nuclear Infrastructure Review which focused on the first stage of the IAEA's Milestones Approach for countries that are newcomers to nuclear energy.

The next stage of the siting process - which Sri Lanka has already begun - will include evaluation, comparison and ranking studies of the candidate sites.

Ukraine-France, EDF-Energoatom nuclear cooperation agreements

10 June 2024

Ukraine's Energoatom and France's EDF sign a cooperation agreement, while the two countries have renewed their cooperation on the peaceful use of nuclear energy, which was originally signed in 1998.

The agreements took place in the presence of the presidents (Image: Ukraine Presidency)

Thursday's agreement between the two state-owned nuclear power giants covers the study of EDF's gigawatt-scale EPR and Nuward small modular reactor technologies as well as "exchange of experience in the operation of nuclear power plants, maintenance of safety, reliability and efficiency of reactors".

The exchange of experience will also include the supply of nuclear fuel for VVER reactors for countries wanting to diversify their supply away from Russia.

Energoatom's Chairman Petro Kotin said: "Ukraine, like France, has unique experience in the nuclear industry. Therefore, our active cooperation and joint efforts in increasing the role of nuclear energy on the European continent will contribute to the achievement of climate goals and ensuring the stable production of clean and safe electricity."

On the same day, the governments of the two countries exchanged letters putting into place a 20-year renewal of their 1998 agreement on the peaceful use of nuclear energy. The renewal, signed by Ukraine's Economy Minister Yulia Svyridenko and French Foreign Minister Stephane Séjournay, creates the legal framework for cooperation in the field of maintenance of nuclear facilities and renews the agreement which expired four years ago.

The ministers also signed agreements relating to French finance and support for Ukraine's critical infrastructure and wider backing for Ukrainian enterprises. The agreements came during a visit to France of Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Ukraine has 15 nuclear units which could generate about half of its electricity, including the six at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant which has been under Russian military control since early March 2022. The country has plans for nine new Westinghouse AP1000 units in the future, as well as exploring potential deployment of small modular reactors. France also has plans for a new era of nuclear energy construction. It already derives about 70% of its electricity from nuclear energy and has plans for as many as 14 new reactors.

Italian interim storage facility takes shape

10 June 2024

Construction has started at the Garigliano nuclear power plant in Italy of a facility for the interim storage of wastes generated through the decommissioning of the plant, which shut down more than 40 years ago.

Construction site of the DT2 waste storage facility (Image: Sogin)

Societa Gestione Impianti Nucleari SpA (Sogin) - established in 1999 to take responsibility for decommissioning Italy's former nuclear power sites and locating a national waste store - has now completed the laying of the foundation slab for the new DT2 storage facility.

Once completed, the DT2 facility - measuring 70 metres in length, 18 metres in width and 13 metres in height - will house about 1800 cubic metres of low and medium-level radioactive waste. This waste will exclusively come from the dismantling activities of the power plant and, in particular, from the dismantling work of the systems and components inside the reactor vessel, which began in December last year. The waste will subsequently be transferred to the national repository, once available.

This storage facility will include an operational handling area, a service building functional to the operation of the depot and a storage area equipped, among other things, with an overhead crane for the remote handling of radioactive waste containers, in which there will also be corridors for their inspection.

Civil works are scheduled to be completed in June 2025, with commissioning expected in the first half of 2026.

"This is a significant result for the advancement of the decommissioning and safe management programme of the site's radioactive waste, which will allow the dismantling of the systems and components of the reactor building of the power plant to be completed," Sogin said.

Garigliano, a 150 MWe boiling water reactor, was connected to the grid in January 1964 and was shut down in 1982. Italy operated a total of four nuclear power plants starting in the early 1960s, but decided to phase out nuclear power in a referendum that followed the 1986 Chernobyl accident. It closed its last two operating plants, Caorso and Trino Vercellese, in 1990. State-owned Sogin was established in 1999 to take responsibility for decommissioning Italy's former nuclear power sites and locating a national waste store.

SMR planned for Yakutia may become two-unit project

10 June 2024

The regional and federal ministries are "actively working" to change the existing plans for Russia's first land-based small modular reactor project in Yakutia into a two-reactor scheme, after assessing likely future energy demands.

How the SMR could look (Image: Rosatom)

Work is already under way on the project - in February it was announced that construction of worker camps and a new road to the site was taking place, and Rosenergoatom was officially designated as the operating organisation by parent company Rosatom.

The small modular reactor (SMR) is a water-cooled RITM-200N 55 MW reactor that has been adapted from the RITM-200 series used to power Russia's latest fleet of nuclear-powered icebreakers. It will be built near Ust-Kuyga in Yakutia (also known as Sakha) in Russia's Arctic north, with the aim of commissioning in 2028. Nuclear regulator Rostekhnadzor granted the construction licence in April 2023 and the expected service life is 60 years with a five-year refuelling schedule.

On Thursday, on the sidelines of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, an agreement on ensuring the appropriate electric power infrastructure as part of the project was signed by Rosatom's Deputy Director General Kirill Komarov and Chairman of the Government of the Republic of Sakha Kirill Bychkov.

The regional government and federal agencies will create the distribution networks, power transmission lines and substations required for the SMR to supply the existing power needs and the proposed mining expansion in the region.

Komarov said: "The Yakut SMR NPP will provide stable and low-carbon generation for large industrial consumers, thus becoming the regional power centre. Clearly, once the SMR is commissioned, it is necessary to ensure its capacity loading will become possible following the establishing of new industrial enterprises as well as social and transportation infrastructure. This, in turn, will lead to the growth of the regional population. Taking into account the development of the current and prospective deposits of Yakut Ust-Yansk and Verkhoyansk Districts, the consumption of the mining factories will exceed 90 MW of electric capacity."

Bychkov said: "We will put every effort to support the development of the Arctic territories of Yakutia that have huge potential for creating a mining cluster. As for the electric power consumption by the population and equivalent consumer categories, it is planned to increase power supply up to 5 MW in Ust-Kuyga and 7 MW in Deputatsky ... the estimations we have made with Rosatom show that 55 MW of capacity provided by one RITM-200N reactor unit will not be sufficient for the respected industrial cluster, that’s why we are working with federal ministries and agencies on the topic of transitioning to a two-unit design."

Rosatom says the SMR plant "will become the heart of one of the largest mineral resource centres in Russia" with the development of the Kyuchus, Deputatsky, and Tirekhtyakh deposits and broader infrastructure works to "create a developed area that is comfortable for work and life".

Researched and written by World Nuclear News