Nuclear Plant Journal, July-August 2015 NuclearPlantJournal.com
37
Global Research Center to look at that.
At one of the labs, I was able to actually
see the guys on the shop floor doing the
experiments to demonstrate the various
aspects of the EM pump reliability.
5.
Where is your research based for the
PRISM technology?
Out of Wilmington, North Carolina.
We have great experts there. Dr. Eric
Loewen is our chief engineer around
that technology platform line and we’ve
engaged lot of our senior engineers.
We’ve engaged our program engineers,
young people that are just coming through
and really spreading the knowledge of a
sodium fast reactor.
6.
What is the update on interest in
ESBWR worldwide?
DTE Energy got their combined
operation license onApril 30, 2015. It was
officially signed, and we had a ceremony
in Rockville, Md. where we had all four
U.S. NRC commissioners there. And
so, that is a big milestone as that’s the
first ever COL based on the ESBWR
technology. What I’m most proud about
is from our DCD to their COL, they only
had one departure from our DCD. And
that was around the sizing of the rad
waste building. So just having one plan
departure was great. They did a good job.
Now, they’re not ready to build but this
is now an option for them in their energy
generation. We continue to work with
Dominion for the potential North Anna 3
project. We’re in the middle of the COL
review right now, led by Dominion, and
we’re supporting them as well. I think
they will get it approved by the end of
2016, or beginning of 2017. So, there’s
more work to do there. About half the
chapters have been sort of finished out,
and we got a good plan to close the rest
of those. We’re very excited about that
one, doing a lot of work for them there.
7.
Are there any other lead plants
internationally, that may be ready to roll
with these two certifications?
We have had a site in India that has
been sort of assigned to us, Kovvada,
that’s sized for six ESBWRs. NPCIL
asked us to wait until we had certification
to come back and speak to them. So,
very recently I was in Mumbai and New
Delhi talking to the authorities there to
restart our engagement. So, that’s a great
example. I can go through the list of the
countries, Poland or other places that are
interested. I would say that having the
DCD has really heightened and helped
the interest in the ESBWR technology.
8.
Is the liability issue resolved in India?
The ultimate goal for any country,
and this isn’t just about India, is to be
compliant with the CSC, Convention
on Supplementary Compensation. And
so, there has been a concern, since the
2010 law that was passed in India that
there were a couple of elements that were
out of alignment. And I don’t think this
is just a US thing. All countries have
that concern of having a few of the key
elements there, channeling the liability
through the operator. I think that the fact
that there was a lot of activity and a lot
of dialogue and discussion in the US-
India nuclear contact group and all that
demonstrated to me that there was an
issue that needed to be addressed. We
don’t have all the information at this
point in time. It was a government-to-
government thing. We were invited to
participate in a couple of the sessions,
and we did, along with Westinghouse.
India has proposed an insurance pool to
help address this issue. We’re looking for
how that’s going to play out. If India’s
laws are compliant with the CSC, we
would be happy. And they’re going to
be applying for ratification, I believe, we
will hear, later in 2015.
9.
What is the origin of the BWR
technology?
I recently went to the Argonne
National Laboratory and I got to see
where the experimental boiling water
reactor was housed, the very first basis
for boiling water reactor technology, in a
great museum there that talked about how
that was developed as an alternative to the
pressurized water reactor, which had its
genesis in the nuclear navy and Admiral
Rickover, and taking that technology and
scaling it. So, back in the ‘50s, there were
a lot of DOE-driven labs around different
technologies. And then through the ‘60s
and the ‘70s, it was all about picking the
technology and scaling it up quickly.
Every generation got bigger. So for
boiling water reactors we had Vallecitos.
That was the first ever reactor licensed
by the Atomic Energy Commission.
It’s still on our facility there, the dome.
And that led to Dresden 1, the first real
commercial reactor. I was going through
some of our old papers that we had in
San Jose in the original headquarters,
and I found the business plan, from 1957,
talking about the different technologies
and how we evaluated them. And we
chose the boiling water reactor and took
that and had Vallecitos, Dresden, and
then it went to the BWR 2S, 3S, 4S, 5S
and 6S. And we had the ABWR, which
is the only U.S. generation III reactor
in operation out there. There are eight
of those: four in operation and four still
under construction. And in November
2014 we received our DCD, design
certification document, from the NRC for
the newest reactor out there, the ESBWR.
We’re very proud of the certification and
that’s generated a lot of interest around
the world in this technology now.
10.
Concluding remarks.
We have a fuel business as well. I’m
a fuel engineer at heart. The last time
I’ve done real engineering was fuel and
core engineering. And so, that’s a great
technology design that we continue to
invest in that gives a direct benefit in
performance to the customer.
Around our fuel business as well, we
continue to work with the customers, and
we’ve closed a deal with Nebraska Public
Power (NPPD).
We have a big deal for multiple
plants with Exelon that we closed
recently, nearly 300 million dollars. So
we’re really getting good continued
relationships with our customers and
bringing our technology to them. That’s
key. The other one, I would say, is the
ABWR through a couple of things. There
are eight of them. Four have been under
operation, four under construction. And
our partners, Hitachi GE, are working
with the UK’s Office of Nuclear
Regulation (ONR) on the generic design
assessment process. They’re in step three
of a four step process. We’re assisting
them in the safety case for the Horizon
project. Here in the US, the ABWR was
the first-ever DCD back in 1997 under
Part 52. We did the licensing. They’re
15-year licenses. So we are in renewal
now to refresh the ABWR. It’s still a great
technology, Generation III active safety.
Contact: Jonathan Allen, GE Hitachi
Nuclear Energy, 3901 Castle Hayne Rd,
Wilmington, NC 28401; telephone: (910)
