Page 10 - Nuclear Plant Journal March-April 2012
Basic HTML Version
10
Nuclear Plant Journal, March-April 2012
Utility,
Industry &
Corporation
Utility
Merger
Exelon Corporation
and Constel-
lation Energy announced that they have
completed their merger, effective today.
The merger creates the leading U.S. com-
petitive energy provider with one of the
industry’s cleanest and lowest-cost power
generation fleets, and one of the largest
retail customer bases in the nation.
Upon the closing of the merger,
Christopher M. Crane became president
and CEO of the combined company, and
Mayo A. Shattuck III became executive
chairman. The new company retains the
Exelon name and remains headquartered
in Chicago, with significant operations
in Maryland, Illinois and Pennsylvania.
It will trade on the New York Stock
Exchange under the symbol EXC.
Contact: Judy Rader, telephone:
(312) 394-7417.
Industry
Small Modular Reactor
The
U.S. Energy Department
and
its Savannah River Site (SRS) announced
on March 2, 2012, three public-private
partnerships to develop deployment plans
for small modular nuclear reactor (SMR)
technologies at SRS facilities, near Aiken,
South Carolina. As part of the Energy
Department’s commitment to advancing
the next generation of nuclear reactor
technologies and breaking down the tech-
nical and economic barriers to deploy-
ment, these Memorandums of Agreement
(MOA) will help leverage Savannah Riv-
er’s land assets, energy facilities and nu-
clear expertise to support potential private
sector development, testing and licensing
of prototype SMR technologies.
The Energy Department, Savannah
River Site and Savannah River National
Laboratory (SRNL) have entered into
three separate agreements with Hyperion
Power Generation Inc.; SMR, LLC, a
subsidiary of Holtec International; and
NuScale Power, LLC. The agreements
will help these private companies obtain
information on potential SMR reactor
siting at Savannah River and provide a
framework for developing land use and
site services agreements to further these
efforts.
Contact: telephone: (202) 586-4940.
Corporation
ATMEA1
ATMEA
received the final report and
findings of the review of ATMEA1 reactor
safety objectives and options by the
French nuclear safety authority (ASN).
The ATMEA1 reactor is an 1100
MWe Generation III+ pressurized water
reactor (PWR) developed and already
marketed internationally by ATMEA,
a joint venture between AREVA and
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd (MHI).
Its safety objectives and principles are
based on the latest international standards,
requirements and recommendations. The
safety features of the ATMEA1 reactor
meet the most demanding criteria for
protecting systems critical to safety
from both internal and external hazards,
including earthquakes, flooding and
wide-body commercial aircraft crashes,
and for severe accident management and
mitigation.
In concluding its review, conducted in
close cooperation with the French Institute
for Radiological Protection and Nuclear
Safety (IRSN) and completed at the end
of November 2011, ASN stated that the
reactor’s safety objectives and options
are consistent with French regulations, as
is the consideration given to internal and
external hazards. In addition, ATMEA’s
assessment of the Fukushima accident,
demonstrating that the ATMEA1 reactor’s
safety options are such that no design
changes are needed at this time, was
favorably received by ASN.
Contact: Patricia Marie, telephone:
33 (0) 1 34 96 12 15, fax: 33 (0) 1 34 96
16 54, email:
Robotic Removal
Diakont
recently supplied a rad-
tolerant manipulator system for the remote
robotic removal of Reactor Pressure
Vessel (RPV) test specimens.
Test specimens are housed within
containers welded to the RPV inner
diameter (ID). To retrieve them, it is
necessary to perform precision cuts of
the welds that fasten the containers to the
RPV.
Diakont’s new manipulator imple-
ments technology that eliminates ingress
of welding slag and other foreign material
into the RPV. The manipulator is equipped
with Diakont D40 radiation tolerant cam-
eras, for monitoring of underwater op-
erations in the very high radiation work
area.
This first RPV test specimen removal
manipulator has been supplied to the
Kalinin Nuclear Power Plant, Russia.
Presently Diakont is manufacturing an
identical manipulator to be supplied to the
Rostov Nuclear Power Plant, Russia.
Contact: Edward Petit de Mange,
Filter System
ENERCON
, an engineering, envi-
ronmental and technical consulting energy
company since 1983, has received patents
(USPN 8048319 and USPN 8054932)
for a filter medium for strainers used in
nuclear reactor Emergency Core Cooling
Systems (ECCS).
ENERCON’s product was developed
in response to the Nuclear Regulatory
Commission’s Generic Safety Issue, GSI-
191, “Assessment of DebrisAccumulation
on PWR Sump Performance.”
Eleven nuclear power plants in the
United States have the ENERCON Debris
Bypass Eliminator installed in their ECCS
sump strainers.
Contact: Peggy Striegel, telephone:
MOU
GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy
(GEH)
continues to expand its presence in the
Finland. The company announced it
has signed a new project development
memorandum of understanding (MOU)
with Finnish software and systems
engineering firm Space Systems Finland
Ltd. (SSF), which specializes in the
validation and verification of safety
critical software for various industrial
sectors, including the aerospace and
utility industries.
Under the agreement, the companies
will explore potential opportunities to
collaborate on future nuclear power plant
