Nuclear Plant Journal, March-April 2014 NuclearPlantJournal.com
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range of reactor operating conditions.
SIET has extensive experience with
similar heat exchanger test bundle
fabrication and testing for other reactor
vendors.
In December 2013, NuScale Power
was selected as the sole winner of the
second round of the U.S. Department of
Energy’s (DOE) competitively-bid, cost-
sharing program to develop nuclear Small
Modular Reactor (SMR) technology. As
part of the award, NuScale will receive
funding that will support the accelerated
development of its NuScale Power
Module™ SMR technology. NuScale
and DOE are currently negotiating a
cooperative agreement that formalizes
the public-private relationship and
establishes milestones for the five-year
funding program.
Contact: James Mellott, telephone:
(503) 715-2233.
Cast Components
Sheffield Forgemasters,
United
Kingdom, has passed a final audit towards
ASME NPT to become one of the few UK
companies being able to fabricate safety
critical cast components within nuclear
power stations.
As a result of the audit, Sheffield
Forgemasters (SFIL) will await an
accreditation certificate which signals
the green light to take on a whole new
strand of civil nuclear manufacture,
complementing its status as an American
Society ofMechanical Engineers (ASME)
certified Nuclear Materials Organisation.
SFIL’s NPT status will enable
the company to weld-fabricate the
components, it currently supplies as a
Nuclear Materials Organisation – a part
of the nuclear assembly process that few
organisations can undertake and one with
significant challenges posed by weld-
joining different materials.
Once
SFIL
secures
NPT
accreditation, it will sit with one of its
key customers, Rolls Royce, as one of the
only UK companies qualified for main
component fabrication.
Contact: AbbyWorsnip, Agent Public
Relations, telephone: 07815 793106,
email:
Bilateral Cooperation
Agreement
Westinghouse Electric Company
announced the signing of a bilateral
cooperation agreement with the Technical
University of Sofia (TU - Sofia), the
largest technical university in Bulgaria.
The agreement comes in preparation of
the potential new reactor at Kozloduy
Nuclear Power Plant utilizing the world’s
most advanced design, AP1000® plant
technology. The agreement will also help
support the future needs of the recently
established Westinghouse European
Nuclear Information and Control Systems
Center of Excellence in Sofia.
The agreement was signed in the
presence of Professor Aneliya Klisarova,
Bulgarian Minister of Education,
Youth and Science at the TU - Sofia’s
campus. The provisions of the agreement
cover cooperation with several of the
university’s faculties (power engineering
and power machines, and automation) in
disciplines that are of particular relevance
to the construction of an AP1000
pressurized water reactor and advanced
nuclear automation.
A new nuclear unit has a 60-year
operating life. A cooperation agreement
such as this will afford students
the opportunity to be well prepared
academically to directly participate in the
future construction of an AP1000 nuclear
power plant at Kozloduy, and support its
operation for decades to come.
As part of this agreement, Technical
University of Sofia will host a number of
lectures and seminars that will be open
to Bulgarian university students and
other interested academic and technical
stakeholders. Topics will include AP1000
reactor technology and will involve
technical experts from Westinghouse.
In addition, the agreement will provide
a group of TU - Sofia students a
unique opportunity to participate
in
Westinghouse’s
internationally
recognized summer internship program
at various offices and facilities across the
United States, including Westinghouse
headquarters in Cranberry Township,
Pennsylvania.
Contact: Sheila Holt, telephone:
Passive Safety Upgrade
Westinghouse Electric Company
has
successfully
completed
the
installation of a fully passive containment
filtered venting system (PCFVS) at the
Nuklearna Elektrarna Krško (NEK)
Nuclear Power Plant located in Slovenia.
This system enhances safety in the area
of severe accident management and was
required by the Slovenian Nuclear Safety
Administration (SNSA) following the
March 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear
power station accident in Japan.
The PCFVS mainly consists of five
aerosol filters inside containment, and an
iodine filter inside the auxiliary building
and various auxiliary components (such
as valves and rupture disks) to ensure
its fully passive operation during more
than 72 hours. The PCFVS provides
a significant reduction in the amount
of radioactive materials that could be
released if a Fukushima-type of accident
were to occur, reducing the impact
that such an accident could have on the
surrounding communities.
Krško is the first European nuclear
power plant to install this passive system
following the Fukushima accident,
showing a clear commitment to safety
and nuclear industry recommendations.
The first-of-a-kind design and installation
was successfully completed in 15
months, allowing the power plant to rely
on a compact and modular dry metal fiber
filter to capture the aerosols instead of
using a large water tank that other vent
designs utilize. This innovative approach
allows for significant flexibility on where
the filter can be installed, and at Krško,
part of the filter was installed in the
containment building.
Factory acceptance tests performed
on the installed filters positively surpassed
levels required by regulatory authorities
and by Krško. Installation of the system
was started during normal operation of
the plant for the components located
inside auxiliary building, including the
new plant stack anchored on the reactor
building. Installation of the equipment
inside the reactor building, including
closing of the containment penetration,
did not impact the outage’s critical path.
Contact: Sheila Holt, telephone:
