Page 11 - Nuclear Plant Journal May-June 2012
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Nuclear Plant Journal, May-June 2012
11
equipment. The company will integrate both
product lines into its Flow Control business
segment.
Contact: Jim Ryan, telephone: (973)
541-3766.
Isolation Valves
Flowserve Corporation
, a provider
of flow control products and services for
global infrastructure markets, announced
that it has shipped the first of several
main steam isolation valves (MSIVs) to
the Sanmen Nuclear Power Plant, located
in the Zhejiang Province of China. The
MSIVs will be installed in Unit 1 of the
plant, the first Westinghouse AP1000
®
nuclear power plant ever built. The
shipment relates to several multi-million
dollar valve orders for the China nuclear
market that Flowserve has booked since
early 2010.
The MSIV utilizes a Flowserve
Edward gas/hydraulic actuator. As part of
the secondary system of the pressurized
water reactor (PWR), the MSIV isolates
the main steam line between the steam
generator and the turbine. The total
assembly of the valve and actuator
together stands more than 6.1 m (20 ft.)
tall and weighs more than 25,900 kg
(57,000 lbs.). The MSIV is designed to
close within 3 to 5 seconds, which can be
critical in the event that plant operations
need to be shut down quickly.
Contact: Steve Boone, telephone:
(972) 443-6644.
UK Plutonium
With the U.K. government looking
at ways to address its growing stockpile
of civil plutonium,
GE Hitachi Nuclear
Energy
(GEH) signed a memorandum
of understanding (MOU) with National
Nuclear Laboratory Ltd. (NNL). NNL
will provide expert technical input to
the potential U.K. deployment of GEH’s
innovative PRISM reactor, which would
be specifically designed to dispose the
U.K.’s plutonium while generating 600
megawatts of low-carbon electricity.
GEH also met with a number of
skilled nuclear workers in West Cumbria
to learn how they could work with GEH
on PRISM’s potential deployment.
The country is currently storing
more than 87 metric tons (and growing)
of plutonium at the Sellafield nuclear
complex in West Cumbria, England. The
U.K. government confirmed its intention
to reuse this plutonium in December
2011, declaring that it “remains open to
any alternative proposals for plutonium
management that offer better value
to the U.K. taxpayer.” The Nuclear
Decommissioning Authority (NDA)
recently announced in February 2012
that it is seeking proposals for alternative
approaches to manage the U.K.’s
plutonium stockpile.
Should PRISM be approved for
construction, in addition to creating
about 900 permanent jobs and thousands
of expected indirect jobs for the local
community, this multibillion-pound
investment would stand to create a range
of opportunities for suppliers while
continuing to develop the country’s
nuclear energy skills base and reaffirming
Cumbria’s position of nuclear excellence
with “Britain’s energy coast.”
Contact: Michael Tetuan, telephone:
