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NuclearPlantJournal.com Nuclear Plant Journal, September-October 2016
New Energy
Hinkley Point C
AREVA
welcomes the decision of
the UK government to build two EPR
reactors at Hinkley Point C. On July 28,
2016, EDF’s board approved the final
investment decision. Within the scope
of this project, AREVA NP will supply
the nuclear steam supply system, the
instrumentation and control system and
the first fuel loads.
The UK Office for Nuclear
Regulation validated the EPR design
in 2012. The EPR is the only Gen III+
reactor to be certified in the UK. The EPR
reactor is the only reactor with a capacity
of more than 1600 MW and is the result
of extensive research and development
programs. With four units at different test
phases around the world, the EPR has a
wide-ranging construction experience.
Contact: AREVA, telephone: 33 1 34
96 12 15, email:
William States Lee
The
Nuclear Regulatory Commission
staff has completed its Final Safety
Evaluation Report for Combined Licenses for
two proposed reactors at the William States
Lee site. The report concludes there are no
safety aspects that would preclude issuing the
licenses for construction and operation of the
proposed reactors at the site, near Gaffney in
Cherokee County, South Carolina.
The staff will provide the report and
Final Environmental Impact Statement on
the application to the Commission for the
mandatory hearing phase of the licensing
process. In the mandatory hearing, expected
to take place in 2016, the Commission
will examine whether the staff’s review
supports the findings necessary to issue the
licenses. Following the mandatory hearing,
the Commission will vote on whether to
authorize the staff to issue the licenses.
Duke
Energy
submitted
its
application for the William States Lee site
on Dec. 12, 2007, for permission to build
and operate two AP1000 nuclear reactors
at the site. The NRC certified the amended
1,100-megawatt AP1000 design in 2012.
More information on the certification
process is available on the NRC website.
Contact: Scott Burnell, Nuclear
Regulatory Commission, telephone:
(301) 415-8200.
V.C. Summer 2
Westinghouse Electric Company’s
successful placement of the reactor vessel
into the nuclear island of the AP1000 Unit 2
at the V.C. Summer site on August 30, 2016
marks a major shift in the project from solely
structural work to assembly of the unit’s
reactor system itself, including pumps, piping
and cabling.
The reactor vessel, which weighs 278
metric tons, is the main structure used to
support and house the reactor core and
all associated components including the
reactor vessel internals which support
and stabilize the core within the reactor
vessel, provide the path for coolant flow
and guide movement of the control rods.
Contact:
Westinghouse
Public
Relations, telephone: (412) 374-2707,
Sodium-Cooled Reactors
A
Russian
government
decree
published yesterday indicates the country
plans to construct 11 new nuclear power
reactors by 2030 - including two BN-1200
sodium-cooled fast neutron reactors. The
document, which covers “territorial planning
for energy” for the period, also identifies six
points for radioactive waste disposal.
The 11 units do not include those
already under construction - Kaliningrad,
Kursk,
Leningrad,
Novovoronezh
and Rostov - or the floating reactor
Academician Lomonosov. The BN-1200
reactors are to be built at the Beloyarsk
and South Urals nuclear power plants.
The decree also approves building
a facility to produce high-density
uranium-plutonium neutron fuel and the
construction by 2025 of the BREST-
OD-300 fast neutron reactor. BREST-
OD-300 is part of Russian state nuclear
corporation’s ‘Proryv’, or Breakthrough,
project to enable a closed nuclear fuel
cycle. The ultimate aim is to eliminate
production of radioactive waste from
nuclear power generation.
In addition, the decree approves
construction by 2030 of a VVER-600 unit
for the Kola nuclear power plant and a
total of seven VVER-TOI units at the sites
of the following nuclear power plants -
Kola II, Smolensk II, Nizhny Novgorod,
Kostroma and (the planned) Tatar.
Russian nuclear engineering company
OKBM Afrikantov is developing the BN-
1200 reactor as a next step towards future
reactor designs. The BN-1200 project
is based on the pilot, Beloyarsk 4, a 789
MWe fast-neutron reactor of the BN-800
design.
Source:
World Nuclear News
,
website:
/
Vogtle
Southern
Company
subsidiary
Georgia Power said the CA20 module
and sub-modules were assembled from
prefabricated wall and floor sections
within the modular assembly building
at the Vogtle site. The completed CA20
module was installed within Vogtle 4’s
nuclear island on August 20, 2016. The
three-hour operation involved the use of
the world’s largest crawler crane to hoist
the module, which weighs some 840
tonnes, into position.
The CA20 module comprises plant
and equipment for used fuel storage,
the heat exchanger and waste collection,
among other things. The module -
measuring 20 metres (65.6 feet) long, 14
metres (45.9 feet) wide and 20 metres
high - is the largest component to be used
in the construction of AP1000 units.
Over 1800 cubic yards (1376 cubic
metres) of concrete will now be poured to
fill the walls of the CA20 module.
Source:
World Nuclear News
, website:
/
Photo courtesy of SCE&G.
Photo courtesy of Georgia Power.
