July-August 2018 NPJ

Nuclear Plant Journal, July-August 2018 NuclearPlantJournal.com 13 (Continued on page 17) zero-failure performance record since being re-installed. The motors in reactor coolant pumps help move coolant around the primary circuit of a nuclear reactor core. This keeps the reactor from overheating while ensuring the safe heat transfer from a reactor core to steam generators. Members of Framatome’s Installed Base services team worked with the plants’ personnel to remove each motor. They then brought the motors to the company’s 70,000-square-foot Pump and Motor Service Center in Lynchburg, Virginia. While at the center, experts inspected the components, completed necessary repairs and replacements, and tested each motor. Such refurbishments allow these components, and thus their nuclear facilities, to operate safely and reliably for longer durations. Following successful testing, pump and motor specialists re-installed the motors and assessed their performance on-site. Contact: KarenHeinold, Framatome, telephone: (434) 856-6560, email: media. relations@framatome.com. Valve Packing Framatome signed a teaming agreement with AW Chesterton to become the exclusive distributor of its valve packing and mechanical seals to the majority of North America’s nuclear energy fleet. This agreement expands Framatome’s valve and actuator machinery solutions, as well as its fluid sealing product lines, further solidifying the company’s Nuclear Parts Center (NPC) as a one-stop shop for nuclear power plant needs. Nuclear energy facilities require several types of rotating machinery to generate electricity. These plants also rely on hundreds of valves to keep nearly every aspect of operations running. Valve packing secures the integrity of these components, allowing contents to flow. Contact: KarenHeinold, Framatome, telephone: (434) 856-6560, email: media. relations@framatome.com. Advanced Nuclear Technology Development Project GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) has been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy to lead a team of industry experts for an advanced nuclear technology development project. The project will bring together a team consisting of Exelon Generation, Hitachi- GE Nuclear Energy (HGNE), Bechtel and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to examine ways to simplify the reactor design, reduce plant construction costs, and lower operations and maintenance costs for the GEH BWRX- 300, a 300 MWe small modular reactor. The project will receive more than $1.9 million in DOE funding, part of a nearly $20 million investment in advanced nuclear technology announced by DOE. These technologies are anticipated to be incorporated into the BWRX-300, which leverages the design and licensing basis of the NRC-certified ESBWR. Through dramatic design simplification, GEH projects the BWRX-300 will require up to 60 percent less capital cost per MW when compared to other water-cooled SMRs or existing large nuclear designs. If these savings can be achieved, the BWRX-300 can become cost-competitive with power generation from combined cycle gas and renewables. Contact: Jon Allen, GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, telephone: (910) 819- 2581, email: jonathan.allen1@ge.com. Laser Welding Process The USDOE has accepted Holtec’s proposal to advance and commercialize a cutting-edge technology known as hybrid laser arc welding for use in nuclear structures and systems. Holtec’s own SMR-160 small modular reactor program will be a principal beneficiary of the fruits of this R&D program. Holtec anticipates that this advancement will help improve the quality of welds in the entire range of critical service components, from thick- walled reactor vessels to thin-walled multi-purpose canisters. Offering quality welds in plant’s pressure vessels, the hybrid laser arc welding development program brings Holtec one step closer to achieving a 100-year service life SMR-160 nuclear plant. In this respect, the DOE’s support will likely have an impact far beyond its $6.3 million. Contact: Erika Grandrimo, Holtec, telephone: (856) 797-0900 x 3920, email: e.grandrimo@holtec.com. NuScale SMR NuScale Power announced its small modular reactor (SMR) can generate 20 percent more power than originally planned. Advanced testing and modeling tools helped NuScale identify optimization opportunities and increased power generation. Increasing the power generating capacity of a 12-module NuScale SMR plant by 20 percent, with very minimal change in capital costs, lowers the cost of the facility on a per kilowatt basis from an expected $5,000 to approximately $4,200. It also lowers NuScale’s levelized cost of electricity by up to 18 percent, making it even more competitive with other electricity generation sources. The new gross-output of a NuScale power plant to 720 MWe not only offers an impressive amount of carbon-free generation, it also measures up to significant savings when compared to today’s competing gigawatt-size plants. NuScale’s first customer, Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS), is planning the development of a 12-module NuScale plant. The regulatory process of increasing the level of maximum reactor power at which a nuclear plant can operate is referred to as a power uprate. The 20 percent power increase will be reviewed separately and not impact the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) current design review of NuScale’s SMR or the scheduled September 2020 approval date of its Design Certification Application (DCA). Since NuScale has made this determination before any plant construction or equipment manufacture, UAMPS will reap the benefit of this optimization without licensing or construction delays. In January, NuScale announced the NRC agreed NuScale’s SMR design approach requires no safety-related power to safely shut down. No operating nuclear plant in the U.S. can make that claim. The NRC also recently completed its Phase 1 review of NuScale’s DCA. It’s the most rigorous of the remaining five phases combined and resulted in just one- third the average number of requests for additional information compared to other applicants, demonstrating the simplicity