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ARC Clean Technology Supply Chain Manager, Anthony Jackman says the procurement process for long-lead items for the ARC-100 commercial demonstration unit at Canada’s Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station, such as the reactor vessel and intermediate heat exchangers, will begin in 2024. Contract awards are expected in the latter part of 2025 and the procurement schedule for other items will follow, he told “New Brunswick SMRs: A Collaborative Journey Towards Net Zero”. The meeting was a supply chain event for New Brunswick small modular reactor (SMR) industry leaders, government officials and experts hosted by Opportunities New Brunswick.

Date: Wednesday, 11 October 2023
Original article: neimagazine.com/news/newsprocurement-of-long-lead-components-to-begin-for-arc-100-smr-11206721

The IVG.1M research reactor at Kazakhstan’s National Nuclear Centre (NNC) in Kurchatov, has resumed formal operation using low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuel, following completion its conversion and subsequent licensing.

Date: Thursday, 25 May 2023
Original article: neimagazine.com/news/newskazakhstan-research-reactor-switches-to-leu-fuel-10881376

ARC Clean Technology Canada (ARC) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Invest Alberta Corporation (IAC) for co-operation in the commercialisation in Alberta of ARC’s advanced Small Modular Reactor (aSMR) technology. The province of Alberta, along with New Brunswick, Ontario and Saskatchewan, has agreed to a joint strategic plan to support SMR development.

Date: Wednesday, 29 March 2023
Original article: neimagazine.com/news/newsarc-clean-technology-signs-agreement-on-deployment-of-smrs-in-alberta-10708319

The US Administration, through the Department of Energy (DOE), has announced funding of $1.5 billion from President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act to build and upgrade the US national laboratories. The resources will upgrade scientific facilities, modernise infrastructure, and address deferred maintenance projects at the laboratories managed by DOE’s Office of Science.

Date: Thursday, 10 November 2022
Original article: neimagazine.com/news/newsus-announces-15-billion-to-strengthen-national-laboratories-10281810

Company says goal is to have demonstration prototype ready by the early 2030s Federico Carminati: ‘We have all the essential elements to build a new type of reactor’. Courtesy Transmutex. A Swiss company pioneering “an entirely new type of nuclear energy” in the form of a thorium-fuelled reactor that can reuse existing nuclear waste is hoping to reach a levelised cost of energy (LCOE) for the technology of less than $70/MWh – similar to that of large-scale commercial nuclear power plants.

Transmutex, a startup founded in 2019 by nuclear scientist Federico Carminati, former-CERN scientist Jean-Pierre Revol and entrepreneur Franklin Servan-Schreiber, said a review of data demonstrated that when comparing GW-scale nuclear power plants and the company’s planned Generation IV TMX-Start nuclear plant, the LCOE is “of the same order of magnitude” even with appropriate uncertainties at this stage of the project.

The company, whose goal is to have a demonstration prototype of its thorium plant ready by the early 2030s, said the result took into account a series of assumptions including equipment procurement costs and operation and maintenance cost which are uncertain for any Generation IV project because little to no experience feedback is available.

Date: Thursday, 10 February 2022
Original article: nucnet.org/news/swiss-company-transmutex-pioneers-new-type-of-nuclear-energy-process-2-1-2022

File photo of the Aktau fast breeder reactor. Courtesy Argonne National Laboratory. Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom will help Kazakhstan decommission the BN-350 fast neutron reactor at the shutdown Aktau nuclear site on the eastern shores of the Caspian Sea, according to state news agency Ria Novosti.

Ria Novosti said decommissioning of the 350-MW Soviet-era liquid metal fast breeder reactor, also known as Shevchenko and Mangystau, will happen in three stages. The first will involve transferring the reactor installation to safe storage for 10 years. The second and third stages will ensure long-term safe storage for 50 years followed by the dismantling of equipment, buildings and structures, and final management of radioactive waste.

The BN-350 was among the world’s first fast neutron reactors when it began commercial operation in 1973. It was permanently shut down in 1999 and spent fuel removed.

Date: Thursday, 30 July 2020
Original article: nucnet.org/news/rosatom-to-help-with-bn-350-fast-neutron-reactor-decommissioning-7-3-2020

The US Department of Energy (DOE) on 5 August published a Notice of Intent in the Federal Register announcing that the it will develop an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to study the impacts of building a Versatile Test Reactor (VTR) to test future fuels and materials that industry is designing for advanced civilian nuclear plants.
 
The 300MWt reactor will be a smaller version of the GE Hitachi PRISM power reactor, which is based on the EBR-II, an integral sodium-cooled fast reactor prototype that operated at Argonne National Laboratory from 1963-1994. VTR, like PRISM, would use metallic alloy fuels. DOE has previously said the facility could be in operation by the end of 2026.
 
The VTR will be used to provide a source of fast neutrons to support  development of advanced reactor technologies. Similar facilities are currently available in only a few locations worldwide and the USA has not operated one in over 20 years.
 
“This testing capability is essential for the United States to modernise its nuclear energy infrastructure and for developing transformational nuclear energy technologies that reduce waste generation and enhance nuclear security,” said Energy Secretary Rick Perry. “Lack of a domestic reactor with versatile fast-neutron-spectrum testing capability is a significant national strategic risk affecting the ability of DOE to fulfil its mission to advance the energy, environmental, and nuclear security of the United States and promote scientific and technological innovation.”
 
Rita Baranwal, Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy said DOE needs to develop this capability on an accelerated schedule.

Date: Monday, 12 August 2019
Original article: neimagazine.com/news/newsus-looks-to-develop-fast-reactor-7360758