The scale of the climate challenge means the world cannot afford to exclude nuclear power - the world's second-biggest source of low-carbon electricity, Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, and Rafael Mariano Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, wrote in an op-ed published by CNN on 9 October.
- Source: World Nuclear News
- Date: Tuesday, 13 October 2020
- Original article: world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/IEA-IAEA-chiefs-stress-role-of-nuclear-in-climate
Unit 1 of the nuclear power plant under construction in Belarus has achieved first criticality, Russia's Rosatom announced today. The milestone was reached at 2.26am (local time) on 11 October. First criticality, also referred to as the minimum controlled power level, is reached when neutron flux is recorded in a reactor at a level sufficient to sustain a fission chain reaction. It is considered to be the final stage of the physical start-up procedure, and enables personnel to verify whether the physical characteristics of the reactor core comply with the design requirements.
- Source: World Nuclear News
- Date: Tuesday, 13 October 2020
- Original article: world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Ostrovets-plant-begins-physical-start-up
A draft intergovernmental agreement on cooperation to expand and modernise Romania's nuclear power programme has been signed between Romania and the USA. Areas for cooperation could include the completion of units 3 and 4 at the Cernavoda nuclear power plant and the refurbishment of unit 1 at the plant.
- Source: World Nuclear News
- Date: Tuesday, 13 October 2020
- Original article: world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Romania-and-USA-agree-to-cooperate-in-nuclear-proj
“I would like to form an alliance of countries that use nuclear energy. I want us to ensure that nuclear energy is seen as a cross between a source of clean energy and fossil fuels,” Mr Matovič said.
He said he wants to open up the topic with the bloc because there is a big difference when there is a country that has no electricity generated by nuclear power and everything comes from fossil fuels, and then there is a country like us that has plus or minus half the electricity from nuclear power plants. We pretend that nuclear power is as dirty as coal. That is not fair to me,” Mr Matovič said.
He said he expects support on the issue from France, which has a significant domestic nuclear energy industry and a fleet of 56 commercial nuclear reactors, the second highest number in the world behind the US.
- Source: Nucnet
- Date: Saturday, 10 October 2020
- Original article: nucnet.org/news/pm-calls-for-european-alliance-of-nuclear-energy-countries-10-4-2020
The briefing considers how the use of nuclear energy could be expanded to make the most of the energy produced by nuclear plants and also to have the flexibility to complement an energy system with a growing input of intermittent renewable energy.
Nuclear “cogeneration” is where the heat generated by a nuclear station is used not only to generate electricity, but to address some of the “difficult to decarbonise” energy demands such as domestic heating and hydrogen production. It also enables a nuclear plant to be used more flexibly, by switching between electricity generation and cogeneration applications.
The society warns, however, that there are no existing nuclear cogeneration installations in the UK and it would be economically challenging to convert current nuclear plants to support cogeneration.
- Source: Nucnet
- Date: Saturday, 10 October 2020
- Original article: nucnet.org/news/uk-report-highlights-potential-of-nuclear-cogeneration-10-5-2020
Construction of the facility was a 20-year project and it is expected to treat all the waste stored at Savannah River within 10 years. In August the DOE authorised “hot” or radioactive operations to begin at the SWPF, signalling project completion and the transition from project phase to operations.
The Aiken Standard reported that approximately 18,000 litres of waste was transferred to the facility on Monday. Savannah River Remediation, the liquid-waste contractor at the Savannah River Site, moved the inaugural batch from the H Tank Farm, the underground storage system where waste is kept and monitored.
The arrival of radioactive waste at the SWPF this week was in line with expectations laid out last month. A ceremony marking the official startup of the facility was held on 24 September.
With a goal to process 140 million litres of radioactive salt waste stored in the tanks at the Savannah River Site, the DOE selected prime contractor Parsons Corporation to design, build, and commission the SWPF, and operate the facility for one year. Parsons finished building the SWPF in April 2016, eight months ahead of schedule and more than $65m under the target cost of the contract for construction.
- Source: Nucnet
- Date: Saturday, 10 October 2020
- Original article: nucnet.org/news/hot-commissioning-begins-with-first-batch-of-radioactive-waste-10-5-2020
In a statement posted on the US Embassy in Romania’s website, Mr Zuckerman said Romania’s energy minister Virgil-Daniel Popescu would meet with US energy secretary Dan Brouillette in Washington to initial an intergovernmental cooperation agreement for the refurbishment of one nuclear reactor and the building of two new reactors at Cernavodă. “This $8bn project will be a paradigm for future Romanian- American economic and energy development projects,” he said.
Later in the day, Mr Popescu was to meet with the president and chairwoman of the US Exim Bank, Kimberley Reed, to execute a memorandum of understanding for the financing of the Cernavodă nuclear project and other projects in Romania. The financing package is the largest financing package ever received by Romania and is indicative of the confidence the US has in its longstanding partner and ally, Mr Zuckerman said.
Romanian state-owned nuclear power producer Nuclearelectrica ended talks with China General Nuclear (CGN) about the Cernavodă project in June after they had dragged on for six years.
- Source: Nucnet
- Date: Saturday, 10 October 2020
- Original article: nucnet.org/news/us-and-romania-to-sign-usd8bn-agreements-for-new-reactors-10-5-2020
A new EU-funded Horizon 2020 project has been launched that aims to propose innovative enhancements in the way combustible gases are managed in event of a severe accident at an operational nuclear power plant. The four-year AMHYCO project is being led by Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM).
- Source: World Nuclear News
- Date: Saturday, 10 October 2020
- Original article: world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/EU-project-aims-to-reduce-combustion-risk-during-a
TerraPower has selected Bechtel as its design, licensing, procurement and construction partner in a federal grant application to build a demonstration plant for the Natrium reactor and energy system architecture. TerraPower and GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) launched the Natrium concept in August. It features a 345 MWe sodium fast reactor combined with a molten salt energy storage.
- Source: World Nuclear News
- Date: Saturday, 10 October 2020
- Original article: world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Terrapower-selects-Bechtel-as-Natrium-engineering
The installation of the pumps for the primary cooling circuit of Argentina's RA-10 multipurpose reactor has been completed, the country's National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA) has announced. This marks completion of the assembly of the reactor's large components.
- Source: World Nuclear News
- Date: Saturday, 10 October 2020
- Original article: world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Large-components-in-place-for-Argentinean-research
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