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Final DOE Advanced Reactor Demonstration Awards Announced

January 11, 2021

The post Final DOE Advanced Reactor Demonstration Awards Announced appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Wrapping up an eventful year for advanced nuclear, the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Nuclear Energy announced $ 20 million in awards for the third of three pathways under its Advanced Reactor Demonstration Program (ARDP).

The ARDP program, which the DOE officially launched on May 14, will leverage Congressionally appropriated funding to enable actual construction of advanced nuclear reactors over the near-term and mid-term under three pathways. Congress has appropriated $ 250 million for ARDP in Fiscal Year 2021; a total of $ 230 million was appropriated for Fiscal Year 2020 to initiate the program.

In October 2020, the DOE picked TerraPower and X-energy to each receive $ 80 million in initial federal funding to build their two distinct advanced nuclear reactors and begin operating them within seven years. As POWER has reported, both companies are looking at siting their advanced nuclear demonstrations in Washington state. …

Rosatom Accepts First MOX Fuel Batch for BN-800 Fast Reactor

July 26, 2020

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The post Rosatom Accepts First MOX Fuel Batch for BN-800 Fast Reactor appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Rosatom, the Russian state-owned nuclear energy company, said it is ready to receive a shipment of the first full reload batch of fresh uranium-plutonium mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel for the BN-800 fast reactor at the Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Station, the nation’s oldest operating nuclear energy facility.

The company on July 23 announced the Mining and Chemical Combine, the Russian facility in Zheleznogorsk, a city in the Krasnoyarsk region in East Siberia, had manufactured the fuel. Rosatom said 169 fuel assemblies have been accepted by Rosenergoatom, which operates Russia’s nuclear power plants, and its authorized representative VPO ZAES. That group confirmed the fuel was ready to be shipped.

The Rosatom announcement came at the same time as U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Dan Brouillette said his agency is working to end U.S. reliance on Russia for nuclear fuel. Brouillette, in comments to members of Congress who focus on energy, said the DOE’s Nuclear Fuel Working Group wants American-sourced uranium for domestic nuclear plans.…

Nuclear Reactor with 3D-Printed Core Slated for Operation in 2023

May 12, 2020

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The post Nuclear Reactor with 3D-Printed Core Slated for Operation in 2023 appeared first on POWER Magazine.

A first-of-its-kind nuclear reactor that will use a 3D-printed core, advanced materials, and integrated sensors and controls is on track for completion by 2023.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, work is ramping up to demonstrate the Transformational Challenge Reactor (TCR), an innovative micro-reactor program spearheaded by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and project partners, to include Idaho National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, and industry participants. On May 11, ORNL announced the project has completed several “foundational” experiments, including selection of a core design. During a recent three-month “sprint,” it also demonstrated the “agility of the additive manufacturing technology” to quickly produce a prototype reactor core.

The development is notable for the project that got its start only 15 months ago, when it received $ 30 million from the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Nuclear Energy. “We have been aggressively developing the capability to make this program a reality over the last several months, and our effort has proven that this technology is ready to demonstrate a 3D-printed nuclear reactor core,” said Kurt Terrani, the TCR technical director.…

Interest in DOE’s Versatile Test Reactor Heats Up

January 24, 2020

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The post Interest in DOE’s Versatile Test Reactor Heats Up appeared first on POWER Magazine.

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) and TerraPower are jointly pursuing an opportunity to design and build the U.S. Department of Energy’s Versatile Test Reactor (VTR), an experimental fast neutron nuclear reactor that could start up by 2026.

The companies on Jan. 21 announced they collaborated on a response to an expression of interest (EOI) issued by Battelle Energy Alliance (BEA) in November 2019, to gauge stakeholder interest in forming a cost-sharing partnership arrangement to design and and construct the VTR. BEA, which is the day-to-day contractor for Idaho National Laboratory (INL), where the reactor will be likely sited, said the scope of the partnership could include “development and deployment of the VTR, other uses of VTR capabilities beyond just advanced reactor design and licensing, reducing the cost and schedule risk of new nuclear plant design and construction, and other compatible uses of VTR capabilities.”

GEH and TerraPower will be backed by Energy Northwest, a utility that operates the Columbia nuclear reactor in Washington State and has the option to operate 12 NuScale small modular reactor (SMR) modules that are planned for construction at INL by Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS).…

DOE Speeds Up Development of Experimental Fast Reactor, Sustain Flagging U.S. Nuclear Sector

August 9, 2019

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The Department of Energy (DOE) officially launched development of its Versatile Test Reactor (VTR), a fast reactor that will foster experiments with much higher neutron energy and flux compared to the nation’s existing 35 research reactors to develop advanced nuclear fuel for future nuclear power plants in the U.S. The facility, it says, is necessary to keep the nation technologically competitive with China and Russia.

The agency on Aug. 5 published a Notice of Intent in the Federal Register announcing it would develop an environmental impact statement (EIS) to study impacts of building the novel experimental reactor. The DOE will accept public comment on what the draft EIS should include until Sept. 4, and it plans to issue a draft EIS analysis within “the next several months” for public comment.

On Monday, the DOE also announced that it is considering two locations for the VTR: Idaho National Laboratory (INL) in eastern Idaho, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory in eastern Tennessee. Two sites, INL and the Savannah River site in South Carolina, are also under consideration for the fabrication of the fuel needed to run the VTR.…

Tianwan Unit 4 Latest Chinese Reactor to Come Online

December 26, 2018

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Unit 4 of the Tianwan Nuclear Power Plant in China entered commercial operation this past weekend after completing commissioning. It began supplying power to the country’s national grid on Dec. 22.

Tianwan NPP is the largest facility built with a Russian-Chinese framework of economic cooperation, with Units 1 through 4 based on the VVER-1000 reactor type. Units 1 and 2 entered commercial operation in 2007, and Rosatom handed over Unit 3 to Jiangsu Nuclear Power Corp. (JNPC) in March of this year.

Tianwan Unit 4 was brought to its minimum controllable power level on Sept. 30, marking the final stage of first criticality procedures, which began Aug. 25 when the first fuel assembly was installed in the reactor. A total of 163 fuel assemblies were ultimately loaded.

Russia’s Atomstroyexport was general contractor for the project, working with JNPC. Alexey Bannik, vice president for projects in China with Rosatom’s engineering division, said the start of commercial operation of Unit 4 “means that a two-year warranty period for the plant operation has commenced, and once expired the Unit will ultimately be handed over to the Chinese Party.”…