Emil

Texas A&M University is beginning the licensing process for potential sites at Texas A&M-RELLIS in Bryan, Texas, for multiple companies to test and construct the next generation of nuclear reactors - and says it will be the only higher education institution with a commercial reactor site licence in the USA.

The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents has agreed to notify the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission of the plan by submission of a letter of intent, which it says marks the beginning of a licensing process. "Reactor companies will benefit from the A&M System taking on the licensing burden," the university said. "The result will be a shorter path to getting their reactors up and running."

This "test-bed" supporting multiple reactors from various companies, could put additional power into the state's energy grid at a time of high demand, said John Sharp, chancellor of the Texas A&M System. He described the Texas A&M System - a statewide network of 11 universities - as "the missing piece of the puzzle" for the development of small modular reactors (SMRs).

The Texas A&M System has already gathered proposals from nuclear reactor companies that hope to construct reactors at Texas A&M-RELLIS, and said negotiations are expected to begin soon. There might also be additional opportunities for organisations "to take advantage of the A&M System's site for nuclear testing and the manufacturing of modular reactors", it said. It will announce the companies that are selected to carry out testing at Texas A&M-RELLIS "after negotiations are complete".

Texas A&M University is home to the largest nuclear engineering department of any university in the USA and the A&M System helps manage the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Pantex nuclear weapons plant. The TRIGA research reactor at the university's Nuclear Engineering & Science Center's celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2021

"From the people, to the land, to the enthusiasm to innovate, the Texas A&M System has everything we need to help the country meet its clean energy needs," Sharp said.

Chugoku Electric Power Company has announced that it plans to resume operation of unit 2 at its Shimane nuclear power plant on 7 December. The 789 MWe boiling water reactor has been offline since January 2012.

In June 2021, Shimane 2 became the 17th Japanese reactor to pass the regulator's safety screenings and the fifth boiling water reactor (BWR) - the same type as those at the Fukushima Daiichi plant - to receive regulatory approval to restart.

Following approvals by the cities of Matsue, Izumo, Yasugi and Unnan, in June 2022 the governor of Shimane prefecture approved the restart of Shimane 2. His approval marked the completion of the process to gain the consent of local communities for the unit to resume operation.

In early October, Chugoku released a revised schedule for the restart of the unit. It said the reactor was expected to restart in early December, with power generation scheduled to begin in late December. The reactor will resume commercial operation in January 2025.

The utility has now specified that the unit will be restarted on 7 December.

Chugoku began loading fuel into the core of Shimane 2 on 28 October. The process of loading the 560 fuel assemblies was completed on 3 November.

Unit 2 at Tohoku Electric Power Company's Onagawa nuclear power plant was restarted on 29 October, becoming the first BWR in Japan to be restarted. However, the unit was taken offline on 3 November due to malfunctioning equipment. While a generator test was being conducted, an incident occurred in which a device for calibrating the detector that measures neutrons inside the reactor was stopped in the middle of the process.

Today, Tohoku said that it had identified the cause of the incident - "the connection between the expansion joint inside the reactor containment vessel and the guide pipe used to feed the detector cable into the reactor had become detached" due to a nut not being sufficiently tightened.

The utility has not yet said when it plans to restart the reactor again.

Great British Nuclear (GBN) said it had started detailed negotiations on 11 November with the final four shortlisted bidders into the UK’s small modular reactor (SMR) programme.

The four companies, GE Hitachi, Holtec, Rolls-Royce SMR and Westinghouse, have been shortlisted following two rounds of assessment by GBN, the government’s nuclear delivery body.

GBN will negotiate with all four before final tenders are submitted, with final decisions to be taken in the spring.

The government said in a statement that to reach this stage, each of the four designs was subject to a “robust analysis”. GBN has evaluated each technology, including aspects such as safety, deliverability, and their ability to support development of a fleet of SMRs.

“GBN considers the designs, each of which is proceeding through the UK’s regulatory process, are viable options for development,” the statement said.

“Subject to negotiations, GBN consider any one of these designs would be fit to use in the UK nuclear programme.”

GBN’s chair, Simon Bowen said: “This is a significant moment for the SMR programme. Our technical experts have assessed each design in detail and are very confident these SMRs could play a key role in the UK’s future energy mix.

“The negotiation phase will enable us to select the absolute best technologies on the best terms for the UK.”

The two companies that were on an initial list of six, but were not included in the list of four, were EDF and US-based NuScale Power.

French state-owned utility and nuclear operator EDF said in July that it had pulled out of the competition after deciding to shift away from its indigenous Nuward technology to a design based on proven technology only.

The UK government gave no reason for NuScale’s failure to make the list of four. In November 2023, NuScale cancelled its first SMR project, in the US, as costs increased.

An initial assessment technical report summary that includes an economic analysis and mineral resource estimate for Uranium Energy Corp's project in Northern Saskatchewan envisages production of 61.2 million pounds U3O8 (23,540 tU) over nine years of underground operations.

Corpus Christi, Texas-based Uranium Energy Corp (UEC) acquired the project from Rio Tinto in 2022, for USD150 million. The company has now filed an updated S-K 1300 Technical Report Summary for the project with total resources of 27.86 million pounds U3O8 at an average grade of 1.81% U3O8 in the indicated category and 33.38 million pounds U3O8 at 2.45% U3O8 in the inferred category.

Annual average production is expected to be 6.8 million pounds U3O8 of 61.2 million pounds U3O8 9 years of high-grade operations, with a 2.36% U3O8 life-of-mine feed grade. Initial capex is estimated at USD545 million including a mill and underground mine.

The newly completed studies position Roughrider as an underground development project with one of the one of the lowest capex profiles in Canada, UEC President and CEO Amir Adnani said: "This Initial Economic Assessment marks a pivotal milestone for Roughrider, validating it as a top-tier, high-margin operation with a clear path to development into a world-class mine and mill. With a post-tax estimated net present value of USD946 million, today's results underscore the strength of our 2022 decision to acquire Roughrider from Rio Tinto for $150 million," he said.

"Additionally, we see significant potential for further value creation as we advance the project through the prefeasibility stage, supported by recent exploration drill results and the discovery of the Roughrider North Deposit," he added.

The project's location in the Eastern Athabasca Basin means that future development will benefit from proximity to power, roads, and the Points North Landing airport and construction facility.

"Given UEC’s capabilities as an established uranium producer, we are uniquely positioned to leverage our operational expertise and financial strength to advance and de-risk Roughrider," Adnani said.

UEC's portfolio includes in-situ leach (also known as in-situ recovery) uranium mining projects in the USA as well as its high-grade conventional projects in Canada, with the company beginning production at its Christensen Ranch project in Wyoming in August.

Argentina's National Atomic Energy Commission is planning to release 80,000 sterilised male mosquitos per week to combat dengue and other diseases.

The male mosquitoes are being coloured with a fluorescent orange or green powder, with the National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA) saying that the released mosquitoes do not bite or infect and "it is important not to kill them". The colours are said to be almost imperceptible to the human eye, but allows them to be identified with UV light.

Germán Guido Lavalle, CNEA President, said: "This technique consists of irradiating male insects to make them sterile and prevent reproduction. It is effective against a lot of pests and, with the capacity we have at CNEA, we adapted it for Aedes aegypti (yellow fever mosquitoes). We have been doing tests and they have worked well."

The first area to benefit is the region around the Ezeiza Atomic Centre, starting in Barrio Uno where 25,000 mosquitoes were released last week for a marking, release and recapture trial supervised by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Aline Macedo, from the IAEA, said: "Diseases caused by mosquitoes, mainly Aedes aegypti, have a high incidence in South America. With this technique we want to help countries reduce the populations ... to cut the transmission of diseases. It is an environmentally very safe technique. The IAEA has been working with it for a long time to control fruit flies."

The CNEA has been taking part in a project with the IAEA to adapt the Sterile Insect Technique to reduce the Aedes aegypti population in South America.

At the Ezeiza Atomic Centre, there is a mosquito breeding laboratory, where males are separated for marking and then sterilisation with ionising radiation. The sterile males are then released, and when they mate they do not produce offspring, so the total population declines.

The test release includes setting up traps to collect both sterile and wild mosquitoes to determine the survival and distance travelled by the sterile males.

Mariana Malter Terrada, head of the Department of Agricultural Applications at CNEA, said that the first releases of the insects and the tests "will allow us to adjust the parameters so that future releases are a success".

The plan is to release batches of 80,000 per week for a year, with the positive impact expected to be noticeable after about four months.

Dengue is most common in tropical and subtropical climates and its symptoms include a high fever, severe headaches, swollen glands and rashes. According to the World Health Organization there have been more than 500,000 cases reported in Argentina this year.

Ontario Minister of Energy and Electrification Stephen Lecce announced plans for a new hot cell facility to process medical radioisotopes during a visit to the plant which will enter its Major Component Replacement outage on 1 February. Meanwhile, Ontario's Green Party has passed a resolution reversing its blanket opposition to nuclear energy.

Major Component Replacement - or MCR - involves removing and replacing key reactor components including steam generators, pressure tubes, calandria tubes and feeder tubes and adding 30-35 years to the reactor's operating life. Bruce unit 4 will be the third of six Candu units at the Bruce site in Ontario to undergo the process, which is currently under way at Bruce 3. Bruce 6 returned to commercial operation last September after completing its MCR. Units 5, 7 and 8 will also be refurbished over the next 10 years.

In 2025 alone, Bruce Power said, it will invest CAD3 billion (nearly USD2.2 billion) in Ontario through MCR and Asset Management investments, and the start of unit 4 MCR will double the construction activities on site. "In terms of number of activities per day, no utility has ever taken on a project of this magnitude on an operating site", the company said.

'The sky's the limit'

Last week, Bruce Power set out its plans to expand production of medical radioisotopes using its Candu reactors, increasing long-term production capacity for lutetium-177 (Lu-177) as well as exploring the production of other isotopes.

The hot cell - a shielded facility where initial processing of Lu-177 produced in Bruce Power’s unit 7 using the proprietary Isotope Production System (IPS) will take place - will play a key role as the Bruce Power and its partners explores the possibility of producing other medical isotopes and expands its Isotope Production System (IPS) to other units, the company said. The hot cell will be installed either on the Bruce site or at one of its partner Isogen’s local facilities (Isogen is a joint venture between Kinectrics and Framatome).

Lecce described medical isotopes from Ontario's nuclear generating stations as "one of the most consequential tools doctors have available" to diagnose and treat cancer. "As someone who has been impacted by cancer in my family like so many Canadians, I know that this initiative will save lives and further cement Ontario's place as a global leader in the production and processing of cancer-fighting medical isotopes," he said.

"The exciting part of this is that when we have all of the infrastructure in place with our IPS and the new hot cell fully operational, the sky is the limit on our production and research of new medical isotopes for doctors and patients around the world, allowing a breakthrough in cancer treatment," Bruce Power President and CEO Eric Chassard said.

Green turn-around

Nuclear energy was at the core of the Government of Ontario's plans to build critical infrastructure and spur economic growth set out in its latest economic statement in October. One of Ontario's opposition parties - the Green Party of Ontario - has now passed a motion at its 2024 Annual General Meeting reversing a blanket opposition to nuclear energy. The Society of United Professionals - a union representing more than 10,000 professionals from Ontario's energy and legal sectors, and an advocate for the expansion of Ontario's Candu nuclear fleet - said the resolution "explicitly calls for the use of made-in-Canada Candu reactors".

"There is scientific consensus that a significant increase in nuclear energy, in tandem with hydro, non-hydro renewables, storage and other ultra-low emission energy sources, is necessary in order to power the electrification of our economy required to reach net-zero emissions," said Michelle Johnston, President of the Society of United Professionals. "Given the Green Party's long-standing opposition to nuclear energy, we were pleasantly surprised to see this resolution pass. As a party genuinely invested in the fight against climate change, it makes sense to see them recognize that nuclear energy is one of the most potent tools in that fight."

Two of the provincial government's 124 seats are currently held by the Greens. The New Democratic Party of Ontario, which holds 28 seats, still maintains anti-nuclear policy positions, but with its policy conference scheduled for January 2025 the Society said it is "hopeful that we will see similar resolutions passed in support of made-in-Canada nuclear technology, and that the next election will be the first where all parties are running on platforms that recognise the environmental, economic and jobs benefits of nuclear energy".

Construction workers at the Akkuyu nuclear power station being built by Russia’s state nuclear corporation in Turkey have completed the concreting of the dome of the outer containment shell of the Unit 1 reactor building.

Two tower cranes, six concrete distribution booms and 34 concrete mixer trucks were used in the work, Rosatom said.

The work was carried out in four stages and took 104 days using 3,511 cubic meters of high-strength self-compacting concrete mixture.

The concreting follows installation of the top section of the dome in September and means contractor Rosatom can now prepare for installation of the passive heat removal system, a safety feature which, in the event of a loss of onsite power supply, provides long-term heat removal from the reactor core to the atmosphere using natural circulation.

Rosatom is supplying four of its Generation III+ VVER-1200 pressurise water reactor units for Turkey’s first nuclear power station, on the country’s southern Mediterranean coast.

Construction of Akkuyu-1 began in April 2018. The unit was originally scheduled to be online in 2023, but latest projections have this is now likely to be 2025. A further unit at the site is expected to start every year afterwards.

Rosatom signed agreements with Turkey to build the Akkuyu units in 2010 and 2013. The cost of the station has been reported at $20bn (€18.7bn).

A nuclear advisory group created by the legislature in the US state of South Carolina is pushing for a study into restarting construction on a pair of nuclear power plants mothballed seven years ago as part of a failed nuclear power plant expansion.

Members of the governor’s Nuclear Advisory Council discussed the idea after two of them made a trip to the abandoned reactors and parts left on site at the Summer nuclear station in Fairfield County.

The site looked much better than expected, said Rick Lee, the council’s chairman. “We went with the assumption that what we were going to see was in keeping with the public perception of V.C. Summer, and that is a site with tumbleweeds and coyotes and apocalyptic buildings all falling down,” Lee said.

In a report to the council, Lee and fellow councilman Jim Little said the site was instead in “excellent condition”, minus “surface rust” on some of the rebar and equipment. They said excess parts stored and inventoried in 14 warehouses on site remain in “pristine” condition.

“There’s not a lot of decay or anything like that. It’s actually in pretty good shape,” said Little.

The two legislators think the site has potential, “if somebody will just ring the bell and get it started”, Lee said.

It could be the answer, Lee said, to South Carolina’s possible power shortage as the state’s population grows, industry expands and federal environmental regulations mandate the closure of coal-fired power.

The project to build two new Westinghouse AP1000 reactors at Summer had cost nearly $10bn (€9.3bn) before it was shut down in 2017, sparking multiple lawsuits involving investors and ratepayers.

Mounting delays and losses had led Westinghouse, then a unit of Japan’s Toshiba Corp, to file for bankruptcy.

Scana and Santee Cooper, the owners of the Summer station, then announced they were abandoning the project after Santee Cooper voted to cease all construction.

In January 2018 Dominion Energy, the largest utility in the US state of Virginia, announced it would buy Scana, a subsidiary of South Carolina Electric & Gas (SCE&G), in a $14.6bn deal that would include $1.3bn in refunds to SCE&G utility customers.

In July 2018, Scana shareholders voted to merge the company with Dominion Energy and SCE&G was rebranded under the name Dominion Energy South Carolina.

Dominion operates seven large-scale reactors at four sites: Millstone in Connecticut, North Anna and Surry in Virginia and Summer in South Carolina.

The commercial viability of small modular reactors (SMRs) needs to be improved with partnerships between the public and private sector needed to help move projects to deployment, according to a report from the World Economic Forum (WEF), in collaboration with nuclear industry experts.

The report, A Collaborative Framework for Accelerating Advanced Nuclear and Small Modular Reactor Deployment, was published by WEF, a Switzerland-based thinktank, with management consultancy Accenture.

WEF said the report provides a framework to support the deployment of SMRs and other types of advanced of nuclear reactor.

The framework, according to WEF, “is a tool that can align stakeholders on key actions and strategies within nine priority areas to accelerate deployment”, and was developed by “stakeholders from across the nuclear ecosystem”.

The report said small modular reactor and microreactor developers highlight their freedom to rely entirely on private capital, thereby shielding taxpayers from financial risk. But it warned: “Public-private partnerships are crucial for developing enabling policies, driving modernisation of regulations and building a supply chain to deliver advanced nuclear and SMRs at scale.”

WEF’s framework has a three-part process for accelerating the deployment of SMRs and advanced reactors.

Part one is the “emergence” of the advanced nuclear and SMR market, part two is the delivery of advanced reactors and SMRs at scale, and part three is the financing of the reactors.

Under part one, WEF called for the modernisation of regulation, the automation of regulatory processes and aligning of regulatory bodies.

Part two, covering the delivery of the reactors at scale, suggests actions including the repurposing of existing infrastructure, colocation of reactors with current energy systems, engagement with communities throughout projects, and the preparation of supply chains.

It also suggests identifying skills gaps and partnerships between industry and educational institutions.

Part three on catalysing investment calls for the creation of “innovative financing mechanisms”, the use of public-private partnerships and for the inclusion of nuclear in clean investment taxonomies, such as environmental, social and governance classifications.

WEF noted that at the Cop28 climate conference in Dubai, 22 countries committed to triple global nuclear power capacity by 2050 and since then, they have been joined by 14 major banks and additional countries.

“To meet net-zero commitments and growing energy demand, nuclear new builds of multiple sizes and types will be needed,” WEF said. “Small modular reactors and other advanced nuclear technologies represent clean energy solutions that, when built at scale, could deliver cost-effective carbon-free energy.”

France's Framatome has created a branch in Italy - with offices in Milan and Turin - to support the development of nuclear energy in Europe.

The company said Italian employees will "support the existing fleet and contribute to the development of nuclear energy in Europe from their home country".

"The creation of this branch marks a new step in our long-standing cooperation with Italy," said Framatome CEO Bernard Fontana. "Framatome has been hiring talented Italian engineers in France for over 40 years. This branch offers engineers the possibility of working in Italy, while contributing to the development of low-carbon energy."

The creation of an Italian branch follows on from the cooperation agreement for scientific and technological research and training in the field of nuclear energy, signed last July by Framatome, Edison and Politecnico di Milano.

Under that agreement, the partners will pool their respective technical knowledge and expertise in order to jointly develop research, development and innovation activities for the nuclear sector. In particular, the cooperation agreement provided for joint projects through internships, master's degree and doctoral dissertations, seminars, workshops and other similar initiatives on technical topics of mutual interest. With the aim of improving the exchange of knowledge and know-how, the agreement will also provide for the organisation of meetings and training courses as well as visits for students and their respective employees to Framatome's production sites and plants and the Politecnico di Milano's and Edison's research laboratories.

"To support current and future projects, Framatome is hiring 2500 people a year around the world," said Elisabeth Terrail, senior executive vice president of human resources at Framatome. "Prestigious Italian schools such as Politecnico di Milano, Politecnico di Torino and CIRTEN universities offer excellent courses in nuclear engineering, for both training and research, and their graduates constitute an important talent pipeline to develop long-term skills for the nuclear industry."

Italy operated a total of four nuclear power plants starting in the early 1960s but decided to phase out nuclear power in a referendum that followed the 1986 Chernobyl accident. It closed its last two operating plants, Caorso and Trino Vercellese, in 1990.

In late March 2011, following the Fukushima Daiichi accident, the Italian government approved a moratorium of at least one year on construction of nuclear power plants in the country, which had been looking to restart its long-abandoned nuclear programme.

The public mood has changed since then, and in May 2023, the Italian Parliament approved a motion to urge the government to consider incorporating nuclear power into the country's energy mix. In September last year, the first meeting was held of the National Platform for a Sustainable Nuclear, set up by the government to define a time frame for the possible resumption of nuclear energy in Italy and identify opportunities for the country's industrial chain already operating in the sector.

Italy's government included potential nuclear capacity - up to 16 GW/20-22% of capacity by 2050 - in its National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan, which was submitted to the European Commission on 1 July this year.

Poland's Ministry of Industry and Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry have signed a memorandum to promote Polish-Japanese cooperation in the nuclear sector. Meanwhile, the Polish and Dutch nuclear regulators have agreed to cooperate.

A memorandum of understanding on cooperation on nuclear energy was signed by Marzena Czarnecka, Poland's Minister of Industry, and Shinji Takeuchi, Japan's Deputy Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry in Warsaw on 7 November.

"The signed memorandum confirms the interest in bilateral cooperation between both countries for the development of nuclear energy as a technology that allows achieving the goals of energy transformation and has a positive impact on energy security," the Polish ministry said. "The signed agreement also encourages cooperation at the level of economic entities and industrial technologies. Leading companies in the Japanese nuclear sector show interest in developing cooperation with European companies."

It noted the agreement includes cooperation with the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum International Cooperation Centre (JICC), which operates under Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). JICC carries out activities supporting the development of competencies of countries implementing nuclear energy through the exchange of information, expert missions and the organisation of workshops, conferences and seminars in areas such as: human resources development, social communication, nuclear safety and preparation of the necessary infrastructure for nuclear projects.

"This cooperation allows Poland to build nuclear skills and competencies, which is crucial for the implementation of the Polish Nuclear Power Programme," the Polish ministry said.

Polish, Dutch regulators to cooperate

On the same day, a cooperation agreement was signed between Poland's National Atomic Energy Agency (PAA) and the Dutch Authority for Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection (ANVS).

The agreement - signed by PAA President Andrzej Głowacki and ANVS Chairperson Annemiek van Bolhuis - opens up the possibility of exchanging information on best practices in the field of supervision of the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes between the regulators.

It assumes joint activities in the organisation of technical meetings, training and exchange of documentation necessary to prepare the nuclear regulator for activities related to the licensing process of new nuclear technologies.

"In Poland and the Netherlands, interest in the use of new nuclear technologies is growing, causing increased challenges for national institutions supervising their safe use," PAA said.

Polish nuclear plans

Poland currently has large-scale plans to develop nuclear energy capacity. In September 2021, it was announced that six large pressurised water reactors with a combined installed capacity of 6-9 GWe could be built by 2040 as part of the country's plan to reduce its reliance on coal. According to the adopted schedule, the construction of the first nuclear power plant will start in 2026, with the first reactor - with a capacity of 1.0-1.6 GWe - being commissioned in 2033. Subsequent units will be implemented every 2-3 years. The coastal towns of Lubiatowo and Kopalino in Poland's Choczewo municipality in the province of Pomerania were named as the preferred location for the country's first large nuclear power plant.

In November 2022, the Polish government announced the first plant, with a capacity of 3750 MWe, will be built in Pomerania using AP1000 technology from the US company Westinghouse. An agreement setting a plan for the delivery of the plant was signed in May last year by Westinghouse, Bechtel and Polskie Elektrownie Jądrowe.

In November last year, Poland's Ministry of Climate and Environment issued a decision-in-principle for the country's second large nuclear power plant. Two South Korean-supplied APR1400 reactors are planned in the Patnów-Konin region.

The completion of the environmental compliance process means Oklo Inc can now begin site characterisation for its first commercial advanced fission power plant in Idaho.

Completion by the US Department of Energy (DOE) and Idaho National Laboratory (INL) of the process addressing DOE requirements for the site and the resulting Environmental Compliance Permit, following on from the recent finalisation of a Memorandum of Agreement with the DOE, initiates site characterisation activities, Oklo said.

"These approvals represent pivotal steps forward as we advance toward deploying the first commercial advanced fission plant," Oklo CEO and co-founder Jacob DeWitte said. "With this process complete, we can begin site characterisation."

California-based Oklo received a site use permit from the DOE in 2019 to build and operate a prototype of its Aurora reactor - which will be a commercial power plant selling power to customers - at INL: according to company information, it intends to deploy its first commercial unit before the end of the decade. It also intends to build a facility to fabricate fuel for the liquid metal-cooled fast reactor plant at the same site. The DOE approved the Conceptual Safety Design Report for the Aurora Fuel Fabrication Facility in September.

The memorandum of agreement finalised with DOE's Idaho Operations Office in September grants Oklo access to conduct site investigations at its preferred site, focusing on geotechnical assessments, environmental surveys and infrastructure planning.

The Aurora powerhouse is a fast neutron reactor that uses heat pipes to transport heat from the reactor core to a supercritical carbon dioxide power conversion system to generate electricity. It uses metallic fuel to produce about 15 MWe as well as producing usable heat, and can operate on fuel made from fresh HALEU or used nuclear fuel.