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25 September & 2 October 2020
Weekly Digest
Netherlands revives nuclear power prospects
After years of official indifference and the closure of a 55 MWe demonstration reactor after 29 years operation, the Dutch government is reconsidering the virtues of nuclear power.  The Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Policy has submitted a commissioned report by consultants Enco to the Dutch parliament, pointing out that “nuclear energy is no more expensive than wind and solar if the system costs are included” as they ultimately need to be. He said that nuclear is one of the most cost-effective options for reliable CO2-free electricity after 2030, and also "the safest way of producing energy per terawatt hour". The Enco report says that "the main hurdle nowadays remains the economics of new nuclear power", but that experience in China shows that plants can be built on time and to budget. Small and medium-sized reactors "allow a more incremental" investment than do large-scale plants.
 
The country’s 482 MWe Borssele reactor continues to provide reliable power, as it has since 1973. A second and larger unit at the site has been proposed.
WNN 28/9/20.      Netherlands
 
New nuclear icebreaker completes sea trials
Russia’s new Arktika icebreaker has finally departed from the Baltic Shipyard at St Petersburg after completing sea trials in the Gulf of Finland. It will be based at Murmansk and is expected to enter full operation this year. Arktika is the first of five LK-60 series icebreakers, the next two of which, Sibir and Ural, are due to be delivered next year and in 2022, with two more in 2024 and 2026. Their two RITM-200 reactors of 175 MWt each together deliver 60 MW at the propellers via twin turbine generators and three motors. They are dual-draught (10.5 m with full ballast tanks, minimum 8.55 m), displacing up to 33,540 t (25,450 t without ballast), for use in the Western Arctic year-round and in the eastern Arctic in summer and autumn. They are 173 m long and designed to break through 2.8 metre thick ice at up to 2 knots. The wide 33 m beam at waterline is to match the 70,000 tonne ships they are designed to clear a path for.
 
A version of the RITM-200 integral PWR reactors from OKBM will be Russia’s main small reactor for civil use, deployed in pairs on land, generating about 50 MWe each, and also on floating nuclear power plants such as that now operating at Pevek in Siberia. Seven more of these floating plants are planned, providing about 100 MWe each.
WNN 18/9/20.   Nuclear powered ships
 
US regulator issues first small modular reactor design approval
The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued a standard design approval to NuScale Power, LLC for the NuScale small modular reactor (SMR). This allows the design to be referenced in applications for construction, operating and manufacturing licences and permits in the USA. This completes the NRC technical review of the design after three and a half years. Some funding for the development has been provided by the government. Under the design approval, up to 12 modules of 50 MWe each will comprise a nuclear power station. However, NuScale has subsequently increased the unit output, and will apply in 2022 for the same approval for the 60 MWe version. The condenser circuit may be air-cooled, with about 5% loss of power.
 
The Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS) is working with NuScale to build a 12-unit plant at a site at the Idaho National Laboratory. However some of the UAMPS members have pulled out of the project, testing the financial flexibility of such an enterprise which is to a large extent progressively constructed. The first module is expected to operate from 2029.
WNN 30/9/20.   Small reactors, US NP


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