Connecting to the electric grid is part of ongoing startup testing for Vogtle Unit 4. Now, operators will continue to raise reactor power for the generation of electricity while performing tests at various power levels, ultimately raising power to 100%. Once all startup testing is successfully completed and the unit is available for reliable dispatch, Vogtle Unit 4 will enter commercial operation, Georgia Power said.

The in-service date for Unit 4 is projected during the second quarter of 2024. Last October, Georgia Power said the in-service date for Unit 4 was being pushed back to 2024 due to a motor fault in one of four reactor coolant pumps.

Vogtle Unit 3, the first newly-constructed nuclear unit in the U.S. in over 30 years, entered commercial operation on July 31, 2023, after years of delays and projected costs of around $35 billion.

Nuclear energy currently provides approximately 25% of Georgia Power’s overall energy mix, including the existing units at Plant Vogtle and Georgia’s other nuclear facility at Plant Hatch in Baxley, Georgia.

At Ontario’s request, Bruce Power currently is going through a federal impact assessment process to evaluate the potential for an additional 4,800 MW in a project referred to as Bruce C.

Although no decision has been made to advance a new build, Bruce Power said the multi-year assessment is an important step to support future electricity planning and allow faster execution if a decision is made to proceed.

Bruce Power will use the new funding to support project pre-development work, including the completion of an Impact Assessment and License to Prepare Site application; early engagement activities with local municipalities and Indigenous communities; and technical, environmental and engineering studies and evaluations.

This project is part of Powering Ontario’s Growth, the province’s plan to meet growing electricity demand and reduce emissions. Canada said the plan is an important step in building the first large-scale nuclear build in the country in more than 30 years.

The potential expansion represents more than 25% of the new nuclear capacity required for Ontario to meet its clean electricity needs in 2050, as recommended by Ontario’s Independent Electricity System Operator’s Pathways to Decarbonization Report, which indicates that as much as 17,800 MW of nuclear capacity could be required in Ontario to meet its clean electricity needs in 2050.

The Governments of Canada and Ontario are working together on the Canada-Ontario Regional Table collaboration framework, with priorities that include advancing the nuclear industry in Ontario, along with joint actions on electrification, critical minerals, hydrogen, and the forest sector, as well an improved permitting process and increased regulatory effectiveness and efficiency to get clean energy projects online in time to meet rising demand.

Bruce Power supplies 30 percent of Ontario’s electricity on its 2,300-acre site, which it said has significant space for expansion.

According to the UK-based engineering specialists, the team used the pioneering Local Electron-Beam Welding (LEBW) and it took less than 24 hours to complete four, thick, nuclear-grade welds, typically requiring a year of work to complete.

The vessel had a diameter of three meters and a wall thickness of 200mm. The construction of the vessel therefore showcases the capabilities of LEBW and sets a new standard for weld-joining thick-walled components.

Professor Jesus Talamantes-Silva, research, design and technology director at Sheffield Forgemasters, commented in a statement: “We are delighted to have reached a significant milestone in assembling a nuclear vessel demonstrator, using electron beam welding for the first time at this scale, with 100% success and no defects.”

Sheffield Forgemasters deployed specially developed parameters, fine-tuned during the welding development stage, including innovative sloping-in and sloping-out techniques to start and finish the weld, ensuring a clean and complete weld-join.

Dr Michael Blackmore, senior development engineer and project lead, said: “The implication of this technology within the nuclear industry is monumental, potentially taking high-cost welding processes out of the equation.

“Not only does this reduce the need for weld-inspections, because the weld-join replicates the parent material, but it could also dramatically speed up the roll-out of SMR reactors across the UK and beyond, that’s how disruptive the LEBW breakthrough is.”

The demonstration of LEBW technology’s potential opens new horizons for more efficient, low cost and less time-heavy nuclear assemblies and also has implications for other projects which require thick-walled welded assemblies.

Dr Jacob Pope, development engineer and LEBW machine tool installation lead, added: “We thank the Government’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero for enabling the project through its Nuclear Innovation Program. We also thank our esteemed partner, Cambridge Vacuum Engineering, for their invaluable support throughout this endeavor. Their remote and on-site assistance played an instrumental role in the success of this milestone, highlighting the collaborative spirit that drives us forward.”

Sheffield Forgemasters will work on an upcoming joint industrial project supported by participants from the USA and UK. The objective is to initiate a code case or multiple cases to facilitate the deployment of this technology.

Originally published by Pamela Largue in Power Engineering International.

The Clinton plant, which began operation in 1987 and can produce up to 1,080 MW, is currently licensed to operate through April of 2027. The license renewal, if approved, would extend to 2047.

Later this year Constellation is scheduled to file a second license renewal for its two-unit Dresden Clean Energy Center in Morris, Illinois, which would allow Unit 2 to operate until 2049, and Unit 3 to operate until 2051. The move, announced in 2022 along with the plans to extend the life of the Clinton plant, marked a reversal in fortune for both power plants, which were on the road to early retirement due to unfavorable economics less than two years before the announcement.

The continued operation of Clinton has been enabled by state legislation enacted in 2016, and the enactment of the federal nuclear production tax credit in 2022 extended policy support through 2032.

“The Clinton Clean Energy Center is not only the largest carbon-free electricity source in Central Illinois, but it also provides a major boost to the economy,” said Dan Matthews, president of the Clinton School District Board and a member of the DeWitt County Board. “The more than $13 million in annual property taxes supports education and county services, and the large number of employees live here and spend money, which supports local business and creates additional jobs. The plant’s relicensing is an important part of DeWitt County’s economic future.”

The Clinton license renewal application is the latest in a series of investments across the company. In 2023, Constellation announced the acquisition of a 44 percent ownership stake in the South Texas Project nuclear plant, an $800 million uprate project at the Braidwood and Byron clean energy centers in Illinois, and a $350 million uprate of its Criterion Wind Project in Maryland.

With SMRs expected to represent the next generation of nuclear technology and a considerable research effort well under way, the Alliance is intended to help coordinate further developments with closer cooperation among the involved stakeholders to deliver the technology in the fastest and most efficient way.

In particular the Alliance, the latest of the region’s industrial alliances, is aimed to reinforce the nuclear supply chain in Europe by identifying and addressing gaps in its manufacturing and innovation capacity.

Specific terms of reference include supporting SMR project promoters to develop, demonstrate and deploy their projects in the EU market and beyond and establishing ways to inform and engage potential industrial users of SMRs, such as energy-intensive industries, hydrogen producers and urban districts.

The Alliance also is tasked to focus on facilitating and coordinating projects to address future research and innovation needs and establishing a nuclear skills academy as well as promoting public engagement about SMRs.

“[The] launch of the EU Industrial Alliance on small modular reactors will bring together the technology side and energy companies to make the most of safe and versatile new nuclear technologies,” said commissioner for energy, Kadri Simson, at the launch.

“We want this Alliance to deliver benefits in very practical terms – through full engagement on nuclear safety, using European supply chains and by boosting innovation for new technologies.”

The launch of the Alliance, while long mooted, comes following an EC communication on Europe’s 2040 climate target, which highlighted the need for all clean energy technologies, including nuclear, to deliver on it.

To achieve its goals, the Alliance will be required to formulate a strategic action plan, together with technology roadmaps, to identify inter alia the most promising and cost-effective SMR technologies, investment barriers and future needs for research.

Other potential actions include establishing ways to engage potential SMR industrial users of SMRs and strengthening exchanges between project promoters and regulators in the EU.

The call for membership is now open and running to April 12 for applications from stakeholders including vendors, utilities, specialized nuclear companies, financial institutions, research organizations, training centers and civil society organizations.

An inaugural general assembly for the Small Modular Reactor Alliance is expected in late spring.

Originally published by Power Engineering International.

MARVEL is expected to be one of the first new reactors built at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) in more than four decades and will be used to advance new reactor technologies. The first shipment of fuel is expected to be delivered in spring 2025. Fuel loading for MARVEL is anticipated to occur in 2026, with the microreactor expected to be online by 2027.  

TRIGA International is a joint venture between Framatome and General Atomics and is the only TRIGA fuel supplier in the world. The company was awarded an approximately $8.4 million contract in November to produce 37 TRIGA fuel elements for the MARVEL project and started the fabrication process at its facility in Romans, France late last month. The fuel created for MARVEL is similar to the TRIGA fuel used in university reactors for research and hands-on training, the Office of Nuclear Energy said.

“Securing the fuel for the MARVEL microreactor project addresses a primary technical challenge,” said Dr. John Jackson, the national technical director for DOE’s microreactor program. “The initiation of fuel fabrication represents another tangible step toward making this exciting test platform a reality.” 

MARVEL achieved 90 percent final design last year, after which the DOE said the project could move forward with fabrication and construction. A sodium-potassium-cooled microreactor that will generate 85 kW of thermal energy, MARVEL is expected to be completed in early-2025. The Department said it will be built inside the Transient Reactor Test Facility at INL with future plans to connect it to a microgrid.

MARVEL will be used to help in demonstrating microreactor applications, evaluating systems for remote monitoring and developing autonomous control technologies for new reactors.

The DOE microreactor program plans to submit MARVEL’s preliminary safety analysis report for review later this summer as part of the DOE authorization process.   

The project is also testing a full-scale, non-electric prototype of the reactor in Pennsylvania to gather data on the system’s coolant flow and power generation to ensure the reactor will perform as expected.  

Commercial operation is expected by the early 2030s, the companies said.

The agreement is to build four AP300 SMRs in the North Teesside region of Northeast England. The region is experiencing industrial and economic development, which the companies say is driving increasing demand for carbon-free electricity. CNP is also working with strategic partners, including Jacobs and Interpath Advisory, to develop a fully licensed site for the project, with a target of 2027.

Westinghouse says the project is in accordance with the recently published UK Government Alternative Routes to Market for New Nuclear Projects consultation and complementary to the company’s participation in Great British Nuclear’s (GBN) SMR technology selection process.

“This project brings together Westinghouse’s proven technology and mature supply chain with our depth of expertise in nuclear program delivery, in a region that is transforming its industrial landscape,” said Paul Foster, Community Nuclear Power’s CEO. “We are delighted to be working with Westinghouse in support of private deployment in North Teesside.”

In May 2023, Westinghouse launched the AP300 small modular reactor, an SMR based on a large Generation III+ reactor already in operation globally, the AP1000 technology. Unlike every other SMR under development with first-of-a-kind technologies and risks, Westinghouse’s AP300 SMR utilizes the AP1000 engineering, components, and supply chain.

This agreement is an extension of Oklo and SODI’s announcement in May 2023, related to the deployment of two Aurora powerhouses, and the company says it signifies progress toward siting development and implementation. SODI is a nonprofit community improvement corporation and serves as the DOE-designated community reuse organization for the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant (PORTS) facility near Piketon, Ohio.

Subject to the terms and conditions of the land rights agreement and in exchange for an upfront fee, which will be credited toward any purchase by Oklo under the land rights agreement, SODI has granted Oklo an option and right of first refusal to purchase land in Southern Ohio from SODI.

Oklo aims to build its second and third plants on land owned by SODI, it announced last May. The land will host two commercial 15-MWe Aurora powerhouses (30 MWe total) and over 50 MW of clean heating, with opportunities to expand.

Oklo’s Aurora powerhouse design is a fast neutron reactor that would transport heat from the reactor core to a power conversion system and is designed to run on material from used nuclear fuel known as HALEU, or “high assay, low-enriched uranium.” The reactor builds on the Experimental Breeder Reactor-II and space reactor legacy.

Oklo obtained a site use permit from the DOE for the Idaho site at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) in 2019. The company applied with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) in March 2020 to build and operate a reactor at INL. This was the first combined license application ever accepted by the NRC for an advanced non-light water reactor.

The company recently announced that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has reviewed and approved the Safety Design Strategy (SDS) for its Aurora Fuel Fabrication Facility at INL. The Aurora Fuel Fabrication Facility is being designed to demonstrate the reuse of recovered nuclear material to support Oklo’s planned commercial advanced fission power plant demonstration at INL.

Oklo was selected for access to the fuel material through a competitive process launched in 2019 by INL. The goal of the solicitation was to accelerate the deployment of commercially viable reactors by providing developers with access to the material needed to produce fuel for their reactors. The DOE is supporting INL to produce High-Assay, Low-Enriched Uranium for advanced reactors by recovering uranium through electrorefining treatment on used fuel from the now-decommissioned Experimental Breeder Reactor-II.

The SDS marks the initial stage in a comprehensive DOE approval process prior to the operation of the Aurora Fuel Fabrication Facility. Oklo and Battelle Energy Alliance, operator of INL, are currently working on the next phase, focusing on the Conceptual Safety Design Report (CSDR). The purpose of the CSDR is to summarize the hazard analysis efforts and safety-in-design decisions incorporated into the conceptual design, along with any identified project risks associated with the selected strategies.

Georgia Power Co. said Thursday that vibrations found in a cooling system of its second new nuclear reactor will delay when the unit begins generating power.

Plant Vogtle’s Unit 4 now will not start commercial operation until sometime in the second quarter of 2024, or between April 1 and June 30, the largest subsidiary of Atlanta-based Southern Co. announced.

The utility said in a filing to investors that the vibrations “were similar in nature” to those experienced during startup testing for Unit 3, which began commercial operations last summer, joining two older reactors that have stood on the site near Augusta for decades

In that case, the utility found that a pipe vibrated during testing because construction workers hadn’t installed enough bracing. Georgia Power said the Unit 4 problem has already been fixed but too much testing remains to be done to make the March 30 deadline.

Georgia Power said it’s likely to lose $30 million in profit for each month beyond March that Unit 4 isn’t running because of an earlier order by state utility regulators. The five members of the Georgia Public Service Commission ordered that the company can’t earn an additional return on equity through a construction surcharge levied on Georgia Power’s 2.7 million customers after March 30.

The typical residential customer has paid about $1,000 in surcharges over time to pay for financing costs.

The company said its construction budget won’t be affected if Unit 4 starts by June 30 but it would have to pay $15 million a month in extra construction costs if the project extends into July.

Regulators in December approved an additional 6% rate increase to pay for $7.56 billion in remaining costs at Vogtle, expected to cost the typical residential customer $8.95 a month. That’s on top of the $5.42 increase that took effect when Unit 3 began operating.

The new Vogtle reactors are currently projected to cost Georgia Power and three other owners $31 billion, according to calculations by The Associated Press. Add in $3.7 billion that original contractor Westinghouse paid Vogtle owners to walk away from construction, and the total nears $35 billion.

The reactors were originally projected to cost $14 billion and be completed by 2017.

Units 3 and 4 are the first new American reactors built from scratch in decades. Each can power 500,000 homes and businesses without releasing any carbon. But even as government officials and some utilities are again looking to nuclear power to alleviate climate change, the cost of Vogtle could discourage utilities from pursuing nuclear power.

Georgia Power owns 45.7% of the reactors, with smaller shares owned by Oglethorpe Power Corp., which provides electricity to member-owned cooperatives; the Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia; and the city of Dalton.

Some Florida and Alabama utilities have also contracted to buy Vogtle’s power.

SaskPower and GEH will collaborate on project planning and facilitate the sharing of expertise related to the design, fuel sourcing and fabrication of GE Hitachi’s BWRX-300 small modular reactor. The companies will also support workforce and supply chain planning needed for a Saskatchewan-based SMR deployment. 

“Gaining detailed technical specifications, requirements and designs to the BWRX-300 is necessary for our planning work and license applications,” said Rupen Pandya, SaskPower President and CEO. “Leveraging experience and expertise from our colleagues in the nuclear industry is an important part of our planning work.” 

In June 2022, SaskPower selected the GE Hitachi BWRX-300 as the technology to be used in its SMR development work. The BWRX-300 was also selected by Ontario Power Generation for its Darlington New Nuclear Project and is a boiling water reactor that produces about 300 MW from one single unit. This innovative SMR is based on similar large-scale nuclear power plants that have been in operation globally for decades.

OPG aims to build North America’s first SMR at its Darlington New Nuclear site. OPG expects the first of four SMRs would be completed there by the end of 2028 and online by 2030. Subject to Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) regulatory approvals, the additional SMRs could come online between 2034 and 2036. The four units once deployed would produce a total 1,200 MW of electricity.

In 2023, the Canadian government approved up to $74 million in federal funding for small modular reactor (SMR) development in Saskatchewan, to be led by SaskPower. The funding will support pre-engineering work and technical and regulatory studies, environmental assessments and community and Indigenous engagement.

Earlier in 2023, SaskPower and OPG renewed an agreement to continue working together on new nuclear development, including SMRs. The utilities would provide mutual support by sharing lessons learned, technical resources and expertise, best practices and operating experience. SaskPower and OPG would consider future collaboration in other areas, including project development and plant operations.