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Fuel cycle and reactor development decisions are indicators of progress for the nuclear renaissance
Among the signs of progress for the nuclear renaissance are investment decisions in enterprises that support all phases of the industry. Three examples are highlighted here for the front end of the fuel cycle, reactor construction, and the back end of the fuel cycle.
Although USEC has not yet secured a loan guarantee from the federal government for construction of its American Centrifuge Project, a strong signal of investor confidence emerged this week with a $200 million placement by two leading nuclear energy firms.
The destiny of TVA in its shift from coal to nuclear is focused on a decision about what to build at Bellefonte. This week the utility said it will complete a 1,260 MW reactor at that site.
In Japan the shift from fossil energy to nuclear, and competition for Mideast oil, has been highlighted by its investments in MOX fuel to get a double bang for its buck from light water reactors. This week Japan Nuclear Fuel received government approval to build a MOX fuel fabrication plant.
The nuclear news wire NucNet contributed to these reports.
USEC secures $200 million for centrifuge project
Toshiba and Babcock & Wilcox have signed an agreement to invest $200 between them in USEC (NYSE:USU) for support of construction of the American Centrifuge Plant, The investment, shared equally between Toshiba and B&W, will strengthen USEC’s financial position to build the $3B American Centrifuge Plant and create “key new business opportunities throughout the nuclear fuel cycle.”
USEC has applied for a loan guarantee from the Department of Energy. The firm pursued a conditional commitment on the guarantee in 2009, but that commitment didn’t materialize because of questions from the Department of Energy about USEC’s centrifuge technology and the financial condition of the company. As a result, construction of the American Centrifuge Plant was suspended in mid-2009.
USEC is now updating its loan guarantee application. The firm says it has worked hard to successfully demonstrate the uranium enrichment technology and to improve the financial foundation for the project and the company.
Under the terms of the agreement, Toshiba and B&W will each invest $100 million in USEC, spread out over three phases. The first phase is expected to occur in the third quarter of 2010. For their investment, the companies would receive convertible preferred stock and the rights to make future investments. (fact sheet)
"We have decided to make this investment in American know-how and American technology in order to produce more uranium fuel for the growing worldwide nuclear power market with high confidence in USEC as a leading supplier of low enriched uranium," said Yasuharu Igarashi, corporate senior vice president of Toshiba. "The nuclear renaissance is moving forward and this investment will help power its growth by securing the supply of uranium fuel for existing and potential customers."
All three companies have agreed to work together on additional strategic business opportunities. USEC could provide enriched uranium for bundling with Toshiba's nuclear power plant proposals. USEC and B&W also plan to complete the joint venture announced last year to manufacture USEC's commercial AC100 centrifuge machines for the uranium enrichment plant.
USEC said in a statement it anticipates updating its DOE loan guarantee application sometime this summer and, as the department has made clear, $2 billion in federal budget loan authority remains available under the 2008 solicitation for Front End Nuclear Fuel facilities.
If successful in obtaining a loan guarantee, the American Centrifuge Project could create at the peak of construction nearly 8,000 jobs in the U.S., with almost half located in Ohio.
TVA Says Completion Of Bellefonte-1 Is ‘Preferred Option’
Completing one of two unfinished units at the Bellefonte nuclear plant site in Alabama is the preferred option for construction of as nuclear reactor at the site, Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) said May 25.
In a final supplemental environmental impact statement TVA said it had identified completion and operation of Bellefonte 1, a 1,260 MW Babcock & Wilcox PWR. TVA’s other alternative is to build and operate an 1,150 MW Westinghouse AP1000 reactor at the site. Previously, TVA considered building two AP1000 reactors at the site. The TVA board of directors is expected to make the final decision on the proposed nuclear unit at a meeting in August 2010.
TVA spokesman Terry Johnson said projected construction costs for the Babcock and Wilcox reactor and the Westinghouse AP1000 are comparable but "schedule" might favor the conventional design. A new AP1000 could cost between $4.5-6.0 billion depending on timing and financing costs. In August 2008 this blog estimated that Unit 1 would be the preferred option for TVA based on the earned value associated with the project.
The science director for Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, which opposes TVA building any nuclear reactor at Bellefonte, said it had found a new reason to object to construction of a nuclear reactor. After roundly criticizing the Westinghouse AP1000 last year, which is a new reactor design, the group took the opposite tack and lambasted the decision based on the age of the technology.
"So much for the newer, inherently safe designs," Louis Zeller said. "It seems like they have reached back into the past to select one of the oldest technologies available to them."
In point of fact, the basic of LWR reactor technology hasn't changed very much since the USS Nautilus traveled under the sea to reach the North Pole in 1958. What matters for Bellefonte is that the pipes and pumps will all be new as will the balance of plant including steam lines, turbines, and generators.
TVA has previously had contractors pull out steel tubes and pipes at the unfinished plant. A TVA executive said the utility transferred some equipment to other TVA plants and sold tubes and pipes to scrap vendors.
Construction permits for two 1,200-MW PWRs (units 1 and 2) were issued in 1974. TVA stopped construction in 1988 because of lack of demand for electricity. At the time Bellefonte 1 was 88% complete and Bellefonte 2 58% complete.
In August 2008 TVA asked the NRC for reinstatement of the construction permits for units 1 and 2 to evaluate the “engineering and economic feasibility” of completing the units. The two partially complete reactors are in “construction-deferred” status. The utility must get an updated construction license from the NRC to complete unit 1.
TVA is the nation's largest public utility and has about 9 million consumers in Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia.
Japan to build MOX fuel plant
Japan says it has taken important steps towards closing the commercial nuclear fuel cycle. It is going ahead with plans to build a mixed oxide (MOX) fuel fabrication plant and an interim storage facility for spent nuclear fuel.
The Japan Atomic Industrial Forum (JAIF) said the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry approved plans for Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd (JNFL) to construct the MOX plant, and for the Recyclable-Fuel Storage Company to construct an interim storage facility for spent fuel.
Both facilities will be in Aomori Prefecture in northern Japan. JAIF said they would be the first such facilities in Japan and will represent “important steps towards the completion of the commercial fuel cycle.”
JNFL’s MOX plant will be constructed alongside its existing reprocessing plant in Rokkasho. The MOX fuel, to be fabricated at the plant using powdered MOX from reprocessing, will be used for power generation. Construction of the plant could begin this month with completion scheduled for June 2015.
The spent fuel interim storage facility will temporarily store spent fuel sent by the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), and the Japan Atomic Power Company (JAPC) until it is reprocessed. Construction will begin in July 2010, with operation scheduled for July 2012.
The MOX plant will produce 130 tonnes a year of MOX fuel. The interim storage facility will be allowed to accept 3,000 tonnes of spent fuel per year, estimated to be about half of the country's total.
The interim storage facility will accumulate fuel assemblies until they are reprocessed at the Rokkasho plant, about 50 Km away. A mix of recovered uranium and plutonium oxides - where the plutonium is never separated - would then be recycled into fresh mixed-oxide nuclear fuel at J-MOX, to be built alongside Rokkasho.
The application for J-MOX was submitted to METI in 2005 and for the storage facility in 2007. At that time construction was envisaged in mid 2007, but the powerful Niigata-Chuetsu-Oki earthquake that year caused a re-evaluation of nuclear seismic safety rules and changes to plant designs.
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