Nuclear Energy

Engineering company Rolls-Royce is considering the sale of its small modular reactor subsidiary to inject new funding into the company’s overall business plans, the Sunday Telegraph first reported Aug. 3.

The company is looking to raise hundreds of millions, with a current valuation of £1.6 billion ($2 billion), as it sets its sights on being the first to deploy SMRs in the United Kingdom. Rolls-Royce recently cleared step two of the U.K.’s generic design assessment (GDA)—a competition launched in 2023 to bring SMRs on line in the 2030s.

However, funds at Rolls-Royce SMR are due to run out in early 2025, so Rolls-Royce and its other investors need to decide between putting more money in themselves, selling equity to third-party investors, or both, according to the Sunday Telegraph.

A closer look: The Rolls-Royce SMR design has the capacity to generate 470 megawatts and serve as a baseload power source for decades.

“Each Rolls-Royce SMR ‘factory-built’ nuclear power plant will provide enough clean, affordable, electricity to power a million homes for 60-plus years—delivering energy security, enabling net zero, and making a transformational contribution to the U.K. economy,” said Helena Perry, Rolls-Royce SMR’s safety and regulatory affairs director.

The SMR requires a site that is one-tenth the size of what’s needed for a large-scale nuclear plant, and its pieces would be manufactured in a factory and delivered to the site via truck, train, or barge. Rolls-Royce announced in May its plan to set up a multimillion facility in Sheffield, England, to manufacture and test SMR prototypes.

A reported £280 million has already been poured into Rolls-Royce SMR by investors, including Rolls-Royce itself, as well as BNF Resources, Constellation, and the Qatar Investment Authority.

In addition, £210 million of grant funding has been provided by the U.K. government.

Generic Design Assessment: Nuclear regulators—the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR), the Environment Agency, and Natural Resources Wales (NRW)—launched the U.K.’s SMR program last year.

GDA is a three-step process—initiation, fundamental assessment, and detailed assessment—performed to gauge the safety, security, and environmental protection aspects of a nuclear plant design. The ONR examines the safety and security of the technology while the other regulatory bodies focus on the environment and radioactive waste.

The hope is that GDA will culminate in a design acceptance confirmation from the ONR and a statement of design acceptability from the Environment Agency.

In July, the Nuclear Industry Association (NIA) submitted the United Kingdom’s first-ever application for a justification decision for the Rolls-Royce SMR design. While this is a step in the overall process, the NIA’s approval would be based on high-level evaluation and not apply to a specific project.

The UK's Nuclear Waste Services (NWS) said it is carrying out important work on the final capping of legacy disposal trenches and vaults at the Low Level Waste Repository in Cumbria, which are now full and ready for permanent closure.

Capping is a key part of the disposal lifecycle and work is now starting on the Southern Trench Cap Interim Membrane (STIM) which will involve placing a new 10-metre thick membrane, or protective layer, over the legacy disposal trenches. It will also include placing other construction materials to progress towards the final cap.

It will provide an engineered protective cover - comprising of layers of material - over the waste that has been disposed of in the trenches and vaults to permanently protect people and the environment.

Civil engineering firm Graham Construction has been awarded a four-year contract and will start work this month, with major works commencing in February 2025.

NWS - a subsidiary of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority - said it has also completed the design of the final cap, the extensive enabling works and the rail transport arrangements that are necessary for procuring, importing and emplacing thousands of tonnes of materials.

"Placing the engineered cap over the legacy radioactive waste disposal facilities at the UK's Low Level Waste Repository (LLWR) is a first of its kind activity for the UK," said NWS Repository Site Programmes Director Jonathan Evans. "The capping work is fully integrated with our ongoing disposal operations at the site. We are very pleased the initial work is progressing and we can move forward with this key phase, working collaboratively with Graham Construction."

Graham Contracts Director Alastair Lewis added: "This is the largest nuclear project to date for the business and will continue on from previous works undertaken during the LLWR Scheme. We recognise the critical importance of this work in ensuring the long-term environmental protection provided by the repository and are fully committed to delivering a high-quality solution in partnership with NWS."

The LLWR site has operated safely since 1959. Its role is to ensure that low-level waste generated in the UK is disposed of in a way that protects people and the environment. The repository site receives low-level solid waste from a range of customers, such as the nuclear industry, the Ministry of Defence, non-nuclear industries, educational, medical and research establishments.

NAC International Inc has received certification from the US nuclear regulator for the highly shielded version of its versatile OPTIMUS transport packaging system. This new certificate follows licensing approvals obtained under Canadian and Australian certifications.

The company's OPTIMUS-H system is now approved under the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) 10 CFR Part 71 regulation with a certificate of compliance effective from 5 August. It has already been approved under Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) certification CNSC Certificate Number CDN/2098/B(U)F-96 and associated Validation Certificate Number AUS/2021-94/B(U)F in Australia.

NAC's OPTIMUS - for OPTImal Modular Universal Shipping - transport packaging system was developed to provide an adaptable, efficient and economical alternative to non-typical radioactive materials transportation campaigns which are commonly conducted using larger inefficient transport casks. The system features two models - OPTIMUS-H and OPTIMUS-L - which together can accommodate a wide range of contents to support customer packaging requirements.

The OPTIMUS-L packaging is designed and licensed for materials including contact handled-transuranic waste (TRU), low and intermediate-level solid wastes, low-enriched uranium fuel wastes, and other low activity contents that require shipment. First certified by the NRC in 2021, in January this year it became the first high-capacity packaging to receive NRC certification for high-assay low-enriched uranium TRISO fuels.

Both versions use the same containment vessel design, which NAC says enables an integrated waste management approach that leverages standardisation for packaging and shipment of a range of materials. This allows optimisation of content shielding, payloads, and shipping configurations but can also be uniquely tailored for each project. The highly shielded OPTIMUS-H version relies on a 7-inch-thick ductile cast iron outer shield vessel to provide sufficient shielding for a broader range of co-called Type B contents, including Class B and C waste, Greater-than-Class-C (GTCC) waste, remotely handled-TRU waste, used nuclear fuel, and other intermediate-level and high-level waste.

Certification of OPTIMUS-H in the USA expands the packaging options for commercial customers and government programmes who are looking for more versatile and lower-cost solutions to transport nuclear materials safely and efficiently, NAC President and CEO Kent Cole said, with the small size, modular packaging options and greater adaptability of the OPTIMUS packaging systems providing economical choices for transporting a wide variety of waste materials that until now were considered orphaned and stranded wastes.

"Both the OPTIMUS-L and OPTIMUS-H packaging systems are now licensed in the USA and Canada and deployed commercially," he said. "This allows NAC and OPTIMUS to support a wide variety of packaging and transportation projects in North America and abroad."

NAC has delivered 22 OPTIMUS-L and nine OPTIMUS-H systems to support North American packaging and transportation projects since it launched the system in 2020, with OPTIMUS-H having been deployed in Canada to support a major CANDU used fuel transportation campaign.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said Russian forces appeared to have started a fire in one of the cooling towers of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station that it has occupied since the early days of the war, although Moscow immediately blamed Kyiv for the incident and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it had been told there was a drone attack.

“Radiation levels are within norm,” Zelenskiy said on social media platform X on Sunday evening, 11 August.

Zelenskiy accused Russia of using its control of the site “to blackmail Ukraine, all of Europe, and the world”.

He said in his post: “We are waiting for the world to react, waiting for the IAEA to react. Russia must be held accountable for this. Only Ukrainian control over the Zaporizhzhia NPP can guarantee a return to normalcy and complete safety.”

A Ukrainian official in Nikopol, about 200 km north of the nuclear station, added on messaging service Telegram that according to “unofficial information”, the fire was caused by setting fire to “a large number of automobile tyres” in a cooling tower.

Late on Sunday night, Russia’s state-run Tass news agency cited state nuclear energy corporation Rosatom as saying that the main fire had been extinguished, while Russian and Ukrainian authorities said one of the cooling towers appeared to have been damaged.

Video and pictures showed smoke dramatically billowing from one of the station’s cooling towers. Tass said the fire was at cooling tower number one, of two. It said the cooling tower was not in use.

All six nuclear reactors at Zaporizhzhia are in cold shutdown, which means the fuel is almost cold and operators do not need to constantly run the primary cooling pumps at the same level to circulate cooling water. Cold shutdown means the fission reaction is slowed significantly or halted completely and the risk of any radiological incident minimised.

Russia said on an official Telegram feed that the fire had been started by the Ukrainian armed forces. It said the fire had been localised and there was no threat to the functioning of the station.

The IAEA said in a statement emailed to NucNet at 22:00 Central European Time on Sunday that its experts at Zaporizhzhia saw thick dark smoke coming from the northwestern area of the facility, after hearing multiple explosions throughout the evening.

The agency said the team was informed that an alleged drone attack on one of the plant’s cooling towers took place on Sunday. There is no impact on nuclear safety, IAEA director-general Rafael Grossi confirmed.

IAEA Says No Risk Of Elevated Radiation Levels

The IAEA team reported hearing an explosion at the same time the Zaporizhzhia plant informed them that a drone had allegedly struck one of the plant’s two cooling towers.

In order to ascertain the extent and possible cause of this event, the IAEA is requesting immediate access to the cooling tower to assess the damage.

Zaporizhzhia has two cooling towers at the northern side of the cooling pond, outside the nuclear station’s perimeter. Cooling towers are used during power operation of the plant. Their damage does not directly impact the safety of the six units in shutdown. However, any kind of fire on the site or in its vicinity represents a risk of spreading the fire also to facilities essential for safety, the IAEA said.

The plant confirmed to the IAEA team that there is no risk of elevated radiation levels as there is no radioactive material in the vicinity of the alleged attack area. The team independently verified the radiation levels and confirmed it remained unchanged.

Grossi said that any military action taken against the plant represents a clear violation of the concrete principles for protecting the facility, which were established at the United Nations Security Council in May last year.

“These reckless attacks endanger nuclear safety at the plant and increase the risk of a nuclear accident. They must stop now,” Grossi said.

Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL) and Business Development Bank of Canada have announced a lead investment of CAD10 million (USD7.3 million) each in Canadian private fusion developer General Fusion. Meanwhile, the US Department of Energy has awarded USD4.6 million in 17 awards to fund public-private partnerships for fusion research.

The financing provided by CNL - Canada's premier nuclear science and technology organisation - and the Business Development Bank of Canada's investment arm, BDC Capital - Canada's bank for entrepreneurs - will enable General Fusion to continue advancing its innovative Magnetised Target Fusion (MTF) technology to provide clean fusion energy to the grid by the early to mid-2030s.

In addition to the lead investments, the first closing of this financing also includes investment from Hatch, a Canadian headquartered consultancy firm specialising in the mining, energy and infrastructure sectors, and other company shareholders. This financing brings the total public and private investment into General Fusion's LM26 programme to over CAD71 million since its launch in 2023.

To fast track its progress towards commercialisation, General Fusion is advancing its Lawson Machine 26 (LM26) demonstration programme in Richmond, British Columbia. This machine is designed to achieve two transformational milestones for fusion energy, temperatures of over 100 million degrees Celsius (10 keV) and scientific breakeven equivalent, using the company's MTF technology.

General Fusion's MTF approach involves injecting hydrogen plasma into a liquid metal sphere, where it is compressed and heated so that fusion occurs. The heat from the fusion of the hydrogen atoms is transferred into the liquid metal. This enables fusion conditions to be created in short pulses rather than creating a sustained reaction, which "avoids the pitfalls of other approaches that require expensive superconducting magnets or high-powered lasers," according to the company.

General Fusion plans to construct its Fusion Demonstration Plant (FDP) at the UKAEA's Culham Campus near Oxford, England. The plant will be used to prove the viability of the MTF technology and is a 70%-scaled version of the commercial pilot plant. However, the plant will not be used to produce power. The FDP will cycle one plasma pulse per day, and will use deuterium fuel, whereas the commercial pilot plant will use deuterium-tritium fuel and will cycle up to one plasma pulse per second. The FDP is expected to be commissioned in 2026 and fully operational by early 2027.

CNL and General Fusion have already been working together to advance the design of General Fusion's power plant. That work has included analysis by CNL of tritium breeding technologies and tritium management facilities. Tritium is a primary component of fusion fuel. More recently, the teams collaborated on research related to the fusion machine, balance of plant, and power conversion system for General Fusion's MTF machine design.

CNL President and CEO Jack Craig said: "CNL and General Fusion share the same vision - to unlock fusion's tremendous potential as a transformative, clean energy future in Canada in order to fight climate change and maintain our energy security. We are proud to invest in such an innovative Canadian company, applying our unique capabilities and expertise within Canada's national nuclear laboratory to help bring their technology to life, and secure these environmental and economic benefits to Canada."

US funding awards

The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced it has awarded USD4.6 million in 17 awards to US businesses via the Innovation Network for Fusion Energy (INFUSE) programme.

The aim of INFUSE is to accelerate fusion energy development in the private sector by reducing impediments to collaboration between business and national laboratories or universities. DOE said the "overarching objective is to ensure the nation's energy, environmental, and security needs by accelerating foundational research to advance economical, innovative fusion technologies".

Projects for this round of funding include research in materials science, modelling and simulation, as well as enabling technologies to help move toward the ultimate goal of economical fusion energy.

The 17 projects were selected via a competitive peer review process managed by the INFUSE leadership team at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. The programme solicited proposals from the fusion industry and selected projects for one or two-year awards, all with budgets ranging between USD100,000 and USD500,000 each.

"The selections today showcase our continuing commitment to the fusion industry in the US and our goal to share widely unique capabilities at national laboratories and US universities," said DOE Associate Director of Science for Fusion Energy Sciences Jean Paul Allain. "Partnering with businesses and working together is a win-win for our fusion industry, the DOE, and the nation."

The USA has set a goal of enabling a fusion pilot plant, led by the private sector, on a decadal timescale as the country moves toward a net-zero economy by 2050.

Westinghouse has produced the first of its nuclear fuel pellets that contain higher enrichment levels than what is currently used in commercial reactors. The Low Enriched Uranium Plus (LEU+) Advanced Doped Pellet Technology (ADOPT) fuel pellets are aimed at boosting both the performance and safety of nuclear power plants.

LEU+ ADOPT fuel contains up to 8% by weight uranium-235 (U-235) and additives that improve the safety performance of the fuel compared with standard uranium dioxide. Compared with the standard 3-5% U-235 enrichment used in low-enriched uranium, LEU+ ADOPT allows the generation of more power with fewer replacement bundles within the reactor core, offering improved nuclear fuel cycle economics for operating reactors.

The first LEU+ ADOPT fuel pellets have now been pressed at Westinghouse's Springfields fuel manufacturing facility in Lancashire in northwest England, UK.

The company said the milestone was achieved in partnership with US utility Southern Nuclear and the support of the US Department of Energy (DOE).

The pellets were made from a higher enriched uranium oxide powder that was prepared by DOE's Idaho National Laboratory and marks the first time DOE material has been used to support the increased enrichment of a commercial uranium oxide fuel above 5%.

The first LEU+ ADOPT fuel pellets will now be fabricated into pins and included in four lead test assemblies in the UK before being shipped to the USA for irradiation testing at unit 2 of Southern Nuclear's Vogtle plant in Georgia next year.

In March 2023, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) gave approval for the use of Westinghouse's ADOPT fuel pellets in pressurised water reactors in the USA. In October, Southern Nuclear announced it had received authorisation from the NRC to use advanced nuclear fuel enriched up to 6% U-235 at Vogtle unit 2. This is the first time a US commercial reactor has been authorised to use fuel with over 5% enrichment.

According to Westinghouse, "demand for LEU+ ADOPT fuel in the range of 5-10%, enrichment which reduces the number of outages needed in nuclear plants, is expected to grow significantly in the coming years due to the increased demand for carbon-free electricity".

"The first production of LEU+ ADOPT fuel is a key step for achieving longer fuel cycles and reducing operational costs in the nuclear fuel industry," said Westinghouse Nuclear Fuel President Tarik Choho. "This significant milestone, which is part of our EnCore Accident Tolerant Fuel programme, will help us provide safer, more economical, reliable, clean energy to our customers across the world."

ADOPT fuel is one of several accident tolerant fuel concepts being supported through DOE's Accident Tolerant Fuel programme to deliver new fuel pellet and cladding designs that could be commercialised before the end of the decade.

As work progresses at the site for Ontario Power Generation's Darlington New Nuclear Project (DNNP), a massive tunnel boring machine that will be used in site preparations has been named Harriet Brooks in honour of Canada’s first female nuclear physicist.

The highly specialised excavating machine, also known as a 'mole', is being manufactured in Europe and will be used to drill the condenser cooling water tunnel path. Although it is not expected to be on site until next summer, DNNP's team has already completed a retaining wall for the machine's launch shaft.

Ontario Power Generation (OPG) announced in March that early phase works for the Darlington New Nuclear Project to construct the first of up to four BWRX-300 SMRs had been completed on time and on budget, clearing the way for the main site preparation work to begin. This summer has seen drilling begin for the reactor building shaft retaining wall. Work has begun on the on-site fabrication and pre-assembly buildings where components for the plant will be fabricated. OPG has shared a video update of progress at the site.

The first part of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission's hearings on OPG's application for a licence to construct the first unit is to take place this September, with the second hearing in January. Pending regulatory approval, OPG has previously said the project will be ready for nuclear construction work to begin in 2025. The first SMR unit is expected to be in commercial operation by the end of 2029, with the rest of the units expected to come online in the mid-2030s.

Harriet Brooks

After more than 100 name submissions and a vote for the best, the team settled on Harriet Brooks as the name of the new tunnelling machine. (A previous tunnel boring machine used to create a 10.2-kilometre-long tunnel to increase generating capacity at the Sir Adam Beck hydro complex in Niagara Falls was known as Big Becky in honour of Sir Adam Beck, the first chairman of OPG predecessor company the Hydro-Electric Power Commission of Ontario.)

Harriet Brooks was the first woman to receive a master’s degree from Montreal's McGill University in 1901. Brooks discovered that one element could change into another element through radioactive decay and - while she was still a student - was one of the first people to discover the radioactive gas radon. She worked under Ernest Rutherford and Marie Curie, and held a variety of university positions, including at McGill and Barnard College in the USA, as well as working with JJ Thomson at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, England.

The main decline at the Tony M mine in Utah was successfully reopened on 26 July, and work has begun to rehabilitate the underground workings.

Initial observations of underground conditions indicate that the main decline and underground equipment shops are in good condition, IsoEnergy Ltd said. Rehabilitation of the underground, including scaling, installation of ground support and ventilation systems, is expected to take 8 to 10 weeks depending on the ground conditions encountered.

The underground rehabilitation work is being carried out by Tomcat Mining. IsoEnergy is also working with international mining consulting firms SRK Consulting Ltd, on the design and implementation of the ventilation plans, and Call & Nicholas Inc, on the design and implementation of the ground control plans.

As sections of the underground are made safe for entry, it is expected that exploration and geological work will begin to map out the orebody from underground. IsoEnergy is also in the process of contracting a surveying company to complete a LiDAR survey of the complete underground at Tony M. This will be the first time any such survey has been completed at the mine and will be an important tool in future mine planning.

The Saskatoon-based company has been working towards reopening the Tony M underground for access over the course of the last year. Site communications have been re-established, and electrical systems have been upgraded and refurbished where necessary, including the installation of "at least" one new generator meeting the US Environmental Protection Agency's Tier 4 emission standards, it said. Several new fans have been installed and will continue to be installed as part of the rehabilitation, and several existing fans are to be refurbished.

The company announced last February its strategic decision to reopen the past-producing mine during the first half of this year, with the aim of restarting uranium production operations in 2025, depending on market conditions. Energy Fuels Inc's White Mesa - the only currently operational conventional uranium mill in the USA - is within trucking distance to Tony M, and IsoEnergy has a toll-milling agreement which guarantees it access to the mill's capacity.

IsoEnergy CEO and Director Philip Williams said: "The reopening of underground at Tony M is an important step in restarting production and establishing IsoEnergy as a near-term uranium producer. Long-term uranium prices have nearly doubled, from USD41/lb U3O8 to USD79/lb U3O8, since we acquired the Tony M, Daneros and Rim Mines in Utah, and with the exceedingly positive global outlook for nuclear power we expect that trend to continue. We believe that proven producing assets in tier one jurisdictions, like Tony M, will be highly coveted by end users making this an ideal time to pursue a restart."

The fully-permitted mine is in Garfield County and is about 66 miles (107 km) from the town of Blanding. It produced nearly one million pounds of U3O8 during two different periods of operation from 1979-1984 and from 2007-2008. It was acquired by IsoEnergy on the company's share-for-share merger with Consolidated Uranium Inc, completed last December. Tony M's current NI 43-101 estimated resources stand at 6.606 million pounds U3O8 (2541 tU) of indicated resources and 2.218 million pounds U3O8 in the inferred resources category.

UK-headquartered innovative reactor developer Newcleo and Slovak nuclear engineering and services firm VUJE have signed a cooperation agreement to establish closer collaboration on developing advanced modular reactor technologies and advanced fuel cycle solutions in the Slovak Republic.

The agreement aims to foster closer cooperation between nuclear experts from both companies, focusing on Newcleo's lead-cooled fast reactor (LFR) technology and mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel.

Specific areas of cooperation may include the assessment of deploying Newcleo's LFR technology in Slovakia, exploring fuel cycle solutions to potentially re-use Slovakia's used nuclear fuel inventory, collaborating on research and development activities and developing skills and capabilities in advanced nuclear technologies.

"Slovakia has more than 50 years of nuclear tradition, know-how, and human capital in highly-skilled experts, and VUJE has been the cornerstone of nuclear in this field," said Newcleo CEO Stefano Buono. "We aim to partner with VUJE on further technical development of advanced nuclear reactors which can make use of spent nuclear fuel. This cooperation agreement could further accelerate our R&D and engineering activities in Europe.

"I am convinced that this cooperation can bring us closer to a role model solution for many European countries to decarbonise their electricity production effectively and provide a sustainable solution to their stocks of spent nuclear fuel."

VUJE CEO Matej Korec added: "VUJE, as the Slovak market leader in nuclear energy and services, is keen to cooperate on further development of state-of-the-art nuclear technologies. We believe advanced modular reactor technologies and closing the fuel cycle have great potential for the future of nuclear energy in Slovakia and Europe. By participating in Newcleo's plans, we hope to help the technology become available sooner."

This agreement is the first entered into by Newcleo's recently established Slovak subsidiary, Newcleo sro.

In December last year, Newcleo signed a memorandum of understanding with Slovakia's Ministry of Economy and state-owned radioactive waste management company JAVYS to explore collaboration opportunities and further develop advanced modular reactor technologies.

Newcleo said its LFR AS-30 reactor design has been optimised over the last 20 years leading to the concept of an ultra-compact and transportable 200 MWe module with improvements in energy density compared with other technologies. Costs are kept low by means of simplicity, compactness, modularity, atmospheric pressure operation and elevated output temperature.

The first step of Newcleo's delivery roadmap will be the design and construction of the first-of-a-kind 30 MWe LFR to be deployed in France by 2030, followed by a 200 MWe commercial unit in the UK by 2033.

At the same time, the company will directly invest in a MOX plant to fuel its reactors. In June 2022, Newcleo announced it had contracted France's Orano for feasibility studies on the establishment of a MOX production plant.

Norsk Kjernekraft has submitted a proposal to Norway's Ministry of Energy for an assessment into the construction of a power plant based on multiple small modular reactors (SMRs) in the municipality of Øygarden, west of Bergen.

"With this, the first step in the formal process to establish a nuclear power plant in Øygarden has been initiated," the company said.

The proposed location is an area of up to 101 hectares (250 acres) at Buneset, 600 metres south of the transformer and the gas processing plant at Kollsnes. The location is said to be well suited for utilising existing and planned network infrastructure in the Bergen area. The power plant will enable the electrification of oil and gas installations, the establishment of new industry and safeguarding security of supply.

The site is owned by landowner and former mayor of Øygarden, Rolv Svein Rougnø. Rougnø earlier entered into a letter of intent with Norsk Kjernekraft and the agreement outlines that the site can be acquired for use in the construction of SMR power plants.

Norsk Kjernekraft said the site has space for five SMRs, each with a generating capacity of 300 MWe. This means that the site has the potential for generating 12.5 TWh per year, corresponding to almost 10% of Norway's current total electricity consumption.

The scope of the proposed study programme submitted to the Ministry of Energy is limited to assessing what effects construction, operation and decommissioning of the power plant can have for society and the environment.

The report describes the location in question and explains how the nuclear power plant will contribute to fulfilling local, regional and national ambitions and obligations in the field of energy and climate. In addition, local conditions for the construction and operation of a nuclear power plant at Buneset in Øygarden are described, and which topics will be described in a future impact assessment.

The ministry will send the report out for consultation, and then the municipality, residents and industry will be able to make their comments. If approved by the ministry, the report and input will form the basis for an impact assessment.

Norsk Kjernekraft noted that Vestland county, in which Øygarden is located, is the region in Norway with the highest greenhouse gas emissions. Large projects are planned for new power consumption in the county, among other things to electrify oil and gas installations. Øygarden municipality already has a large power deficit, and this will increase as a result of planned electrification projects and the establishment of new industry.

"This marks yet another important milestone for Norsk Kjernekraft, and it is the third notification sent to the Ministry of Energy," said the company's CEO Jonny Hesthammer. "Previous notifications have included Aure and Heim municipalities, as well as Vardø municipality. A nuclear power plant in Øygarden will make it possible to electrify oil and gas installations on land and offshore. In addition, it will enable new power-intensive industry, and improve the utilisation of the power grid in Western Norway.

"The power plant will produce electricity regardless of the weather, thereby improving security of supply throughout the country. This report will also be an important part of the knowledge base for the government's announced investigation into nuclear power in Norway."

In June, the Norwegian government announced the appointment of a committee to conduct a broad review and assessment of various aspects of a possible future establishment of nuclear power in the country. It must deliver its report by 1 April 2026.

The third and final tier of the reactor containment structure has been installed at the construction site of the BREST-OD-300 lead-cooled fast neutron reactor at the Siberian Chemical Combine site in Seversk, in the Tomsk Region of Russia.

The containment structure of the reactor consists of three assembly blocks installed in the design position in the reactor shaft. The steel reactor base plate and lower tier of the containment were installed at the turn of the year, while the second tier was hoisted into place in April.

With the installation of the third tier, the total mass of the structure is 429 tonnes, and its height is 17 metres.

Workers will now assemble the cooling system pipelines, drying system and intermediate shell. The cavity of the enclosing structure will then be filled with heat-resistant concrete.

According to Rosatom: "The containment structure is the outer part of the reactor vessel. It provides retention of heat-insulating concrete, forming an additional localising barrier of protection, which surrounds the boundary of the coolant circuit. On its surface, the temperature should not exceed 60°C, and the radiation background is actually equal to the natural background."

The BREST-OD-300 fast reactor is part of Rosatom's Proryv, or Breakthrough, project to enable a closed nuclear fuel cycle. The 300 MWe unit will be the main facility of the Pilot Demonstration Energy Complex at the Siberian Chemical Combine site. The complex will demonstrate an on-site closed nuclear fuel cycle with a facility for the fabrication/re-fabrication of mixed uranium-plutonium nitride nuclear fuel, as well as a used fuel reprocessing facility.

The target for the BREST-OD-300 reactor is to start operation in 2026.

Initial operation of the demonstration unit will be focused on performance and after 10 years or so it will be commercially oriented. The plan has been that if it is successful as a 300 MWe (700 MWt) unit, a 1200 MWe (2800 MWt) version will follow - the BR-1200.

The Department of Energy has signed off on a $1.5 billion loan guarantee to Holtec Palisades LLC to support initial work needed to restart the Michigan nuclear plant.

The funding is earmarked for “general restoration and maintenance activities in support of repowering [Palisades], an 800-MW electric nuclear generation station in Covert Township, Michigan,” according to a notice in the Federal Register. The loan is not to be used for refueling, power ascension, or power generation unless or until the Nuclear Regulatory Commission issues a favorable review of the project’s environmental impact.

“Activities associated with [Palisades] refueling, repowering, and operations . . . are not yet ripe for environmental analysis or decisions,” according to the DOE’s record of decision.

If approved by all agencies involved, Palisades would be the first U.S. nuclear plant to restart.

Background: Palisades nuclear power plant was shuttered in May 2022 and subsequently acquired by Holtec for decommissioning. In October 2023, Holtec submitted an operating licensing application for Palisades to the NRC with the intention of seeking financial assistance from the DOE to restore the facility’s commercial operations. In parallel, Holtec is also seeking a subsequent license renewal that would allow Palisades to operate until at least 2051.

Holtec has indicated interest in expanding Palisades with two small modular reactors as well.

During a congressional hearing in June, NRC chair Christopher Hanson said that review of Holtec’s plans should be determined by May 2025. If approvals come through, Palisades could resume operations later next year.

To support that goal, Holtec has added 150 workers (bringing the total to 360) at Palisades—including former plant employees and new recruits.

Related news: The NRC is now taking public requests for hearings on two aspects of Holtec’s plans to restart the Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan.

• The first opportunity covers license amendment requests from Holtec that would restore aspects of the Palisades license to those required for an operating reactor. The filing deadline for this hearing opportunity is Oct. 4.
• The second opportunity covers the request to transfer the Palisades license from Holtec Decommissioning International to Palisades Energy LLC. The filing deadline for the transfer hearing opportunity is Aug. 26.

NRC staff have determined Holtec’s requests contain sufficient information for the agency to formally docket them and conduct the required technical reviews. Docketing the requests is not an indication of whether the NRC will approve the license amendments or transfer.

The first steam generator for units 5 and 6 of the Kaiga nuclear power plant in India's Karnataka State has completed its journey from L&T's Hazira complex in Gujarat.

Kaiga 5 and 6 will be the first of ten Indian-designed 700 MWe pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWRs) to be built using a fleet mode of construction to bring economies of scale as well as maximising efficiency, which have been given administrative approval and financial sanction by the Indian government. Excavation works for the units began in May 2022. Two 700 MWe PHWR units have already been built at Kakrapar, in Gujurat, and are already in commercial operation, and fuel loading is under way in another, Rajasthan unit 7, which is expected to begin commercial operation before the end of the year.

Steam generators are heat exchangers used to convert water into steam from heat produced in a nuclear reactor core. In PHWRs, the coolant is pumped, at high pressure to prevent boiling, from the reactor coolant pump, through the nuclear reactor core, and through the tube side of the steam generators before returning to the pump.

The component weighs over 200 tonnes and is about 24 metres in length, with a diameter of about 4 metres.

Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd currently operates four 202 MWe PHWRs at Kaiga.

US uranium producer Energy Fuels Inc has voluntarily suspended transportation of uranium across Navajo lands after the Navajo Nation challenged the legality of the transport. The company said it is working with the Navajo Nation to find a resolution.

Late last year, Energy Fuels announced that it had started production at the Pinyon Plain mine in Arizona, as well as at the La Sal project in Eastern Utah, with ore from those mines to be stockpiled at its White Mesa mill in Utah for processing. For Pinyon Plain, this involves trucking material over Navajo Nation lands.

On 31 July, Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren issued an executive order banning the transport of radioactive material through the Navajo Nation without a prior agreement, citing Navajo laws regarding the transport of radioactive materials in the Navajo Nation Natural Resources Protection Act of 2005 and the Navajo Nation’s 2012 Radioactive and Related Substances, Equipment, Vehicles, Persons and Materials Transportation Act. The order will last for six months. Nygren said the order had been signed after Energy Fuels the previous day transported an estimated 50 tonnes of uranium ore through tribal lands without providing the notice required under the 2012 law.

Energy Fuels had informed federal, state, county, and tribal officials more than 10 days earlier about the legal requirements, safety, emergency response, and the imminent shipping of uranium ore, though without giving a specific date.

In the company's second quarter earnings call on 5 August, CEO Mark Chalmers said the company believes it has the necessary licences and rights for the shipments but respects the Navajo Nation's concerns and has voluntarily suspended shipments. Both sides are "looking for a resolution" on moving forward, he said.

Energy Fuels and its predecessor companies had completed uranium shipments across the reservation lands for many decades up to the last shipment, which took place in 2022, without a single incident, Chalmers said, and had worked with members of the Navajo nation, including arranging visits to the mines and mill to witness loading and unloading "so that they were comfortable with those shipments." According to the company's presentation, around half of the employees at the White Mesa mill are Navajo and Native American.

Legacy issues

One of the reasons for the Navajo Nation's concerns is a "long legacy of uranium issues that have nothing to do with Energy Fuels - most were created by legacy arrangements with the US Government during the Cold War," he said, but the company was working with the Navajo Nation to address these concerns. "The biggest issue … is they want safe transport of materials across the Navajo nation, and we absolutely respect that. We absolutely respect that it has to be done safely - we have done it over time, and we plan to sit down with them to make sure that it is safely transported," he said.

Nygren's office also highlighted the legacy of Cold War uranium mining activities in a 2 August blog post, which said the President's deployment of tribal police to intercept Energy Fuels' uranium transport trucks had been "because of his priority to clean up abandoned uranium mines and mills."

Between 1944 and 1986, more than 30 million tonnes of uranium ore was extracted from the Navajo Nation for the US nuclear weapons programme, but the legacy of those operations - including radioactive contamination impacts on Navajo miners and their families - has not been adressed.

"Cleanup of these 500 abandoned uranium mine and mill sites is a major priority of my administration," President Nygren said. "It is why I deployed the Navajo Nation police to block what I think is the illegal transport of uranium ore across the Navajo Nation. Cleanup must happen first, and the trauma associated with premature sickness and death from the legacies of it."

Ramp up continues

Energy Fuels plans to ramp up ore production from Pinyon Plain, La Sal and Pandora to a production run-rate of around 1.1 to 1.4 million pounds of U3O8 per year by late-2024. The transport moratorium is not expected to hold back development work at Pinyon Plain, Chalmers said.

Alternative transport routes exist and "will all be part of the discussions", he said. "But the route that we have across the reservation is a route that has been studied extensively and it is really the best route, and we intend to continue down that path, but let us continue our discussions with the Navajo nation because, again, we are respectful of their concerns… let's figure out how to alleviate those concerns."

The company expects to produce a total of 150,000-500,000 pounds U3O8 (57.7- 192.3 tU) during 2024 from stockpiled alternate feed materials and newly mined ore.

Workers have completed the construction of the concrete foundation pit for the reactor of unit 8 at Russia's Leningrad nuclear power plant. First nuclear safety-related concrete is scheduled to be poured for the VVER-1200 unit next year.

Rosenergoatom, the nuclear power plant operating division of Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom - said that construction of the pit lasted for about two months and was completed two-and-a-half months ahead of schedule.

The work was carried out by workers from Titan-2, the general contractor for the construction of new power units of the Leningrad plant.

In June of this year, the construction of the foundation pit for the reactor building of unit 8 was completed. This work was completed two weeks ahead of schedule.

"The technology for constructing the concrete foundation pit included the implementation of a multi-layer drainage system - lean concrete, sand, porous concrete," said Konstantin Khudyakov, director of the Leningrad NPP Facilities Programme of JSC Concern Titan-2. "Then the drainage system was cut off with a special membrane before the concrete preparation itself."

The next stage is the start of lightning protection and waterproofing work, which will last until the end of August. Then the screed will be installed.

Evgeny Milushkin, deputy director for capital construction and head of the capital construction department of the Leningrad II plant, added: "The completed work will allow specialists to start reinforcing the foundation slab. Reinforcement with steel reinforcement creates a kind of framework and makes the foundation extremely strong. The reinforcement work is defined by an additional schedule and will begin in October of this year. Thus, we are preparing for the first key operation - concreting the foundation slab of the reactor building."

The Leningrad plant is one of the largest in Russia, with an installed capacity of 4400 MWe, and provides more than 55% of the electricity demand of St Petersburg and the Leningrad region, or 30% of all the electricity in northwest Russia.

Leningrad units 1 and 2 - both 1000 MWe RBMK units - shut down in 2018 and 2020, respectively. As the first two of the plant's four RBMK-1000 units shut down, new VVER-1200 units started at the neighbouring Leningrad II plant. The 60-year service life of these fifth and sixth units (also known as Leningrad II-1 and Leningrad II-2) secures power supply until the 2080s. Units 7 and 8 will replace units 3 and 4 as they are shut in the coming years.

The pouring of the first concrete for unit 7 in March this year marked the start of the main phase of construction of the new power unit, which is expected to generate power for 60 years, with the possibility of a 20-year extension. The foundation slab consists of about 5500 cubic metres of concrete. Last month, Rosatom said the work on the reactor building is currently running two-and-a-half months ahead of schedule, with concreting of the foundation completed.

Leningrad units 7 and 8 (or Leningrad II-3 and Leningrad II-4) are planned to be commissioned in 2030 and 2032, respectively.

Kronos Advanced Technologies Inc and Yasheng Group have announced a strategic collaboration to develop and file a patent for a small nuclear battery powered by the decay of nickel-63. The partnership aims to address critical energy storage needs across various sectors, including remote sensing, space exploration, medical devices and military applications.

Nuclear batteries - also known as radioisotope batteries - work on the principle of utilising the energy released by the decay of nuclear isotopes and converting it into electrical energy through semiconductor converters.

The partners said their small nuclear battery will be designed to provide a reliable power source with a lifespan of up to 50 years without requiring recharging. Utilising advanced materials and innovative design, the battery will convert the energy from the beta decay of a radioactive isotope, such as nickel-63, into electrical energy.

"Nickel-63 nuclear batteries have several promising potential markets due to their unique characteristics and long-lasting power supply," they said.

Applications targeted by the partnership include medical devices, where nickel-63 batteries can power implantable medical devices such as pacemakers, artificial hearts, and cochlear implants. The batteries could also be used by the aerospace industry for long-duration space missions and satellite power. They can also be used in remote sensors, micro-electromechanical systems, and Internet of Things devices that require a reliable and maintenance-free power source. In addition, these batteries can power environmental monitoring devices, industrial sensors, and advanced automation systems, as well as various scientific instruments and equipment.

Kronos and Yasheng noted "consumer electronics like smartphones, laptops, and small household gadgets could benefit from nickel-63 batteries. The potential to create devices that never need recharging would revolutionise the consumer electronics market, although this application is still in developmental stages".

They added: "These diverse applications demonstrate the versatility and potential of nickel-63 nuclear batteries in providing long-lasting, reliable power across multiple industries and sectors."

Under their collaboration agreement, Yasheng Group - a Colorado-based company with historical high-tech agricultural operations in China dedicated to advancing technological innovations - will be responsible for filing the nuclear battery patent in China, while Kronos will handle the filing in North America. Each party will bear the costs associated with filing in their respective countries.

Kronos will receive 10% of the royalties earned by Yasheng in China, and Yasheng will receive 10% of the royalties earned by Kronos in North America.

The fourth and final steel ring of the main containment building wall has been installed at Unit 3 of the Sanmen nuclear power station in the eastern province of Zhejiang, developer Sanmen Nuclear Powder Company said.

Sanmen-3 is the first CAP1000 nuclear plant under construction in China. The CAP1000 is China’s version of the Westinghouse AP1000 Generation III+ pressurised water reactor design.

The first three steel rings were installed in June 2024. Workers will now need to hoist the dome of the steel containment in place, but no schedule for that has been announced.

The Sanmen station already has two commercially operational Westinghouse AP1000 units since 2018 – Sanmen-1 and Sanmen-2.

First concrete was poured for Sanmen-3 in June 2022. In March 2023, first concrete was poured for the nuclear island of twin Sanmen-4.

China has 30 commercial nuclear power units under construction.

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s reactor database says the number is 25, but does not include Ningde-5, Shidaowan-1, Xudabu-2 in Liaoning Province, northeastern China, where first concrete was poured earlier this month, or Jinqimen, where China National Nuclear Corporation said in February that construction of two units had begun.

The country has China has 56 commercial reactors in operation, the same number as France and second only to the US, which has 94.

Bruce Power has reached a major milestone in its major component replacement (MCR) project at the Bruce nuclear site in Ontario, Canada, by completing the Unit 3 reactor removal series safely and ahead of schedule.

The removal series was completed faster than in the Unit 6 MCR project through lessons learned and technological advancement, the operator of the eight-unit station, which is owned by Ontario Power Generation, said in a press

Bruce Power said the calandria tube removal, completed on 26 July, set a refurbishment record for Candu nuclear plants, finishing 11 days ahead of schedule.

With the removal series complete, millwrights, boilermakers, and electricians will begin reactor inspection and installation work that will include the replacement of 960 feeder tubes, 480 fuel channels, and 480 calandria tubes

The Unit 3 MCR project is the second of six refurbishment projects set to extend the Bruce Power site’s operational life to 2064.

Bruce Power has previously put the cost of the project for the six units at about CAD13bn (€8.6bn, $9.4bn). In 2022 Ontario’s Independent Electricity System Operator said the final fixed cost of the Unit 3 refurbishment alone was CAD1.9bn.

Bruce Power is in the final stages of preparation for the Unit 4 MCR outage, scheduled to begin in 2025, while Units 5, 7 and 8 are also slated for refurbishment over the next 10 years. Two units at the site, Units 1 and 2, are not part of the project.

In September 2023 Unit 6 at Bruce returned to commercial operation following completion of its MCR project.

The eight Candu units at the Bruce site began commercial operation between September 1977 and May 1987.

A custom-made glass test cell created by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has enabled researchers to observe how gases behave inside a molten salt reactor and investigate the complex chemistry that can occur in the molten salt solution.

Some of the reactors that are currently being designed will operate on liquid fuel, where the fissile materials are directly dissolved in a molten salt solution that also acts as the reactor's coolant. But nuclear and chemical reactions can result in gases that bubble out of the molten salt, which can impact reactor neutronics and thermal hydraulic performance.

To help investigate these effects, ORNL researchers designed and developed a customised glass test cell that can hold up to a litre of liquid molten salt. They injected small helium and krypton bubbles into the cell to observe how they moved through the column of molten salt, and were able to measure gas bubble velocity, size distribution, and interactions with neighbouring bubbles using high-speed cameras. The insights provided from the experiment will be used to help improve and validate simulation tools for molten salt-fuelled systems.

"Understanding gas generation and transport in molten salt reactors is essential to optimising their performance and safety," said Daniel Orea, ORNL lead R&D associate. "This unique glass test cell allows us to overcome certain engineering challenges caused by the high temperature and composition of salt and its two-phase liquid glass system."

The research project was supported through the US Department of Energy's Molten Salt Reactor Program.

The reactor removal series at Bruce unit 3 has been completed ahead of schedule thanks to experience gained from previous projects - with the removal of the calandria tubes setting a new record for Candu refurbishment.

Bruce 3 is the second unit to undergo Major Component Replacement (MCR). The process 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. In total, six units at the Bruce site in Ontario are to be refurbished: the first to undergo the process, Bruce 6, returned to commercial operation last September.

Unit 3 was taken offline to begin its MCR outage in March 2023. The removal of feeder tubes, pressure tubes, calandria tubes and other internal components has taken nine months, with the work carried out by the MCR project team, alongside vendor partners Shoreline Power Group (a joint venture between Aecon, AtkinsRéalis and United Engineers & Constructors) and ATS Industrial Automation. The removal of the 480 calandria tubes - seam-welded tubes which penetrate the cylindrical reactor vessel and accommodate the pressure tubes that contain fuel and coolant - was completed 11 days ahead of schedule on 26 July.

Leveraging the experience of tradespeople, and innovation through lessons learned and technological advancement, meant that the removal series was completed in less time than the same work had taken in unit 6's MCR.

"Each successive MCR outage brings an opportunity for performance improvement, and we're committed to returning these units to service safely and successfully to meet Ontario's clean energy needs well into the future," said Laurent Seigle, Bruce Power's executive vice-president, Projects. "To execute a project of this scale and complexity, it takes an ecosystem of nuclear professionals to work together toward a common goal," he added.

Shoreline's millwrights, boilermakers and electricians will now transition to commissioning, operating and maintaining a first-of-a-kind, six-axis robotic tooling system for reactor inspection and installation work including the replacement of 960 feeder tubes and 480 fuel channels as well as the calandria tubes. Automated tooling systems, the majority of which have been designed, tested and manufactured by ATS Industrial Automation, will be used in the cleaning and inspection of thousands of components on both faces of the reactor.

The next Bruce unit to undergo MCR will be unit 4, beginning in 2025. Units 5, 7 and 8 will also be refurbished over the next 10 years. The work will directly and indirectly create and sustain about 1500 jobs over the next 15 years in Grey, Bruce and Huron counties, and throughout Ontario, the companies said.

MobileNuclear Energy (MNE) is to collaborate with Peregrine Turbine Technologies (PTT) to integrate its MN-1 Mobile Microreactor system with PTT's supercritical carbon dioxide energy conversion system and advanced heat exchanger technologies.

Virginia-based MNE's mission is to develop and deploy the first truly mobile, safe, sustainable, and affordable nuclear microreactor to provide the military and other government agencies with responsive, durable, and modular energy generation capability. MN-1 is a nuclear microreactor intentionally designed for mobility. Its compact reactor core and design features are optimised for small size, light weight, efficient energy production, affordability and safety. The MN-1 is a modular system, transportable by air, land or sea, and can optionally be integrated to operate in transit to provide power for propulsion systems, directed energy weapons, or other high-power "on the move" applications.

MNE and PTT's Nuclear Energy System subsidiary (PTT NES) plan to collaborate on the integration of PTT NES' patented supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) energy conversion systems, thermally compliant heat exchanger technologies, and high temperature helium blower and magnetic torque coupling with MNE's MN-1.

PTT NES's sCO2 system is essentially a closed loop heat engine and is fuel agnostic, meaning that it can operate on any high-grade heat source such as nuclear and concentrated solar, as well as on all air combustible fuels including sustainable biomass, biogas, refuse-derived fuels and natural gas.

The core power module - which would generate 1 MWt and 350 kWe - is equivalent in size to a standard 20-foot (6-metre) shipping container, populated with the microreactor and PTT's sCO2 turbine-generator as baseline capability. Add-on modules can seamlessly integrate with the power module to provide atmospheric water generation, hydrogen-based fuel production, heating and cooling, and other mission-tailored capabilities.

PTT's energy conversion system - successfully developed and demonstrated in collaboration with Sandia National Laboratories' Brayton Laboratory - is tailored for advanced nuclear reactors. It offers enhanced efficiency compared with traditional steam systems and air Brayton conversion systems, with a significantly reduced footprint. PTT says its systems have 1.5 times the efficiency of steam with less than one-third of the footprint, and over three times the efficiency of air Brayton conversion systems.

"MobileNuclear is excited to partner with PTT NES to integrate their sCO2 systems with our mobile microreactor," said MNE CEO Chris Pehrson. "It's a perfect marriage that will deliver the energy capacity that our customers need while maintaining the mobility that defines our microreactor system."

PTT NES CEO and Chief Technology Officer David Stapp added: "Advanced nuclear married to advanced sCO2 power conversion technology is a game-changer for large, distributed energy markets, both commercial and military. Peregrine's technology is right-sized to match with MobileNuclear's advanced reactor technology. The combination delivers breakthrough performance and capability that is unmatched. We are excited to team with this capable company."

PTT, based in Wiscasset, Maine, was formed in April 2012 and is focused on the development and deployment of advanced sCO2 turbine power generation, energy storage and propulsion systems.

In July last year, the company announced it had established a new subsidiary, PTT Nuclear Energy Systems, after it had "identified significant potential and opportunity for its breakthrough energy conversion technologies in the accelerating VSMR (very small modular reactor) and MMR (micro modular reactor) programmes (350 kW- 10 MW), and a clear intermediate-term opportunity in the SMR (small modular reactor) 30 MW to 100 MW class range". At the time, PTT said it was "working to field a family of its proprietary modular sCO2 energy conversions systems with initial capabilities ranging from 350 kW to 10 MW".

In April this year, Ultra Safe Nuclear Corporation announced it is to collaborate with PTT to integrate its Pylon microreactor with PTT's sCO2 energy conversion system and advanced heat exchanger technologies.

The reactor pressure vessel for unit 2 of the San'ao nuclear power plant has arrived at the construction site in China's Zhejiang province, CGN Cangnan Nuclear Power announced.

The vessel - manufactured by Shanghai Electric Nuclear Power Equipment Company Limited - departed from Shanghai on 30 July and arrived at the San'ao site on 2 August after four days of sea transportation. Following two days of channel clearing and other preparatory work, unloading and hoisting work was carried out at the quay on 4 August.

"The smooth arrival of the reactor pressure vessel provides strong support and guarantee for the subsequent installation of the main equipment in the nuclear island and the welding of the main pipelines of unit 2 of the San'ao nuclear power project," CGN Cangnan Nuclear Power said.

San'ao 2 is the second of six Chinese-designed HPR1000 (Hualong One) pressurised water reactors planned at the site.

In May 2015, the National Energy Administration approved the project to carry out site protection and related demonstration work at San'ao. On 2 September 2020, the executive meeting of the State Council approved the construction of units 1 and 2 as the first phase of the plant. China's National Nuclear Safety Administration issued a construction permit for the two units on 30 December that year and first concrete for unit 1 was poured the following day. The first concrete for San'ao 2 was poured on 30 December 2021.

San'ao 1 and 2 are scheduled to begin supplying electricity in 2026 and 2027, respectively.

The San'ao plant is the first nuclear power project in China's Yangtze River Delta region to adopt the Hualong One reactor design.

The San'ao project marks the first Chinese nuclear power project involving private capital, with Geely Technology Group taking a 2% stake in the plant. China General Nuclear (CGN) holds 46% of the shares of the project company Cangnan Nuclear Power, with other state-owned enterprises holding the remainder.

Fuel loading has begun at the Rajasthan-7 nuclear power plant in the state of Rajasthan, northwest India, with commercial operation expected this year, government-owned Nuclear Power of Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) said in a statement on 2 August.

NPCIL said initial fuel loading will be followed by preparations for first criticality and the start of power generation.

“The unit is expected to commence commercial operation in the current year,” the company said.

A second unit under construction at the same site, Rajasthan-8, is expected to come online in 2025, NPCIL said.

Both Rajasthan-7 and Rajasthan-8 are indigenous NPCIL-designed Generation III 603-MW pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWRs) developed from earlier 220 MW and 540 MW Canadian Candu designs. Construction of Unit 7 began in July 2011 and Unit 8 in September 2011.

The Rajasthan site has five existing nuclear plants in commercial operation, all earlier generation PHWRs with a net capacity of around 202 MW each. Another earlier generation PHWR unit, the 134-MW Rajasthan-1, was shut down in 2004 and will be decommissioned.

Rajasthan-7 is the third in a series of 16 PHWRs which India has said it plans to build. The first two units, Kakarapar-3 and Kakrapar-4 in Gujurat state, western India, began commercial operation in 2023 and 2024.

Site works have begun for the construction of two PHWR units at Gorakhpur in Haryana state. Ten further 700 MW PHWRs have received administrative approval and financial sanction. They are: Kaiga-5 and Kaiga-6 in Karnataka state; Gorakhpur-3 and -4 in Haryana state; Chutka-1 and -2 in Madhya Pradesh state and Mahi Banswara-1, -2, -3 and -4 in Rajasthan.

New Delhi is bullish on nuclear and recently said it aims to have an installed capacity of 100 GW of nuclear power by 2047, a massive increase from the current level of around 6.9 GW and on recent targets of 22.4 GW by 2032.

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, India officially has seven plants under construction with a total net capacity of about 5.3 GW.

It has 20 reactors in commercial operation which provided about 3% of the country’s electricity generation in 2022.

Lithuania has identified 77 potential locations for its planned geological repository for used nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste. A final decision on the facility's location is not expected until 2047.

Lithuania's Development Programme for the Management of Nuclear Facilities and Radioactive Waste 2021-2030, proposes that long-lived radioactive waste in the country will be stored in interim storage facilities until the end of their operational period when there will be final disposal in a geological disposal facility (GDF). The repository - a specially engineered structure several hundred metres underground - is expected to be constructed and commissioned in 2068. Lithuania's radioactive waste and used fuel comes from the Ignalina plant, which stopped operating in 2009, as well as from medicine, industry and research.

Currently, used nuclear fuel and long-lived radioactive waste are stored in temporary above-ground repositories, which are designed to last at least 50 years. At the end of the term of operation of the storage facilities, the finally processed long-lived radioactive waste will have to be transferred to a deep repository.

The initial phase of the project is currently underway - research for the selection of a deep disposal site.

To select a site for a deep repository, all potential areas are evaluated according to the three criteria of general requirements established by the International Atomic Energy Agency: long-term safety; technical suitability and operational safety; socio-economic, political and environmental circumstances.

An original 110 possible locations for the facility were identified. However, after the evaluation of the results of independent studies, it was found that according to the set of unsuitability (rejection) criteria 33 sites should be rejected. It was determined that 31 locations do not meet the criteria for the presence of groundwater, mineral deposits, and helium anomalies that determine GDF stability. Two sites were also rejected based on socio-economic criteria (based on territorial planning and environmental criteria). To date, 77 potential locations have been identified in 29 Lithuanian municipalities.

In March of this year, a public consultation was held in Vilnius, during which the project, the potential locations of the deep landfill and the installation stages were presented to the representatives of the municipalities, and the questions raised by the participants were answered.

"Only after comprehensive and detailed studies, assessing geological, geophysical and seismic data from deep boreholes, and public consultation, is it envisaged that a final site for the deep repository will be selected," said Ignalina NPP, which is responsible for developing the facility.

The research programme for the site selection of the deep landfill is expected to be completed by 2047. It is tentatively planned that the repository will be built in 2058-2067, operated in 2068-2074, and closed in 2075-2079.

The concept for the Lithuanian GDF was developed by Posiva Solutions Oy, a subsidiary of Finnish waste management company Posiva, under a contract signed in early 2022. Posiva is jointly owned by Finnish nuclear power companies and has developed that country's geological disposal facility at Olkiluoto. The repository is expected to begin operations in the mid-2020s, becoming the first of its kind in the world.

A GDF comprises a network of highly-engineered underground vaults and tunnels built to permanently dispose of higher activity radioactive waste so that no harmful levels of radiation ever reach the surface environment. Countries such as Finland, Sweden, France, Canada, the UK and the USA are also pursuing this option.

Two large RBMK reactors at the Ignalina nuclear power plant provided 70% of Lithuania's electricity until their closure in 2004 and 2009 as a condition of the country joining the European Union. The power plant is being decommissioned by Ignalina NPP, which has removed fuel from the reactors and placed it into dry casks for interim storage at the site. The decommissioning process is due to last until 2038.

Days after unit 3 at the Rajasthan nuclear power plant returned to service after the completion of major refurbishment, fuel loading has begun at the first of two Indian-designed and built 700 MW pressurised heavy water reactors under construction at the site in Rawatbhata. Rajasthan unit 7 is expected to begin commercial operation before the end of the year.

Fuel loading began at the Rajasthan Atomic Power Project unit 7 (also known as RAPP-7) on 1 August after permission was granted by India's Atomic Energy Regulatory Board following stringent safety and security reviews, Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) said. A total of 4704 fuel bundles will be loaded in the reactor's 392 coolant channels.

"Initial Fuel Loading will be followed by First Approach to Criticality (start of fission chain reaction) and subsequent start of power generation. The unit is expected to commence commercial operation in the current year," the company said. A second unit under construction at the same site, RAPP-8, is expected to come online next year, it added.

The unit is the third in a series of 16 pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWRs) which India has said it plans to build: the first two units - at Kakrapar, in Gujurat, began commercial operation in 2023 and 2024, respectively. Site works are also under way for the construction of two 700 MW units at Gorakhpur in Haryana, and ten further 700 MW PHWRs have received administrative approval and financial sanction: Kaiga units 5 and 6 in Karnataka; Gorakhpur units 3 and 4 in Haryana; Chutka units 1 and 2 in Madhya Pradesh; and Mahi Banswara units 1 and 2 and units 3 and 4 in Rajasthan.

NPCIL's announcement of the start of fuel loading came the day after Minister of State Jitendra Singh told the Indian parliament, in separate written answers, that India's nuclear share is currently 2.8% and its installed nuclear capacity is expected to expand from its present 8180 MWe to 22480 MW by 2031-2032.

Over the period to 2030, capacity is set to increase to 14,080 MWe, Singh told the Lok Sabha, as units that are already under construction or undergoing commissioning come online. As well as the two Rajasthan units, these include four Russian-designed and supplied VVER-1000 reactors currently under construction at Kudankulam and the 500 MWe Indian-designed Kalpakkam prototype fast breeder, which is preparing for first criticality.

Singh said the government has accorded in-principle approval for thirty further units: six 1650 MWe reactors, in cooperation with France, at Jaitapur in Maharashtra; six 1208 MWe reactors in at Kovvada in Andhra Pradesh and six 1000 MWe reactors at Mithi Virdi in Gujarat, in cooperation with the USA; six 1000 MWe reactors in cooperation with Russia at Haripur in West Bengal; and four 700 MWe indigenous PHWR units at Bhimpur in Madhya Pradesh.

RAPP 3 returns to service

NPCIL announced the return to service of RAPP 3 on 29 July, five days after the 220 MWe PHWR was reconnected to the grid after "major renovation and modernisation" to enable the plant to continue operating for the next 30 years.

The unit had completed over 22 years of operation when it was taken offline for the renovation work in October 2022. The work - which included replacement of coolant channels and feeders, as well as other upgrades - was completed using indigenously developed technologies "in the shortest time among Indian reactors where similar activities were taken up," NPCIL said. The work was completed "within budget" and at a cost "much lower than incurred internationally in PHWRs," it added.