THE WORLD'S NUCLEAR NEWS AGENCY

World Nuclear Review - week ending 26th March 2004

Taiwan N-Plants To Host New Temporary Waste Storage Facilities

Taiwanese national utility Taipower is building temporary storage facilities for low-level radioactive waste (LLRW) at two nuclear power plants - and both facilities are scheduled to be in operation by the end of next year.

Details of the project were outlined this week by the deputy minister of Taiwan's Atomic Energy Council (AEC), Syh-Tsong Chiou, in an interview with NucNet.

Mr Chiou said the new temporary storage was designed to stop further transports to the temporary low-level radwaste storage facility at Taiwan's Orchid Island. The move follows a 2002 government agreement to help draw up a timetable for the eventual relocation of the storage facility away from Orchid Island. Taipower's plan for the disposal of low-level waste was approved by the AEC in January of this year, and work is now under way to identify alternative sites to Orchid Island.

Meanwhile, Mr Chiou said that a separate waste-solidification plant under construction at the Kuosheng nuclear plant is now 40% complete. The plant is expected to be commissioned at the end of this year, and it is estimated that solidified waste will be reduced three-fold from the current 301 drums per reactor unit per year (the average figure over the past three years) to 100 drums per unit per year.

Source: AEC

Full report: NucNet News No. 71, 24th March

India's Rajasthan-1 Returns To Grid As PFBR Breeder Project Continues

Rajasthan-1 nuclear reactor was recommissioned and synchronised to the grid last month, following a shutdown of almost two years to perform technical and safety upgrades, Indian officials have said.

In April 2002, Rajasthan-1 was shut down on a directive of the Indian Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB). Extensive life-management activities were carried out to assure proper functioning of the coolant channels in particular. A number of upgrades were implemented, including the installation of a retrofitted high-pressure Emergency Core Cooling System (ECCS), supplementary control room, flood DG set, and power and control cable segregation.

Meanwhile, work continues at Kalpakkam, in the southern state of Tamil Nadu - site of the country's Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) project.

While the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) began excavation work on the site in the summer of 2002, the Indian government gave official authorisation to proceed with construction of the 35-billion rupee (627-million euro) 500-megawatt (MW) PFBR just last year. A company, Bhartiya Nabhikiya Vidyut Nigam Ltd (BHAVINI), was created to carry out the project - along with the utility Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) and the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), which is based in Kalpakkam and which already operates its own Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR).

Indian nuclear officials have said the PFBR will act as a springboard for the use of India-s considerable reserves of thorium as a new commercial nuclear fuel cycle. They are aiming to have the Kalpakkam ready for commercial operation by 2011.

Source: Bhabha Atomic Research Centre / IGCAR

Full report: NucNet News No. 66, 19th March

Japan's Fukui Prefecture Approves MOX Procurement For Takahama

Issei Nishikawa, governor of the Japanese prefecture of Fukui, approved 20th March plans by Kansai Electric Power Company to sign a contract for the manufacture of mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel - to be used at the utility's Takahama nuclear power station.

Governor Nishikawa had made his intentions known at an earlier press conference, held 15th March, when he said he would invite Kansai Electric president Yosaku Fuji to hear the prefecture's decision "sometime this week."

Now that the utility has won civic approval, a condition for MOX use, it will finalise its selection of a company to manufacture and supply the fuel - for use in the Takahama units 3 and 4 830-megawatt (MW) pressurised water reactors (PWRs). Kansai intends to conclude an agreement soon - and if all goes according to plan, the use of MOX fuel at Takahama would represent the first commercial use of MOX in Japan.

Source: Japan Atomic Industry Forum (JAIF)

Full report: NucNet News No. 69, 22nd March

UK Liquid-Metal Destruction Plant Begins 'Milestone' Full Operation

The UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) has announced the start of full operations at the Dounreay site in Scotland of what it describes as "the largest plant in the world for the destruction of liquid metal".

The plant, which cost approximately 17 million British pounds to construct, converts sodium from the decommissioning of the coolant circuits of the Prototype Fast Reactor (PFR) at Dounreay to salt water that can be discharged safely to sea.

The UKAEA said that following the success of the plant's active commissioning phase, during which it destroyed 280 tonnes of sodium, consent has now been obtained from the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate of the UK's Health and Safety Executive to begin destroying the remainder of the 1500 tonnes of liquid metal at the reactor.

The UKAEA said that a number of other countries that had also experimented with liquid-metal coolant systems - including the US, France, Russia, Kazakhstan and Japan - were "closely monitoring" the success of the Dounreay decommissioning programme.

Source: UKAEA

Full report: NucNet News No. 68, 22nd March

Seoul Looks To New Nuclear Energy Solutions

South Korea has announced plans to develop a hydrogen-powered energy supply - "from advanced nuclear reactors" - to help reduce the nation's dependence on fossil fuels for transportation needs by up to 20%.

The country's Ministry of Science and Technology said it plans to spend the equivalent of approximately 843 million US dollars on creating a hydrogen-powered energy supply from nuclear by 2019.

South Korea now has 19 operational reactor units, following the grid connection of Ulchin-5 - a 960-megawatt (MW) pressurised water reactor (PWR) - on 18th December 2003 Ulchin-6, also a 960-MW PWR, is scheduled to be connected to the grid toward the end of this year.

Source: Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute / South Korean government

Full report: NucNet News No. 67, 22nd March

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