THE WORLD'S NUCLEAR NEWS AGENCY

World Nuclear Review - week ending 13th August 2004

Ruptured Pipe Blamed For Accident At Japan's Mihama N-Plant

Japanese utility Kansai Electric confirmed that a ruptured pipe at its Mihama-3 nuclear reactor unit led to a 9th August leak of high-temperature non-radioactive steam, which killed four contract workers and injured several others.

The Japan Atomic Industrial Forum (JAIF) told NucNet that the rupture was determined by Kansai to be an opening of about 50 centimetres (cm) in one of two carbon steel condensate pipes, each 56cm in diameter and with a pipe wall thickness of about 1cm. The rupture allowed high-temperature secondary coolant to gush out as steam, at a temperature of about 140 degrees Celsius, into the second floor of a three-storey turbine building.

A total of 221 workers were in the building, preparing for the unit's next planned inspection, scheduled for 14th August, when the pipe ruptured.

JAIF said that Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) has directed four electric power companies - that own a combined total of 12 plants of a similar design to Mihama - to report on their own inspections of secondary circuit pipes. Separately, the Fukui prefectural police are investigating whether "professional negligence" may have contributed to the accident.

Mihama-3 is a 780-megawatt Pressurised Water Reactor (PWR), which was first connected to the national grid in 1976.

JAIF said that the deaths were the first to occur as the result of an accident at an operating nuclear power plant in Japan.

Source: Noriyuki Ishii, JAIF / NS net

Full report: NucNet News No. 160, 10th August

Ukraine's Khmelnitsky-2 Connected to Grid

Ukraine's new nuclear power unit, Khmelnitsky-2, was connected to the national grid for the first time at approximately noon on 8th August - during a ceremony attended by the country's president, Leonid Kuchma, and fuel and energy minister Serhiy Tulub.

Khmelnitsky-2 and unit four of the Rovno power plant comprise the K2-R4 project - a pair of VVER 1000-megawatt units intended to replace the generating power lost to Ukraine with the closure of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 2000.

Khmelnitsky-2's grid connection - one week earlier than expected - was preceded by unit power start-up on 5th August and a series of hot tests begun in June. It also followed the signing of loan and guarantee agreements related to post-start-up safety upgrades with Euratom and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

The addition of Khmelnitsky-2 to the national park gives Ukraine 14 operating nuclear reactors - and Mr Kuchma described its completion and start-up for commercial operation as "a great exploit" and "a further stride toward the enhanced energy security of the state and improved export potential."

Source: Ukrainian Nuclear Society

Full report: NucNet News No. 159, 9th August

Industry Welcomes US Fuel-Storage Settlement

The US Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) has described as "hugely significant" a settlement reached on 10th August by Exelon Corporation utility and the US Department of Justice under which the government will reimburse Exelon for costs associated with the storage of used nuclear fuel at the company's nuclear power plants pending the Department of Energy's (DOE) fulfilment of its contractual obligations to accept used nuclear fuel.

NEI executive vice-president Angie Howard said: "The settlement agreement announced (on 10th August) is hugely significant and a direct result of the federal government's failure to meet its statutory and contractual obligations to begin disposing of used nuclear fuel from commercial nuclear power plants. The government's willingness to enter into this settlement is the fair thing to do since it hasn't met its obligation to Exelon and the company's customers."

Exelon said the settlement resolves all pending spent fuel litigation brought against the federal government by Exelon and subsidiaries Exelon Generation Company, Commonwealth Edison Company and AmerGen Energy Company.

Under the agreement, Exelon will receive 80 million US dollars (USD) immediately in gross reimbursements for storage costs already incurred, with additional amounts reimbursed annually for future costs. If a national repository opens by 2010 and DOE begins accepting spent nuclear fuel, the utility said gross reimbursements to Exelon would eventually total approximately USD 300 million. The department was to have begun accepting fuel in 1998.

Chris Crane, Exelon Nuclear's president and chief nuclear officer, said: "We're pleased with the result. It resolves the litigation between the parties, it eliminates a financial uncertainty for both Exelon and DOE and it allows the government to meet its legal obligations to a sixth of the nation's nuclear power plants."

Mr Crane said the settlement could not be considered a substitute for permanent used fuel disposal at Yucca Mountain (see Feature No. 5, 4th August 2004).

Source: Exelon / NEI

Full report: NucNet Business News No. 41, 11th August

Design Contract Awarded For New US Enrichment Plant

Louisiana Energy Services (LES) has chosen Washington Group International to provide final design and engineering services for the planned National Enrichment Facility (NEF) in Lea County, in the US state of New Mexico.

LES, which applied for a construction and operating licence from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on 15th December 2003, expects to start construction in the autumn of 2006. LES spokesman Marshall Cohen told NucNet that the plant will be built in modules over a five to seven year period, but LES expects to start partial production after two years, in late 2008.

Under the terms of the agreement, announced on 3rd August 2004, Washington Group's Power Business Unit will provide civil and mechanical engineering for site preparation, site infrastructure, and basic building structures. The US company will also provide construction planning and project management support during construction. LES estimates the value of the contract will be about 16 million US dollars.

Source: NucNet correspondent Thecla Fabian / LES

Full report: NucNet Business News No. 40, 9th August

New Fuel Cleaning Facility Planned For The UK's Dounreay

The UKAEA is asking for permission to build a facility next to the DFR to clean and package the fuel after it has been removed. If approved, the new facility is expected to take two years to build.

The DFR operated from 1958 until 1977 - and nearly all the fuel was removed from the reactor in the early 1980s, and about one-third of the uranium breeder blanket that surrounded the core was also removed.

Subject to planning and other regulatory consents, the UKAEA aims to have the new facility ready to be commissioned in 2007.

Source: UKAEA

Full report: NucNet News in Brief No. 21, 12th August

Copyright NucNet. This material can be freely used on publicly-accesible electronic information systems provided NucNet is quoted as the source. For full access to NucNet's range of subscription-based services, write to editors@worldnuclear.org or visit our web site www.worldnuclear.org.