THE WORLD'S NUCLEAR NEWS AGENCY

World Nuclear Review - week ending 3rd December 2004

EC Opens Investigation Into New UK Decommissioning Authority

The European Commission (EC) has opened a formal investigation into whether the establishment of the UK Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) complies with EC Treaty rules requiring that state aid should not distort or threaten to distort competition.

Plans for the NDA were announced by the UK government in April 2003 and it is due to be established on 1st April 2005 as a public body in charge of the clean-up of the nuclear legacy created by the early years of the country's civil nuclear programme.

Some assets belonging to British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) will be transferred to the NDA, which will take financial responsibility for them. The NDA will also take financial responsibility for liabilities at sites belonging to the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) and be responsible for managing the decommissioning of these assets.

Announcing the investigation on 1st December 2004, the EC claimed in a statement that this transfer would relieve BNFL from nuclear liabilities that it should normally have met under the "polluter pays" principle. This advantage, provided by the UK government, may constitute state aid, said the statement.

The EC statement said: "In view of the complexity and the novelty of the case, as well as the importance of the sums involved, the commission decided that an in-depth enquiry would be necessary."

BNFL told NucNet: "We will fully support the UK government during the investigation and continue to move forward as planned towards the launch of the NDA.

"The UK government, which is preparing interim arrangements with BNFL, believes that such arrangements will not give rise to state aid issues, so that the NDA can start work on 1st April 2005 as planned."

Source: EC / BNFL

Full report: NucNet News No. 213, 2nd December 2004

Russia's Kalinin-3 Reaches Criticality

Unit three of Russia's Kalinin nuclear power plant reached criticality on 26th November 2004 and began operating at minimal controlled power.

Further tests and analyses within the unit's commissioning schedule are now being performed, marking the conclusion of the current phase of Kalinin-3's physical start-up. Power start-up will follow.

Physical start-up began on 2nd October 2004 when the first fuel assemblies were loaded into the core of Kalinin-3 - a VVER-1000 reactor unit with a net electrical capacity of 950 megawatts (see News in Brief No. 36, 5th October 2004).

Kalinin-3 is the second power unit that Russia has launched this century, with Volgodonsk-1 having provided its first power to the grid in 2001.

Source: Rosenergoatom / Nuclear Society of Russia

Full report: NucNet News in Brief No. 61, 30th November

Russia May Soon Begin Nuclear Projects In Egypt

Russia may soon begin construction of a nuclear power plant and a desalination facility for potable water production in Egypt, the Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency (Rosatom) has announced.

The announcement was made following a visit by Russian prime minister Mikhail Fradkov and the signing in Cairo on 29th November 2004 of an intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in the peaceful use of nuclear energy.

The agreement provides for the development of scientific, technical and economic cooperation in nuclear energy between Russia and Egypt in accordance with the requirements and priorities set out in both countries' national nuclear programmes.

A Rosatom spokesman said that since 2000, Cairo has shown interest in building, with Russian assistance, nuclear power plants and a desalination facility with a small nuclear reactor in the southwest of the country.

The spokesman stressed that the new Russian-Egyptian cooperation agreement "doesn't start from absolute zero" - referring to a research reactor operated by Egypt, which was built with cooperation from the Soviet Union and launched in 1961.

Meanwhile, the Russian government has also approved a draft agreement signed between Russia, Poland and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for Russia to help Poland obtain nuclear fuel for its Maria research reactor, operated by the Polish Institute of Atomic Energy in the town of Swierk, near Warsaw.

Source: Nuclear Society of Russia

Full report: NucNet News in Brief No. 62, 1st December

Bulk Vitrification Would Allow DOE To Meet Hanford Tank Deadlines

A new vitrification technology could be the key to keeping down costs while meeting tight deadlines for cleaning radioactive waste from past nuclear weapons production out of underground tanks at the US Department of Energy's (DOE) Hanford Site in Washington state.

By early December 2004, DOE hopes to have a state permit allowing it to begin building a full-scale demonstration plant of bulk vitrification, a supplemental treatment technology that the DOE believes will reduce the cost of tank waste clean-up at Hanford by 35% and allow DOE to meet the 2028 tank clean-up deadline in its Tri-Party Agreement with the state of Washington and the US Environmental Protection Agency.

DOE already has started construction of a 5.8 billion US dollar (USD) waste treatment plant (WTP) that will be used to treat and vitrify all the high-level waste and some low-level waste from Hanford's 177 underground tanks.

However, Rick Raymond - director of supplemental treatment for CH2M Hill, DOE's tank waste treatment contractor - told NucNet the WTP was never intended to have sufficient capacity to treat all of the low-activity waste in Hanford's tanks in time to meet the 2028 deadline.

Thus DOE and CH2M Hill had to develop and test supplemental technologies to treat lower-activity waste in excess of WTP's capacity. Initially, DOE and CH2M Hill examined 22 categories of technologies for supplemental waste treatment. The department did laboratory-scale tests on three, and decided to proceed to pilot-scale testing on one - bulk vitrification.

In bulk vitrification, liquid waste is mixed with soil in a disposable smelter. Then electrodes are inserted to vitrify the waste-soil mixture. When cooled, the smelter, its contents and the embedded electrodes can be buried as low-level radioactive or low-level mixed waste.

Source: NucNet US correspondent Thecla Fabian / Various

Full report: Nuclear Waste Review No. 6, November-December 2004

'Shortage Of Funds' Threatens Future Of Russia's Kursk-5

Unit 5 of the Kursk nuclear power plant in southwestern Russia, currently 70% complete, is seriously short of funding, which is delaying its commissioning, according to the Kursk Regional Authority.

Construction on Kursk-5 began in 1986 with its commissioning initially planned for 2000, but this was postponed until 2004. However, the revised 2004 target will not be met and no certain date for completion has been given.

Federal funding is essential for Kursk-5 because the total needed to complete construction is three times more than the regional annual consolidated budget. The Federal Energy Commission of Russia initially approved 5 billion roubles (RUR) (about 17 million US dollars), but Russia's Federal Atomic Energy Agency (Rosatom) subsequently cut this to RUR 1.3 billion. The actual funding allocated during the first nine months of this year amounted to RUR 760 million, said the regional governor's office.

Kursk nuclear power plant, which accounts for 18% of the region's electricity production and contributes 16% of the region's tax revenue, is seen as vital to the area's economy. More than 75% of electricity it produces goes to neighbouring regions and to Ukraine, and the plant meets 50% of the electricity needs of Russia's central area.

To date more than RUR 85 billion has been spent on building Kursk-5. However, RBMKs - a class of reactor built only in the former Soviet Union - are no longer viewed as a budgetary priority. Eleven are still operating in Russia, including those at Kursk.

According to Yuri Cherkashov, chief designer of channel-type power installations at the Moscow-based Research and Development Institute of Power Engineering (NIKIET), support for channel-type reactors, including the RBMK, ended some time ago.

Priority has instead been given to VVER light water reactors, which are being built in Russia, Iran, China and India.

Source: NucNet correspondent Judith Perera / Kursk Regional Authority / NIKIET

Full report: NucNet News No. 212, 2nd December

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