Decommissioning

Companies, organizations and projects included in this round-up include: Westinghouse, Cabrera Nuclear Power Station, Enresa, Monlain, Gas Natural Fenosa, South African Wind Energy Association, Eskom, Xstrata, Anglo American, Exxaro, Sasol, BHP Billiton, KPMG, RE Power, Korean Atomic Energy Research Institute, Daewoo Engineering and Construction Co., Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, Yucca Mountain, and US Department of Energy

Weekly Intelligence Brief 27 July - 2 August

Westinghouse Wins Contract to Dismantle Reactor Vessel Internals at the Jose Cabrera Nuclear Power Station in Spain

Westinghouse Electric Company has been awarded a contract by Enresa (Empresa Nacional de Residuos Radiactivos) to dismantle the reactor vessel (RV) internals at the Jose Cabrera Nuclear Power Station (also known as Zorita), located in Almonacid de Zorita, 43 miles east of Madrid, Spain.

The contract covers dismantling and segmentation of the reactor vessel internals, including the up-front engineering studies.

It also includes plant modifications, equipment supply, and loading of primary and secondary waste, respectively, into multipurpose canisters for the activated material, and into dedicated containers for low- and intermediate-level waste.

Westinghouse will be the lead contractor, and MONLAIN will be its main subcontractor.

The project began in June 2010 and is expected to take 31 months to complete.

Zorita, a 142 MWe Westinghouse pressurized water reactor (PWR) operated by Gas Natural Fenosa, was closed by ministerial order in April 2006, after 38 years in operation.

In February 2010 Gas Natural Fenosa transferred the plant's ownership to Enresa, the Spanish agency responsible for radioactive waste management and nuclear plant decommissioning. Zorita will become the second commercial nuclear reactor (after Vandellos Unit 1) to be dismantled in Spain.

"Westinghouse is proud to have been selected by Enresa to dismantle the reactor vessel internals of the first PWR built in Spain," said Jose Emeterio Gutierrez, Westinghouse managing director, Southern Europe.

"We have global decommissioning and dismantling experience and expertise, and local experts who are eager to carry out this project in a manner that exceeds our customer's expectations."

In March 2010, Westinghouse announced that it had been awarded a contract by EDF-CIDEN (Engineering Center for Dismantling and the Environment) to provide reactor vessel (RV) dismantling services for the Chooz A nuclear reactor, the first pressurized water reactor (PWR) in France to be fully dismantled.  

The company also has retired reactor internals segmentation projects under way at Forsmark Nuclear Power Plant in Sweden and at Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant in Finland.

Image: Jose Cabrera Nuclear Power Station in Spain

Energy power battle begins in South Africa

A heated argument over South Africa's energy mix and potentially harmful conflicts of interests has emerged according to local reports.

The debate, hosted by the South African Wind Energy Association, (SAWEA), featured various members of the energy, finance and environmental sectors.

Adele Greyling, Eskom's renewable power programme manager, is confident the mix could include 25% renewable sources by 2030.

"We hope that when the integrated resource plan is finalised it addresses security of supply concerns, but still provides diversification.

“Medupi might be the last coal power station," she said.

South Africa is setting a high bar to reduce emissions by 34% by 2020 and 42% by 2025.

But with growing demand for power and shrinking reserve capacity this may be ambitious, some observers noted.

South Africa, with installed capacity of around 40000MW, produces 90% of its electricity from coal according to the latest reported estimates.

Most of the remainder is from the Koeberg nuclear reactor in Cape Town and various hydroelectric and pumped storage schemes with less than 1% of energy comes from renewable sources.

SAWEA chairperson Mark Tanton said it was possible for renewable energy to comprise 25% of the country's electricity mix.

"We say there is already 6000MW of installed (wind) capacity ready to be commissioned right now, but we'd like to see sanity prevail when looking at the true costs of the various technologies," he said.

According to news reports, Chris Yelland, publisher of EE Publishers, said the fact that the IRP task team comprised moneyed industry players such as Eskom, Xstrata, Anglo American, Exxaro, Sasol and BHP Billiton was a cause for concern.

He said the absence of consumer groups and a wider industry spectrum would skew the IRP process in favour of certain agendas to the detriment of the rest of society.

UK Energy Secretary favours subsidy for wind over nuclear

Energy Secretary Chris Huhne has shown some favouritism towards offshore and onshore wind power, reiterating that the UK is not prepared to subsidize  nuclear new builds.  

Huhne said in an interview with Sky News that wind energy deserves government aid because the industry is in its infancy, while nuclear power has been well established over decades.

He cited the Dogger Bank in the north east of England, off the North Sea, an area for development for offshore wind turbines.

“There are two different types of subsidy; one is that we have an overall framework to make sure that we get low-carbon electricity and that we become more energy self-sufficient -- that will be available to everybody” Huhne told Sky News.

Huhne said the government will “encourage” wind technology at the beginning and when it is cost-competitive, it can “fly on its own.”

A clash between nuclear energy’s state of play for a new generation of reactors in the  UK is expected to continue as senior members of the Conservative party are very much pro-nuclear power.

Liberal Democrat lawmakers are allowed to abstain in any vote on nuclear power which reflects the party’s long-held opposition to it, according to a Sunday Telegraph report.

A new study argues that nuclear energy is key to the British government's CO2 reduction goals. But without major reforms to encourage private investment, plans to construct new atomic power plants could grind to a halt. 

Government reform required to keep British nuclear energy alive says report

According to a recent KPMG study, the British government will have to reform the country's electricity market and make investment in nuclear power attractive if the plans are going to become reality.  

The report, which highlighted the nuclear industry's ability to secure private investments, was commissioned by RWE power, which is partnering with E.ON to build new nuclear power stations in the UK. 

The study argued that nuclear energy should be placed on a level playing field with low-emissions, renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar power, and play a key role in the British government's climate goals.

Jordan and South Korea co-sign $70m reactor loan

Jordan and South Korea have signed a $70m loan agreement to finance the kingdom's first nuclear research reactor, according to a Bloomberg report.

The state-run Korean Atomic Energy Research Institute and Daewoo Engineering and Construction Co. are expected to start building a 5-megawatt reactor Nov. 1 at the Jordan University for Science and Technology near the northern city of Irbid.

A planning ministry statement said Monday the reactor will be fully commissioned within five years and a nuclear power plant will be built by 2017.

The report said that while Jordan is developing a peaceful nuclear program with U.S. support, the U.S. has reservations over Jordan's desire to enrich its large reserves of uranium.

Jordan says alternative energy sources are much needed to generate electricity and desalinate water.

Philippino administration shelves Bataan plant rehabilitation

The Aquino administration has permanently shelved plans to rehabilitate and operate the mothballed 620-megawatt Bataan Nuclear Power Plant, given the social complexity and safety concerns hounding it, said a Philippine Daily Inquirer report.

“BNPP is not an option anymore,” said Energy Secretary Jose Rene D. Almendras at a news briefing.

Almendras said, however, that nuclear energy remains an option in the Energy Reform Agenda that the department is now drafting.

“We are in the process of studying it.

“We are not closed to it and we are evaluating it,” he said, adding:

"We have been told that there have been significant technological advancements relative to safety.

“They are now talking about 50-megawatt nuclear power plants being equally economically viable as the really large ones.”

Aside from energy security, the energy chief added that one of the factors driving the government to consider nuclear power is the fact that it can help bring down energy prices in the Philippines in the long-run, when oil prices are expected to have grown much more.

“Our role is to determine whether the technology has achieved the level of safety, a degree of competence which gives us comfort in saying, yes, it is now an acceptable technology.

But he raised the concern that the country currently does not have enough Filipino engineers to operate some of these facilities.

And that's what we need to talk about. If we do not have, then probably we should start developing such expertise because things like these do not happen overnight. It takes a few years to form a group,” Almendras said.

He noted that should the government decide to push through with nuclear power projects in the country, the state-run National Power Corp. will not be the appropriate agency to carry it out.

Yucca final shut down imminent

The U.S. Department of Energy is moving quickly with no master plan to shut down a project that would have buried the nation's nuclear waste in Nevada, the department's inspector general said in a report recently made public.

Department officials have used focus groups and set a Sept. 30 deadline to end the 28-year-long Yucca Mountain project, according to a memorandum dated Wednesday from DOE Inspector General Gregory Friedman.

Friedman's findings were reported by Stephens Media's Washington bureau and the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

His report compares closing the $10.5bn Yucca Mountain project 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas to decommissioning the Superconducting Super Collider in Texas after Congress killed it in 1993.

"We know of no other comparable single project termination in the department's recent history as consequential as Yucca Mountain," said the report, titled, "Need for Enhanced Surveillance During the Yucca Mountain Project Shut Down."

"A planning framework would have increased the likelihood of overall success of the effort," the report says.

However, it does not specify consequences of not having a master plan.

It promises a separate report on contractor costs, including $100m claimed by former project management and operating contractor Bechtel SAIC during the last decade, and $75m in subcontract costs from fiscal years 2004-2009.

A letter tallied more than $2m in equipment, desks, cubicles, printers and supplies moved from offices at the Yucca Mountain site and Las Vegas to the Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington state.