California local gov’t bullish on desalinization water from Diable Canyon nuclear plant

(San Luis Obispo Tribune) Citing the need for more drought resiliency, the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors is enthusiastically backing a proposal to expand Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant’s desalination plant to supply as much as 1,300 acre-feet of water a year to South County residents. That would be enough water to supply 4,000 homes.

Supervisors voted unanimously to spend $900,000 to do the planning and permitting for the project, which calls for 7 miles of pipe to be laid connecting the plant’s reverse osmosis system to the Lopez Lake pipeline in Avila Beach.

The project is expected to take at least two years to complete and could cost as much as $36 million. The water would be used in the Five Cities and Avila Beach areas. The cost of building and operating the pipeline would be paid by the customers who use the water.

Diablo Canyon is licensed to produce as much as 1.5 million gallons of water a day but only produces about 40 percent of that, or about 600,000 gallons. An acre-foot of water is 325,853 gallons

PG&E, which owns Diablo Canyon Power Plant, built the desalination plant to process seawater that serves as the plant’s sole source of water. The company supports the proposal to sell its excess water to South County service providers.

Turkey To Open Bidding For Third Nuclear Station Next Year

(NucNet): Turkey will begin the bidding process to build the country’s third nuclear power station next year, with Chinese companies likely to “aggressively” pursue the contract, worth $22bn to $25bn (€19bn to €22bn), an official was quoted by the China Daily as saying.

China Daily said Murat Mercan, a former deputy energy minister of Turkey, said the site for the project has been chosen. However, media reports did not include the location. It has long been thought Turkey’s third nuclear power station will be located on the western coastline of the Black Sea and that its market will include export of electricity to Bulgaria.

The plan is to build four nuclear reactors with a total installed capacity of around 5,000 MW. China’s State Nuclear Power Technology Corporation and US-based Westinghouse Electric Corporation are potential bidders, said Mr Mercan, who is chairman of the World Energy Council’s Turkish National Committee.

Turkey has two nuclear stations in development – Akkuyu in cooperation with Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom and Sinop with an Areva-Mitsubishi Heavy Industries joint venture.

Jordan Expects First Reactor To Begin Commercial Operation In 2025

(WNN) The head of Jordan Nuclear Power Company, Ahmad Hisayat, said that the country’s first nuclear power plant is expected to be operational during 2024-2025. According to Jordan’s official news agency Petra, Hisayat said in a press statement that the company and the Jordan Atomic Energy Commission are cooperating with a “consultative company” to prepare site and environmental impact studies for the construction of two reactors, which are expected to be built in the Qusayr Amra region east of Amman. Russia’s Rosatom is to build the plant under an intergovernmental agreement signed last year.

Studies are also under way to determine the best means of financing the first reactor project, which will cost around $10bn (€8.8bn). In September 2014, Russia’s state nuclear corporation Rosatom signed a pre-investment contract for the construction in Jordan of two VVER-1000 units with an electrical power output of 1,000 megawatts each.

Russia’s BN-800 Fast Neutron Reactor To Run On 100% MOX Fuel By 2019

(NucNet): Russia’s Beloyarsk-4 sodium-cooled fast neutron reactor of the BN-800 design is scheduled to run on mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel by 2019, Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom said. The reactor is currently burning a hybrid mix consisting of fuel based on uranium oxide and about 20 percent MOX, a statement said.

Rosatom said operation with MOX fuel assemblies has already been tested at the commercially operational Beloyarsk-3 BN-600 fast neutron reactor, a smaller version of the BN-800. Beloyarsk-4 was connected to the grid in December 2015 and the unit is scheduled to begin commercial operation by the end of 2016.

Safety checks for Tepco’s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant to be extended

(Japan Times) Safety screenings for the No. 6 and No. 7 reactors at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant are set to be prolonged further.

It is nearly two years and six months since Tepco applied for safety checks for the reactors in Niigata Prefecture. Under new regulations put in place after the Fukushima nuclear disaster of 2011, a reactor must pass screenings by the Nuclear Regulation Authority before going back online.

The NRA’s secretariat reported at a regular NRA meeting that Tepco is not yet ready to undergo an examination of the company’s new method for assessing the degree of quake-resistance at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa reactors. Preparations for the examination, including completing documents, can take as long as six months.

The reactors at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa plant are boiling water reactors (BWR), the same type as those at Tepco’s disaster-stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.

The secretariat also said documents are largely ready for screening items other than those relating to quake-resistance and that these could serve as models for other boiling water reactors.

India, France sign MoU for construction of six nuclear reactors at Jaitapur

(Economic Times) India and France have signed an MoU for the construction of six nuclear reactors at Jaitapur in Maharashtra, two months after the two countries decided to conclude the techno-commercial negotiations for the project by the year end.

The EDF visit was a follow-up on the State Visit of French President Francois Hollande to India in January, during which France and India agreed to complete a roadmap for commercial negotiations for the Jaitapur project.

Asserting that both industrial parties were working on the “Make in India” aspect of the Jaitapur project, they said “this will be carried out through industrial partnerships, and joint ventures between Indo-French manufacturers for cost- effective and time-bound localisation in India.”

In this regard, it will also include the transfer of rights on technology to be mutually agreed on by the parties.

EDF is now leading the negotiations for the French side, with the support of AREVA NP, for the Jaitapur nuclear park and supply of all equipment under EDF’s scope.

The Jaitapur nuclear power project, proposing a nuclear power plant of 9900 MW, consists of 6 European Pressurised Reactors (EPR) of 1650 MW each.

Vietnam sets new schedule for nuclear energy plans

(WNN) Vietnam’s first nuclear power plant will start operation by 2028 according to a revised plan on the country’s electricity development during the 2011-2020 period, China’s Xinhua news agency reported. Under the amended plan – approved recently by prime minister Nguyen Tan Dung – nuclear generating capacity in Vietnam will reach 4600 MWe by 2030 accounting for 5.7% of the country’s total electricity production.

The start of construction of the first two of four planned Rosatom VVER light water reactors has been repeatedly postponed as Vietnam ramps up its nuclear safety agency and develops a workforce to build and operate the reactors.

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