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14 February 2013
Crystal River Reactor Shut Down for Good
Nuclear operator Progress Energy, now owned by Duke Energy, has decided not to complete repair and uprating of its 36-year old Crystal River reactor that has been offline since late 2009. The 825
MW
Pressurized Water Reactor (
PWR
) in Florida,
US
, had been shut down for regular refueling, maintenance and steam generator replacement when significant deterioration (delamination or crack) in the concrete containment was identified. Repair was evaluated as a possible option but by 2012 it was (…)
11 February 2013
Nth Delay Announced for Olkiluoto 3 in Finland
On 11 February 2013, the Finnish nuclear operator Teollisuuden Voima (
TVO
) announced that the European Pressurised Water Reactor (
EPR
) at Olkiluoto would not be connected to the grid until 2016, seven years after its originally planned start-up date of 2009.
TVO
were quick to blame the constructors,
AREVA
, saying that they had not received adequate scheduling information and that the design of the instrument and control equipment had not proceeded as planned.
AREVA
responded by claiming that (…)
3 February 2013
Uncertain Future for Nuclear New‑build in Bulgaria
The future of the Belene nuclear power plant in Bulgaria remains unclear following a national referendum on the 27 January 2013. The power plant has had a long history of starts and stops since construction first begun in 1987. The most recent halt was in March 2012, when the Prime Minister Boiko Borisov, stated: “We just can’t afford to pay the total cost of the project, which will reach some 10 billion euros. And there is no way we can make future generations pay”. After 25 years in the (…)
1 February 2013
Slovak Government Announces Two‑Year Delay on Mochovce Project
The Slovak Economy Minister Tomas Malatinsky was quoted by local media as saying that the third and fourth units at the Mochovce nuclear power plant would instead of being completed later this year are now expected to be finished in 2015. In addition, the estimated cost of completion is thought to have risen again, this time from €2.8 to €3.7 billion. Construction started at the Mochovce units in 1987 and was halted following the political changes in the region. In October 2004, the Slovak (…)
1 February 2013
Update1: New Blows for
UK
Nuclear Sector
Update 1, 4 February 2013 On 4 February 2013,
UK
energy company Centrica announced that it would withdraw from any new-build project in the country. In 2009, Centrica took an option for a 20% interest in the construction of new nuclear reactors at Hinkley Point and Sizewell, as well as a 20% share in
EDF
Energy’s eight operating nuclear units in the
UK
. Centrica’s
CEO
Sam Laidlaw complained that “since our initial investment, the anticipated project costs in new nuclear have increased and (…)
20 January 2013
IAEA
‑Japan Reactor Status Incident: “Clerical Error” Explanation Not Credible
The reactor-by-reactor assessment of the status of the Japanese nuclear power plants (see Table-1) shows that the recent—subsequently revoked—re-categorization by the Japan Nuclear Energy Safety Organization (
JNES
) of 47 units from “In operation” to “Long-term Shutdown” (
LTS
) status of the International Atomic Energy Agency (
IAEA
) was perfectly coherent (see Historic Move:
IAEA
Shifts 47 Japanese Reactors Into “Long-Term Shutdown” Category). The explanation given by the
IAEA
that the (…)
19 January 2013
UPDATE1
:
IAEA
Reactor Status Modification Reversed on Japanese Government Request
The Japanese government has requested the reversal of the reactor status of 47 Japanese reactors from the International Atomic Energy Agency’s “Long-term Shutdown” (
LTS
) category to “In operation”. On 16 January 2013, the same 47 units were reclassified as in
LTS
(see Historic Move:
IAEA
Shifts 47 Japanese Reactors Into “Long-Term Shutdown” Category). However, the operation was reversed on 18 January and commented on by the
IAEA
in a press release on 19 January 2013. An
IAEA
representative (…)
16 January 2013
Historic Move:
IAEA
Shifts 47 Japanese Reactors Into “Long‑Term Shutdown” Category
In an unprecedented move, the International Atomic Energy Agency (
IAEA
) has shifted 47 Japanese nuclear reactors from the category “In Operation” to the category “Long-term Shutdown” (
LTS
) in its web-based Power Reactor Information System (
PRIS
). The number of nuclear reactors listed as “In Operation” in the world thus drops from 437 yesterday to 390 today, a level last seen in Chernobyl-year 1986 and a dramatic step of the
IAEA
’s official statistics in recognizing industrial reality in (…)
1 January 2013
World Nuclear Industry Status on 1 January 2013
The preliminary analysis of major changes in world nuclear statistics during the year 2012 shows that three new units were connected to the grid, two in South Korea in January (Shin-Kori-2, Shin-Wolsong-1) and one in China in December (Ningde-1), while four units were shut down permanently, two in the
UK
(Oldbury-A1, Wylfa-2), and one each in Spain (Santa Maria de Garoña) and Canada (Gentilly-2). Two Canadian reactors that were in the International Atomic Energy Agency’s category “long (…)
29 December 2012
Quebec’s Gentilly‑2 Reactor Shut Down Permanently
On 28 December 2012, Gentilly-2, the only nuclear plant in the Canadian province of Quebec, was taken off the grid. The step had been announced by the new provincial government immediately after the elections in September 2012 (see Canada: Quebec’s Only Reactor to Close). The 29-year old 635
MW
heavy water reactor showed a mediocre performance over the passed four years with an average load factor of 64 percent and was slated for major upgrading. After a previous refurbishment at the Point (…)
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