The World Nuclear Symposium 2023 recently held its closing session. One of the speakers pointed out that the current attitude of many policymakers, much of the public and the financial community is favorable. The speaker said that the nuclear industry “needs to have the courage, be brave and believe in what we are doing.”
     Tim Gitzel is the Cameco CEO and President. He said that the need to attack climate change had provided tailwinds for nuclear power in recent years. Energy security is also driving the positive setting for the nuclear industry. He added that “we have a good product, the window is open and we have to deliver … let’s get going”.
     Rumina Velshi is the President and EDO of the Canadian Nuclear Safety commission. She said that continuing collaboration was critical within the nuclear industry and regulators. She added that scale and speed were needed, to match the sense of urgency people have about needing to tackle climate change.
     Sophie MacFarland-Smith is the Head of Customer Engagement for Rolls-Royce SMR. She said that  “drive, not just for Net Zero, but also energy security is massive.” However, she warned there was still a cautiousness in government and so “we need to do what we say … deliver on our promises, not over-promise”. Government, other stakeholders and the public must be convinced that “nuclear power can be trusted to deliver and nuclear power can make a real contribution to the fight against climate change and energy security”.
     Thomas Branche is the Executive Vice President of Assystem. He said that things had progressed from five years ago when the wish would have been for a clear vision from governments. He added that it was time to be “construction oriented.” He also emphasized that there were different issues and attitudes in different countries. However, it was always important to get support from people living in the locality of proposed sites.
     Erick van Egeraat is an architect. He urged the nuclear power industry to not see itself as a special case. He said that he had worked on many large-scale projects, and it was the nature of such projects that they take a long time to deliver. He also noted that the aesthetics of a nuclear power plant could help public acceptance.
     The session was the final one for the two-day gathering of over seven hundred people from the global nuclear sector. The discussions covered issues ranging from financing new nuclear, to how the industry will be able to security and train enough nuclear staff for the proposed expansion of nuclear energy in the future.
    Sama Bilbao y León is the World Nuclear Association Director General. She closed the World Nuclear Symposium 2023with the statement that “we have the recognition of the policymakers, we have the attention of the finance community – now we are ready to get our act together and deliver … and make the most of the huge opportunity that we have”. She also took a moment to praise Rumina Velshi for her championing of a better gender balance in the nuclear industry.

     Swedish nuclear power is an important part of their fossil-free energy mix. Its importance will increase in line with the increased demand from Swedish industry and society. Electricity demand is expected to double in a couple of decades.
     Vattenfall is a Swedish multinational power company owned by the Swedish state. Beyond Sweden, the company generates power in Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. The company’s name is Swedish for “waterfall”, and is an abbreviation of its original name, Royal Waterfall Board.
     Since the summer of 2022, Vattenfall has been conducting a study to examine the conditions for constructing at least two new small modular reactors (SMR) next to the Ringhals nuclear power plant. Since 2020, Vattenfall has also taken part in a pilot study together with Fermi Energia on building an SMR in Estonia.
     Anna Borg is the CEO of Vattenfall. During this autumn, she and a delegation from Vattenfall will visit a number of selected countries and companies where new nuclear power is under construction. She said, “Vattenfall wants to invest in new nuclear power as well as other fossil-free power types. We are an player with experience, competence and access to places where nuclear power already currently exists. At the same time, no new nuclear power has been built in Sweden for several decades. The purpose of the trip is therefore to deepen the understanding of how new construction of nuclear power can be done quickly and efficiently, lessons learned, pitfalls, background to technology choices and regulatory conditions. We will look at both SMR and large-scale nuclear power.” 
     In addition to Anna Borg, Vattenfall CFO Kerstin Ahlfont, Torbjörn Wahlborg, Vattenfall’s Senior Vice President of Business Area Generation, Andreas Regnell, Vattenfall’s Senior Vice President of Strategic Development, and others will join the tour.
     The delegation from Vattenfall will meet with power companies, technology suppliers and authorities connected to the countries’ respective nuclear power program. The countries on the itinerary are Canada, France and Great Britian. Representatives from companies in the U.S. and South Korea will also be part of the tour.
     Vattenfall’s feasibility study on the new SMR reactors will end later this year. Within the framework of the pilot study, Vattenfall has begun work on creating an environmental impact statement that is required for an application. They have also carried out supplier inquiries. This is necessary in order to obtain a picture of both costs and other conditions that form the basis of a future investment decision.
     Wahlborg said, “Different types of power sources have different prerequisites to be able to be developed. If a business player is to invest in new nuclear power, Sweden needs to stand behind a nuclear power program. There will be costs that need to be shared between the players. You might need to build several rather than an individual reactor as this provides a positive learning curve and increased cost efficiency. Building new nuclear power is also a national priority and therefore it is reasonable to think in terms of a nuclear power program.”

     Orano and Urenco are collaborating in the development of a new cylinder designed for the transport of uranium enriched up to twenty percent. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has just approved the doubling of capacity of Orano’s enriched uranium transport package.
     Orano and Urenco have signed a consortium agreement to work on testing and development of the new 30B-X designed to transport uranium.
     Orano said that the new cylinder is designed for future transport of low enriched uranium plus (LEU+) and high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) fuel transport. Upcoming new fuel designs and the evolution of the small modular reactor (SMR) market require the development of solutions for the transport of uranium enriched up to twenty percent. No such transportation system is currently available on the market.
     The 30B-X cylinder utilizes the innovative DN30-X packaging. This DN30-X packaging combines the properties of the existing DN30-X overpack with the new 30B-X cylinder. The criticality control system (CCS) is inserted to ensure safe transport with control rods with neutrophilic characteristic.
     There are two versions of the 30B-X cylinder for optimized transport capacity depending on the level of uranium enrichment. They have a different number of CCS control rods. One module has a capacity of thirty-two hundred pounds of uranium enriched up to ten percent. The other module has a capacity of twenty-eight hundred pounds of uranium enriched up to twenty percent.
     The DN30-X package was licensed in March of this year by the NRC. The DN30-X is currently being licensed in France and the process is expected to be completed in 2024. The DN30-X will be licensed in other countries as requested.
     Two prototypes of the 30B-X were delivered to two enrichment facilities for testing the integration of the cylinders into their plant processes. One facility is at a Urenco enrichment site and the other is at Orano’s Tricastin site in France.
     Orano’s new high-capacity basket (HCB) for its Versa-Pac VP-55 enriched uranium transport package has been approved by the NRC. The HCB allows two five-inch diameter pipe containers to be secured inside of only one. At the maximum length of twenty one inches, each pipe can be filled to capacity or contain two standard quart shipping bottles of material.
     Orano said that its VP-55 Type AF package was specifically designed and licensed to meet the increasing need for transporting ten percent LEU+ and up to twenty percent HALEU material for fueling an increasing number of advance reactor designs.
     Amir Vexler is the CEO of Orano USA. He said, “Based on our decades of nuclear fuel cycle expertise, Orano is increasingly involved in helping develop the advanced reactor supply chain with innovations and enhancements to our products and services. Doubling the capacity of our versatile VP-55 package creates immediate value for customers shipping a variety of nuclear materials. We are excited to support the development of advanced reactors, which this package would enable.”
     The Versa-Pak is licensed for shipment of tristructural isotropic (TRISO) fuel, uranium oxide, uranium metal, uranyl crystals and other uranium compounds including uranium carbides, uranyl fluorides, and uranyl carbonates, uranium hexafluorides and thorium.