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.

     The U.K. government has announced plans to invest about eight hundred million dollars in the U.K.’s nuclear fusion R&D program through 2027. It confirmed that it would not seek associate membership in the E.U.’s Euratom Research and Training program. The U.K. government said that it would put into place new, alternative R&D programs to support the U.K. fusion sector and strengthen international collaboration is support of the existing U.K. Fusion Strategy.
     Further details about the alternative program were promised later in the autumn. The Treasury confirmed that it plans to invest up to eight hundred million in nuclear fusion R&D until 2027, subject to business case approvals. It said that the funding was in addition to the one hundred and fifty-eight million dollars announced last November. It also stressed that the government remains “very open to collaboration with the EU and other international partners, and this will form a key part of this new program of work”.
     Andrew Bowie is the Minister for Nuclear and Networks. He said, “Today’s investment is a game-changer for the U.K. It gives us the best opportunity to create jobs, investment and, ultimately, economic growth. And it gives our talented science community the opportunity to work with experts all around the world. It will also secure the country’s position as a world-leader in fusion, meaning we could become the first to commercialize this exciting new technology as a clean and secure source of energy.”
     The U.K. government said that the new R&D package would include funding for new facilities to grow new fusion fuel cycle capabilities and support innovation; a new fusion skills package; further support to strengthen international collaborative projects; and measures to accelerate the commercialization of fusion R&D projects.
     Sir Ian Chapman is the CEO of the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA). He said, “The UKAEA welcomes the clarity about our future relationship with the Euratom R&T program which provides the certainty needed by the sector. The government’s commitment to an ambitious alternative R&D program will be hugely important in sustaining the UK’s position as a leader in fusion R&D as well as developing an industrial capability to deliver future fusion powerplants. We welcome the ambition to retain, and even enhance, our international collaborative relationships through this substantial package of alternative R&D.”
     Tom Greatrex is the CEO of the Nuclear Industry Association. He said, “UK nuclear scientists are world-class, so it’s very good news that they will be able to access Horizon funds. Our association will boost our collaboration with international partners and drive more value into the UK supply chain. We’re also pleased to see that the government has made a separate commitment to a serious program of investment in our UK fusion industry. We are at the forefront of the global race on fusion, and we have to do everything in power to secure that lead and build up our industrial capability to commercialize this technology. Fusion offers the promise of nearly boundless clean energy, and the first country to deploy it successfully will reap the greatest reward.”
     Advocates of nuclear fusion claim that it could prove transformational for the global transition to zero carbon, supplying huge amounts of zero emission power. However, critics have warned that the technology remains decades from commercialization. They say that it will play a limited role in determining whether or not global climate change goals are met, even under beset case scenarios for the development of the technology.