The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) is a project to construct a prototype of a fusion reactor. Thirty-five different countries are collaborating to build ITER. The European Union (plus Switzerland and the U.K.) are contributing almost half of the cost of its construction. Six other members of the collaboration are contributing equally to the rest of the cost. Construction began in 2010 and continues in Cadarache, southern France. There have been delays caused by technical problems. Many of the members are constructing components for the ITER and there have been problems integrating these diverse components into the ITER.
     ITER is a major international project to construct a tokamak fusion device designed to prove the feasibility of fusion as a large-scale and carbon-free source of energy. The goal of ITER is to operate at five hundred megawatts for at least four hundred continuous seconds with fifty megawatts of plasma heating power input. It appears that an additional three hundred megawatts of electricity input may be required when the ITER is in operation. No electricity will be generated at ITER.
     The St Petersburg-based JSC NIIEFA is part of the Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom. It has started acceptance tests of a full-scale prototype of the first wall panel for the ITER project.
     The first stage of the acceptance testing was the measurement of the geometric parameters of the prototype. These tests are carried out using an optical scanning machine. The purpose of these measurements is to check the compliance of the product with the drawings. They will also build a 3-D model with real dimensions based on the data collected.
     At the headquarters of the ITER Organization, the 3-D model will be integrated into the overall virtual assembly of the reactor to check compatibility with other components. The prototype of the first wall panel will undergo static and dynamic hydraulic tests. There will be a hot helium leak test by the end of this year. Based on the results of the acceptance tests, the ITER Organization will decide on the transition to serial production of the first batch of wall panels.
     According to Rosatom, the panels of the first wall of the reactor are “one of the most important and technically complex components” of ITER. Along with the diverter, the wall panels are in direct contact with the hot plasma. Each panel consists of forty “fingers”. Each finger is a complex multi-layer construction of sixteen-millimeter by sixteen-millimeter beryllium cubes soldered onto copper-chromium-zirconium alloy. The alloy is bonded to the steel base by diffusion welding. Each panel measures about two meters by one and a half meters by one half meter. They weigh about eighteen hundred pounds. The panels have different shapes. The scientists of JSC NIIEFA have developed forty versions of their design.
     In the ITER project, Russia’s responsibilities include the construction of one hundred seventy-nine of most energy intensive panels which will be subjected to up to five megawatts per square meter in the first wall. This section is forty percent of the total area of the reactor wall.

     Australian company Silex Systems Ltd. has been developing full-scale laser system modules for deployment in Global Lasers Enrichment (GLE) commercial demonstration facility in the U.S. Testing has been completed on the second module.
     Silex mentioned that the second module was constructed and tested at its laser technology development center in Lucan Heights, near Sydney in less than twelve months. This is in line with the accelerated schedule for the commercial-scale pilot demonstration project.
     The laser system module is currently being prepared for shipments to GLE’s facility in Wilmington, North Carolina. It is expected to be installed and operational by the end of 2023, subject to transportation scheduling.
     Michael Goldsworthy is the Managing Director and CEO of Silex. He said, “This is another key milestone for the SILEX uranium enrichment technology which demonstrates our ability to efficiently build full-scale SILEX laser system modules, and to incorporate improvements which enable increased reliability under commercial-scale conditions for extended periods. We are also encouraged with the accelerated efforts in GLE’s Test Loop facility through which the balance of pilot systems, including the separator and gas handling equipment, are progressing towards completion of construction. We are hopeful that commissioning of the full pilot facility could commence in Q1 CY2024.”
     The first full-scale laser system module developed by Silex completed eight months of testing in August 2022. Following the testing, it was packaged for shipment to GLE’s Test Loop Facility at Wilmington. It was expected to be installed before the end of 2022.
     GLE is the exclusive worldwide licensee of the SILEX laser technology for uranium enrichment.
      GLE is a joint venture between Silex (fifty one percent) and Cameco (forty nine percent). Last February, the two companies agreed to a plan and a budget for CY2023 that accelerates activities in the commercial-scale pilot demonstration project for the SILEX uranium enrichment technology as early as mid-2024. At that time, Silex said, “If the technology demonstration project can be successfully completed on an accelerated timeline, this preserves the option to commence commercial operations at the Paducah Laser Enrichment Facility (PLEF) up to three years earlier than originally planned, subject to the availability of government and industry support, as well as geopolitical and market factors.”
     In a recent statement, Silex said, “Assuming successful achievement of TRL-6 and a positive feasibility study, GLE could potentially deploy the PLEF for the production of natural grade uranium (in the form of UF6) via enrichment of Department of Energy-owned tails inventories under a landmark agreement signed between GLE and the DOE in 2016.”
     The PLEF project has the potential to produce up to five million pounds of uranium oxide annually for about thirty years. GLE will produce natural grade UF6 via tails processing. They are also considering further development of PLEF to use the technology to produce low-enriched uranium and so-called LEU+ from natural UF6 to supply fuel for existing reactors. They may also produce high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) for next generation advanced small modular reactors (SMRs). HALEU is critical to the fueling of many SMR designs.

     Gentilly 2 was Québec’s only operating nuclear power plant in 2012. It had an installed capacity of six hundred and seventy-five megawatts of electricity. In September of 2012, the provincial government announced that a planned refurbishment of the plant would no longer proceed. The Candu reactor is located on the south shore of the Fleuve Saint Lurent (Saint Lawrence River) in the town of Becancour. Gentilly 2 was closed at the end of 2012 after operating for twenty-nine years.
     Hydro-Québec is a corporation owned by the Québec government. It recently responded to reports in the Canadian press that President and CEO Michael Sabia had initiated a feasibility study regarding the possibility of recommissioning the plant.
     In a press release, Hydro-Québec said, “Remember that the demand for clean electricity will increase significantly over the next few years, in order to decarbonize the Quebec economy, which represents an immense challenge. An assessment of the current state of the plant is underway, in order to assess our options and inform our reflections on Québec’s future energy supply. We are evaluating different possible options to increase the production of clean electricity. It would be irresponsible at this time to exclude certain energy sectors as the province faces the challenges of increasing electricity demand.”
     Gentilly 2 was decommissioned immediately after it shut down for the last time in December of 2012. All the nuclear fuel was removed by September 2013. The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) issued a decommissioning license for the plant in July of 2016. All of its spent nuclear fuel had been transferred to dry storage on site by December of 2020. The decommissioning plan called for transitioning the plant to a forty-year monitored storage phase before beginning final dismantling in 2057. Late last year, Hydro-Québec stated that it was exploring the possibility of dismantling some of the buildings on the site earlier than had been planned.
     More than ninety nine percent of Hydro-Québec’s electricity output is generated from renewable sources. Most of that output comes from Hydro-Québec’s sixty-three hydropower generating stations and twenty eight reservoirs. However, according to the company’s Strategic Plan 2022-2026, more than one hundred terawatt hours of additional clear electricity will be necessary if the province is to achieve carbon neutrality by 2025. According to that plan, the company intends to increase its generating capacity by five thousand megawatts by upgrading its current hydropower plants and adding wind power capacity.
      Nationally, Canada generates more than sixteen percent of its electricity from eighteen Candu nuclear power reactors at the Bruce, Darlington and Pickering sites in Ontario and a single reactor at Point Lepreau in New Bruswick. Alberta, New Brunswick, Ontario and Saskatchewan are pursuing a strategic plant to develop and deploy small modular reactors (SMRs). In July of this year, the government of Ontario announced the start of pre-development work to construct up to forty-eight hundred megawatts of new large scale capacity at Bruce Power’s existing site.
    Earlier this week, the Canadian government launched its vision for transforming Canada’s electricity sector. Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources Jonathan Wilkinson described the project as “truly transformational and nation-building.” Powering Canada Forward will inform how the Canadian federal government plans to work with partners and stakeholders as it develops Canada’s first Clean Energy Strategy, which will be released next year.

     The Australian government is no longer considering siting a national low and intermediate-level radioactive waste facility in Napandee near Kimba in South Australia. A federal court handed down a decision to dismiss a 2021 declaration naming Napandee as the proposed site for the facility. The federal government said that it will not appeal the decision.
     In 2015, the government called for site nominations. Napandee was voluntarily nominated in 2017 by its landowner as a possible site to host the facility. In September of 2020, an Australian Senate committee recommended that the parliament pass legislation to make Napandee the preferred site for the facility.
     In November of 2021, after years of consultation, then Minister of Resources Keith Pitt declared Napandee as the location of the facility. As called for under the relevant legislation, the declaration had the effect of the federal government purchasing about two hundred hectares of land for the purpose of hosting the National Radioactive Waste Management Facility (NRWMF).
     However, the area’s traditional landowners, the Barngarla people argued that they were not properly consulted by the former coalition government about the decision to select the site. They sought judicial review of the 2021 declaration. On July 18th, Federal Court Justice Natalie Charlesworth ruled in their favor. She set aside the declaration because the court found “apprehended bias” present in the decision of the then minister.
     Madeleine King is the current Minister for Resources. In addressing parliament, she said, “I do not intend to appeal the judge’s finding of apprehended bias. I have reached an agreement with the Barngarla Determination Aboriginal Corporation on costs, and I hope that we will also come to an agreed approach to orders relating to the date of application of the judge’s decision in coming days, for the court’s consideration, in due course. We have said all along that a national radioactive waste facility requires broad community support. Broad community support which includes the whole community, including the traditional owners of the land. This is not the case at Kimba.”
     King said that the federal government does not intend to pursue Napandee as a potential site for the facility. They will also not pursue Lyndhurst and Wallerberdina either which were previously shortlisted sites. She noted that “My department has begun work on alternative proposals for the storage and disposal of the Commonwealth’s civilian low-level and intermediate-level radioactive waste.”
     Australia does not produce any nuclear power. However, it has a long experience of operating research reactors and producing radioisotopes for use in medicine, research and industry.
     According to King, the most recent national inventory conducted in 2021 found that Australia has about seventeen thousand cubic yards of low-level radioactive waste and five thousand seven hundred cubic yards of intermediate-level radioactive waste. This radioactive waste is currently stored at over a hundred sites around the country, including science facilities, hospitals and universities.
     The Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization (ANSTO) said, “We want to reassure the Australian community that ANSTO will take the necessary steps to ensure we have sufficient storage capacity for our radioactive waste until a purpose-built facility is established. This means we can and will continue to operate, including the production and supply of nuclear medicines at our Lucas Heights campus. We will maintain our support for the Australian Radioactive Waste Agency (ARWA) in its work to progress establishment of a national waste facility.”
     The ARWA was set up in July of 2020 to manage all of Australia’s radioactive waste. It is leading the process to deliver the NRWMF. ARWA will also lead a separate process to site a facility to permanently dispose of the country’s intermediate-level radioactive waste. This will probably be a deep geological disposal facility in a different location.