Austin Says Progress Made on Developing Australia’s Nuclear-Powered Subs defense.gov

Korea signs nuclear fuel MoU for Poland’s MARIA research reactor world-nuclear-news.org

SMR siting work progresses in Canada and Czech Republic world-nuclear-news.org

China may have surpassed US in number of nuclear warheads on ICBMs defensenews.com

 

     Reliance on nuclear power should shield France from Europe’s gas crisis. However, its ageing fleet of reactors is suffering. And skills shortage is also placing France’s new nuclear strategy in jeopardy. France state-owned energy company EDF has announced plans for a massive recruitment drive to bolster the country’s ageing nuclear reactors and build new power plants. It is seeking to hire thousands of specialist welders, pipefitters and boiler makers to its nuclear fleet. The problem is that such staff is in very short supply.
     EDF is building the new Hinkley Point C in the U.K. and is also behind the fledgling Sizewell C project in the UK. The company is battling to keep the lights and heat on this winter across France and build resilience in response to Europe’s energy crisis. France should to be well placed to navigate the loss of Russian gas which the continent depended on before the war in Ukraine.
     Nuclear power accounts for around three-quarters of France’s electricity. It has fifty-six reactors across eighteen sites. However, half of that capacity has been offline this year because of a combination of technical problems and maintenance. Unscheduled outages due to corrosion have proven to be the main challenge after cracks were found in some pipes used to cool reactor cores. These problems have added Europe’s power price surge.
     National Grid operates the U.K. power network. It warned on Monday that France would have to import energy this week as it pondered whether to impose its own first line of defense to keep the lights on in Britain. Britain usually relies on imports of energy from France during the winter months. Their neighbor’s own energy crunch is aggravating concerns over U.K. margins.
     EDF has a reputation for delays and cost overruns in building nuclear power plants. Recently they had to fly about one hundred nuclear workers from the U.S. and Canada to help support their repair efforts in France.
     EDF problems are expected to wipe about thirty-four million dollars from their core earnings. The French state is preparing to increase its ownership stake in EDF from the current eighty four percent to one hundred percent to help ease concerns for its financial stability. This nationalization comes at a time when EDF is on the hook to build at least six new advanced reactors over the next twenty-five years across France.
     It is estimated that the country’s nuclear industry needs to recruit between ten thousand and fifteen thousand workers over the next seven years. It needs to find three thousand workers a year over that time.
      Clement Bouilloux is the manager for France at energy consultancy EnAppSys. He said, “These are pretty ambitious targets. We have not had a construction drive like that in the nuclear industry since the 1970s.”
     Nuclear industry experts told Reuters that training for nuclear specialist welders alone is three years longer than for similar jobs. They are required to operate in an area of reactors where radiation is high. This means that they can only spend a limited amount of time inside such areas.
     One welder told an interviewer that “To be a very good welder, you have to be born to be one. These people work with molten metal at 1,500 degrees Celsius, and sometimes have to stand upside down. You start with 500 would-be welders, and five years later you may have only five who are up to scratch.”

Rosatom to supply uranium products for Brazil’s Angra plant world-nuclear-news.org

South Korean APR-1400 starts commercial operation world-nuclear-news.org

Nuclear with Ares Management-backed SPAC SMR developer X-energy to merge  utilitydive.com

Chinese SMR project enters installation phase world-nuclear-news.org

 

 

 

Ambient office = 59 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 117 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 15 nanosieverts per hour

Red bell pepper from Central Market = 105 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 116 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 97 nanosieverts per hour

European scientists are developing nuclear waste batteries for use in space thenextweb.com

As Vogtle’s nuclear units move toward completion, rate hikes lie ahead ajc.com

AECL and CNL Break Ground on New Nuclear Research Facility finance.yahoo.com

Iranian state media: Construction begins on nuclear plant abcnews.go.com

Ambient office = 66 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 93 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 91 nanosieverts per hour

Opal apple from Central Market = 115 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 89 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 66 nanosieverts per hour

EDF-sponsored welders school aims to plug nuclear sector gaps marketscreener.com

Framatome to supply VOYGR fuel handling and storage equipment world-nuclear-news.org

Georgia Power completes key testing milestone at Vogtle nuclear project seekingalpha.com

Indian government to set up more nuclear power plants to boost clean energy output livemint.com

Ambient office = 97 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 106 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 108 nanosieverts per hour

Grape from Central Market = 152 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 87 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 5 nanosieverts per hour

Dover Sole from Central = 88 nanosieverts per hour

     EDF UK R&D, the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), the University of Bristol and Urenco have formed a consortium. This consortium has been awarded nine million three hundred thousand dollars from the UK’s Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) to develop a hydrogen storage solution. The funding comes from the BEIS GBP 1 billion Net Zero Innovation Portfolio. The intent of this Portfolio is to accelerate the commercialization of low-carbon technologies and systems.
      The Hydrogen in Depleted Uranium Storage (HyDUS) project will demonstrate the chemical storage of hydrogen at ambient temperatures by chemically bonding the hydrogen to depleted uranium to form heavy-metal hydride compounds. Depleted uranium is mostly U-238.
     The consortium will develop a hydrogen storage demonstrator. Hydrogen will be absorbed on a depleted uranium ‘bed’. It will then release the hydrogen when it is needed. The consortium will develop this pilot-scale HyDUS demonstrator as part of the Longer Duration Energy Storage demonstrator program at the UKAEA’s Cluham Campus.
      Professor Tom Scott is one of the architects of the HyDUS technology. He said, “This will be a world first technology demonstrator which is a beautiful and exciting translation of a well proven fusion-fuel hydrogen isotope storage technology that the UK Atomic Energy Authority has used for several decades at a small scale. The hydride compounds that we’re using can chemically store hydrogen at ambient pressure and temperature but remarkably they do this at twice the density of liquid hydrogen. The material can also quickly give-up the stored hydrogen simply by heating it, which makes it a wonderfully reversible hydrogen storage technology.”
     Dr. Antonios Banos is the technical lead on the project from the University of Bristol. He said, “This energy storage technology could provide high-purity hydrogen which is essential for key applications such as transportation while also storing hydrogen for long periods with no energy losses.”
     Patrick Dupeyrat is the EDF R&D Director. He said that the funding from BEIS “is a clear endorsement of the credibility of the consortium and of the quality of the feasibility study phase. The novel form of long duration energy storage technology that will be demonstrated in HyDUS has excellent synergies with the nuclear supply chain and EDF’s power stations, especially within a future low-carbon electricity system, where flexibility using hydrogen will play a significant role.”
     Monica Jong is with the UKAEA. She said, “We see HyDUS as an exciting energy storage technology that will help to drive decarbonization of the national grid. What’s even more exciting is that this is a UK technology and a highly exportable showcase example of how to efficiently cross-bridge technology from the nuclear and fusion sectors into the hydrogen economy proving the UK is still a global leader in energy innovation.”
     Urenco will supply the depleted uranium, which is a by-product of the uranium enrichment process, to the project. When the miniscule amount of U-235 present in uranium ore deposits, is removed from the ore, depleted uranium is left.
     David Fletched is the Head of Business Development  at Urenco. He said, “We see HyDUS as an exciting energy storage technology that will help to drive decarbonization of the national grid. What’s even more exciting is that this is a UK technology and a highly exportable showcase example of how to efficiently cross-bridge technology from the nuclear and fusion sectors into the hydrogen economy proving the UK is still a global leader in energy innovation.”
     According the Urenco, the HyDUS project will deliver a modular demonstrator system within the next twenty-four months. Beyond that, the consortium intends to initially install the technology on nuclear sites. This will increase the profitability of the nuclear power plants. However, it is hoped that eventually the technology could be more widespread. It could be used to support transport and heavy industries such as aluminum and steel smelting.

WSU awarded $500,000 grant for nuclear fuel research news.yahoo.com

Court dismisses Austrian lawsuit against Paks II world-nuclear-news.org

Regulators back Ukraine for Zaporizhzhia ownership world-nuclear-news.org

Ford marks start of construction on Canada’s first grid-scale nuclear reactor Toronto.ctvnews.ca