Russian regional and federal ministries are “actively working” to change the existing plans for Russia’s first land-based small modular reactor (SMR) project in Yakutia. They want to expand the project into a two-reactor scheme, after assessing likely future energy demands.
    Work has already begun on the project. In February, it was announced that construction of worker camps and a new road to the site was taking place. Rosenergoatom was officially designated by Rosatom as the operating organization by parent company.
     The SMR being constructed is a water-cooled RITM-200N fifty-five megawatt reactor that has been adapted from the RITM-200 series which is used to power Russia’s latest fleet of nuclear-powered icebreakers. It will be constructed near Ust-Kuyga in Yakutia (also known as Sakha) in Russia’s Arctic north. The goal is to have the new SMR commissioned in 2028. Russian nuclear regulator Rostekhnadzor granted the SMR a construction license in April 2023. The expected service life for the new reactor is 60 years with a five-year refueling schedule.
     Last Thursday, in conjunction with the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, an agreement on ensuring the appropriate electric power infrastructure as part of the SMR project was signed by Rosatom’s Deputy Director General Kirill Komarov and Chairman of the Government of the Republic of Sakha Kirill Bychkov.
    The regional government and federal agencies will collaborate to create the distribution networks, power transmission lines and substations required for the SMR to supply the existing power needs as well as the proposed mining expansion in the region.
     General Komarov said, “The Yakut SMR NPP will provide stable and low-carbon generation for large industrial consumers, thus becoming the regional power center. Clearly, once the SMR is commissioned, it is necessary to ensure its capacity loading will become possible following the establishing of new industrial enterprises as well as social and transportation infrastructure. This, in turn, will lead to the growth of the regional population. Taking into account the development of the current and prospective deposits of Yakut Ust-Yansk and Verkhoyansk Districts, the consumption of the mining factories will exceed ninety megawatts of electric capacity.”
     Chairman Bychkov said, “We will put every effort to support the development of the Arctic territories of Yakutia that have huge potential for creating a mining cluster. As for the electric power consumption by the population and equivalent consumer categories, it is planned to increase power supply up to five megawatts in Ust-Kuyga and seven megawatts in Deputatsky … the estimations we have made with Rosatom show that fifty five megawatts of capacity provided by one RITM-200N reactor unit will not be sufficient for the respected industrial cluster, that’s why we are working with federal ministries and agencies on the topic of transitioning to a two-unit design.”
     Rosatom claims that the SMR plant “will become the heart of one of the largest mineral resource centers in Russia” with the development of the Kyuchus, Deputatsky, and Tirekhtyakh deposits and broader infrastructure works to “create a developed area that is comfortable for work and life”.

Ambient office = 110 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 91 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 88 nanosieverts per hour

Red bell pepper from Central Market = 117 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 105 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 94 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient office = 104 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 100 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 102 nanosieverts per hour

Mini cucumber from Central Market = 136 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 68 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 53 nanosieverts per hour

     Australian attitudes towards energy sources have shifted significantly according to the 20th edition of the Lowy Institute’s annual poll. Six in ten Australian are now supportive of Australia using nuclear power to generate electricity.
    Ryan Neelam is the Director of Public Opinion and Foreign Policy at the Lowy Institute. The Institute asked Australian citizens, “Do you support or oppose Australia using nuclear power to generate electricity, alongside other sources of energy?” 
     Sixty one percent of respondents said they were “somewhat” or “strongly” supportive of Australia using nuclear power to generate electricity. Thirty seven percent said they opposed this. Only 2% said they didn’t know.
     This is the first time such a question has been included in the survey. It contrasts with a related question in the 2011 poll when more than six in ten Australians said they were either ‘strongly against’ or ‘somewhat against’ Australia building nuclear power plants as part of its plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
     Australia’s federal opposition has announced that, if elected, it would introduce nuclear power generation into Australia’s energy mix. Nuclear would take its place alongside renewables and other sources of energy, as part of its plan to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, but this would involve first overturning a moratorium on nuclear energy generation in Australia, the report’s authors note.
     The poll found ‘slim to strong majority support’ for a range of potential federal government climate-related policies although support has ‘softened mildly’ for options which include a more ambitious national emissions reduction target, hosting a UN climate conference, reducing coal exports, and banning new coal mines, and introducing an emissions trading scheme. About sixty percent support the idea of reducing Australian coal exports and banning new coal mines from opening in Australia.
     Support remained steady for subsidizing renewable technologies, and increasing the use of gas. Opinion on renewables is divided. The poll found that forty one percent think the current federal government’s national target for eighty two percent of Australia’s electricity to be generated from renewables by 2030 is ‘about right’. Thirty three percent think this target is too ambitious, and twenty five percent say it is not ambitious enough.
     For the third consecutive year, the poll also asked about public attitudes to Australia’s acquisition of nuclear-powered submarines under the 2021 trilateral AUKUS partnership between Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. Public debate about this project has grown in Australia, highlighting questions around its strategic merits, future U.S. political commitment to the deal, industrial and workforce capacity, and costs. However the poll found majority public support for the acquisition has ‘held relatively firm’ with sixty five percent of Australians remaining in favor. This is similar to the findings of last year’s poll, which was down from seventy percent in 2022’s poll, shortly after the deal was announced.
     The independent, nonpartisan international policy think-tank describes its annual poll as the leading tracking survey on Australian foreign policy. It provides a reliable vehicle for understanding Australian attitudes towards a wide range of foreign policy issues, while being independent and methodologically rigorous. The 2024 Lowy Institute poll reports the results of a national survey of 2028 adults across Australia between 4 and 17 March. The poll was conducted by the Social Research Centre, using the Life in Australia probability-based online panel, and has a margin of error of two and two tenths’ percent. The probability basis of the Life in Australia sampling method guarantees results are generalizable to the national population.

Ambient office = 59 nanosieverts per hour

Ambient outside = 89 nanosieverts per hour

Soil exposed to rain water = 88 nanosieverts per hour

Green onion from Central Market = 65 nanosieverts per hour

Tap water = 62 nanosieverts per hour

Filter water = 58 nanosieverts per hour

     Thorizon of the Netherlands has signed a cooperation agreement with France’s EDF R&D to collaborate on the Horizon One molten salt reactor design.
     Thorizon is a spin-off from the Nuclear Research and Consultancy Group (NRC), which operates the High Flux Reactor in Petten. The company is developing a two hundred and fifty megawatt thermal/one hundred-megawatt electricity molten salt reactor (MSR), targeted at large industrial customers and utilities. Thorizon plans to construct a pilot reactor system before 2035.
     MSRs use low pressure molten fluoride salts as primary coolant. They can operate with epithermal or fast neutron spectrums, and with a variety of fuels. A great deal of the interest today in reviving the MSR concept relates to using thorium (to breed fissile uranium-233). An initial source of fissile material such as plutonium-239 needs to be provided. There are several different MSR design concepts, and a variety of interesting challenges in the commercialization of many, especially with thorium.
     The molten salt fuel adopted by Thorizon utilizes a combination of long-lived elements from reprocessed spent nuclear fuel and thorium. The reactor will be able to recycle long-lived spent nuclear fuel from existing nuclear facilities. The Thorizon One concept is unique. The core is composed of a set of cartridges that is replaced every five to ten years. This, the company says, overcomes two molten salt design obstacles which are material corrosion and handling of spent nuclear fuel volumes.
     Under the new agreement, EDF R&D will review Thorizon’s neutronic core calculations. They will also conduct scenario analyses to determine how the Thorizon One could help to close the fuel cycle in the European reactor fleet.
     Thorizon stated that it will “benefit from EDF’s expertise as the French leader in electricity production, and in particular from the recognized skills of its R&D researchers”.
     Bernard Salha is the EDF R&D Director and EDF Group Chief Technical Officer. He said, “The R&D team covers all disciplines from neutronics and fuel to safety and construction. We are actively supporting several start-ups in the France 2030 program. The cartridge-based approach of Thorizon is interesting and promising.”

     Kiki Lauwers is the Thorizon CEO. She said, “It is a pleasure to work with the EDF team which has more experience in nuclear than any company across the globe. Thanks to EDF R&D, start-ups like us benefit from access to unique industry experts that can very quickly spot the strengths and areas for improvements in our design. We hope we can continue to work with the EDF R&D team on the realization of our technology in the future. We believe all solutions are needed to empower the energy transition and the Thorizon One can be a great compliment to the existing and planned nuclear fleet.”
     Horizon added that its ambition is to develop an MSR “that can be realized rapidly and smartly, is ‘walk-away’ safe, and takes a first step towards circularity by using long-lived nuclear waste as a fuel source”. The company intends to build a non-nuclear molten salt demonstrator in the short-term and finalize the detailed design to start constructing a first-of-a-kind Thorizon One reactor by 2030.