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Lucrative business for nuclear companies in the complex cleanup of UK’s Sellafield site

multinationals are aligning themselves into strategic relationships to attract the highly lucrative subcontracts coming on stream. Multi-disciplinary consultant Atkins recently formed a joint venture with French-based nuclear specialist Areva to bid for tier two work on decommissioning and fuel management projects in the UK.

Nuclear Legacy, The Construction Index, 23 Nov 12“…….To speed up the process, Sellafield Ltd, the site licence company owned by PBO Nuclear Management Partners (NMP), has started to implement a series of strategic alliances with a combined value of £9bn.

The first framework agreement – The Design Services Alliance – was awarded in February: a £1.5bn contract to The Progressive Alliance (led by Babcock and URS) and AXIOM (a consortium of Amec, Jacobs, Mott McDonald and Assystem). It is expected to extend to 15 years. Continue reading →

November 23, 2012 Posted by | decommission reactor, Reference, UK | Leave a comment

The costly problem Europe now faces – burying dead nuclear reactors

Only a handful of reactors worldwide have been fully dismantled, meaning the process is largely uncharted territory. Tearing apart reactor cores, for instance, creates unknown challenges and potential risks given the level of radiation inside them.

Aging Nuke Plants Add to Europe’s Economic Woes , Washingtpn Examiner, By GARY PEACH Associated Press VISAGINAS, Lithuania November 17, 2012 (AP) The parking lot outside the atomic power plant is weedy and potholed. Bus stops that once teemed with hundreds of workers are eerily empty.

Yet the stillness at Ignalina, a Lithuanian nuclear plant built in the 1980s Soviet era, belies an unsettling fact: There is still nuclear fuel inside one of its two reactors, three years after it was shut due to safety concerns.

A temporary storage facility for spent fuel and radioactive waste is four years behind schedule, creating a money drain at a time when the 27-nation European Union grapples with a crippling economic crisis. States don’t need EU permission to build nuclear plants, but they need to abide by its safety rules and the problems at Ignalina have provoked threats from the EU to cut the funding promised for dismantling it. That raises concerns that the facility will be around for years, possibly decades, longer than planned.

Ignalina is turning out to be a hard lesson for Europe: It’s one thing to kill a nuclear power station; getting rid of the remains is another headache entirely. Continue reading →

November 19, 2012 Posted by | decommission reactor, Reference | Leave a comment

No real planning for burying Europe’s aging nuclear reactors

Aging Nuke Plants Add to Europe’s Economic Woes, By GARY PEACH Washington Examiner, Associated Press VISAGINAS, Lithuania November 17, 2012“…….Other EU countries will have to foot the bill for closing their own plants, adding to taxpayers’ woes. In Germany, it will be in addition to energy price increases as the government scrambles to finance an ambitious switch from nuclear to renewables, which should account for 60 percent of total energy consumption by 2030.

Just last month Germany’s main utilities announced that households could see their
electricity bill jump up to 50 percent in order to finance this transition from nuclear power.

Experts say that disassembling atomic plants promises to be far costlier than previously estimated, given the lack of experience worldwide and nuclear operators’ propensity to underestimate decommissioning costs to make new projects look more attractive.

Thomas of Greenwich University said in Britain nuclear operators were supposed to pay for the decommissioning, but over the decades the cost was passed to the government, which will have to come up with €120 billion ($153 billion) over the next century to dismantle the
country’s existing nuclear power plants.

Just abandoning the facilities with radioactivity trapped inside is not an option. But given the enormous expenditures, some governments are opting to drag out the decommissioning over many decades…… http://washingtonexaminer.com/aging-nuke-plants-add-to-europes-economic-woes/article/2513836

November 19, 2012 Posted by | decommission reactor, EUROPE, Reference | Leave a comment

UK’s nuclear decommissioning problems

What’s the future of nuclear decommissioning? Building.co.uk, 16 November 2012 | By Will Hurst Last week’s devastating National Audit Office report on decommissioning facilities at Sellafield has led many to question whether the UK has the skills needed to deal with nuclear waste. But does the problem really lie with a Nuclear Decommissioning Authority overly occupied with cutting costs? Will Hurst investigates. Continue reading →

November 16, 2012 Posted by | decommission reactor, UK | Leave a comment

Germany’s lengthy process of dismantling nuclear power plants

Fears of low nuclear radiation run high, DW, 08.11.2012 Wolfgang Dick Decommissioned German nuclear power plants will be dismantled over the long term. Though no incidents have occurred in Germany, some citizen initiatives say legal safety measures are too lax.

Vattenfall, the company that runs the Brunsbüttel nuclear plant, recently applied to the Environment Ministry in the state of Schleswig Holstein for a permit to tear down the facility. The whole unit is supposed to be completely dismantled, rather than sealed over with a
concrete sarcophagus in the style of the Chernobyl reactor.

Since the German government decided to phase out nuclear power last year, the country has been gathering some experience dismantling nuclear power plants: Continue reading →

November 9, 2012 Posted by | decommission reactor, Germany | Leave a comment

Quebec to close down its nuclear reactor

Quebec will close, rather than refurbish, its only nuclear reactor. Montreal Gazette, 12 Set 12, Nearly 30 years after it went into operation, it appears the days are numbered for Quebec’s only operating nuclear power plant.

A spokesperson for the Parti Québécois said the newly-elected government will go ahead with a plan to close Gentilly-2 in Bécancour. The party has wanted to do it since December 2009, Éric Gamache said….

. Gordon Edwards, a mathematician and president of the Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility, said after it is closed, Gentilly-2 could be transformed into a centre of expertise on dismantling nuclear power plants. Nearly 100 nuclear power plants in
the U.S. will soon come to the end of their natural life, creating a “great” opportunity for Trois-Rivières, he said. http://blogs.montrealgazette.com/2012/09/12/parti-quebecois-says-it-will-keep-promise-to-close-gentilly-2-nuclear-power-plant/

September 13, 2012 Posted by | business and costs, Canada, decommission reactor, employment | Leave a comment

Veil of secrecy over France’s unaffordable nuclear power decommissioning

“What is not tolerable is that the funds are managed by the operators” 

Over the past six years there has been a veritable veil pulled over this subject.”

French Nuclear Dismantling Funds May Fall Short, Report Says http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-07-24/french-nuclear-dismantling-funds-may-fall-short-report-says.html By Tara Patel – Jul 24, 2012 Electricite de France SA and Areva SA (AREVA), along with other French nuclear operators, may not be setting aside enough funds to pay for future dismantling of reactors and treatment and storage of atomic waste, according to a parliamentary report. Continue reading →

July 25, 2012 Posted by | decommission reactor, France, Reference | Leave a comment

There’s money to be made in nuclear decommissioning

Olympic Park builder eyes nuclear wind-down deal http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/olympic-park-builder-eyes-nuclear-winddown-deal-7965171.html MARK LEFTLY   MONDAY 23 JULY 2012 The US group that led construction of the Olympic Park and a New York-listed rival are the latest companies considering bids to oversee the UK’s £5bn nuclear decommissioning programme. Continue reading →

July 23, 2012 Posted by | decommission reactor, UK | Leave a comment

“Waste Confidence Rule” allows nuclear waste keep growing, with no solution!

the NRC also stated that it ‘retains confidence that spent fuel can be safely stored with no significant environmental impact until a repository can reasonably be expected to be available and that the Commission has a target date for the availability of the repository in that circumstance’” 

As a result of its confidence in the safety of spent fuel storage, NRC rules note that “no discussion of any environmental impact of spent fuel storage in reactor facility storage pools or independent spent fuel storage installations for the period following the term of the reactor operating license . . . is required in any environmental report, environmental impact statement, environmental assessment or other analysis prepared in connection with the issuance or amendment of an operating license for a nuclear reactor,” 

Group seeks to have spent fuel a factor in re-licensing Limerick plant The Mercury By Evan Brandt  07/17/12  LIMERICK “…….Spent fuel rods are what remains after the uranium pellets inside the fuel rods in a reactor no longer generate enough heat to create the steam that turns the turbines and generates electricity at a nuclear power plant.

Although cooler, this spent fuel remains radioactive to some extent for hundreds of years. For years, spent fuel was kept in concrete “spent fuel pools” located inside a nuclear plant and filled with water to keep it from overheating.

According to the NRDC filing, in 2008 NRC proposed “‘remov(ing) its expectation that a repository (for spent fuel) will be available by 2025’ and acknowledged that its previous finding that sufficient disposal capacity would be available within 30 years after any
reactor’s licensed life ‘is not supportable.’”  Continue reading →

July 19, 2012 Posted by | decommission reactor, Reference, USA, wastes | Leave a comment

For relicensing nuclear plants, Nuclear Regulatory Commission does not consider costs of spent fuel disposal

Paradoxically, while the NRC allows potential earnings from a re-licensed plant to be considered as a way to cover the costs of plant shut-down, it does not consider the potential for those added years of operation to generate additional spent fuel when calculating the cost of shutting the plant down.

Group seeks to have spent fuel a factor in re-licensing Limerick plant The Mercury By Evan Brandt  07/17/12  LIMERICK — Despite a recent federal court ruling invalidating a rule that would allow storage of radioactive spent nuclear fuel rods at nuclear power plants for 60 years after they’ve closed, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has no plans to consider the issue when deciding on whether to re-license Exelon Nuclear’s Limerick Generating Station    for an additional 20 years.

The   National Resources Defense Council    disagrees with that position and filed papers July 9 seeking to amend   its challenge to Exelon’s re-licensing  application Continue reading →

July 19, 2012 Posted by | decommission reactor, USA | Leave a comment

Burying dead nuclear reactors – expensive, but lucrative for some!

consultancy Arthur D. Little has put the total costs at no less than €18 billion…..

Dismantling a nuclear plant until it has completely vanished can take several decades, depending on which technique is used.

the process of fully decommissioning a plant can take more than 40 years,

Germany’s pricey nuclear burial, Climate Spectator , 18 Jul 2012, Christoph Steitz and Tom Käckenhoff  “…..by 2014, almost nothing will be left of what once was Germany’s first commercial boiling water reactor. Germany’s decision to shut down all nuclear plants by 2022,
sparked by last year’s Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, is a done deal……

… a giant hole in the ground where the reactor vessel used to be. Work to decommission plants mainly includes removing and disposing of contaminated material as well as decommissioning the plants themselves while making sure that no radiation spreads.

Spent fuel from reactors needs to be encased and then transported to safe fuel dumps while cooling towers, often regarded a blight on landscapes, then need demolishing…..

Today, the four operators of nuclear plants in Germany – E.ON, RWE, EnBW and Vattenfall – have made a total of more than €30 billion ($36.7 billion) in provisions for the dismantling of the plants and the disposal of nuclear waste. Continue reading →

July 18, 2012 Posted by | decommission reactor, Germany, Reference | Leave a comment

Nuclear company finds it unaffordable to decommission reactor

Company dismantling Zion nuclear plant under financial stress
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-07-01/business/chi-company-dismantling-zion-nuclear-plant-under-financial-stress-20120630_1_nuclear-plant-nuclear-fuel-chief-financial-officer July 01, 2012|By Julie Wernau |EnergySolutions, the company dismantling Exelon’s Zion nuclear plant, is struggling financially just as it nears the riskiest phase of the project — moving the nuclear fuel into storage casks.

Last month, the company suddenly replaced its chief executive and chief financial officer for the second time in two years, causing its stock to plunge 55 percent and its credit ratings to fall two notches amid a weak earnings forecast. In March, EnergySolutions revealed that
it underestimated by about $100 million the cost to dismantle Zion piece by piece, and ship the material to Utah for disposal The financial problems call the future of the company and the project into question. Though David Lockwood, the new president and chief executive of EnergySolutions said the company intentionally underbid the work to gain publicity that would help it snag similar work around the world.

“We undertook Zion for strategic, not financial reasons,” Lockwood said.

July 2, 2012 Posted by | decommission reactor, Reference, USA | Leave a comment

Old Hanford nuclear reactor closed – no plan for permanent disposal

Hanford workers mothball 6th nuclear reactor, Workers at south-central Washington’s Hanford nuclear reservation have finished the process of closing and “cocooning” the longest-running of nine nuclear reactors built there for the U.S. atomic weapons program. Seattle News, By SHANNON DININNY Associated Press YAKIMA, Wash. 14 June 12,  —
Workers at south-central Washington’s Hanford nuclear reservation have finished the process of closing and “cocooning” the longest-running of nine nuclear reactors built there for the U.S. atomic weapons program. Continue reading →

June 15, 2012 Posted by | decommission reactor, USA | Leave a comment

Decommissioning nuclear reactors, expensive, but prudent, and cheaper than an accident

Europe’s approach is the prudent one…….America’s approach is to play russian roulette with 105 reactors that are already showing plenty of signs of serious wear and tear 
by Geoffrey Small,6/9/2012  The article (How hard is it to dismantle 150 nuclear reactors?)  fails to put costs and risks in their proper perspective. The cost of de-commissioning a nuclear plant is easily 1 billion euros or dollars. And no, these costs are never honestly factored in by the nuclear industry when accounting for costs per kw/hr or new-build construction bids.
But they are actually puny when faced with a major nuclear accident. At current best estimates today, Fukushima will cost well over 250 billion dollars. Not 1 but 250 billion. That’s a quarter of a trillion dollars.
And there are a truckload of unpredictable complications that could further push that estimate much higher, including another major accident involving the still-vulnerable spent fuel rod pools at reactors 3 and 4. And that is only for a single major accident. Continue reading →

June 11, 2012 Posted by | 2 WORLD, decommission reactor, Reference | Leave a comment

Europe’s challenge in decommissioning 150 nuclear reactors

How hard is it to dismantle 150 nuclear reactors?  Europe is about to find out http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/how-hard-is-it-to-dismantle-150-nuclear-reactors-europes-about-to-find-out/2012/06/09/gJQA2EH0PV_blog.html
Brad Plumer, 06/09/2012  Last year, after the tsunami and reactor meltdown in Fukushima, Japan, many European nations decided to phase out their existing fleets of nuclear power plants. Germany and Belgium are aiming to end all atomic generation by 2030. Switzerland is shooting for 2035.

Not so easy to get rid of.  Yet the mere act of shutting down those reactors is going to pose a huge challenge in the years ahead. Continue reading →

June 11, 2012 Posted by | decommission reactor, EUROPE, Reference | Leave a comment

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