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Monday, 24 July 2006

UKAEA forms clean-up competition alliance The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Agency (UKAEA) has formed an alliance with fellow NIA members CH2M Hill and AMEC to compete for nuclear decommissioning contracts in the £56 billion clean-up market. They have formed a public-private partnership to compete for selected sites. Beyond the UK market, the partners will explore further international opportunities such as the multi-billion pound market in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union. . Chirac announces France will build a prototype Generation IV nuclear plant by 2020 French president Jacques Chirac has pledged that a prototype fourth generation nuclear reactor unit will enter service in France in 2020. The president said it was now necessary for France to agree on a solution for the final disposal of radioactive waste. A public-consultation process on options for the management of France's high-level radioactive waste and long lived intermediate-level waste is concluding. Mr Chirac said parliament would decide on a solution that would then be enacted into law before the end of summer 2006. While France has not yet decided which of the six Gen IV reactor types it will build, it is focussing on the very high temperature, the gas cooled fast and the sodium cooled fast reactors. The French Atomic Energy Commission has stated that of these the fast reactors would provide for better use of resources and points out that France already has considerable experience with sodium cooled reactors. In this context the President confirmed that the new reactor will be build in association with industrial or international partners. AP1000 approved Westinghouse's AP1000 has received approval from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Although it will be the fourth NRC certified standardised design, the AP1000 will be the first "Generation III+" reactor to receive such certification. Westinghouse said it expects an AP1000 could be constructed in about 36 months from first concrete to fuel load.

 

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