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19 August 2010
New Chinese nuclear industrial park
Following announcement of the major nuclear technology base near Nanjing in Jiangsu province, being built by China Huaxing Nuclear Construction Company, the China Nuclear Power City has been inaugurated by China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) at Haiyan, Zhejiang province. This is on the Yangtze delta about 120 km southwest of Shanghai and close to the cities of Hangzhou, Suzhou and Ningbo. As well as having the nuclear power plants in the Qinshan complex nearby, Haiyan hosts the headquarters of 18 leading Chinese nuclear equipment suppliers, and branch offices of all the major Chinese nuclear design institutes and construction companies. The new China Nuclear Power City will cover 130 square kilometers and has a 10-year budget of $175 billion, according to reports. It is expected to have four main areas of work: development of the nuclear power equipment manufacturing industry; nuclear training and education; applied nuclear science industries (medical, agricultural, radiation detection and tracing); and promotion of the nuclear industry.
The Haiyan Nuclear Power City is entitled to all the preferential benefits granted to national economic and technological zones and national hi-tech industrial zones. Enterprises in the industrial park will enjoy priority for bidding quota, bidding training, qualification guidance and specific purchasing with CNNC. The concept is based on the French equivalent in the Burgundy area, and French suppliers will be involved at Haiyan, as will CGNPC.
WNN 16/8/10. China's Nuclear Fuel Cycle
Nuclear icebreakers open northern sea route for tanker
A 100,000 dwt tanker, the Baltika, has left Murmansk with a 70,000 tonne cargo for China via the northern sea route. Two large Russian icebreakers will clear the way next week over 5000 km of the route. This is the first such voyage for a large tanker, and Sovcomflot said that the main purpose of the trial journey was to determine the possibilities of delivering oil and gas safely and economically to Asia on a regular basis via the Northern Sea Route, which is 8000 km shorter than that through the Suez canal. The icebreakers used are powerful 23,500 dwt Arkitika-class, each of which has twin 171 MWt OK-900 reactors delivering 54 MW at the propellers.
WNN 17/8/10. Nuclear Powered Ships
Canada returns old research reactor to service
Canada's National Research Universal (NRU) reactor at Chalk River, which has been offline for repairs for the past 15 months following the discovery of a heavy water leak, has finally resumed the production of vital medical isotopes. The complexity of repairing the 53-year old reactor (at a cost of $70 million) led to several delays in bringing it back into operation. NRU normally produces 40% of the world's molybdenum-99, used for producing technetium-99m. The extended outage has had a significant impact on the world's supply of radioisotopes, and has forced suppliers such as MDS Nordion to find alternative sources while the number of medical procedures using isotopes has been cut back. AECL hopes to run the reactor to 2016, though no replacement is yet planned.
WNN 18/8/10. Nuclear Power in Canada
