Inside NIRMA Fall 2020

clean resources in the PJM capacity
auction, the company said.
These market rules also put Exelon
Generation’s LaSalle and Braidwood
nuclear power stations in Illinois at a
high risk of being prematurely closed,
Exelon warned.
Nuclear generation nears
record high in 2019
Power generated from nuclear
reactors increased for the seventh
straight year in 2019, with electricity
output rising by 95 TWh from a year
earlier to 2,658 TW, the second highest
output on record, the World Nuclear
Association said in its World Nuclear
Performance Report 2020.
By the end of 2019, the world’s 442
operating reactors had a capacity of 392
GWe, down slightly from the 397 GWe
at the end of 2018, the report said.
Thirteen reactors were shut down,
including four which had not generated
electricity since 2011 in Japan and
three, in South Korea, Germany and
Taiwan, prematurely shut due to
political phase-out policies.
Six new reactors started up last year,
including four Pressurized Water
Reactors (PWRs) – two in China, one
in Russia and one in South Korea – and
two small reactors on the first purposebuilt
floating nuclear power plant in
Pevek, northeast Russia. Meanwhile,
new construction began on two
reactors in China and one each in Iran,
Russia and Britain.
“There is an urgent need for the
pace of grid connections and new
construction starts to increase in order
to expand the essential contribution
nuclear energy makes to global clean
energy provision and reach the nuclear
industry’s Harmony goal,” Director
General of the WNA Agneta Rising
said in a preface to the report.
Finland’s TVO announces
further delays for
Olkiluoto-3
Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima
Oyj (TVO) said the latest schedule
from supplier Areva-Siemens
consortium for the commissioning of
the OL3 EPR plant shows fuel will be
loaded into the reactor March 2021 and
the unit will be connected to the grid in
October of the same year, with
electricity production starting February
2022.
Areva-Siemens told TVO in April
that fuel loading would not take place
as planned in June of this year and that
electricity production would be delayed
from the original schedule of March
2021.
The delay has been due to technical
problems identified in tests, the
increase in the amount of maintenance
work caused by project delay and the
lack of necessary spare parts, TVO
said.
“Technical problems have been
related to sea water system equipment,
cracks in the pressurizer safety valves’
spring-loaded pilot control valves,
faulty components in emergency diesel
generators and the pressurizer surge
line vibration problem. Faulty cable
insulation has been detected in certain
automation cabinets and these will be
repaired during the autumn,” TVO said
in a statement.
Technical problems that have
emerged on the plant unit have now
been solved, and the repair works are
currently ongoing, the company said.
Ontario govt supports OPG
plan to extend life of
Pickering
The Ontario government said mid-
August it is backing a plan by Ontario
Power Generation (OPG) to extend
the life of the Pickering Nuclear
Generating Station, with its units 1 and
4 operating until the end of 2024 and
units 5 and 8 operating until the end of
2025.
The plant, which employs around
4,500 people, was previously scheduled
to shutdown in 2024.
“The safe operation of Ontario’s
nuclear assets is our top priority,” said
Greg Rickford, Minister of Energy,
Northern Development and Mines in a
statement. “I’m pleased that OPG has
developed an innovative proposal that
will provide Ontarians with emissionfree,
low cost energy, and keep highlyskilled
Ontarians working in their
communities longer.”
OPG needs final approval from the
Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission
(CNSC) for its revised schedule.
By Nuclear Energy Insider
Article reprinted with permission of
Nuclear Energy Insider.
Read full article here.
26 Fall 2020 NIRMA.org Inside NIRMA