A Publication

ENRICHMENT
FUEL FOR THOUGHT
NEWS
NUCLEUS 1
Preparing for Section 316(b)
NUCLEUS 2
A Look at SMR Power Around the World
NUCLEUS 3
Addressing the Age Gap in Nuclear Power
Generation
NUCLEAR EVENTS
PERSPECTIVE
J
A
N
U
A
R
Y
/
F
E
B
R
U
A
R
Y

2
0
1
4



V
o
l
u
m
e

7



N
o
.

1
1 3
7
5
3
23
16
19
22
Planning
Ahead for
Unit 3 cooling tower at Plant Vogtle. Courtesy: Georgia Power
Section 316(b)
1401NPI_1 1 1/28/14 11:43 AM
A Publication
1421 South Sheridan Road
Tulsa, OK 74112
P.O. Box 1260, Tulsa, OK 74101
Telephone: (918) 835-3161
Fax: (918) 831-9834
E-mail: pe@pennwell.com
World Wide Web:
http://www.power-eng.com
NUCLEAR POWER INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE
Sharryn Dotson, Editor
(918) 832-9339 sharrynd@pennwell.com
GRAPHIC DESIGNER/SENIOR ILLUSTRATOR
Kay Wayne
PRODUCTION MANAGERDaniel Greene
NATIONAL BRAND MANAGERJenna Hall
(918) 832-9249 jennah@pennwell.com
SENIOR MARKETING MANAGERJessica Grier
(918) 832-9272 jessicag@pennwell.com
SUBSCRIBER SERVICE
P.O. Box 3271, Northbrook, IL 60065
Phone: (847) 559-7501
Fax: (847) 291-4816
E-mail: poe@omeda.com
POWER ENGINEERING MAGAZINE
Russell Ray, Managing Editor
(918) 832-9368 russellr@pennwell.com
AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT MANAGERLinda Thomas
VICE PRESIDENT, AUDIENCE DEVELOPMENT &
BOOK PUBLISHINGJune Griffin
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, NORTH AMERICAN POWER
GENERATION GROUP Richard Baker
(918) 831-9187 richardb@pennwell.com
CHAIRMANFrank T. Lauinger
PRESIDENT/CEORobert F. Biolchini
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICE/SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT
Mark C. Wilmoth
CORPORATE HEADQUARTERSPENNWELL CORP.
1421 S. Sheridan Road, Tulsa, OK 74112
Telephone: (918) 835-3161
NUCLEAR POWER INTERNATIONAL is pub-
lished six times a year by PennWell Corp., 1421
S. Sheridan Rd., Tulsa, OK 74112; phone (918)
835-3161. Copyright 2013 by PennWell Corp.
(Registered in U.S. Patent Trademark Office). Au-
thorization to photocopy items for internal or per-
sonal use, or the internal or personal use of specific
clients, is granted by POWER ENGINEERING,
ISSN 0032-5961, provided that the appropriate fee
is paid directly to Copyright Clearance Center, 222
Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923 USA 508-
750-5400. Prior to photocopying items for educa-
tional use, contact Copyright Clearance Center. For
reprints, contact Foster Printing for a price quote.
For more information, please call 866-879-9144 or
email us at pennwellreprints@fosterprinting.com.
w
e
s
l|r
g
|
o
u
s
e
E
|e
c
lr|c
C
o
r
p
a
r
y
L
L
C
@WECNuclear
Westinghouse
Electric Company
MORE COMMITTED
Westinghouse is dedicated to offering technologies to meet any containment
ltered venting need, including the Dry Filter Method (DFM) ltered containment
venting systemthe only maintenance-free system that does not require
auxiliary systems for chemistry control, heating and draining. The DFMs modular
design allows for installation in existing buildings, resulting in savings of up to
50% compared to the cost of a vent requiring a new building.
From passive dry containment ltering systems to multiple wet scrubber ltering
technologies, count on Westinghouse to deliver enhanced safety systems to
keep operating plants and local communities safe.
For more information, visit us at www.westinghousenuclear.com
1401NPI_2 2 1/28/14 11:44 AM
3 NUCLEAR POWER INTERNATIONAL
>
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014
ENRICHMENT
BY SHARRYN DOTSON, EDITOR
New Year, Same Talks
our media partner GenerationHub that
DOE was treating the funding as project
financing instead of corporate financ-
ing. Fanning said that the differences are
that project financing tends to be based
on the projected cash flows of the project,
compared to corporate financing, which
is based on the actual costs of equipment,
construction, etc. Fanning also said in the
article that the terms and conditions of
the loan guarantee were changed fol-
lowing the events surrounding solar
panel maker Solyndra. Solyndra re-
ceived a $535 million DOE loan guar-
antee in 2009 and filed for bankruptcy
in 2011.
Those terms and conditions just
arent suitable for our application, so
well just have to see, Fanning was
quoted as saying in GenerationHub.
DOEs loan guarantee offer would have
the feds assume Southern Co.s debt up to
$8.3 billion if the utility defaults on the
loan. Georgia Power and parent company
Southern Co. have both said they do not
need the DOEs funds to complete the
two Westinghouse AP1000 reactors by
The U.S. Department of Energy made headlines when it announced
in December 2013 a second round of funding awarded to NuScale
Power LLC for the development of the companys small modular re-
actor technology. The DOE last year also announced financial awards
for the research and development of fossil fuels, clean energy, smart
grid and other energy sources. With all this money flying around, what
has come of the loan guarantee for the two new nuclear builds at Plant
Vogtle in Georgia?
Well, the DOE extended talks for the fifth time with Georgia Pow-
er, a subsidiary of Southern Co. and majority owner of Plant Vogtle.
The latest deadline is now January 31, 2014, almost four years after
the guarantees were first announced in June 2010. The loan guarantee
is for up to $8.3 billion, which breaks down to $3.46 billion for Geor-
gia Power, $3.05 billion for Oglethorpe Power and up to $1.8 billion
for Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia (MEAG), according to a
December article in The Augusta Chronicle. The remaining stake-
holder in the plant, Dalton Utilities, is not part of the loan guarantee
talks. The twin reactors are expected to cost $14 billion total.
We are encouraged by recent progress in our loan guarantee
negotiations as we work with the Department of Energy to ad-
dress a few remaining points, including the need for intergovern-
mental agency review and approval, said Southern Co. spokes-
person Tim Leljedal in an email.
Southern Co. CEO Tom Fanning said in a June 2013 article with
2017 and 2018. However, some critics say
DOEs reinforcement may not be enough
to protect consumers from having to pay
for the project whether it is built or not.
According to a Freedom of Informa-
tion Act inquiry submitted by Friends of
the Earth, a credit subsidy fee of between
0.8 percent and 1.5 percent is supposed
to insulate against default of the loan, but
the fee doesnt even cover risks in major
nuclear construction, the report said. FOE
1401NPI_3 3 1/28/14 12:03 PM
CONTINUED
ENRICHMENT
4 NUCLEAR POWER INTERNATIONAL
>
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014
says that even if Southern Co. finally gets
the $8.3 billion loan, the incentives that
consumers would have to pay could be
more costly than those set up for the loan
guarantee given to Solyndra. Customers
would still be on the hook for the cost
of the reactors even if the project were
cancelled, a scenario faced by customers
in Florida where plans to build a nuclear
project in Levy County were cabcelled
and plans to close the damaged Crystal
River nuclear plant were disclosed last
year. Electricity consumers in the Sun-
shine State will be paying $5.62 in nu-
clear charges each month for 1,000 kWh
starting in January, which breaks down
to $2.17 in fees for the damaged Crystal
River reactor over the next seven years,
and $3.45 in fees for the Levy County
project over the next two or three years,
according to the Florida Public Service
Commission. Fanning said in the article
that Southern Co. customers could ex-
pect a cost increase of only 6 percent to
8 percent, down from the 12 percent fig-
ure that was initially reported.
Fanning said building these units on
time and on budget is essential to main-
taining confidence in the nuclear indus-
try. How can the public feel confident
that more new nuclear reactors will be
built to help maintain reliability of the
power grid when it seems difficult to get
government financing? Solyndras bank-
ruptcy filing already makes some leery of
DOEs judgement of worthy projects,
so this four-year timeline surely isnt sit-
ting well. Hopefully, Jan. 31 will be the
last time loan guarantee talks are classi-
fied as ongoing.

Covering every aspect of the power generation industry, POWER-GEN International, NUCLEAR POWER International, Renewable Energy
World Conference & Expo North America and POWER-GEN International Financial Forum converge in 2014 to form Power Generation
Week. Beneft from fve days packed with pre-conference workshops, technical tours, over 70 conference sessions, panel discussions,
three exhibition days and multiple networking events. Gain access to nearly every facet of the market all under one roof.
Learn more at www.powergenerationweek.com
Owned & Produced by Presented by Supported by
DECEMBER 7-11, 2014 >> ORANGE COUNTY CONVENTION CENTER >> ORLANDO, FL, USA >> www.powergenerationweek.com
1401NPI_4 4 1/28/14 11:44 AM
across the U.S.
Both the NRC and INPO have started
looking at the cumulative impact of regulation
and possible ways to address it. The Nuclear
Energy Institute (NEI) is working with the
NRC on ways to assess the effects of regulation
and potential tools for managing the totality
of regulatory actions. Initial NEI presentations
on the subject include 22-page and 30-page
slideshows replete with flow charts, spreadsheets
and tables, plus multiple appendices with
additional information. NEI has proposed pilot
projects on cumulative impact at plant sites
next year, but the NRC commissioners would
have to be involved in any pilots and the NRC
is moving at a slower pace.
The NRC is working on an initial paper
on regulatory efficiency due next July, and it
is working on another paper on cumulative
impact that will not be complete until 2015.
While you would expect and want potential
changes impacting nuclear power regulation to
be detailed, comprehensive and not rushed, I
fear that the industry and the regulator are over-
engineering and broadening potential solutions
to the problem of low-value regulatory burden.
The Washington D.C.-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) recently
released a paper on the economic and national security imperatives that should compel lawmakers
to enable the U.S. nuclear industry to be more competitive in the global nuclear energy arena
and thereby maintain a crucial leadership role. In Restoring U.S. Leadership in Nuclear Energy,
the CSIS explains how state and federal mandates for renewable energy have created market
distortions in the electricity sector. Combined with sustained low natural gas prices, direct
and indirect renewable subsidies have made nuclear power uneconomic. In addition to current
economic disadvantages, the other major challenges to U.S. nuclear leadership are export market
impediments and domestic challenges. Domestic challenges include excessive capital costs for
new construction, waste management uncertainties, gaps in public acceptance, and regulation.
Regulation - in particular, self-regulation - is the one area in which the industry has the
ability to make improvements directly. Although the authors only briefly discuss the impact
of compounding regulation (NRC) and self-regulation (INPO), they express concerns about
added regulatory requirements that lack commensurate safety benefits that, in turn, contribute
to financial pressures and potential additional plant shut-downs. This concern is not academic,
in that regulatory issues have been cited in recent plant closure announcements, such as the
SONGS shutdown in California.
There is widespread recognition that the nuclear power industry has benefitted from
the diligence and high standards of the NRC and INPO, which have helped raise overall
plant performance to high levels. Nonetheless, there is also now an acknowledgement that
cumulative regulation has become notably burdensome to the management of nuclear facilities
U.S. Nuclear Power Survival Part 2
BY MARY JO ROGERS, PH.D., PARTNER, STRATEGIC TALENT SOLUTIONS
5 NUCLEAR POWER INTERNATIONAL
>
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014
FUEL FOR THOUGHT
1401NPI_5 5 1/28/14 11:44 AM
constrained by its own mental models
and by how it has historically addressed
any problem. INPOs mission is to
promote the highest levels of safety and
reliabilityto promote excellencein
the operation of commercial nuclear
power plants. In speaking to the BP
Oil Spill Commission in 2010, Jim
Ellis, then CEO of INPO, stated that
INPO has strongly and successfully
resisted any efforts over the years to
alter its mission.
Recall that the industrys most
significant gains in safety and reliability
performance began in the late 1990s,
when a number of utilities started
participating in de-regulated electricity
markets that put great pressure on
plants to perform. I suggest that true
innovation in the efficient management
of nuclear energy in the future will need
to come from outside the institutions
that are currently so tightly interwoven
to protect the industry from lapses in
safety.

INPO has had teams working on
cumulative impact and recently shared
with its members the first report
on short-term actions. The INPO
report, which focused on four initial
areas, is 92 pages long. It provides
excellent problem definitions, lists of
insights on how the problem evolved,
desired end state descriptions as well as
actions. It is exhaustive. The section on
Initial Improvement in Management
and Leadership alone includes over
35 behaviors and responsibilities
for supervisors and managers. It is
not surprising that there have been
grumbles in the industry that the
activities to address cumulative impact
are creating additional burden.
I dont mean to be critical of the
efforts of people who have worked
hard to understand cumulative impact
and identify ways to reduce regulatory
burden. My main concern is that INPOs
ability to lead the industry in reducing
regulatory burden may be significantly
FORWARD THINKING
FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS
{ SAVE THE DATE }
DECEMBER 9-11, 2014 | ORANGE COUNTY CONVENTION CENTER | ORLANDO, FLORIDA
WWW.NUCLEARPOWERINTERNATIONAL.COM
Global demand for energy continues to grow. So do concerns related to reliability, greenhouse gas emissions
and the environment. Emission-free, baseload nuclear power can be a viable option to address these
concerns and meet growing demand for energy. Nuclear energy remains a viable, clean and safe option for
meeting demand around the world.
Now in its eighth year, NUCLEAR POWER International 2014 provides the nuclear power industry the
perfect venue to gather and exchange information about nuclear powers role in todays changing world.
Visit www.nuclearpowerinternational.com for a preview of the 2014 event.
Owned & Produced by: Presented by: Supported by:
ww ww ww wwwww.po po po po pp we we we e werg rg rg rg rgggen en en en ener er er erat at at at atio io io ionw nw nw nw nwee eee eekkkk c .c .com om om
CONTINUED
6 NUCLEAR POWER INTERNATIONAL
>
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014
FUEL FOR THOUGHT
1401NPI_6 6 1/28/14 11:44 AM
Toshiba close to owning British
nuclear power joint venture
Jan. 10
Toshiba Corp. is working to increase
its stake in British nuclear power compa-
ny NuGen by buying a 10 percent share
from GDF Suez.
GDF Suez currently owns 50 percent
of NuGen, and is selling the 10 percent
stake for about 3 billion yen ($29 million),
according to Reuters. Iberdrola SA agreed
in December to sell its 50 percent stake in
NuGen to Toshiba for 85 million pounds
($140.12 million). Iberdrola has been sell-
ing assets to reduce debt.
NuGen owns a site in Sellafield where
it plans to build 3.6 GW of nuclear ca-
pacity. Toshiba is looking to gain control
of NuGen so that its Westinghouse unit
can supply the joint venture with three of
Westinghouses AP1000 reactors for the
Sellafield project.
L-3 MAPPS to replace nuclear
power simulators control room
Jan. 10
L-3 MAPPS was contracted to
temporarily shut down just weeks after
it restarted.
Workers with the Omaha Public
Power District were making routine
inspections at Unit 1 when they no-
ticed a block of ice had formed on the
shaft and the top of one of six sluice
gates that control the flow of water into
the plant on Jan. 8. The ice also bent
the sluice gate operating shaft, which
caused the gate to not close and made
all four raw water pumps inoperable.
Workers shut the plant down as a pre-
caution, and there was no danger to the
public or to workers, OPPD said.
The ice has since been cleared and
the plant will be restarted once the
gate can be lowered.
Fort Calhoun restarted in December
after a two-year shutdown. The plant
was down for maintenance in April
2011, but the nearby Missouri River in-
undated the plant and caused it to be
shut down longer. A series of violations
and a fire kept the plant offline. The
NRC had to approve the restart of the
plant.
replace the input/output (I/O) system
on the Daya Bay Nuclear Power Sta-
tions simulators main control room
panels and related remote shutdown
panels.
L-3 MAPPS will replace more than
13,000 I/O channels with low power
consumption compact controllers and
I/O modules from Beckhoff Automa-
tion that are managed by L-3s Orchid
Input Output software. L-3 MAPPS
will also replace select simulator con-
trol room panel instruments, including
the synchroscope, rod position indica-
tors and the sound generator, with cus-
tom-designed equivalents.
The company has supplied plant
owner Guangdong Nuclear Power Joint
Venture Co. Ltd. since 1999. The plant
uses two AREVA pressurized water re-
actors that generate 984 MWe each.
Ft. Calhoun nuclear power plant
shut down due to ice
Jan. 10
A buildup of ice caused the Fort
Calhoun nuclear power plant to
NRC to lower Pilgrim nuclear
plant performance to degraded
Jan. 9
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Com-
mission (NRC) said it would downgrade
the performance of the 685 MW Pilgrim
nuclear power plant in Massachusetts two
months after the NRC increased inspec-
tions at Pilgrim. Entergy (NYSE: ETR)
operates the plant.
The Pilgrim plant will be placed with
seven other nuclear plants in the degrad-
ed cornerstone column. The degraded
plants require special NRC inspections
and increased oversight, said Neil Shee-
han, spokesperson for the NRC.
Pilgrim was already under additional
NRC oversight due to the plant auto-
matically shutting down October 2013
for a week due to the loss of a 345 kV
power line that provided offsite power
to the plant. It was the second time the
plant shut down last year. That inci-
dent led to the plant having a white
performance indicator last year.
NRCs Sheehan said in an email that
the plants Performance Indicator for
7 NUCLEAR POWER INTERNATIONAL
>
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014
NEWS
1401NPI_7 7 1/28/14 11:44 AM
remains in back up mode due to dis-
patching restrictions, the article said.
It is expected to stay that way until
February.
TEPCO names Sudo as chairman
Jan. 8
The Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEP-
CO) announced that Chairman Ka-
zuhiko Shimokobe resigned effective
March 31.
TEPCOs board appointed Fumio
Sudo as the new chairman effective
April 1. Sudo previously was TEPCOs
director and advisor to JFE Holdings Inc.
TEPCO in December submitted
a rehabilitation plan expected to give
the company a profit of about 100 bil-
lion yen ($953.5 million) in fiscal year
2014. The plan, however, is contingent
upon TEPCO restarting operations at
the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power
plant in July 2014, which would help
cut fuel costs, according to an article
from Jiji Press.
construction and concessions company
Eiffage and Belgian diesel engine mak-
er Anglo Belgium Corp.; and Westing-
house, which is partnered with U.S.
diesel engine maker Fairbanks, the ar-
ticle said.
Frances nuclear regulator ASN re-
quired EDF to install 58 diesel engines
by the end of 2018 to supply backup
power to EDFs nuclear fleet in re-
sponse to the accident at Fukushima in
Japan.
Nuclear power unit
in Ukraine returns to service
Jan. 9
Unit 4 of the 2,835 MW Rivne Nu-
clear Power Plant in Ukraine is back on-
line six days after defects were found.
According to ForUm, The plant first
shut down on Jan. 3 when defects of
separator-superheater fittings were de-
tected, the article said. The unit was
restarted on Jan. 9.
Unit 1 at the Rivne nuclear plant
to Power Engineering. It is important
to note, that two of the four shutdowns
were the result of electric transmission
line problems external to Pilgrim. We
are working closely with the owners
of the transmission system to identify
ways to improve electrical grid reliabil-
ity. The shutdowns had no impact on
the health and safety of the public or
our employees.
Alstom sues EDF over
nuclar backup power tender
Jan. 9
Alstom is suing EDF over allegations
that Alstom was excluded from a ten-
der to provide backup diesel engines in
EDFs nuclear power plants.
According to Reuters, Alstom and
its German partner MAN SE filed the
legal challenge at the end of December
over the 1 billion euros ($1.4 billion)
tender for the diesel engines. EDF is
reportedly in talks with two groups:
Clemessy, a consortium of French
Unplanned Shutdowns per 7,000 Hours
is expected to change from green to
white once it is updated, which will
move the plant down to degraded.
Operating Pilgrim at the highest
levels of safety and reliability is our
top priority. We have conducted rig-
orous reviews of the plant shutdowns
to identify needed improvements. Our
action plan is broad-based and address-
es plant equipment, processes and or-
ganizational structure. Changes have
been made in some key site leadership
positions to accelerate our improve-
ment, Entergy released in a statement
NRC TO LOWER PILGRIM NUCLEAR PLANT
PERFORMANCE TO DEGRADED
CONTINUED
8 NUCLEAR POWER INTERNATIONAL
>
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014
NEWS
1401NPI_8 8 1/28/14 11:44 AM
the Environment Agency, and Natural
Resources Wales.
In an interview with North Wales
Chronicle, Ian Parker, the Environment
Agencys nuclear regulation group man-
ager, said that the GDA allows time to
identify and resolve issues before site-
specific proposals are brought forward.
The assessments include safety, se-
curity, environmental and waste im-
plications of new reactor designs, per-
formed by regulators.
as the cause analysis does not need to be
completed first.
About four hours later, Unit 3 at
the Indian Point nuclear power plant in
New York automatically tripped due to
33 Steam Generator Steam flow/Feed
flow Mismatch, the NRC said. Plant
operator Entergy (NYSE: ETR) said in
a release that a controller device failed
to regulate the flow of water into one of
the plants four steam generators, which
led to lowered water levels. Backup sys-
tems at the plant deployed as designed
and the unit was safely shut down. The
unit was returned to service on Jan. 8.
Unit 2 continued to run at full power.
Wylfa nuclear reactor proposal
assessment underway
Jan. 7
The U.K. Advanced Boiling Water
Reactor proposal for the Wylfa nuclear
reactor is under Generic Design Assess-
ment (GDA). The assessment is being
conducted by the Office for Nuclear,
FE) said a main transformer differential
trip caused the reactor to shut down. The
transformer converts power generated
from the plant to the appropriate voltage
for distribution throughout the transmis-
sion system, according to Jennifer Young,
spokesperson with FirstEnergy. It is locat-
ed on the generation side of the plant.
The cause of the trip is under investiga-
tion. Backup systems worked as designed
and the plant is stable. Unit 2 was unaf-
fected by the trip and continues to run at
full power.
There are a large number of condi-
tions that can cause tranformer issues
such as that experienced at Beaver Val-
ley Unit 1, said FirstEnergy spokes-
person Jennifer Young. The team will
consider a variety of factors during its
intrusive diagnosis, including any po-
tential impact of cold weather on the
equipment. While the investigation is
ongoing, we expect the causal analysis to
take at least a week. Meanwhile, we will
proceed with the repair or replacement,
Day & Zimmermann to
maintain Texas nuclear power plant
Jan. 8
Day & Zimmermann was awarded a
five-year maintenance and modifications
contract with STP Nuclear Operating Co.
in Texas.
STP is operator of the South Texas
Project, a 2,700 MW nuclear power plant
in Texas. The plant is owned by Austin
Energy, CPS Energy and NRG Energy
(NYSE: NRG).
Two nuclear power plants
automatically shut down
Jan. 8
Two nuclear power plants automati-
cally tripped within hours of each oth-
er Jan. 6.
Unit 1 at the Beaver Valley nuclear
power plant in Pennsylvania automatical-
ly tripped around 5 p.m. EST, according
to an event report with the U.S. Nuclear
Regulatory Commission (NRC).
Workers with FirstEnergy (NYSE:
WYLFA NUCLEAR REACTOR PROPOSAL
ASSESSMENT UNDERWAY
CONTINUED
9 NUCLEAR POWER INTERNATIONAL
>
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014
NEWS
1401NPI_9 9 1/28/14 11:44 AM
of our company, and we are excited to
welcome Stoller to our team.
Nuclear power plant in
UK suddenly shuts down
Jan. 6
EDF Energy was forced to shut down
the Heysham 1 nuclear power plant in
the United Kingdom on Jan. 4.
According to the BBC, a faulty boil-
er pump led to the shut down. Officials
said in the article that it was a minor
incident, and that standard shutdown
procedure was followed.
There is no word on when the unit
will be back online, but officials said in
the article they hope to have it running
by next week.
Turkeys nuclear power plant
expects approval by June
Jan. 3
Turkeys Minister of Energy Taner
Yildiz announced that the countrys sec-
ond nuclear power plant project, worth
$22 billion, is expected to receive approv-
al by the parliament by June.
nuclear and technical consulting and
engineering services to the depart-
ments of Energy and Defense. The val-
ue of the deal was not disclosed.
Stoller will be a wholly owned sub-
sidiary of HII and will operate under
its Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS)
division. NNS designs and builds nu-
clear-powered aircraft carriers and
submarines, and the company recently
expanded its nuclear and manufactur-
ing business into the DOE and alterna-
tive energy industry.
With this strategic acquisition, New-
port News Shipbuilding is positioned
for expanded growth within the DOE,
environmental management and com-
mercial nuclear services markets, said
HII Corporate Vice President and NNS
President Matt Mulherin. Stollers ex-
ceptional commitment to performance
and safety are well recognized by the
environmental management and reme-
diation industry and are attributes that
directly support our plan for continued
growth within these markets. This is
an important investment in the future
UK regulators begin
second phase of nuclear
reactor design evaluation
Jan. 6
The United Kingdoms Office for Nu-
clear Regulation (ONR) and the Environ-
ment Agency said they are moving on to
the next phase of their assessment of a
new nuclear reactor design.
The two agencies will begin the second
phase of the Generic Design Assessment
(GDA) for the Hitachi-GE UK advanced
boiling water reactor (UK ABWR) that is
scheduled for use in the Wylfa and Old-
bury nuclear power plants. The report
will allow regulators to assess the safety,
security, environmental and waste impli-
cations of new reactor designs before site-
specific plans are brought forward.
Nuclear & environmental
engineering firm bought by
Huntington Ingalls.
Jan. 6
Huntington Ingalls Industries
(NYSE: HII) acquired The S.M. Stoller
Corp., a provider of environmental,
MHI to establish nuclear power
plant business unit in Turkey
Jan. 7
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI)
will establish a new business unit effec-
tive Feb. 1 to develop a nuclear power
plant in Turkey.
The new unit, called the Turkey Nu-
clear IPP Development Department, was
built to accelerate formation of project
conditions for the Sinop nuclear power
project in Turkey, including implement-
ing a feasibility study, negotiating various
contract agreements, and preparing a fi-
nancial scheme. The unit will be under
the guidance of the Energy & Environ-
ment domain headed by Senior Execu-
tive Vice President Atsushi Maekawa.
The power project will use four, 1,100
MWe ATMEA-1 nuclear power plants
in the Sinop area of the Black Sea coast.
ATMEA is a consortium of Japan-based
MHI and France-based AREVA. In Oc-
tober, the consortium reached a broad
framework of agreement with the gov-
ernment of the Republic of Turkey that
ended negotiations over the power plant.
CONTINUED
10 NUCLEAR POWER INTERNATIONAL
>
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014
NEWS
1401NPI_10 10 1/28/14 11:44 AM
at Plant Vogtle in Georgia has been ex-
tended until Jan. 31.
Georgia Power, majority owner of
Plant Vogtle and a subsidiary of South-
ern Co. (NYSE: SO), said talks with
the U.S. Department of Energy were
prolonged again. The last deadline was
Dec. 31. The DOE first offered the loan
guarantees in 2010 for up to $8.3 billion
to be split between three of the owners:
Georgia Power, Oglethorpe Power and
Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia.
The discussions remain confidential.
of Japans Diet raised questions that
the accident could have resulted from
the loss of coolant caused by the earth-
quake, which would have contradicted
previous reports that the reactor with-
stood the earthquake intact, according
to NucNet.com.
Units 1, 2 and 3 all suffered reac-
tor core, fuel and containment dam-
age. Units 4, 5 and 6 were offline at
the time of the accident, but Unit 4s
reactor building was damaged by a hy-
drogen explosion.
The report was less conclusive on
why water injected into Units 1, 2 and
3 did not cool the reactor cores and
prevent meltdown, the article said. It
is possible that water seeped into other
systems and did not reach the core. An
investigation into the amount of water
used is ongoing, the article said.
Plant Vogtle loan guarantee
deadline extended until Jan. 31
Jan. 2
The deadline for talks to finalize a loan
guarantee for two new nuclear builds
plant in China was connected to the pow-
er grid Dec. 31.
According to Business Standard, the
unit is expected to begin commercial op-
erations in the next few months and cost
about 73.2 billion yuan ($12.1 billion).
Plans for the plant include six units that
will enter commercial operations by Janu-
ary 2019, the article said.
TEPCO: Fukushima nuclear
reactor failure caused by tsunami,
not earthquake
Jan. 3
Tokyo Electric Power Co. says in a
new report that the damage at Unit
1 of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear
power plant in Japan was caused by the
impact of the tsunami and not coolant
loss caused by the earthquake.
The report says Unit 1 survived the
earthquake intact, and that the tsuna-
mi knocked out the backup diesel gen-
erators, which led to the failure of the
cooling systems that caused the acci-
dent. The Fukushima Nuclear Accident
Independent Investigation Commission
The project, which is located in Tur-
keys Black Sea province of Sinop, will
be built by Mitsubishi Heavy Indus-
tries and AREVA, according to an ar-
ticle from Balkans.
In 2013, Japan and Turkey entered
into an agreement for the construction
of the power plant.
Yildiz said in an interview that the
country is conducting research on
thermal power plants on Elbistan coal
fields, which is currently responsible
for 40 percent of the countrys lignite
reserves. He added that generation fa-
cilities that can produce up to 7,000
MW are in the planning process and
expects the investment to cost $10 bil-
lion.
Most recently, the two countries en-
tered an agreement to establish a Turk-
ish-Japanese Technical University in
Turkey, the article said.
New nuclear reactor in
China connects to the grid
Jan. 3
Unit 1 of the Yangjiang nuclear power
PLANT VOGTLE LOAN GUARANTEE DEADLINE EX-
TENDED UNTIL JAN. 31
CONTINUED
11 NUCLEAR POWER INTERNATIONAL
>
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014
NEWS
1401NPI_11 11 1/28/14 11:44 AM
Farley nuclear plant
receives World-Class ALARA
Performance Award
Dec. 30
Southern Nuclears Joseph M. Farley
Nuclear Plant has been selected to receive
the 2013 Information Systems on Occu-
pational Exposure (ISOE) World-Class
ALARA (As Low As Reasonably Achiev-
able) Performance Award, the company
has announced.
Southern Nuclear President and CEO
Steve Kuczynski stated in a release the
accomplishment is a direct result of the
engagement by the radiation workers sup-
porting the plant during refueling outages
and during power generation.
The ISOE system was created in 1992
to provide radiation protection profession-
als a way to share methods to optimize
radiological protection services at nuclear
power plants. ISOE is jointly sponsored
by the Nuclear Energy Agency and the
International Atomic Energy Agency.
Southern Nuclear is a subsidiary of
Southern Co.
may end up paying 17 billion pounds
($27.8 billion) in subsidies to EDF,
which was picked to build the plant.
S. Korea OKs restart
of three nuclear power reactors
Jan. 2
South Koreas Nuclear Safety & Se-
curity Commission approved the re-
start of three nuclear power reactors
in the country on Jan. 2, according to
Reuters.
The Shin Kori 1 and 2 and the Wol-
song 1 reactors had been shut down
since May to replace cables that were
supplied with forged documents. The
fake document scandal led to the ar-
rest of more than 100 people, including
some government officials. The cables
passed tests for use in the plants back
in November.
South Korea has 23 nuclear reactors
that generate about a third of the coun-
trys power. The restart of the three re-
actors leaves three other reactors that
are still offline.
in Pakistan, including energy, roads and
technology.
CEZ may sign nuclear
power plant deal by 2015
Jan. 2
Czech Republic-based CEZ said it
could sign a contract with a company
to expand the Temelin nuclear power
plant by mid-2015, according to Re-
uters.
CEZ said in the article it was waiting
for the government to finalize a nation-
al energy strategy and negotiate a guar-
anteed price for the power produced
at the plant. U.S.-based Westinghouse
and Russias Atomstroyexport are in
the running to build two new reactors.
The two units are expected to go live
in 2025.
CEZ said in Reuters it is watching a
European Union investigation into the
British governments subsidies of the
Hinkley Point C nuclear power project.
The plant is expected to cost 16 billion
pounds ($26.2 billion), but consumers
We are encouraged by recent prog-
ress in our loan guarantee negotiations
as we work with the Department of En-
ergy to address a few remaining points,
including the need for intergovernmen-
tal agency review and approval, said
Southern Co. spokesperson Tim Le-
ljedal.
China to put $6.5bn into
Pakistan nuclear power projects
Jan. 2
China will lend $6.5 billion to Paki-
stan to help build nuclear power plants
in the country.
According to Economic Times, the
loans will be provided by the Exim Bank
and will be repaid at a concessional rate
over 20 years. Pakistan began work on
the Karachi 2 nuclear power plant in
October that is part of the $4 billion,
2,000 MW Karachi Coastal power
project. The plant is expected to be
completed by 2020.
Chinese companies are expected to
invest $18 billion in 100 major projects
CONTINUED
12 NUCLEAR POWER INTERNATIONAL
>
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014
NEWS
1401NPI_12 12 1/28/14 11:44 AM
13 NUCLEAR POWER INTERNATIONAL
>
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014
NUCLEUS
Preparing for Section 316(b)
and is not a workable solution for many
power plants.
The problem is that while it works,
EPRI has done research to document
that it would be expensive and highly
disruptive of our electric power system
and the ecological benefits would be
debatable, he said.
T
hough the Clean Water Act Section 316(b) rule was not finalized on Jan.
14 as scheduled, there are still steps that plant owners and manufacturers
can take to prepare for the rules upcoming passage.
Section 316(b) of the Clean Water Act requires that the location, design, con-
struction and capacity of cooling water intake structures reflect the best available
technology (BAT) for minimizing adverse environmental impact, according to the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)s website. Due to the government
shutdown in October, the EPA missed a November 4 deadline, so it was extended
to January. EPA said it would release the final rule as soon as possible.
The rule focuses on two parts: impingement and entrainment. Plant owners
have eight years from when the rule is finalized to be in compliance with the im-
pingement requirement. How long it will take to comply with the entrainment
requirement will be determined by how long the project takes to complete.
The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) is currently evaluating and de-
veloping technologies that will help lower the amount of fish and their larvae or
eggs being impinged by or entrained in the cooling water intake systems. Douglas
Dixon, technical executive and program manager of EPRIs fish protection pro-
gram, says the organizations research into the rule focuses on four areas: technol-
ogy, biological sampling methods, cost-benefit analyses and thermal discharge.
One of the key things we have found through our research is that the ways to
reduce the impact on marine life are site-specific, Dixon said. What you can do
at one plant would not be applicable at another.
Some of those site-specific factors include plant location, species of fish involved,
how the plant operates, the debris that
it has to filter, the hydraulics of the loca-
tion and the temperature of the water.
Dixon said research has shown that
closed-loop cooling is as close to a broad
technological fix of reducing fish and
shellfish impacts as any available tech-
nology, but it has its own shortcomings
BY SHARRYN DOTSON, EDITOR
SIDE-BY-SIDE TESTING OF DIFFERENT SCREENS WAS PERFORMED AT ALDEN RESEARCH LABORATORY IN
WORCESTER, MASS. ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF EPRI
1401NPI_13 13 1/28/14 11:44 AM
CONTINUED
14 NUCLEAR POWER INTERNATIONAL
>
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014
NUCLEUS
EPRIs national closed-cycle cooling
analysis four years ago estimated $100
billion to retrofit 450 power plants.
Those retrofit costs are now estimated to
be at least $50 million per plant, or $22.5
billion total. The system itself could cost
$2 billion or more per plant, particularly
for nuclear facilities, Dixon said.
Other technologies include a veloc-
ity cap that can only be used by plants
located near deep water, like plants
along the Great Lakes, the Pacific coast,
the New England coast and in south-
ern Florida. By moving it offshore, you
also have a reduction in the loss of en-
trainable life like eggs and larvae, Dix-
on said. It has a high performance, but
its limited to certain plants.
EPRI is also researching variable
speed water pumps, fine mesh travel-
ing screens and fish return systems that
work similarly to a water slide at an
amusement park.
Many companies are working with
EPRI to prepare now, Dixon said.
There is going to be a high demand for
technological support, but the needed
expertise may not be available, Dixon
said. Theyre starting to get their con-
tracts together, requests for proposals,
educating their own staff about how to
comply with the rule.
Some states are being proactive in
establishing permitting requirements,
including what they con-
sider to be the best avail-
able technology. The state
of California, for example,
is requiring Pacific Gas &
Electric to look into con-
verting its intake system
to closed-loop cooling at
the Diablo Canyon nucle-
ar power plant, according
to Jason Eichenberger, a
senior civil engineer with
Burns & McDonnell. Some
utilities are leaning toward
using a fish handling sys-
tem on the intake screen or traveling
screens.
We are working on one project
where they have permit requirements
to install wedge wire screens, Eichen-
berger said. Were putting together a
compliance plan for submittal to the
state agency and were currently pro-
ceeding down the path to do the design
based on the proposed rule.
A wedge wire screen is a cylindrical
screen that is placed in the water in front
of the intake structure, Eichenberger
said. Its a passive screen that gives
enough surface area so youre in com-
pliance with the impingement criteria.
Cooling towers could bring a facility
into compliance with the entrainment
criteria, but they are costly and can im-
pact plant performance by raising back
pressures and creating other issues.
Consulting and EPC firms are
BILFINGER TECHNOLOGIES CONTRIBUTED ITS
FINE-MESH PILOT SCREEN FOR TESTING AT THE
ALDEN LAB. IT IS NOT AVAILABLE COMMERCIALLY IN
THE U.S.
A CLOSE-UP OF ANOTHER FINE MESH SCREEN TESTED BY EPRI.
1401NPI_14 14 1/28/14 11:44 AM
CONTINUED
15 NUCLEAR POWER INTERNATIONAL
>
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014
NUCLEUS
advising clients to begin lining up sup-
pliers before there is a rush. Burns &
McDonnell is preparing cost analyses
so clients have an idea of how much a
future compliance project could cost.
Clients have been calling and asking
how much is it going to cost to retro-
fit their intake system, Eichenberger
said. With impingement, compliance
strategies are relatively clear. With en-
trainment, that is not the case. It may
come down to the state level and what
is required on a site-specific basis.
Jack Tramontano, environmental
group manager and program manager
for Section 316(b) with URS Corp.,
said waiting for the rule to be finalized
has put everyone in a holding pattern.
Its been kind of a frustrating pro-
cess because of the numerous delays,
he said. Also, the Notices of Data
Availability (NODA) published in June
2012 indicates that EPA is considering
some significant changes to the draft
rule. Its difficult for facilities to plan
ahead with all of the uncertainty.
He echoes that many plant owners
are concerned about the costs of retro-
fitting or modifying their cooling water
intake systems.
Finding ways of complying with mi-
nor upgrades to current intake technol-
ogy is one way to avoid a lot of capital
costs, Tramontano said. Otherwise,
because there is so much uncertainty,
most are in a wait-and-see attitude
right now.
That uncertainty has added up to
many unanswered questions about
how to comply with the rule, includ-
ing whether closed-cycle cooling will
be considered BAT or if additional fish
protection will be necessary.
Larger plants that have been de-
signed with closed-cycle cooling may
still have to install modified Ristroph
screen with fish returns for impinge-
ment compliance, according to draft
regulations, Tramontano said. Those
who thought that with closed-cycle
cooling that they were okay or thought
that they wouldnt have to apply new
technologies may now have to apply
them. However, EPA may be creating
alternatives for facilities with very low
impingement levels or mortality rates
which should be applicable to facilities
with cooling towers. This approach
will require impingement sampling,
but could allow the facility to avoid a
costly intake system upgrade.
The finalized rule could include a
streamlined or pre-approved approach
based on modified Ristroph-type trav-
eling screens for impingement, a cred-
it for protective measures already in
place, allowing local permitting agen-
cies to determine BAT through screen
velocity compliance, modifying the
compliance schedule for impinge-
ment and entrainment and modifying
monitoring requirements, Tramontano
said. We have heard from secondhand
sources that EPA has adopted many of
these changes in the final rule.
Tramontano said that he is advising
clients to collect and organize historic
studies and other information on their
plants cooling water intake systems.
Many of the people we work with in
the industry, who have the institutional
knowledge of 316(b) at the facility are
reaching retirement age or have already
retired. He suggests that companies do
a gap analysis of the information need-
ed to comply with the rule and know
where that information is before that
institutional knowledge is lost.
EPRIs national closed-cycle
cooling analysis four years
ago estimated $100 billion
to retrofit 450 power plants.
Those costs are now estimated
to be at least $50 million per
plant, or $22.5 billion total.
1401NPI_15 15 1/28/14 11:44 AM
16 NUCLEAR POWER INTERNATIONAL
>
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014
NUCLEUS
A Global Look at SMR Power
The construction concept is as impor-
tant as the rated output, Hess said. SMR
designs are supposed to challenge the sta-
tus quo.
Some countries have been operating
small reactors for more than 40 years.
Small reactors are also being used in
T
he U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced in December that NuScale
Power LLC is the second company to receive funding for the development of
its small modular reactor (SMR) technology. While small reactors have been
in use for decades, building reactors using a modular design is a relatively new concept.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) classifies a small nuclear reactor as
a unit that generates up to 300 MW of electricity, or about one-third the size of a large-
scale nuclear reactor. A small modular reactor is one where the entire nuclear island is
built as one piece before it is installed inside the containment shield.
The Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) said that SMRs could potentially change the
power generation landscape around the world as well as in the U.S.
Once certified by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, these innovative reac-
tors will have the equivalent of the Gold Seal of approval worldwide, said Paul Genoa,
NEI senior director for policy development. By manufacturing clean energy technology
the world demands, we can transfer our safety and security culture along with our tech-
nologiescreating high tech jobs right here at home.
SMRs could potentially be used in many applications, such as replacing small coal-
fired power plants, in areas without access to transmission lines, or places where demand
may be increasing faster than large-scale power plants can be built, said David Hess,
communication analyst with the World Nuclear Association (WNA). However, SMRs
face high costs due to it being such a new technology.
The SMR represents a break from the bigger is better approach and therefore stands
to be more expensive unless it can realize other forms of cost reduction, e.g. through
design or economies of mass production
where factory assembly and shipping
allows for a high quality production line
process, Hess said.
Hess said that regardless of the price
tag, the benefits of the technology would
outweigh any financial limitations.
BY SHARRYN DOTSON, EDITOR
AN ARTISTS RENDERING OF THE AKADEMIK LOMONOSOV, A FLOATING 70 MW
NUCLEAR POWER PLANT IN RUSSIA. COURTESY: ROSATOM
1401NPI_16 16 1/28/14 11:44 AM
CONTINUED
17 NUCLEAR POWER INTERNATIONAL
>
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014
NUCLEUS
a PHWR that began operations in 1993.
Twin reactor Unit 2 began service in 1995.
Unit 1 was fully refurbished and upgrad-
ed from 2009 to 2010 after 16 years of
operation.
Both units at the Madras nuclear pow-
er plant in Kalpakkam are PHWRs that
generate 205 MW of electricity each. Unit
1 began operations in 1984, and Unit 2
followed in 1986. Unit 1 was refurbished
in 2002 to 2003, and Unit 2 was refur-
bished from 2004 to 2005. Capacity was
restored to 220 MWe and their lifespans
were extended to 2033 for Unit 1 and
2036 for Unit 2.
Tarapur units 1 and 2 are General
Electric boiling water reactors (BWR)
that generate 150 MW of electricity each.
They have been operational since 1969.
They were built as 200 MWe reactors,
but were downrated due to recurring
problems, the WNA said. The units were
refurbished in 2005 after Russia stopped
supplying enriched uranium. In March
2006, Russia agreed to supply the urani-
um again.
The Kaiga power plant uses four, 220
innovative ways to site the reactors while
still maintaining power to the grid.
RUSSIA
One country that is deploying its small
reactors in different ways to meet growing
electricity demand in hard-to-reach re-
gions is Russia. The countrys state-owned
power company, Rosatom, is building a
floating 70 MWe nuclear power plant in
the hull of the Akademik Lomonosov, a
vessel located in Vilyuchinsk, Kamchatka
Krai. The ship is 144 meters (472 feet)
long and 30 meters (98 feet) wide and
will use two, Izhorskiye Zavody-produced
35 MWe KLT-40S nuclear reactors. The
first 220 tonnes (485,016 pounds) steam
generating unit, which includes one of the
35 MWe reactors, was installed on Sep-
tember 27 at the Baltiysky Zavod shipyard
where the floating nuclear plant is under
construction. Both reactors were installed
in the ships hull on Oct. 2, according to
Rosatom.
The plant is scheduled for comple-
tion in December 2016 and will be de-
ployed near the port of Pevek on Russias
Chukotka peninsula on the East Siberian
Sea. The reactors have also been used on
the Taymyr and Vaygach nuclear icebreak-
ers, Rosatom said on its site.
Rosatom also operates four, 11 MW
nuclear units at the Bilibino nuclear power
plant. The units are all light water graph-
ite reactors (LWGR). One unit came on-
line each year between 1974 and 1977,
according to the U.S. Energy Information
Administration (EIA).
The country has a total installed nu-
clear capacity of 23.6 GW across 33 op-
erational reactors at 10 locations. The life
expectancy of a reactor in Russia is ap-
proximately 30 years, but the government
set the period for life extension at 15 years.
INDIA
India has six nuclear power plants that
use small nuclear reactors generating just
under a total of 2,000 MW of electricity.
According to the Nuclear Power Corpo-
ration of India Limited (NPCIL), those
projects include the Rajasthan, Narora,
Kakrapar, Madras, Tarapur and Kaiga nu-
clear power plants.
The Rajasthan nuclear plant utilizes
six units that generate between 90 and
202 MW of electricity each. All six units
are pressurized heavy-water reactors
(PHWR). Units 1 and 2 are CANDU re-
actors. Unit 1 is the oldest and the small-
est, generating 90 MW of electricity since
1973. However, due to performance is-
sues, that unit has been shut down since
2004 as the government considers what
to do with it, according to data from the
WNA. Rajasthan 2 has a capacity of 187
MW and has been operational since 1981.
Units 3 through 6 each generate 202 MW
of electricity each. Units 3 and 4 came on-
line in 2000, and units 5 and 6 began op-
erations in 2010. The units were designed
and built by NPCIL based on a Canadian
design.
The two units at the Narora nuclear
power plant are PHWRs that generate
202 MW of electricity. Units 1 and 2 have
been operational since 1991 and 1992, re-
spectively. Unit 2 was refurbished with
replacement calandria tubes in a project
that started in 2009 and lasted a year.
The 202 MW Kakrapar Unit 1 is also
1401NPI_17 17 1/28/14 11:44 AM
CONTINUED
18 NUCLEAR POWER INTERNATIONAL
>
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014
NUCLEUS
of China Huaneng Group, CNEC Corp.
and Tsinghua Holdings Co. Ltd. The
consortium will be responsible for the
construction and operation of the dem-
onstration project, the CNEC site said.
According to the WNA, the HTR-
PM reactor was initially designed to be
a 200 MWe reactor, but the plant de-
sign has evolved so that they are now
being built as twin 105 MWe reactors
with a single steam generator.

reactor, began commercial operation
in 2011. CHASNUPP 1 and 2 are ex-
pected to shut down in 2040 and 2051,
respectively, when they reach their life
expectancies.
The 125 MW Karachi 1 nuclear
power plant, or KANUPP 1, has been
in operation since 1972. The Pakistan
Atomic Energy Commission operates
that reactor.
Pakistan has said that it plans to build
8,000 MWe of nuclear in the country
by 2025. The Chinese government an-
nounced on January 2, 2014, that it
would lend $6.5 billion to Pakistan to
help build new nuclear power plants in
the country, though the government
did not specify the capacity range of
the reactors. The loans would be pro-
vided through Chinas Exim Bank and
be repaid at a concessional rate over 20
years.
CHINA
While China is helping Pakistan meet
its nuclear goals, the Chinese govern-
ment has plans to install an additional
70 GW by 2020, accord-
ing to the EIA.
The 298 MW Qinshan
Unit 1 is a pressurized wa-
ter reactor (PWR) that
has been operational since
1994. It is owned by the
Qinshan Nuclear Power
Co. and is located in main-
land China. China is also
building a 210 MW High
Temperature Gas-cooled
Reactor Pebble-bed Mod-
ule (HTR-PM) reactor at
Shidaowan in Weihai city,
Shandong province. The
reactor will drive a single 210 MWe
steam turbine and is being built as part
of the Rongcheng Nuclear Power In-
dustrial Park project. Huaneng Power
is investing 5 billion yen ($826.2 mil-
lion) into the project, and Tsinghua
University holds a 20 percent stake in
the project. Commercial operation is
scheduled for 2017. The owner of the
plant is CHNG Shandong Shidaowan
Nuclear Power Co. Ltd., a consortium
MWe units. Units 1 and 2 have been in
operation since 2000, Unit 3 began ser-
vice in 2007, and Unit 4 started opera-
tions in 2011.
After the 2011 Fukushima accident,
several NPCIL taskforces made recom-
mendations to improve the safety of the
Tarapur BWRs and all of the PHWRs in
the country. The Tarapur reactors have
undergone the safety enhancements, but
the Madras plant must install enhanced
flood defenses to protect against tsunamis
higher than the 100-foot tall tsunami that
hit in 2004.
PAKISTAN
Pakistan, as of September 2013, has
725 MWe of capacity in its small nu-
clear power program, according to the
WNA. The Chashma 1 power plant in
Punjab province uses a 325 MWe two-
loop pressurized water reactor (PWR)
supplied by China-based CNNC. The
plant began commercial operation in
2000, and is also known as CHASNUPP
1. CHASNUPP 1 began operations in
2000. CHASNUPP 2, a 300 MWe net
THE KARACHI 1 NUCLEAR POWER PLANT IN PAKISTAN USES A
137 MW CANDU REACTOR. COURTESY: CANDU ENERGY
1401NPI_18 18 1/28/14 11:44 AM
19 NUCLEAR POWER INTERNATIONAL
>
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014
NUCLEUS
WITH 38 PERCENT OF THE NUCLEAR POWER INDUSTRY WORKFORCE EXPECTED TO
RETIRE IN THE NEXT FEW YEARS, COMPANIES ARE LOOKING AT WAYS TO RECRUIT
NEW EMPLOYEES TO FILL THE EMPLOYMENT VACANCIES. PHOTO COURTESY NEI.
Addressing the Age Gap in Nuclear Power Generation
transfer, she said.
While knowledge transfer is one of the
issues the industry is looking into when
it comes to its work force, another prob-
lem is finding young employees to replace
those who are retiring. To help bring more
employees into the workforce, the U.S.
nuclear industry launched the Nuclear
Uniform Curriculum Program in 2007,
A
ccording to the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI), more than 120,000 people
work in the U.S. nuclear power industry, with 38 percent of them set to retire
within the next few years. In an industry where knowledge and experience can
prove invaluable, many companies are looking at ways to offset that loss, whether it is
through training or the use of expert systems.
The issue of retaining the current knowledge base not only concerns the companies
that employ nuclear workers, but also the young workers themselves.
This is something weve recognized for a long time, said Christine Csizmadia, presi-
dent of the North American Young Generation in Nuclear (NAYGN). Thats some-
thing were constantly trying to address and solve. We dont have a silver bullet, but
thats something were definitely concerned with.
NAYGN, which was formed in 1997, looks for ways to help train a workforce that
could see its average age drop drastically in the next 10 years as workers retire and are
replaced by younger employees. One of the organizations main targets is knowledge
transfer, Csizmadia said.
The group works to hit that target through a variety of methods. A professional
development chair is included on the leadership team to ensure members have oppor-
tunities to learn and grow in the industry, Csizmadia said. Each year, NAYGN hosts a
professional development conference held in conjunction with NEIs Nuclear Energy
Assembly.
Members who are sent by their company to this conference get workshops and sem-
inars on public speaking, communication, knowledge transfer, how to benchmark dif-
ferent things you dont necessarily get to do when youre working in a reactor operations
room, she said. We
try to give them as
much of that type of
exposure as we can.
Csizmadia also
works as the manag-
er of grassroots and
outreach programs
at NEI, but stresses
that the members of
NAYGN come from
many different com-
panies in the indus-
try. The organization
is itself a grassroots organization, and has
been able to accomplish as much as it has
through the generosity of companies that
sponsor it, Csizmadia said.
Our sponsors are incredibly generous,
and we are very thankful they have seen
our worth and have continued to support
us and encourage us to be creative in try-
ing to problem solve issues like knowledge
BY JUSTIN MARTINO, ASSOCIATE EDITOR
1401NPI_19 19 1/28/14 11:45 AM
CONTINUED
NUCLEUS
20 NUCLEAR POWER INTERNATIONAL
>
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014
a standardized certificate program that
provides training for jobs at nuclear plants.
According to a report from NEI released
last summer, there are 1,500 students en-
rolled at 35 community colleges who are
planning on entering the nuclear industry.
According to the NEI, the indus-
try hired nearly 15,000 people between
2009 and 2012, and the data sug-
gest the industry has sufficient engi-
neers and operators to continue running
the facilities as the workforce retires. The
institutes sixth biennial workforce pipe-
line survey, conducted in February 2013,
showed that enrollment in the nuclear
technology programs has grown from 100
in 2008 to 1,500 at the time of the sur-
vey, with the programs graduating nearly
500 students in 2012.
Although organizations like NAYGN
provide resources for training employees
once theyre in the workforce, NEI senior
media relations manager Mitch Singer
said many companies also have their own
in-house leadership development pro-
grams.
In addition, companies are not hesitant
to provide responsibility to a person who
has proven to be capable.
They do not worry about the age of
someone when it comes to giving them
responsibility, Singer said. They basical-
ly say if theyre qualified, they dont care
how young they are. They will give them
the responsibility, and they will mentor
them in-house with certain leadership
programs.
The retirements are also affecting the
craft side of a nuclear plant, according to
Guy Starr, president of Day & Zimmer-
manns Atlantic business unit. Once again,
preparation and recruitment has been im-
portant in dealing with the problem.
I know retirements are expected in
2016, Starr said. We were predicting it
four years earlier than that and have re-
ally prepared for this. We have a full-time
director for craft resources and training
whose sole purpose is to get the mes-
sage out about the great, high-paying jobs
in the nuclear industry for craft. Hes in
front of high school students quite a bit,
because the way that we look at it, a lot of
people dont necessarily know what they
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT HOURS ARE ALSO AVAILABLE TO YOU!
Attendees of POWER-GEN International, NUCLEAR POWER International, HydroVision International,
COAL-GEN, Renewable Energy World Conference & Expo North America and Photovoltaics World
Conference & Expo can receive Professional Development Hour (PDH) credits for attending the
conference sessions of these events registered as full conference delegates. The number of hours
available depends on each event so check the websites to see how many you qualify for.
Look for more information on www.powergenu.com
NOW AVAILABLE! Publishers and Editors of Power Engineering magazine, Hydro Review
magazine and Renewable Energy World North America magazine have developed online course
content and online testing. Industry professionals are now able to take courses, complete tests and
receive Professional Development Hours (PDH) through Power Generation University. This online
tool is now available through the magazine websites 24 hours for you to tailor the education you
need for your specific job.
1401NPI_20 20 1/28/14 11:45 AM
CONTINUED
21 NUCLEAR POWER INTERNATIONAL
>
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014
NUCLEUS
One of the things I think is very
important for people to understand is
we dont necessarily have a labor short-
age in this country, Starr said. We
have a shortage of skilled labor. There
are plenty of people out there who can
do this work. We just need to get them
trained, and thats what weve been fo-
cused on for the past 10 years.
Its an industry-wide issue, and its
not going to be solved by any one com-
pany. Its going to be solved by the in-
dustry.
The industry is responding. With
increased recruitment and various pro-
grams to train the new employees,
young employees in the nuclear indus-
try, like Csizmadia, are working to re-
tain the knowledge base and experience
currently in the field.
We dont want to lose the knowl-
edge that already exists, she said. We
want to make sure we capture it, so its
something we take very seriously. Its
something we want to get the reins on
as much as we can before we see a lot
of these folks retire. Were building new
reactors right now, and we need to be
sure we know what were doing.

Although Day & Zimmermann
does not have a formalized
mentoring program for its craft
employees, Starr said when an
employee who is new to nuclear
is brought into a facility, he or she
is teamed up with a seasoned
veteran employee.
Once the workers have been recruit-
ed, Starr said the company focuses on
training the employees. Although Day
& Zimmermann does not have a for-
malized mentoring program for its craft
employees, Starr said when an employee
who is new to nuclear is brought into a
facility, he or she is teamed with a sea-
soned veteran employee. The engineer-
ing group also has a young professionals
group that invites experienced employ-
ees to speak and help provide its mem-
bers with other avenues of self-learning.
want to do when they get out of high
school. Some people dont have the mon-
ey necessary to go to a university and
some people just dont want to go to a
university, so were offering them an op-
tion, and its a high-paying option.
Starr said the company is also re-
cruiting returning members of the U.S.
military. Its Atlantic organization has
offices in Norfolk, Va., which is home
to the largest Navy base in the world,
allowing it to recruit former Navy forc-
es who worked in the nuclear field.
ORGANIZATIONS LIKE NORTH AMERICAN YOUNG GENERATION IN NUCLEAR PROVIDE OUTSIDE OPPORTUNITIES
FOR NEW MEMBERS OF THE NUCLEAR INDUSTRY TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE FIELD. PHOTO COURTESY NAYGN
1401NPI_21 21 1/28/14 11:45 AM
New & Enhanced Electric Power Dataset
All Digital Electric Power Infrastructure Data
MAPSearch has raised the bar on the accuracy and completeness of electric power infrastructure
data by migrating to an all digital environment.
r Data digitally adjusted to high resolution imagerythe majority of which has from two meter
to sub-meter spatial accuracy (0.5 meter level).
r Imagery readily available from sources such as Microsoft Virtual Earth Birds-Eye View and
Google Earth Street View.
The new and enhanced electric power dataset adds more facilities and associated attribute
information. By ensuring that power plant attribute information is as complete and accurate as
possible, you get both spatially accurate and comprehensive data, which facilitates better analysis.
As the frst phase of introducing this new Electric Power Dataset, MAPSearch will release data
beginning with Area 1, which covers most of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.
For more information on PennWells MAPSearch Electric Power Dataset offering:
Call 800.823.6277
Email sales@mapsearch.com
Visit www.MAPSearch.com
JANUARY 2014
FEBRUARY 2014
1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8 9 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 31
1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8 9 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30 31
S M T W TH F S
S M T W TH F S
28-30 NEI
Force on Force Workshop
InterContinental Tampa
Tampa, FL
http://www.nei.org/Conferences/
Force-on-Force-Workshop
25 NEI
Long Term Operations/Subsequent License
Renewal Forum Long Term Operations/
Subsequent License Renewal Foru
Ronald Reagan Building
& International Trade Center
Washington DC
25 NEI
Small Reactor Forum
GenerationHubs experienced analysts provide
original content that dives into the issues facing
decision-makers in todays rapidly changing
regulatory and economic landscape.
Original analysis
Online
Timely
Accurate
Data
Mobile-Friendly
Paired with our searchable database of over 20,000 generating units and more
than 10,000 source documents, GenerationHub presents a more transparent
view of the power generation industry than you will find anywhere else.
BARRY CASSELL
Coal
WAYNE BARBER
Natural Gas & Nuclear
KENT KNUTSON
Data Management &
Renewables
CONTACT:
Shaun Jameson, Sales Executive
918.832.9291 | shaunj@pennwell.com
www.generationhub.com
CONTINUED
22 NUCLEAR POWER INTERNATIONAL
>
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014
NUCLEAR EVENTS
1
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15
16 17 18 19 20 21 22
23 24 25 26 27 28
1401NPI_22 22 1/28/14 11:45 AM
23 NUCLEAR POWER INTERNATIONAL
>
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2014
PERSPECTIVE
TOTAL NUCLEAR CAPACITY
US
Vt.
N.H.
Vt.
Mass.
Conn.
To see more data, or to request a demonstration of what is offered for the power generation
industry, subscribe to GenerationHub at: http://generationhub.com/register.php
M
W
I
l
l
i
n
o
i
s
P
e
n
n
s
y
l
v
a
n
i
a
S
o
u
t
h

C
a
r
o
l
i
n
a
N
e
w

Y
o
r
k
N
o
r
t
h

C
a
r
o
l
i
n
a
A
l
a
b
a
m
a
T
e
x
a
s
M
i
c
h
i
g
a
n
A
r
i
z
o
n
a
N
e
w

J
e
r
s
e
y
G
e
o
r
g
i
a
T
e
n
n
e
s
s
e
e
V
i
r
g
i
n
i
a
C
a
l
i
f
o
r
n
i
a
O
h
i
o
L
o
u
i
s
i
a
n
a
C
o
n
n
e
c
t
i
c
u
t
F
l
o
r
i
d
a
A
r
k
a
n
s
a
s
M
a
r
y
l
a
n
d
M
i
n
n
e
s
o
t
a
M
i
s
s
i
s
s
i
p
p
i
W
i
s
c
o
n
s
i
n
N
e
b
r
a
s
k
a
K
a
n
s
a
s
N
e
w

H
a
m
p
s
h
i
r
e
M
i
s
s
o
u
r
i
W
a
s
h
i
n
g
t
o
n
I
o
w
a
M
a
s
s
a
c
h
u
s
e
t
t
s
V
e
r
m
o
n
t
900
800
700
600
500
1
2
4
1
6
1
0
0
1
5
6
8
9
2
5
7
0
8
5
3
9
5
5
2
7
0
5
1
3
9
4
3
7
8
4
2
0
9
4
1
0
2
4
0
4
2
3
7
1
1
3
6
5
5
2
3
2
3
2
2
3
7
2
2
3
6
2
1
6
3
1
9
3
0
1
8
4
5
1
8
2
9
1
3
7
3
1
7
0
0
1
3
1
1
1
3
0
3
1
2
6
8
1
2
4
2
1
2
3
6
1
2
0
0
6
8
0
6
7
0
5
6
3
13,000
12,000
11,000
10,000
9,000
8,000
7,000
6,000
5,000
4,000
3,000
2,000
1,000
Ia.
Mo.
Ark.
La.
Wash.
Calif.
Ari.
Neb.
Kan.
Tx.
Miss.
Ala.
Wis.
Minn.
Ill.
Tenn.
Mich.
Mich.
Oh.
Fla.
Ga.
S.C.
N.C.
Pa
Va.
N.Y.
N.J.
Md.
According to data provided by
GenerationHub, the U.S. has 102,041
MW of total operating nuclear capacity
in 31 states. Illinois generates the most
nuclear with 12,416 MW in the state.
Here is a breakdown of how much
nuclear each state generates.
1401NPI_23 23 1/28/14 11:45 AM