atw 2017-09

atw Vol. 62 (2017) | Issue 8/9 ı August/September
508
ABSTRACTS | ENGLISH
What is the Future
for Fast Reactor Technology?
NucNet | Page 510
NucNet spoke to Vladimir Kriventsev, team leader
for fast reactor technology development at the
­International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), about
the possibilities and challenges of technology
­development in the fast reactor sector. Today, the
field of fast reactors is vibrant and full of fascinating
developments, some which will have an impact in
the nearer term and others in the longer term.
What Progress has Germany made Half Way
Down the Nuclear Phase-out Path?
NucNet | Page 512
The past year saw a number of anticipated developments
related to Germany’s policy of phasing out
nuclear power by 2022. Ralf Güldner, president of
the German Atomic Forum (DAtF), spoke to NucNet
about what has been accomplished and what
­remains to be done in Germany half way down the
phaseout path.
World Nuclear Performance Report 2017
Jonathan Cobb | Page 515
World Nuclear Association recently published the
2017 edition of the World Nuclear Performance
­Report. The report presents key metrics that
­illustrate current performance, both of reactors
­currently operating and those under construction.
The article highlights some of the most important
findings of the report. The pace of new build will
need to accelerate if nuclear energy is going to make
a growing contribution to the global electricity
­generation mix, a requirement of many projections
of future scenarios that aim to meet the objective of
limiting the rise average temperatures to below two
degrees Celsius, while at the same time meeting the
growing worldwide demand for electricity.
On Legal Requirements for Construction of
High Temperature Reactors (HTR) in Poland
Tomasz R. Nowacki | Page 520
In the July 2016 issue of atw an article has been
­published on the legal obstacles to the construction
of HTRs in Poland . The authors have raised a number
of objections to the Polish law with the main
thesis of the inability, or at least a significant
­impediment to the construction of such installations
without significant legislative intervention.
The main purpose of this text is to prove that the
construction of HTRs based on the existing Polish
laws and regulations is possible. In addition, the
­author intends to clarify the particular concerns
­expressed in the article regarding the particular
­legislation and correct improper statements and
­interpretations of the Polish nuclear law. The article
deals only with strictly legal issues and does not
take a stand on the technical feasibility and reality
of ambitious plans for the construction of HTRs in
Poland.
Decision of the Federal Constitutional Court
on the Nuclear Fuel Tax:
A Threefold Big Bang
Tobias Leidinger | Page 528
With the decision of the Federal Constitutional
Court (BVerfG, file number 2 BvL 6/13) published
on 7 June the Federal Constitutional Court has
“tipped” the so-called nuclear fuel tax levied by
­nuclear power plant operators from 2011 to the end
of 2016 (tax revenues approx. 6.285 billion Euros).
According to the court the Federal legislature does
not has any legislative competence for the introduction
of this tax. Including interest rates, the current
tax debtors E.ON, RWE and EnBW are now ­refunded
a total of just under € 7 billion of wrongly levied
­taxes for the years 2011 to 2016. In substance, the
decision on the unconstitutionality and invalidity of
the nuclear fuel tax is a threefold big bang.
The SESAME Project: State of the Art Liquid
Metal Thermal Hydraulics and Beyond
F. Roelofs, A. Shams, A. Batta, V. Moreau,
I. Di Piazza, A. Gerschenfeld, P. Planquart
and M. Tarantino | Page 531
The European Sustainable Nuclear Industry
­Initiative (ESNII) aims at industrial application of
fast reactor technology for a sustainable nuclear
­energy production. Currently four demonstration
projects have a promising outlook in Europe, i.e. the
ASTRID project in France, the MYRRHA project in
Belgium, the ALFRED pan-European project to be
realized in Romania, and SEALER in Sweden.
­Sodium and lead(-alloys) are envisaged as coolants
for these reactors. Obviously, in the development of
these reactors, thermal-hydraulics is recognized as
a key challenge with emphasis on safety issues. This
paper discusses the state-of-the-art knowledge with
respect to experiments and simulation techniques
as pursued in the Horizon 2020 SESAME (thermal
hydraulics Simulations and Experiments for the
Safety Assessment of MEtal cooled reactors) ­project.
Simulation of Total Loss of Feed Water
in ATLAS Test Facility Using SPACE Code
Minhee Kim and Seyun Kim | Page 538
A total loss of feedwater (TLOFW) with additional
failures in ATLAS test facility was analyzed using
SPACE code, which is an advanced thermal-­
hydraulic system analysis code developed by the
Korea nuclear industry. Partial failure of the safety
injection pumps (SIPs) and the pilot-operated ­safety
relief valves (POSRVs) of pressurizer were selected
as additional failures. In order to assess the
­capability of SPACE code, partial failure was
­modeled, and compared with results of OECD-­
ATLAS A3.1 results. Reasonably good agreement
with major thermal-hydraulic parameters was
­obtained by analyzing the transient behavior. From
the results, this indicated that SPACE code has
­capabilities to design extension conditions, and
feed and bleed operation using POSRVs and SIPs
were effective for RCS cooling capability during
TLOFW.
Decommissioning and Waste Management
Corrosion of Canister Materials
for Radioactive Waste Disposal
Bernhard Kienzler | Page 542
In the period between 1980 and 2004, corrosion
studies on various metallic materials have been
­performed at the Research Center Karlsruhe. The
objectives of these experimental studies addressed
mainly the performance of canister materials for
heat producing, high-level wastes and spent nuclear
fuels for a repository in a German salt dome.
­Additional studies covered the performance of
steels for packaging wastes with negligible heat
­production under conditions to be expected in
­rocksalt and in the Konrad iron ore mine. The
­results of the investigations have been published in
journals and conference proceedings but also in
“grey literature”. This paper presents a summary of
the results of corrosion experiments with finegrained
steels and nodular cast steel.
The “Cobalt 60 Case” in Taiwan –
Conclusions
Lutz Niemann | Page 548
The “Cobalt 60 Case” in Taiwan gives an ­opportunity
for check of the thesis of radiation hormesis.
­Apartment residents have been exposed to ­cobalt-­60
contaminated steel buildings. The results of a study
strongly suggest that whole-body chronic
­irradiation, in the dose rate range that the apartment
residents received, caused no symptomatic
adverse health effects, such as radiation sickness, or
the increased cancer or increased congenital ­disease
that are predicted by ICRP theories. On the ­contrary,
those who were exposed had lower incidences of
cancer mortality and congenital malformations.
AMNT 2017: Key Topic Outstanding
Know-How & Sustainable Innovations
Christian Raetzke | Page 552
Summary report on the Key Topic Outstanding
Know-How & Sustainable Innovations, Focus
­Session: International Regulation: Leveraging the
Experience of Established Nuclear Countries for
Regulations and Projects in Newcomer Countries, of
the 48th Annual Meeting on Nuclear Technology
(AMNT 2017) held in Berlin, 16 to 17 May 2017.
Spotlight Back on HLW
with Yucca Mountain on Trump’s Horizon
John Shepherd | Page 566
After years of argument and delay could the US be
edging closer to resurrecting proposals to build a
national repository for high level nuclear waste
(HLW) at Yucca Mountain in Nevada? The federal
government has looked at the site with a view to
­establishing a repository since the 1970s. However,
after pouring billions of dollars into projects and
studies over the decades, the project remained
bogged down in legal battles and opposition from
politicians and pressure groups. Now, the US
­Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said it had
directed its staff to use the equivalent of about EUR
95,000 from the national Nuclear Waste Fund on
“information-gathering activities” that could pave
the way for resuming a licensing review of Yucca
Mountain as a potential deep geologic repository
(DGR).
Abstracts | English