atw Vol. 63 (2018) | Issue 4 ı April
264
NEWS
The plant should take measures
to reinforce and implement standards
to enhance the performance of reactivity
manipulations in a deli berate
and carefully-controlled manner.
The plant should improve the
support, training and documented
guidance for Severe Accident Management
Guideline users in order to
mitigate complex severe accident
scenarios.
The team provided a draft report of
the mission to the plant’s management.
The plant management and the
Nuclear Safety Council (CSN), which
is responsible for nuclear safety
oversight in Spain, will have the
opportunity to make factual comments
on the draft. These will be
reviewed by the IAEA and the final report
will be submitted to the
Government of Spain within three
months.
The plant management said it
would address the areas identified
for enhancement and requested a
follow-up OSART mission in about
18 months.)
| | (18791443), www.iaea.org
Tianwan-3 Passes Commissioning
Tests at 100% Power
(nucnet) The Tianwan-3 nuclear
reactor unit in Jiangsu province,
northeastern China, has successfully
operated for 100 hours at 100% of its
design power level without interruption,
Russian state nuclear corporation
Rosatom said.
Rosatom said the 990-MW VVER
V-428M unit, which started to deliver
electrical energy to the grid on
30 December 2017, has undergone a
series of tests during the 100-hour
operation period required by regulators
before giving green light for
commercial operation.
Construction of Tianwan-3 began
in December 2012. The Tianwan
| | Swiss regulator approves safety case for restart of Beznau-1 (Photo: Axpo).
nuclear station is the largest economic
cooperation project between Russia
and China, an earlier statement had
said.
Tianwan-1 and -2, also VVER
V-428M units, began commercial
operation in 2007. The Tianwan-4
VVER V-428M unit is also under construction
by Russia while Tianwan-5
and -6 will be indigenous Generation
II+ CNP-1000 units.
| | en.cnnc.com.cn
Swiss Regulator Approves
Safety Case for Restart of
Beznau-1
(nucnet) Switzerland’s Federal
Nuclear Safety Inspectorate, ENSI,
has given the go-ahead for the restart
of the Beznau-1 nuclear unit after
approving the safety case presented
by owner Axpo following the discovery
in 2015 of flaw indications in
the reactor pressure vessel (RPV).
ENSI said in a statement that
Axpo had carried out “extensive
investigations and analyses” to
demonstrate that the RPV is safe.
Materials testing has shown
that agglomerates in the RPV do not
affect its key properties and structural
integrity analysis has shown that
the RPV does not contain any flaws
that could lead to its failure. “IRSN
is satisfied that work has been done
to all appropriate national and international
standards,” the statement
said.
Axpo said the safety case for
Beznau-1, the world’s oldest commercial
nuclear plant still in operation,
corroborates earlier assessments
and investigations, and validates the
existing safety margin for the safe
operation of the plant for 60 years.
Operator KKB will now begin the
return to service process with the
plant expected to be operating at full
load by the end of March 2018.
In December 2015 Axpo submitted
a roadmap ENSI detailing plans for
further investigations of flaw indications
in the RPV. During a scheduled
outage that began in May 2015,
inspections of the RPV registered
findings at some points in the base
material of the RPV indicating
“ minimal irregularities in the fabrication
process”, Axpo said. The company
carried out further measurements
and analyses and submitted a
report to ENSI.
In July 2015, Axpo announced
that the restart of Beznau-1 had been
postponed while the flaw indications
were investigated further. Then in
August, ENSI called for additional
investigations.
Beznau-2 was not affected by the
flaw indications and was returned to
service after its scheduled outage in
2015.
| | www.bkw.ch
Kursk II Passed
Construction Milestone
(rosatom) Kursk II began reinforcing
the foundation slab for the reactor
building of Unit 1. This operation
became the year’s key event on the
construction site of the Kursk plant.
On 21 December 2017, the first
16-ton reinforced concrete block was
installed on the rebar of the lower
foundation belt. According to the
project design, the foundation comprises
105 reinforced concrete blocks
with a total weight of 1,600 tons. This
will enable the construction team
to start concreting the foundation
slab of the reactor building in the
first half of 2018.
Prior to putting the first concrete
block, a rebar coupler engraved with
the words “The future is shaped today.
The first coupling sleeve of the innovative
VVER-TOI power unit” was
ceremonially installed into the foundation
reinforcement.
VVER-TOI (which means ‘a standard
optimized and automated power
unit based on VVER technology’)
reactors meet Russian and global
safety requirements and have a longer
service life and higher installed
capacity than existing reactors of
the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant.
Alexander Mikhailov, Governor of
the Kursk Region, noted that it was
an honor for the region to build
and commission one of the world’s
first nuclear plants with advanced
VVER-TOI reactors. “Construction of
Kursk II designed to meet the latest
global standards offers our region
development prospects for the entire
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