POWER April 2012 - 8

Less-Familiar Generation III+ Reactors
Make Inroads
Following key regulatory approvals in the UK and U.S. of Westinghouse's
AP1000 and AREVA's EPR Generation III+ reactor designs,
France's nuclear safety authority in February determined that the
little-known ATMEA 1 reactor design met international safety criteria
for Generation III+ reactors. The reactor is a 1,100-MW pressurized
water reactor (PWR) developed and marketed by ATMEA,
a 2007-created joint venture between France's AREVA and Japan's
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI).
France's Autorité De Sûreté Nucléaire (ASN) noted that the
18-month review of the safety options of what ATMEA calls a
" mid-size reactor " was requested by AREVA and MHI. The review
was therefore not performed as part of a licensing procedure for
the reactor design but " in the same conditions as those applicable
to the creation of basic nuclear installations in France, "
it said, concluding the project would " on the whole satisfy the
French requirements. "
The " positive opinion " followed 2011 approvals from France's
advisory committees for nuclear reactors (GPR) and for nuclear
pressure equipment (GPESPN) concerning the safety options for
this new reactor. The reviews took into account internal and external
hazards as well as lessons learned from the Fukushima
accident.
ATMEA describes the ATMEA1 as a three-loop PWR that uses
the same steam generators as AREVA's 1,630-MWe EPR reactor
design. The ATMEA1 with a 60-year design life also has extended
fuel cycles, 37% net thermal efficiency, 157 fuel assemblies, and
a capacity to use mixed-oxide fuel only (Figure 1). With emphasis
on its smaller size, the reactor design has so far been marketed to
developing countries with nuclear power ambitions.
Interest is growing, however. French company GDF Suez, owner
of seven Belgian nuclear plants, recently expressed interest in developing
the first ATMEA1 reactor in France's Rhone River Valley.
AREVA and MHI have also been contending with Russian and Canadian
companies to sell a reactor to Jordan for a $4.5 billion
contract. Meanwhile, majority French government-owned AREVA in
February signed a key agreement with state-owned China Guang1.
A small fish in a big pond. French regulators in February
deemed safe the ATMEA1, a Generation III+ reactor design developed
and marketed by an AREVA-Mitsubishi Heavy Industries joint venture.
Courtesy: AREVA
dong Nuclear Power Group to develop another midsize PWR, possibly
based on that company's Chinese-designed CPR1000. Officials
told reporters in February that AREVA will persuade China to base
the 1,000-MW nuclear reactor on the ATMEA1 model. " It would
be a shame to have two 1,000-megawatt reactors on the market, "
AREVA's senior vice-president for reactors and services, Claude
Jaouen, said.
Interest in midsize Generation III+ reactor designs marks a
new era in the evolution of nuclear reactor technology, which
has been pronounced over the past five decades. Generation IV
designs are still in the conceptual stage and may not be operational
before 2020, while the first generation of reactors-those
developed in the 1950s and 1960s-are almost obsolete.
Only two first-generation plants (550-MW Magnox reactors,
which are pressurized, carbon dioxide-cooled, graphite-moderated
reactors using unenriched uranium as fuel and magnox alloy as
fuel cladding) are currently operating at the Wylfa nuclear power
station, on Anglesey, in the UK. But these are to be shut down
later this year, close on the heels of shuttering the UK's two other
Magnox reactors at the Oldbury nuclear power station near Bristol.
That 45-year-old station-the world's oldest nuclear plant-was
permanently shut down at the end of February (Figure 2).
Generation II reactors-a class built up to the end of the 1990s
that characteristically includes PWRs, Canadian-invented CANDUs,
boiling water reactors (BWRs), British advanced gas reactors, and
Russian-built VVERs-are widely used all around the world.
Meanwhile, the first set of Generation III and III+ reactors
have been put into operation in Japan and several others are
under construction in China, Europe, and the U.S. Prominent designs
include Westinghouse's AP1000, AREVA's EPR, GE's advanced
boiling water reactor and ESBWR, and MHI's APWR.
The focus has been narrowed on these five designs presumably
because of highly publicized design certification processes
in various countries. But several lesser-known Generation III
2. A generation gap. The last of the 1967-opened Oldbury twin reactors
near Bristol in the UK was shut down in late February, after generating
137.5 TWh of power. The plant was one of 11 based on the pioneering
post-World War II Magnox design, the first reactor design in the world to
generate power on a commercial scale. Oldbury was also the first reactor
in the world to have a concrete pressure vessel. Ten Magnox plants are
now in various stages of decommissioning; only Wylfa on Anglesey still
operates. Oldbury and Wylfa are potential sites for new reactors. The Horizon
consortium intends to build at least 6 GW of new nuclear capacity
there. Courtesy: UK Nuclear Decommissioning Authority
8
www.powermag.com
POWER | April 2012
http://www.powermag.com
POWER April 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of POWER April 2012
