POWER September 2016 - 46

NUCLEAR
3. A magnet for complexity. The
ITER fusion project's magnets will be the
largest superconducting magnets ever built
and will weigh a total of about 10,000 tons,
explained the project's office deputy head,
Central Integration Office, Guenter Janeschitz
(second from the right), at the June
2016 World Nuclear Exhibition. They are being
manufactured by firms in six countries with
six different qualification processes. Source:
POWER/Gail Reitenbach
4. National footprints. Though not all U.S. exhibitors (nor all those from other countries
with national pavilions at the World Nuclear Exhibition) were located in the national pavilion
space, the relative size of the pavilions suggests aspirations for visibility at the event. Source:
POWER/Gail Reitenbach
its, as the Chinese are rapidly learning from
French and other nuclear partners and building
their own technical and human capacity
(Figure 2).
Meanwhile, nuclear projects on French
soil have had their own challenges.
The delays and cost overruns for Flamanville
3 are by now familiar. Though there was
little discussion of why that project has been
beleaguered, EDF's new Flamanville project
director, Laurent Thieffry, did address the issue.
He noted that the project's " too long "
history is partly a consequence of being a
reference model (the Areva EPR is the first
Generation III+ reactor in France's fleet), so
there was a learning phase. It was also the
first to include post-Fukushima design requirements.
But the project was recently reorganized,
created new supplier relationships
and incentives, and developed new operational
processes. As for problems discovered
with the Areva reactor pressure vessel
(in April 2015, the French nuclear regulator
announced that there were anomalies in certain
steel of parts of the vessel and a possible
manufacturing flaw), Thieffry said they are
" very confident " in the final qualification for
this vessel because they have a new metal
qualified for service.
ITER Fusion Program's Special
Challenges
Brexit may have more of an impact on the
ITER fusion project being developed at Cadarache,
France. Though the consequences of the
Brexit vote are not yet clear, should the UK
actually break from the EU, its companies and
people would no longer be eligible to work on
the massive multinational project, said Guenter
Janeschitz, office deputy head, Central Integration
Office, ITER, on a WNE panel.
46
The project's seven members are China,
EU, India, Japan, Korea, Russia, and the
U.S. A 2010 ITER press release noted that
the UK was then third in number of project
contracts awarded, worth " well over £100M
(115.5 M€). " Most recently, during WNE
on June 28, ITER Director General Bernard
Bigot signed a €174 million contract with the
Momentum joint venture (led by UK-based
Amec Foster Wheeler and including France's
Assystem and South Korea's Kepco Engineering
and Construction Co.) for the management
and coordination of the assembly
and installation of the fusion project's tokamak
and associated plant systems. Clearly, a
lot of money is at stake in addition to longterm
benefits of project involvement.
In some respects, ITER is emblematic of
the nuclear industry's global interconnections
and challenges. Project members share
costs and contribute " components, systems
or buildings " and will share in the research
and intellectual property results-which
sounds like a good idea, at least in theory. As
Janeschitz noted, the procurement scheme
" makes life difficult " and drives up costs because
components come from multiple countries
with multiple processes. Magnets, for
example, are produced by multiple firms in
six countries with six qualification processes,
and they are a component with a " high need
for tight tolerances " (Figure 3).
Because of the project
structure, " We
don't even know what the real cost is, " Janeschitz
said.
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Small Reactors Slowly Getting
Attention
On the other end of the scale spectrum lie
small modular reactors (SMRs). Multiple
countries have expressed interest in the mini
plants, and several are doing research and
development (R&D) work and even constructing
initial projects (see " Small Modular
Reactors Speaking in Foreign Tongues " in
the January 2015 issue or at powermag.com).
In the U.S., NuScale is the furthest along,
as the company's chief commercial officer,
Mike McGough, explained-both because
it has a customer (Utah Associated Municipal
Power Systems) and is testing various
components in a one-third-scale prototype.
Meanwhile, more than 600 people are working
on the design certification application.
Theories about where SMRs are most
likely to be deployed vary. EDF's R&D director,
Bernard Salha, acknowledged that
SMRs may be " more bankable " than traditional
large units. EDF sees two types of potential
markets:
■ International newcomers, remote sites,
and for other uses, such as providing heat.
■ Domestic European markets, where SMRs
could help cope with high levels of renewables
as a " mid-merit operator. "
Salha seemed to give grudging respect to
SMR prospects, noting that they're " a rare
new idea, " but necessary, for the industry to
be innovative.
POWER | September 2016

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POWER September 2016

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