POWER September 2016 - 48

NUCLEAR
Global Partnerships and Competition
No longer do less than a handful of countries determine the wheres
and hows of nuclear power development. The most obvious new
major player is China. With 25 units currently in operation, it is
now the third-largest nuclear generator, after the U.S. and France.
Several countries have recently joined the list of new or aspiring
nuclear generation hosts, and new countries also are beginning to
play a role as exporters of technology and as project developers.
China and South Korea are the most visible. For example, on June
30 in Beijing, China and Argentina signed a new memorandum of
understanding reaffirming plans to build a third Candu pressurized
heavy-water reactor and a pressurized-water reactor in Argentina.
The new document agrees to speed up negotiations to begin construction.
Although
the exhibitors and speakers at this year's World Nuclear
Exhibition testified to the global nature of the nuclear supply
chain-the U.S., France, Russia, and Canada are no longer the only
countries involved in exporting their technologies and expertise-
national rivalries remain.
One U.S. exhibitor told POWER that there's a strong sense among
American industry players that the French remain protectionist
about the nuclear industry. Though his firm's booth was getting
good traffic, and though he was already doing business with Japan
and other countries in Europe, he had not been able to crack the
French market.
Several panelists discussed projects in other countries (especially
China but also Russia and the U.S.) that were being conducted
with French firms' support, but I did not hear in the large panel
discussions any mention of American firms partnering on French or
other international projects-other than Westinghouse's AP1000
reactor being assessed by the UK regulator for the planned NuGen
project and the reactor's use at China's Sanmen plant, currently
nearing completion (Figure 5).
Turf protection may also have been responsible for differing
opinions between France- and U.S.-based digital technology providers
regarding where the expertise and decision-making involving
new digital systems would reside.
In a panel on new technologies, Vincent Champain, general
manager, GE Digital Foundry Europe (Figure 6), discussed his company's
approach to providing cloud-based data analytics services
and emphasized that GE has 100 data scientists in the U.S. and
will have as many in Europe and elsewhere. He was followed by
Bernard Charlès, president and CEO of France's Dassault Systèmes,
who said he doesn't think that specialized people will be responsible
for data. Instead, while moving to a data-centric system,
" people doing the job " will be using the data, not data specialists,
Ron Oberth, president and CEO of the Organization
of Canadian Nuclear Industries,
pitched Canada as a perfect site for testing
SMRs due to its long history with nuclear power,
domestic fuel, and supplier infrastructure.
He sees potential for SMRs in remote Canadian
communities and at mines, where fuel has to
be flown in, creating an even larger GHG footprint.
He also suggested SMRs might replace
coal capacity in Saskatchewan and Alberta.
48
5. First AP1000 in China. This photo was taken July 2014
during construction of the Westinghouse AP1000 plant for China's
Sanmen Unit 1. In May this year the plant successfully completed
cold hydrostatic testing. Courtesy: Westinghouse
6. Dueling digital visions. Vincent Champain, general manager,
GE Digital Foundry Europe (middle), shared his company's vision
of a more data-driven nuclear industry and seemed to place
more emphasis on centralized data analytics experts, while Bernard
Charlès, president and CEO of France's Dassault Systèmes, said he
envisions " people doing the job " as using the data. Source: POWER/Gail
Reitenbach
in his view. The two firms' approaches may be less dissimilar in
actual practice, but there was a clear sense that the two speakers
were trying to promote distinctive positions.
The recently formed GE Digital is a new rival for firms like Dassault,
but other new rivalries are quickly developing as well, as
was clear from comments made by Cao Shudong, vice president of
China National Nuclear Corp., who noted that China has a " friendly
competition " with Areva and France even as they are working cooperatively
on issues like waste transfer.
Business Outlook
The focus of the WNE is on doing business-
making connections with potential customers
and partners and even signing contracts. In
that regard, the exhibitors I spoke with (there
were roughly 700 listed in the program) all
agreed that the event attracted the right people
and that they were making useful connections.
That suggests that there is still money
to be made in the nuclear industry.
www.powermag.com
Though the show daily erroneously reported
that Watts Bar Unit 2 began " commercial
operation " just prior to the event (it actually
was synchronized to the grid on June 3 and
will undergo testing until going commercial,
which is expected this summer), one can hardly
blame the industry for celebrating any positive
milestones.
The exhibition is organized by AIFEN, so
one would expect the French contingent of exPOWER
| September 2016
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POWER September 2016

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