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105-472: The Engineer of Record is Gibbs & Hill, Inc. of New York, New York. Construction of the two Westinghouse pressurized water reactors began in 1974. Unit 1, originally rated at 1,084  MWe , came online on April 17, 1990. Its current, 40-year operating license is valid until February 8, 2030. Unit 2, 1,124 MWe, followed on April 6, 1993 and is licensed to operate until February 2, 2033 when it has to renew its license. Of

210-482: A 390 billion yen ($ 3.4 billion) loss, mainly in its US nuclear business which was written down by 712 billion yen ($ 6.3 billion). On 14 February 2017, Toshiba delayed filing financial results, and Toshiba chairman Shigenori Shiga, formerly chairman of Westinghouse, resigned. Toshiba considered selling the Westinghouse nuclear business. On 29 March 2017, Toshiba's Westinghouse filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy , citing

315-590: A US$ 7.9   billion deal including debt. Brookfield Renewable and its institutional partners will own a 51% interest in Westinghouse, while Cameco will own remaining 49% as part of the deal. The acquisition was completed in November 2023. Although no longer associated with CBS Corporation (now Paramount Global ), Westinghouse Electric Company LLC has for some years used the trademarks owned by Westinghouse Electric Corporation , by then Viacom/CBS Corporation/ViacomCBS' brand management subsidiary, under license, as

420-401: A decade, according to an analysis of U.S. Census data for msnbc.com. The 2010 U.S. population within 50 miles (80 km) was 1,755,528, an increase of 22.9 percent since 2000. Cities within 50 miles include Fort Worth (41 miles to city center). The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's estimate of the risk each year of an earthquake intense enough to cause core damage to the reactor at Comanche Peak

525-406: A dense solid which has few pores. The thermal conductivity of uranium dioxide is very low compared with that of zirconium metal, and it goes down as the temperature goes up. Corrosion of uranium dioxide in water is controlled by similar electrochemical processes to the galvanic corrosion of a metal surface. While exposed to the neutron flux during normal operation in the core environment,

630-432: A fuel would be so expensive it is likely that the fuel would require pyroprocessing to enable recovery of the N. It is likely that if the fuel was processed and dissolved in nitric acid that the nitrogen enriched with N would be diluted with the common N. Fluoride volatility is a method of reprocessing that does not rely on nitric acid, but it has only been demonstrated in relatively small scale installations whereas

735-453: A kernel of UO X fuel (sometimes UC or UCO), which has been coated with four layers of three isotropic materials deposited through fluidized chemical vapor deposition (FCVD). The four layers are a porous buffer layer made of carbon that absorbs fission product recoils, followed by a dense inner layer of protective pyrolytic carbon (PyC), followed by a ceramic layer of SiC to retain fission products at elevated temperatures and to give

840-490: A kilowatt — $ 8.5 billion to $ 20.4 billion for a 3,400 MW plant. Some environmental and anti-nuclear organizations and individuals opposed the plant expansion, citing environmental, public safety and cost concerns. These included the Sustainable Energy and Economic Development Coalition, Public Citizen and state representative Lon Burnam . As of November 2013, expansion had been suspended due

945-429: A lack of faith in its own technology. Finally, the record of UK governments building nuclear plants had been a commercial disaster. On October 16, 2006 the acquisition of Westinghouse Electric Company for $ 5.4 billion was completed, with Toshiba obtaining a 77% share, partners The Shaw Group a 20% share and Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Co. Ltd. a 3% share. On 13 August 2007 Toshiba sold 10% to Kazatomprom ,

1050-630: A natural gas boom dramatically lowering power prices in Texas, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries suspending development of its reactor design to focus on restarting its reactors in Japan. The Texas power generation company did not withdraw its application to the NRC entirely, leaving open the possibility that it might eventually expand. Comanche Peak generated 19,687 GWh in 2022. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission defines two emergency planning zones around nuclear power plants:

1155-553: A nuclear fuel fabrication plant at Västerås , Sweden which has provided nuclear fuel for Russian VVER-1000 nuclear reactors. In 2000 Westinghouse started development of fuel for customers in Finland and Hungary, supported by cheap Export–Import Bank of the United States loans, but the business remained small-scale in competition from cheaper Russian suppliers. A 2008 contract was agreed to supply VVER-1000 fuel; however, in trial use

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1260-427: A plume exposure pathway zone with a radius of 10 miles (16 km), concerned primarily with exposure to, and inhalation of, airborne radioactive contamination , and an ingestion pathway zone of about 50 miles (80 km), concerned primarily with ingestion of food and liquid contaminated by radioactivity. The 2010 U.S. population within 10 miles (16 km) of Comanche Peak was 30,653, an increase of 44.1 percent in

1365-613: A properly designed reactor. Two such reactor designs are the prismatic-block gas-cooled reactor (such as the GT-MHR ) and the pebble-bed reactor (PBR). Both of these reactor designs are high temperature gas reactors (HTGRs). These are also the basic reactor designs of very-high-temperature reactors (VHTRs), one of the six classes of reactor designs in the Generation IV initiative that is attempting to reach even higher HTGR outlet temperatures. TRISO fuel particles were originally developed in

1470-762: A reactor is plutonium, and some two thirds of this is fissile (c. 50% Pu , 15% Pu ). Metal fuels have the advantage of a much higher heat conductivity than oxide fuels but cannot survive equally high temperatures. Metal fuels have a long history of use, stretching from the Clementine reactor in 1946 to many test and research reactors. Metal fuels have the potential for the highest fissile atom density. Metal fuels are normally alloyed, but some metal fuels have been made with pure uranium metal. Uranium alloys that have been used include uranium aluminum, uranium zirconium , uranium silicon, uranium molybdenum, uranium zirconium hydride (UZrH), and uranium zirconium carbonitride. Any of

1575-859: A similar design to the CANDU but built by German KWU was originally designed for non-enriched fuel but since switched to slightly enriched fuel with a U content about 0.1 percentage points higher than in natural uranium. Various other nuclear fuel forms find use in specific applications, but lack the widespread use of those found in BWRs, PWRs, and CANDU power plants. Many of these fuel forms are only found in research reactors, or have military applications. Magnox (magnesium non-oxidising) reactors are pressurised, carbon dioxide –cooled, graphite - moderated reactors using natural uranium (i.e. unenriched) as fuel and Magnox alloy as fuel cladding. Working pressure varies from 6.9 to 19.35 bars (100.1 to 280.6 psi) for

1680-449: A small percentage of the U in the fuel absorbs excess neutrons and is transmuted into U . U rapidly decays into Np which in turn rapidly decays into Pu . The small percentage of Pu has a higher neutron cross section than U . As the Pu accumulates the chain reaction shifts from pure U at initiation of the fuel use to a ratio of about 70% U and 30% Pu at the end of

1785-409: A solid called ammonium diuranate , (NH 4 ) 2 U 2 O 7 . This is then heated ( calcined ) to form UO 3 and U 3 O 8 which is then converted by heating with hydrogen or ammonia to form UO 2 . The UO 2 is mixed with an organic binder and pressed into pellets. The pellets are then fired at a much higher temperature (in hydrogen or argon) to sinter the solid. The aim is to form

1890-491: A subsidiary of CBS Corporation. In July 2005, BNFL confirmed it planned to sell Westinghouse, then estimated to be worth $ 2 billion. This attracted interest from several companies, including Toshiba , General Electric and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries . When the Financial Times reported on January 23, 2006 that Toshiba had won the bid, it valued the company's offer at $ 5bn (£2.8bn). On February 6, 2006 Toshiba confirmed it

1995-476: A typical core loading is on the order of 4500–6500 bundles, depending on the design. Modern types typically have 37 identical fuel pins radially arranged about the long axis of the bundle, but in the past several different configurations and numbers of pins have been used. The CANFLEX bundle has 43 fuel elements, with two element sizes. It is also about 10 cm (4 inches) in diameter, 0.5 m (20 in) long and weighs about 20 kg (44 lb) and replaces

2100-399: A typical spent fuel assembly still exceeds 10,000 rem/hour, resulting in a fatal dose in just minutes. Two main modes of release exist, the fission products can be vaporised or small particles of the fuel can be dispersed. Post-Irradiation Examination (PIE) is the study of used nuclear materials such as nuclear fuel. It has several purposes. It is known that by examination of used fuel that

2205-404: A way as to ensure low contamination with non-radioactive carbon (not a common fission product and absent in nuclear reactors that don't use it as a moderator ) then fluoride volatility could be used to separate the C produced by producing carbon tetrafluoride . C is proposed for use in particularly long lived low power nuclear batteries called diamond batteries . Much of what

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2310-556: A yearly loss for Toshiba that could exceed $ 9 billion, almost three times its previous estimate. The projects responsible for this loss were mostly the construction of four AP1000 reactors at Vogtle in Georgia and Virgil C. Summer Nuclear Generating Station in South Carolina. The Wall Street Journal reported that the four nuclear reactors being built in the southeastern U.S. would be left to an unknown fate. In July, 2017,

2415-700: Is a means to dispose of surplus plutonium by transmutation . Reprocessing of commercial nuclear fuel to make MOX was done in the Sellafield MOX Plant (England). As of 2015, MOX fuel is made in France at the Marcoule Nuclear Site , and to a lesser extent in Russia at the Mining and Chemical Combine , India and Japan. China plans to develop fast breeder reactors and reprocessing. The Global Nuclear Energy Partnership

2520-475: Is able to release xenon gas, which normally acts as a neutron absorber ( Xe is the strongest known neutron poison and is produced both directly and as a decay product of I as a fission product ) and causes structural occlusions in solid fuel elements (leading to the early replacement of solid fuel rods with over 98% of the nuclear fuel unburned, including many long-lived actinides). In contrast, molten-salt reactors are capable of retaining

2625-489: Is commonly composed of enriched uranium sandwiched between metal cladding. Plate-type fuel is used in several research reactors where a high neutron flux is desired, for uses such as material irradiation studies or isotope production, without the high temperatures seen in ceramic, cylindrical fuel. It is currently used in the Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) at Idaho National Laboratory , and the nuclear research reactor at

2730-410: Is compacted to cylindrical pellets and sintered at high temperatures to produce ceramic nuclear fuel pellets with a high density and well defined physical properties and chemical composition. A grinding process is used to achieve a uniform cylindrical geometry with narrow tolerances. Such fuel pellets are then stacked and filled into the metallic tubes. The metal used for the tubes depends on the design of

2835-590: Is done is the ITU which is the EU centre for the study of highly radioactive materials. Materials in a high-radiation environment (such as a reactor) can undergo unique behaviors such as swelling and non-thermal creep. If there are nuclear reactions within the material (such as what happens in the fuel), the stoichiometry will also change slowly over time. These behaviors can lead to new material properties, cracking, and fission gas release. The thermal conductivity of uranium dioxide

2940-566: Is formed into pellets and inserted into Zircaloy tubes that are bundled together. The Zircaloy tubes are about 1 centimetre (0.4 in) in diameter, and the fuel cladding gap is filled with helium gas to improve heat conduction from the fuel to the cladding. There are about 179–264 fuel rods per fuel bundle and about 121 to 193 fuel bundles are loaded into a reactor core. Generally, the fuel bundles consist of fuel rods bundled 14×14 to 17×17. PWR fuel bundles are about 4 m (13 ft) long. In PWR fuel bundles, control rods are inserted through

3045-450: Is known about uranium carbide is in the form of pin-type fuel elements for liquid metal fast reactors during their intense study in the 1960s and 1970s. Recently there has been a revived interest in uranium carbide in the form of plate fuel and most notably, micro fuel particles (such as tristructural-isotropic particles). The high thermal conductivity and high melting point makes uranium carbide an attractive fuel. In addition, because of

3150-413: Is low; it is affected by porosity and burn-up. The burn-up results in fission products being dissolved in the lattice (such as lanthanides ), the precipitation of fission products such as palladium , the formation of fission gas bubbles due to fission products such as xenon and krypton and radiation damage of the lattice. The low thermal conductivity can lead to overheating of the center part of

3255-508: Is the US version of the 1,700  MWe Advanced Pressurized Water Reactor (US-APWR), developed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI). The project is a joint venture, with Luminant owning 88 percent and 12 percent owned by MHI. Luminant did not release an estimate of the project's cost, but CEO David Campbell said Luminant would try to build its new reactors at the low end of current industry estimates, which he said range from $ 2,500 to $ 6,000

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3360-487: Is the case with other Westinghouse licensees . In 2021, ViacomCBS sold the Westinghouse licensing operation (including trademarks) directly to the now-independent Westinghouse Electric Corporation. A revived interest in the nuclear power generation field in the late 1980s led to Westinghouse's development of the AP600 reactor which received NRC approval . Interest in the Westinghouse design, but with larger power output led to

3465-508: Is usually based on the metal oxide ; the oxides are used rather than the metals themselves because the oxide melting point is much higher than that of the metal and because it cannot burn, being already in the oxidized state. Uranium dioxide is a black semiconducting solid. It can be made by heating uranyl nitrate to form UO 2 . This is then converted by heating with hydrogen to form UO 2 . It can be made from enriched uranium hexafluoride by reacting with ammonia to form

3570-529: The C concentration will be too low for use in nuclear batteries without enrichment. Nuclear graphite discharged from reactors where it was used as a moderator presents the same issue. Liquid fuels contain dissolved nuclear fuel and have been shown to offer numerous operational advantages compared to traditional solid fuel approaches. Liquid-fuel reactors offer significant safety advantages due to their inherently stable "self-adjusting" reactor dynamics. This provides two major benefits: virtually eliminating

3675-526: The 2005 Indo-US nuclear deal , there was also hope that India's plan of massive investment in nuclear plants would help to revive the U.S. nuclear power industry. Reasons in favor of a sale were: The commercial risk of the company's business in Asia may have been too high for a company then owned by taxpayers; if Westinghouse won the bid for any new nuclear stations in a UK competition, questions may be raised of favoritism, but if it lost, it might have been seen as

3780-544: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission since 2005 said that computations submitted by Westinghouse about the building's design appeared to be wrong and "had led to more questions." He said the company had not used a range of possible temperatures for calculating potential seismic stresses on the shield building in the event of an earthquake, for example. The NRC asked Westinghouse not only to fix its calculations, but also to explain why it submitted flawed information in

3885-533: The Pittsburgh suburb of Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania . The company's main product is the AP1000 , a modern pressurized water reactor (PWR) design with many passive safety features and modular construction intended to lower construction time and cost. Twelve AP1000 reactors are currently in operation with a further nineteen in various stages of planning. The company was initially formed as CBS Corporation spun off

3990-556: The University of Massachusetts Lowell Radiation Laboratory . Sodium-bonded fuel consists of fuel that has liquid sodium in the gap between the fuel slug (or pellet) and the cladding. This fuel type is often used for sodium-cooled liquid metal fast reactors. It has been used in EBR-I, EBR-II, and the FFTF. The fuel slug may be metallic or ceramic. The sodium bonding is used to reduce the temperature of

4095-514: The Vogtle Electric Generating Plant expansion, the first US build of the company's AP1000 design. It emerged from bankruptcy after being purchased by Brookfield Business Partners , a Canadian private equity fund. They sold it to a consortium of Brookfield Renewable Partners and Cameco , a Canadian nuclear fuel and services company. Renewable Partners is the current majority owner of Westinghouse. Westinghouse Electric Company

4200-404: The liquid fluoride thorium reactor (LFTR), this fuel salt is also the coolant; in other designs, such as the stable salt reactor , the fuel salt is contained in fuel pins and the coolant is a separate, non-radioactive salt. There is a further category of molten salt-cooled reactors in which the fuel is not in molten salt form, but a molten salt is used for cooling. Molten salt fuels were used in

4305-509: The 18 to 24 month fuel exposure period. Mixed oxide , or MOX fuel , is a blend of plutonium and natural or depleted uranium which behaves similarly (though not identically) to the enriched uranium feed for which most nuclear reactors were designed. MOX fuel is an alternative to low enriched uranium (LEU) fuel used in the light water reactors which predominate nuclear power generation. Some concern has been expressed that used MOX cores will introduce new disposal challenges, though MOX

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4410-499: The 37-pin standard bundle. It has been designed specifically to increase fuel performance by utilizing two different pin diameters. Current CANDU designs do not need enriched uranium to achieve criticality (due to the lower neutron absorption in their heavy water moderator compared to light water), however, some newer concepts call for low enrichment to help reduce the size of the reactors. The Atucha nuclear power plant in Argentina,

4515-507: The CEO resigning, Toshiba stated that the Westinghouse nuclear business was more profitable than at acquisition in 2006. In December 2016, Toshiba said it expected to write down its investment in Westinghouse by US$ 2.5 billion, adding that it was possible that their investment in Westinghouse could ultimately have a negative worth, due to cost overruns at U.S. nuclear reactors it was building. In February 2017, Toshiba revealed unaudited details of

4620-874: The Chinese supply chain. Westinghouse Electric Company fully owns several subsidiaries in Europe, such as the European Service Center, also called Westinghouse Electric Belgium located in Nivelles , Belgium, where equipment is prepared for projects throughout Europe. After Westinghouse's 1990 takeover of ABB Reaktor in Germany, it transferred radiological storage activities located in Ladenburg , Germany, to consolidate in Nivelles, which had to be extended. Soon afterwards another expansion

4725-726: The Energy Center in Monroeville, Pennsylvania , to Cranberry Woods in Cranberry Township, Butler County, Pennsylvania , as reported in a 2007 memo to its employees that stated the main reason was the rapid expansion of the global nuclear industry. Construction began in July 2007 and the move lasted from June 2009 to December 2010. The Repair, Replacement and Automation Services (RRAS) business segment moved to Cranberry Township earlier than other business segments to help alleviate space issues at

4830-521: The LFTR known as the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment, as well as other liquid core reactor experiments. The liquid fuel for the molten salt reactor was a mixture of lithium, beryllium, thorium and uranium fluorides: LiF-BeF 2 -ThF 4 -UF 4 (72-16-12-0.4 mol%). It had a peak operating temperature of 705 °C in the experiment, but could have operated at much higher temperatures since

4935-475: The TRISO particle more structural integrity, followed by a dense outer layer of PyC. TRISO particles are then encapsulated into cylindrical or spherical graphite pellets. TRISO fuel particles are designed not to crack due to the stresses from processes (such as differential thermal expansion or fission gas pressure) at temperatures up to 1600 °C, and therefore can contain the fuel in the worst of accident scenarios in

5040-478: The US and an additional 35 in other countries. In a fast-neutron reactor , the minor actinides produced by neutron capture of uranium and plutonium can be used as fuel. Metal actinide fuel is typically an alloy of zirconium, uranium, plutonium, and minor actinides . It can be made inherently safe as thermal expansion of the metal alloy will increase neutron leakage. Molten plutonium, alloyed with other metals to lower its melting point and encapsulated in tantalum ,

5145-606: The US, and several other customers had chosen the AP1000, if they were to build new nuclear plants, for a combined total of at least 14 new plants, announced by the NuStart Consortium, Duke Power, Progress Energy, Southern Nuclear and SCE&G. In May 2011 after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster , US government regulators found problems with the design of the shield building of the new reactors. Gregory Jaczko , chairman of

5250-773: The United Kingdom as part of the Dragon reactor project. The inclusion of the SiC as diffusion barrier was first suggested by D. T. Livey. The first nuclear reactor to use TRISO fuels was the Dragon reactor and the first powerplant was the THTR-300 . Currently, TRISO fuel compacts are being used in some experimental reactors, such as the HTR-10 in China and the high-temperature engineering test reactor in Japan. In

5355-452: The United States, spherical fuel elements utilizing a TRISO particle with a UO 2 and UC solid solution kernel are being used in the Xe-100 , and Kairos Power is developing a 140 MWE nuclear reactor that uses TRISO. In QUADRISO particles a burnable neutron poison ( europium oxide or erbium oxide or carbide ) layer surrounds the fuel kernel of ordinary TRISO particles to better manage

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5460-508: The Westinghouse Power Generation Business unit was sold to Siemens of Germany. In 1999, CBS Corporation sold its nuclear business ( Westinghouse Electric Company ) to British Nuclear Fuels Limited (BNFL) and a year later CBS Corporation was merged into Viacom (1971–2005) , putting an end to the original Westinghouse. Legally, Westinghouse Electric Corporation still exists, mainly for the purpose of licensing, as

5565-401: The absence of oxygen in this fuel (during the course of irradiation, excess gas pressure can build from the formation of O 2 or other gases) as well as the ability to complement a ceramic coating (a ceramic-ceramic interface has structural and chemical advantages), uranium carbide could be the ideal fuel candidate for certain Generation IV reactors such as the gas-cooled fast reactor . While

5670-515: The aforementioned fuels can be made with plutonium and other actinides as part of a closed nuclear fuel cycle. Metal fuels have been used in light-water reactors and liquid metal fast breeder reactors , such as Experimental Breeder Reactor II . TRIGA fuel is used in TRIGA (Training, Research, Isotopes, General Atomics ) reactors. The TRIGA reactor uses UZrH fuel, which has a prompt negative fuel temperature coefficient of reactivity , meaning that as

5775-424: The application of the new fuel-cladding material systems for various types of ATF materials. The aim of the research is to develop nuclear fuels that can tolerate loss of active cooling for a considerably longer period than the existing fuel designs and prevent or delay the release of radionuclides during an accident. This research is focused on reconsidering the design of fuel pellets and cladding, as well as

5880-420: The boiling point of the molten salt was in excess of 1400 °C. The aqueous homogeneous reactors (AHRs) use a solution of uranyl sulfate or other uranium salt in water. Historically, AHRs have all been small research reactors, not large power reactors. The dual fluid reactor (DFR) has a variant DFR/m which works with eutectic liquid metal alloys, e.g. U-Cr or U-Fe. Uranium dioxide (UO 2 ) powder

5985-420: The chain-reaction. This mechanism compensates for the accumulation of undesirable neutron poisons which are an unavoidable part of the fission products, as well as normal fissile fuel "burn up" or depletion. In the generalized QUADRISO fuel concept the poison can eventually be mixed with the fuel kernel or the outer pyrocarbon. The QUADRISO concept was conceived at Argonne National Laboratory . RBMK reactor fuel

6090-570: The change of the project to the AP1000 in 1999 and shortly after became the first Generation III+ reactor to receive final design approval from the NRC in 2004. As of 2014, four of these units are under construction in China, though the first was due to come on-line in November 2013. and has been delayed until December 2014. The delay due to the constantly changing, and consequently untested, design prompted Li Yulun, former vice-president of China National Nuclear Corporation, in 2013 to raise concerns over

6195-433: The changes during refueling outages. Unit 1 was uprated in autumn 2008 with a capacity increase of approximately 1,210 to 1,259 MWe and Unit 2, the capacity of which rose from an estimated 1,208 to 1,245 MWe, was uprated in autumn 2009. On September 19, 2008, Luminant filed an application with the NRC for a Combined Construction and Operating License (COL) for two new reactors. The reactor design selected

6300-533: The co-owners of the V.C. Summer plant announced that the project was terminated. On September 24, 2017, the Post & Courier reported that Westinghouse had hired unlicensed workers to create mechanical and electrical blueprints for the V.C. Summer expansion without having a professional engineer sign off on them which was in violation of state law. The blueprints were often faulty and led to significant delays. The U.S. government had given $ 8.3 billion of loan guarantees on

6405-421: The completion of the sale of Westinghouse's holding company to Brookfield Business Partners (a subsidiary of Canadian investment management company Brookfield Asset Management Inc.) and some partners for $ 4.6bn. In October 2022, Brookfield Renewable Partners (another subsidiary of Brookfield Asset Management) and Cameco announced the acquisition of Westinghouse Electric from Brookfield Business Partners in

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6510-510: The coolant and contaminating it. Besides the prevention of radioactive leaks this also serves to keep the coolant as non-corrosive as feasible and to prevent reactions between chemically aggressive fission products and the coolant. For example, the highly reactive alkali metal caesium which reacts strongly with water, producing hydrogen, and which is among the more common fission products. Pressurized water reactor (PWR) fuel consists of cylindrical rods put into bundles. A uranium oxide ceramic

6615-658: The country to fulfill European Commission directives regarding international competition, Westinghouse started to expand its business in France with a Westinghouse team located in Metz in charge of repair, replacement and automation services. By 2005, Westinghouse had 160 employees in France and two-thirds of Westinghouse's business in France was fuel supply. Westinghouse Electrique France is located in Orsay and Manosque near Marseille (engineering development). As of 2014, about 400 employees are part of Westinghouse in France. Westinghouse owns

6720-464: The early 1980s. Combustion Engineering (now Westinghouse) entered into a ten-year technology transfer program with the Korean nuclear industry aiming at self-reliance, which was extended in 1997. In December, 2006, China's State Nuclear Power Technology Company (SNPTC) selected Westinghouse to provide four new AP1000 nuclear power plants. The first was due to come on line in 2013, but has been delayed until

6825-616: The end of 2014. On 7 June 2016, Nuclear Power corporation of India have agreed to begin engineering and site design work for six nuclear power reactors in India and to conclude contractual agreements by June 2017. Westinghouse has been involved in South Africa through support of the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station since the 1990s, both reactors are Westinghouse-licensed. In 2007, Westinghouse acquired IST Nuclear (Pty) Ltd, and won

6930-434: The established PUREX process is used commercially for about a third of all spent nuclear fuel (the rest being largely subject to a "once through fuel cycle"). All nitrogen-fluoride compounds are volatile or gaseous at room temperature and could be fractionally distilled from the other gaseous products (including recovered uranium hexafluoride ) to recover the initially used nitrogen. If the fuel could be processed in such

7035-491: The excess of reactivity. If the core is equipped both with TRISO and QUADRISO fuels, at beginning of life neutrons do not reach the fuel of the QUADRISO particles because they are stopped by the burnable poison. During reactor operation, neutron irradiation of the poison causes it to "burn up" or progressively transmute to non-poison isotopes, depleting this poison effect and leaving progressively more neutrons available for sustaining

7140-407: The fact that the used fuel can be cracked, it is very insoluble in water, and is able to retain the vast majority of the actinides and fission products within the uranium dioxide crystal lattice . The radiation hazard from spent nuclear fuel declines as its radioactive components decay, but remains high for many years. For example 10 years after removal from a reactor, the surface dose rate for

7245-412: The failure modes which occur during normal use (and the manner in which the fuel will behave during an accident) can be studied. In addition information is gained which enables the users of fuel to assure themselves of its quality and it also assists in the development of new fuels. After major accidents the core (or what is left of it) is normally subject to PIE to find out what happened. One site where PIE

7350-421: The final bidding process for new nuclear plants in South Africa, for which it signed an MOU in 2013. IST Nuclear provides services and systems for the pebble-bed reactor . Nuclear fuel Nuclear fuel refers to any substance, typically fissile material, which is used by nuclear power stations or other nuclear devices to generate energy. For fission reactors, the fuel (typically based on uranium )

7455-448: The financing of the four nuclear reactors being built in the U.S. Besides the issues with the AP1000 design, the fuel manufacturing division has been profitable, but not enough to cover corporate overheads and support the other divisions. Research and development investment in fuel manufacturing has been low, which has impacted the quality and comparative performance of its fuel compared to competitors. On 6 April 2018, Toshiba announced

7560-467: The first place. Westinghouse countered that the "confirmatory items" that the commission was asking for were not "safety significant." In November 2011, the AP1000 Oversight Group published a report highlighting six areas of major concern and un-reviewed safety questions requiring immediate technical review by the NRC. The report concluded that certification of the AP1000 should be delayed until

7665-509: The fuel became deformed. In 2015, the European Union awarded $ 2 million in funding to a Westinghouse-led consortium to support the development of a more competitive fuel for the Russian built reactors. In 2018, the contract to supply VVER fuel was extended to 2025. In 2018, Westinghouse, under a further EU-funded project, started developing VVER-440 fuel. In October 2022, Westinghouse

7770-403: The fuel being changed every three years or so, about half of the Pu is 'burned' in the reactor, providing about one third of the total energy. It behaves like U and its fission releases a similar amount of energy. The higher the burnup , the more plutonium is present in the spent fuel, but the available fissile plutonium is lower. Typically about one percent of the used fuel discharged from

7875-403: The fuel is similar to PWR fuel except that the bundles are "canned". That is, there is a thin tube surrounding each bundle. This is primarily done to prevent local density variations from affecting neutronics and thermal hydraulics of the reactor core. In modern BWR fuel bundles, there are either 91, 92, or 96 fuel rods per assembly depending on the manufacturer. A range between 368 assemblies for

7980-850: The fuel mixture for significantly extended periods, which increases fuel efficiency dramatically and incinerates the vast majority of its own waste as part of the normal operational characteristics. A downside to letting the Xe escape instead of allowing it to capture neutrons converting it to the basically stable and chemically inert Xe , is that it will quickly decay to the highly chemically reactive, long lived radioactive Cs , which behaves similar to other alkali metals and can be taken up by organisms in their metabolism. Molten salt fuels are mixtures of actinide salts (e.g. thorium/uranium fluoride/chloride) with other salts, used in liquid form above their typical melting points of several hundred degrees C. In some molten salt-fueled reactor designs, such as

8085-408: The fuel of choice for reactor designs that NASA produces. One advantage is that uranium nitride has a better thermal conductivity than UO 2 . Uranium nitride has a very high melting point. This fuel has the disadvantage that unless N was used (in place of the more common N ), a large amount of C would be generated from the nitrogen by the (n,p) reaction . As the nitrogen needed for such

8190-406: The fuel rods, standing between the coolant and the nuclear fuel. It is made of a corrosion -resistant material with low absorption cross section for thermal neutrons , usually Zircaloy or steel in modern constructions, or magnesium with small amount of aluminium and other metals for the now-obsolete Magnox reactors . Cladding prevents radioactive fission fragments from escaping the fuel into

8295-473: The fuel. Accident tolerant fuels (ATF) are a series of new nuclear fuel concepts, researched in order to improve fuel performance under accident conditions, such as loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA) or reaction-initiated accidents (RIA). These concerns became more prominent after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in Japan, in particular regarding light-water reactor (LWR) fuels performance under accident conditions. Neutronics analyses were performed for

8400-564: The headquarters in Monroeville and was completed in spring of 2008. As part of this move, Westinghouse piloted the first commuter shuttle running an all-day loop between Monroeville and Cranberry Township. The shuttle ceased operation after Westinghouse formally closed, and sold their Monroeville facility in 2012. In 2015, concerns were expressed that the value of assets and goodwill in Westinghouse were overstated. Following an accounting scandal in which profits were overstated at Toshiba, leading to

8505-468: The interactions between the two. Used nuclear fuel is a complex mixture of the fission products , uranium , plutonium , and the transplutonium metals . In fuel which has been used at high temperature in power reactors it is common for the fuel to be heterogeneous ; often the fuel will contain nanoparticles of platinum group metals such as palladium . Also the fuel may well have cracked, swollen, and been heated close to its melting point. Despite

8610-465: The introduction of additional absorbers. CerMet fuel consists of ceramic fuel particles (usually uranium oxide) embedded in a metal matrix. It is hypothesized that this type of fuel is what is used in United States Navy reactors. This fuel has high heat transport characteristics and can withstand a large amount of expansion. Plate-type fuel has fallen out of favor over the years. Plate-type fuel

8715-511: The national uranium company for the Republic of Kazakhstan , for US$ 540 million, leaving Toshiba with 67%. Kazatomprom's ownership was entirely passive, with no voting or veto rights or presence on the board of directors. In September, 2011, Toshiba was reported to be in talks to acquire the Shaw stake and both companies confirmed the story soon thereafter. Shaw CEO James Bernhard said , that Toshiba

8820-420: The neutron cross section of carbon is low, during years of burnup, the predominantly C will undergo neutron capture to produce stable C as well as radioactive C . Unlike the C produced by using uranium nitrate, the C will make up only a small isotopic impurity in the overall carbon content and thus make the entirety of the carbon content unsuitable for non-nuclear uses but

8925-461: The nuclear plants to begin construction prior to 1979, Unit 2 was among the last power reactors to come online in the United States, followed only by Units 1 and 2 at Watts Bar . Vogtle Units 3 & 4 were brought online in 2023 and 2024, respectively. In June 2008, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approved a request to increase the generating capacity of Units 1 and 2 by approximately 4.5% each. Luminant Generation Co. implemented

9030-478: The original and current "unanswered safety questions" raised by the AP1000 Oversight Group are resolved. In December 2011, the UK's Office for Nuclear Regulation published a design assessment report on the AP1000 reactor which highlighted 51 'Generic Design Assessment' issues remaining that must be addressed before the assessment would be completed. In October 2013, US energy secretary Ernest Moniz announced that China

9135-486: The possibility of a runaway reactor meltdown, and providing an automatic load-following capability which is well suited to electricity generation and high-temperature industrial heat applications. In some liquid core designs, the fuel can be drained rapidly into a passively safe dump-tank. This advantage was conclusively demonstrated repeatedly as part of a weekly shutdown procedure during the highly successful Molten-Salt Reactor Experiment from 1965 to 1969. A liquid core

9240-410: The reactor. Stainless steel was used in the past, but most reactors now use a zirconium alloy which, in addition to being highly corrosion-resistant, has low neutron absorption. The tubes containing the fuel pellets are sealed: these tubes are called fuel rods . The finished fuel rods are grouped into fuel assemblies that are used to build up the core of a power reactor. Cladding is the outer layer of

9345-451: The remaining pieces of Westinghouse's industrial concerns, as part of Westinghouse's re-creation as a media company. Portions of their nuclear business were initially purchased by Siemens in 1998 before the remaining parts were purchased by British Nuclear Fuels Limited (BNFL) in 1999 and formed up as Westinghouse Electric. In 2005, BNFL sold the company to Toshiba . The company went bankrupt in 2017 primarily due to ongoing cost overruns at

9450-483: The safety standards of the plant. Citing a lack of operating history, he questioned the manufacturer's assertion that the AP1000 reactor's "primary system canned motor pumps" were "maintenance-free" over 60 years, the assumed life of the reactor, and noted that Westinghouse had yet to receive approval from British authorities on an improved version of AP1000. As of 2019 all four AP1000 reactors in China are operating. As of January 2009, six AP1000 plants had been ordered in

9555-496: The smallest and 800 assemblies for the largest BWR in the U.S. form the reactor core. Each BWR fuel rod is backfilled with helium to a pressure of about 3 standard atmospheres (300 kPa). Canada deuterium uranium fuel (CANDU) fuel bundles are about 0.5 metres (20 in) long and 10 centimetres (4 in) in diameter. They consist of sintered (UO 2 ) pellets in zirconium alloy tubes, welded to zirconium alloy end plates. Each bundle weighs roughly 20 kilograms (44 lb), and

9660-587: The steel pressure vessels, and the two reinforced concrete designs operated at 24.8 and 27 bars (24.5 and 26.6 atm). Magnox alloy consists mainly of magnesium with small amounts of aluminium and other metals—used in cladding unenriched uranium metal fuel with a non-oxidising covering to contain fission products. This material has the advantage of a low neutron capture cross-section, but has two major disadvantages: Magnox fuel incorporated cooling fins to provide maximum heat transfer despite low operating temperatures, making it expensive to produce. While

9765-560: The temperature of the core increases, the reactivity decreases—so it is highly unlikely for a meltdown to occur. Most cores that use this fuel are "high leakage" cores where the excess leaked neutrons can be utilized for research. That is, they can be used as a neutron source . TRIGA fuel was originally designed to use highly enriched uranium, however in 1978 the U.S. Department of Energy launched its Reduced Enrichment for Research Test Reactors program, which promoted reactor conversion to low-enriched uranium fuel. There are 35 TRIGA reactors in

9870-449: The top directly into the fuel bundle. The fuel bundles usually are enriched several percent in U. The uranium oxide is dried before inserting into the tubes to try to eliminate moisture in the ceramic fuel that can lead to corrosion and hydrogen embrittlement . The Zircaloy tubes are pressurized with helium to try to minimize pellet-cladding interaction which can lead to fuel rod failure over long periods. In boiling water reactors (BWR),

9975-407: The use of uranium metal rather than oxide made nuclear reprocessing more straightforward and therefore cheaper, the need to reprocess fuel a short time after removal from the reactor meant that the fission product hazard was severe. Expensive remote handling facilities were required to address this issue. Tristructural-isotropic (TRISO) fuel is a type of micro-particle fuel. A particle consists of

10080-683: Was 1 in 250,000, according to an NRC study published in August 2010. The Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant consists of two operational reactors, two additional units are planned. Westinghouse Electric Company Westinghouse Electric Company LLC is an American nuclear power company formed in 1999 from the nuclear power division of the original Westinghouse Electric Corporation . It offers nuclear products and services to utilities internationally, including nuclear fuel , service and maintenance, instrumentation, control and design of nuclear power plants . Westinghouse's world headquarters are located in

10185-560: Was a U.S. proposal in the George W. Bush administration to form an international partnership to see spent nuclear fuel reprocessed in a way that renders the plutonium in it usable for nuclear fuel but not for nuclear weapons. Reprocessing of spent commercial-reactor nuclear fuel has not been permitted in the United States due to nonproliferation considerations . All other reprocessing nations have long had nuclear weapons from military-focused research reactor fuels except for Japan. Normally, with

10290-565: Was buying Westinghouse Electric Company for $ 5.4bn and announced it would sell a minority stake to investors. The sale surprised many industry experts who questioned the wisdom of BNFL selling one of the world's largest producers of nuclear reactors shortly before the market for nuclear power was expected to grow substantially; China , the United States and the United Kingdom were all expected to invest heavily in nuclear power. After

10395-443: Was formed in 1999, after the original company with that name, George Westinghouse 's Westinghouse Electric , founded in 1886, ceased to exist due to a series of divestitures and mergers through the mid-to-late 1990s. These included Westinghouse Electric's purchase of CBS in 1995, expansion into communications and broadcasting, and the selling off of most non-broadcast operations by 1998, renaming itself CBS Corporation . In 1998,

10500-560: Was necessary as employees in the Brussels office were transferred to Nivelles. It was estimated that 200 people were working in Nivelles at the end of 2011. In 2001, Westinghouse took over Logitest in Les Ulis , France, one of 3 companies qualified to inspect nuclear steam generator plants for Électricité de France . After the French nuclear market partially opened in 2004 to suppliers from outside

10605-627: Was paying US$ 1.6 Bn for the Shaw-owned 20% stake, and that it was the 50% rise in the yen on its yen-denominated debt over five years, which had led it to exercise its sale option. Toshiba said in late 2012 it was open to, and considering, having other partners invest in the business. The purchase closed in January 2013, and brought Toshiba's share in the company to 87% as a result of Shaw exercising its option. After several years of doing business there, Westinghouse decided to move its world headquarters from

10710-540: Was selected to build Poland's first nuclear power plant based on three AP1000 reactors, with possibly a further three at a later date. Westinghouse also has business locations in Italy, Germany, Spain, the UK, Russia, and Bulgaria. In South Korea, Westinghouse has been involved in the construction of new nuclear plants since 1972, with the first plant Kori Nuclear Power Plant starting up in 1977 and in commercial operation in 1978, followed by eight reactors under construction in

10815-400: Was tested in two experimental reactors, LAMPRE I and LAMPRE II, at Los Alamos National Laboratory in the 1960s. LAMPRE experienced three separate fuel failures during operation. Ceramic fuels other than oxides have the advantage of high heat conductivities and melting points, but they are more prone to swelling than oxide fuels and are not understood as well. Uranium nitride is often

10920-411: Was to supply components to the US nuclear power plants under construction as part of a bilateral co-operation agreement between the two countries. Since China's State Nuclear Power Technology Co (SNPTC) acquired Westinghouses's AP1000 technology in 2006, it has developed a manufacturing supply chain capable of supplying international power projects. Industry analysts have pointed out that there are gaps in

11025-548: Was used in Soviet -designed and built RBMK -type reactors. This is a low-enriched uranium oxide fuel. The fuel elements in an RBMK are 3 m long each, and two of these sit back-to-back on each fuel channel, pressure tube. Reprocessed uranium from Russian VVER reactor spent fuel is used to fabricate RBMK fuel. Following the Chernobyl accident, the enrichment of fuel was changed from 2.0% to 2.4%, to compensate for control rod modifications and

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