EnergySolutions has been picked to provide waste management systems for two new CPR-1000 reactors being built at Yangjiang.
According to the contract with China Guangdong Nuclear Power Holding Corporation (CGNPC), EnergySolutions will design and supply the liquid waste processing system and solid waste systems for two reactor units of Yangjiang.
CGNPC is building a total of six domestically-designed CPR-1000 reactors at the Yangjiang site in Guangdong Province.
In a statement, EnergySolutions said that its liquid waste processing systems would reduce radioactive effluent discharges from the plants to less than half of China’s current national standard. The EnergySolutions-designed treatment plant replaces the evaporator supplied as standard with the CPR-1000 plant.
“We appreciate the opportunity to work with CGNPC and its subsidiary companies in further developing nuclear power as a vital source of clean energy in China,” said Val Christensen, CEO and president of EnergySolutions.
The CPR-1000 units use cooling water on a once-through basis. EnergySolutions’ system is designed to treat 20,000 m3/year of water, which includes borated water, letdown water and decontamination fluid. The water will be dominated by radioactive cesium (Cs-134, Cs-137) and cobalt (Co-58, Co-60), according to EnergySolutions.
The treatment plant used primarily three decontamination processes; two are chemical and one is physical, the company said. The first, based on an EnergySolutions-designed injection technology, targets colloids, particularly Ag-110. It takes out radioactive organics as well. The second chemical process, also EnergySolutions-designed, uses ion exchange to target specific radionuclides. The third process is an EnergySolutions-designed reverse-osmosis filter system.
The plant dewaters the separated radionuclides, and packs them, with other solid wastes such as spent ion exchange resins and spent filters in 120 cu ft high-integrity fibreglass containers, or HICs. The HICs do not need to be grouted, according to EnergySolutions, and have a package integrity of 300 years. As part of the contract, EnergySolutions will also be responsible for transporting the solid waste to an interim storage site.
HICs have been used in the USA at its Clive, Utah and Barnwell, South Carolina low-level waste repositories. The treatment plant has been installed at more than 20 nuclear power plants in the USA, EnergySolutions said, although it declined to name any.
In the UK, EnergySolutions operate the Wylfa and Oldbury Magnox nuclear reactors and is also responsible for the decommissioning and clean-up of the eight other Magnox sites around England, Scotland, and Wales.EnergySolutions has been picked to provide waste management systems for two new CPR-1000 reactors being built at Yangjiang.
Under the contract with China Guangdong Nuclear Power Holding Corporation (CGNPC), EnergySolutions will design and supply the liquid waste processing system and solid waste systems for two reactor units of Yangjiang.
CGNPC is building a total of six domestically-designed CPR-1000 reactors at the Yangjiang site in Guangdong Province.
In a statement, EnergySolutions said that when the units are equipped with its liquid waste processing systems, the radioactive effluent discharges from the plants would be reduced to less than half of China’s current national standard. The units are
“We appreciate the opportunity to work with CGNPC and its subsidiary companies in further developing nuclear power as a vital source of clean energy in China,” said Val Christensen, CEO and president of EnergySolutions.
The waste treatment system replaces the evaporator supplied as standard with the CPR-1000 plant with a plant that has two chemical and one physical process, the company said.
In the UK, EnergySolutions operate the Wylfa and Oldbury Magnox nuclear reactors and is also responsible for the decommissioning and clean-up of the eight other Magnox sites around England, Scotland, and Wales.
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