From nuclear industry

This document gathers pieces of information from around the world concerning nuclear industry. The most relevant ones are as follows. The Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is an American nuclear facility that covers about 2300 km² and a total of 52 reactors have been built there over years since its creation in 1949, most of an original and unique model. INL has been selected by NuScale to home an SMR reactor. The first nuclear reaction occurred in the Olkiluoto EPR in Finland on tuesday 21 december 2021, it is the first reactor to be commissioned in Europe in 15 years. The production of electricity from coal increased by 9% in 2021 worldwide because the development rate of renewable energies was insufficient to cope with the post-Covid economic rebound. The public inquiry has delivered a favourable statement for the Cigeo project of burying radioactive waste at Bure (France). The first Natrium reactor (a 345 MW unit from TerraPower) will be built at Kemmerer (US). The BWRX-300, a small modular reactor developed by GE-Hitachi and based on boiling water technology has been selected to be built on the Darlington site (Canada). 2 high temperature reactors (HTP-PM) were connected to the grid in december 2021 in China. Both reactors are graphite-moderated and helium-cooled and feed a unique turbine of 210 MW. A study shows that the extension of the operating life of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant would improve the reliability of power production in California. The Excell plan that aims to improve quality in French nuclear industry, has given its first results: the rate of reworking welds has fallen from 14% to 9%. (A.C.)