News of the world

This document gathers information from nuclear industry throughout the world, the most relevant pieces of information are the following. The pressure vessel of the Ringhals-2 reactor has no defect similar to those discovered last august on Doel-3 reactor. All the pressure vessels built by the same manufacturer as Doel-3 must be inspected. The Quebec government has announced the decommissioning of the Gentilly-2 nuclear power plant. The Chinese government has re-started its nuclear program, the new reactors will have to comply with third generation safety standards. The construction of a nuclear fuel plant has begun in Ukraine, this plant will produce nuclear fuels for VVER-100 reactors. This plant is the fruit of the cooperation between Russia and Ukraine. An opinion poll shows that 45% of people (representing 24 countries) back the development of nuclear energy. All the Japanese power reactors will be equipped with passive auto-catalytic hydrogen recombiners manufactured by Areva. Rolls-Royce will be in charge of the upgrading of the instrumentation and control system of the reactors 1 and 2 of the Ling-Ao plant in China. The Russian Akme-Engineering JSC company has announced the development of SMR, a Small Modular Reactor based on fast neutron technology cooled by lead-bismuth eutectic and with an output thermal power of 280 MW. SMR will developed in cooperation with Czech enterprises. Dominion company has decided to stop the Kewaunee nuclear plant because of its lack of competitiveness due to the low price of electricity in the US midwest region. (A.C.)