Veolia Nuclear Solutions said last week it has picked up its first nuclear remediation contract in Canada.
The nuclear cleanup services branch of French waste management group has been selected to design, build, and commission a system for remediation of intermediate- and low-level waste stored at Canadian Nuclear Laboratories’ shuttered Whiteshell Laboratories in Manitoba.
The former research site — which encompasses the world’s largest organically cooled, heavy-water moderated, nuclear reactor — is being decommissioned, with completion scheduled for 2024.
The Veolia Nuclear Solutions contract, through its Kurion (Canada) Inc. subsidiary, is for five years: design, manufacturing, and commissioning is expected to last for two years, followed by three years of waste treatment.
“This agreement represents a significant endorsement of Veolia Nuclear Solutions’ ability to provide robust, turnkey solutions to our clients,” said Matthew Cole, Veolia Nuclear Solutions’ vice president for access line, said in a press release. “By deploying proven technologies and best-in-class operational capabilities that have successfully dealt with some of the most significant environmental challenges around the globe, Veolia Nuclear Solutions is proud to support Canadian Nuclear Laboratories to safely decommission the Whiteshell Laboratories site.”
Further terms of the contract and the remediation program, including its dollar value and the amount of waste involved, were not immediately available.
Veolia formed its Nuclear Solutions division in late 2016, merging its Kurion, Alaron, and Asteralis subsidiaries under one umbrella. The business offers services in facility restoration, decommissioning, and the treatment of low-and intermediate-level radioactive waste.
Swedish nuclear power provider OKG said this week it would soon start work to move spent fuel from its recently closed Oskarshamn Nuclear Power Plant reactor Unit 1 into interim storage.
The reactor had been scheduled to end operations on June 29 following 45 years of power production. However, it will not be reactivated after an automatic shutdown on Saturday that was prompted by an “operational disturbance,” according to an OKG press release.
Following a short-term outage now underway, the company will begin preparation for transport of Unit 1’s spent fuel into Sweden’s central facility for used fuel from the nation’s 12 reactors. It expects to complete the project in late 2018 or early 2019.
OKG spokeswoman Maria Roth on Wednesday said she did not have details on the amount of used fuel to be transferred or the cost of the effort. The fuel would remain in the national wet-storage site, about 15 miles from Oskarshamn, for at least 30 years before being moved into Sweden’s planned permanent facility.
Unit 2 at the Oskarshamn plant operated from 1974 to 2015. Spent fuel relocation from that reactor is nearly complete, Roth said. All waste from Unit 2 should be in central national storage later this summer, she added.
GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy in January received a three-year contract to support disassembly of the two Oskarshamn boiling-water reactors.
Sweden’s Central Interim Storage Facility for Spent Nuclear Fuel holds roughly 6,500 metric tons of material. All current and future spent fuel from the nation will ultimately be placed in a deep underground repository at Forsmark.
Barbara Rusinko, president of Bechtel’s Nuclear, Security, and Environmental branch, has been elected to the board of directors and executive committee of the Nuclear Energy Institute, the company announced Wednesday.
A mechanical engineer, Rusinko has been with Bechtel for over three decades and active in NEI, the nuclear industry’s lobbying arm, since its formation in 1994. She has worked on projects including the Hanford Site cleanup in Washington state and the Yucca Mountain geologic repository for nuclear waste, becoming president of Bechtel’s NS&E business last September.
The Nuclear, Security, and Environmental division provides services for federal and private customers, including construction of the Uranium Processing Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee through the company’s role in site contractor Consolidated Nuclear Security and completion of construction of the Watts Bar Unit 2 nuclear power plant in the state.
“It’s a distinct honor to be elected to the NEI’s Board of Directors,” Rusinko said in a press release. “I look forward to helping NEI support the advancement of the nuclear power industry.”
Rusinko is also president of Bechtel National, the company’s government services branch. Bechtel National is building the Waste Treatment Plant at Hanford, which will process up to 56 million gallons of chemical and radioactive waste from plutonium production into a glass form for storage.
In February, Business Insider named Rusinko the No. 3 most powerful engineer in the U.S. technology industry.
