Three steps backward, three steps forward.
That is, essentially, the score for the nuclear power industry on a global scale this week as two companies, Entergy in the United States and OKG in Europe, announced they would close three reactors before their operating licenses had run out. To balance that out, two reactors in China and one in Japan reached significant milestones in the week.
Entergy said it would close the Pilgrim Nuclear Generating Station near Plymouth, Mass, by June 1, 2019, citing economic factors – mostly related to record low natural gas prices – and government policies that favored hydro power from Canada. The unit's operating license – representing significant costs for maintenance and upgrades – was good through June 8, 2032.
In Europe, OKG said it would shutter Oskarshamn Unit 1 and 2 in Sweden, while leaving intact and running the 1400 MWe Unit 3 boiling water reactor at the facility, operating from 1985. The older units still had years of viable commercial operations. They were put on line in 1972 and 1974, respectively.
Moving forward, the Kyushu Electric Power utility in Japan said they had fired up the second reactor at the Sendai Nuclear Power Plant, an 890 MW pressurized water reactor. It is the second reactor activated in Japan – save for one temporary activation due to an energy shortage – since the country's fleet of 48 reactors were closed down in the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi disaster of March 2011.
Sendai Unit 1 was reactivated in August and has since gone commercial.
From an emotional point of view, Japan is ground zero. Protestors gathered outside the plant as Unit 2 was brought back to life – a radioactive Frankenstein to some. To others, it is a clean, affordable power source in troubled environmental times.
In China, the gains were notched by the two reactors, Changjiang 1 and Yangjiang 3, both of which obtained a sustained chain reaction for the first time. Both are scheduled to begin commercial operations this year, according to the World Nuclear Association.
Compared to other nations, China is not only setting the pace with 26 reactors under construction, but setting impressive shovel to start up times. Site work for the Changjiang 1 began in 2008 and the first concrete pouring began in April 2010. A second unit at the facility, Chanjiang 2, is about a year behind the first.
China National Nuclear Corporation said Changjiang Unit 1, a 650 MWe CNP-600 pressurized water reactor, reached criticality on Oct. 12.
One day prior, on Oct. 11, China General Nuclear said that the third unit (out of six planned) at the Yangjiang nuclear power plant had reached criticality.
The first four units at Yangjiang in the Guangdong province are 1080 MWe CPR-1000 pressurized water reactors. The next two reactors, Units 5 and 6, are ACPR-1000 reactors.
The final unit for the facility is expected to go online in 2019.