Sizewell B gets 20-year life extension; SMR agreements signed around the world

Sizewell B, on the Suffolk coast of England, has been granted a 20-year life extension. The nuclear power plant, which began operating in 1995, will now remain in operation until 2055. Sizewell B owner and operator EDF Energy agreed to make extra investments to maintain the facility, with additional investment funds coming from Centrica, which owns a 20 percent share in EDF's U.K. reactors.

Sizewell B is the latest nuclear power plant to reach agreement with the U.K. government on continuing operations. Heysham-2, in Lancashire, and Torness, in East Lothian, Scotland, had their lifetimes extended to 2030, after having been slated to shut down in 2018. Heysham-1 and Hartlepool, in Teesside, England, which were expected to close in 2008, received extensions until 2028.

Meanwhile, new nuclear projects will be coming on line in the coming years. Construction has begun on two Framatome EPR pressurized water reactors at Sizewell C, and Hinkley Point C is ahead of Sizewell C with its pair of EPRs now expected around 2030. The government is also supporting plans for small modular reactors, which may begin operating in the 2030s.

NATO agreement on Indo-Pacific SMR deployment: At the recent NATO Summit in Ankara, Turkey, officials from the United States, Japan, and South Korea signed a memorandum of cooperation to establish a framework on accelerating SMR deployments. The deployments are to be in other countries, initially in the Indo-Pacific region. According to the U.S. State Department, the envisioned framework "aims to foster fleet deployment models that derisk project development, achieve economies of scale, catalyze private investment, streamline licensing processes, and optimize supply chains."

The agreement calls for American, Japanese, and Korean companies to provide partners in the Indo-Pacific region with "more competitive alternatives" to meet their energy needs, while upholding standards of nuclear safety, security, and nonproliferation. In support of the memorandum's plan, the State Department's Foundational Infrastructure for Responsible Use of Small Modular Reactor Technology (FIRST) Program is committing $10 million in new funding to provide technical assistance to Indo-Pacific countries. This funding is meant to advance SMR development activities, including the establishment of an SMR Regional Training Hub for workforce development.

SMR investment in Buenos Aires: The government of Argentina has announced that the U.S.-Argentine firm Meitner Energy plans to invest $1.2 billion to construct a 300-MW SMR at the Atucha nuclear power plant site, north of Buenos Aires. Government spokesperson Adrián Ravier said at a press conference last week that the unit will be the "first nuclear reactor financed 100 percent by private capital" in Argentina, and that the project would create jobs for about 2,000 people during development, construction, commissioning, and operation.

The Argentine government's national nuclear plan, unveiled last year, includes plans for four ACR-300 SMRs at the Atucha site, with a unit construction timeline of five years. The ACR-300 has been under development by the Argentine company INVAP.

The announcement of the Meitner investment came a week after about 100 employees of the National Atomic Energy Commission were reportedly dismissed, leading to two manager resignations and protests outside of the commission headquarters in Buenos Aires.

Russia-Rwanda SMR agreement: A road map agreement for joint work on an SMR project in Rwanda has been signed by representatives of the African nation and Russia in Moscow. Rosatom deputy director Kirill Komarov and Rwanda Atomic Energy board chair Lassina Zerbo signed the agreement at the first meeting of the countries' Joint Coordinating Committee on Cooperation in the Field of Atomic Energy Use, where discussions also covered cooperation in nonenergy applications of nuclear technologies. Such applications include establishment of a Nuclear Science and Technology Center, creation of national nuclear infrastructure, and human resources development in Rwanda.

In 2018, Russia and Rwanda signed an intergovernmental agreement on cooperation in the peaceful uses of atomic energy. In 2019, they signed an agreement to construct the Nuclear Science and Technology Center, which is to include a 10-MW research reactor. The new Joint Coordinating Committee is designed to help Rwanda move toward "substantive and regular work across all areas of its nuclear program," with Rosatom serving as a partner at every stage of the process.