We are delighted to be involved in assisting one of our major clients on the design phase of Project Pegasus – AWE Aldermaston's proposed Enriched Uranium Facility . The new facility, known as Project Pegasus by AWE's planners, is the latest development in AWE's site development strategy for modernising and rebuilding the facilities needed to develop and manufacture Britain's nuclear weapons. The new building will house accommodation, storage facilities, material handling areas and ancillary support services. Construction related infrastructure is all proposed including access roads, construction compound, fencing, gates and ancillary facilities”. AWE is responsible for designing and building Britain's arsenal of Trident nuclear warheads. Work at AWE covers the entire life cycle of nuclear warheads; from initial concept, assessment and design, through to manufacture and assembly, in-service support, and decommissioning and disposal. Enriched uranium is used to manufacture components of Trident warheads and also as fuel for nuclear submarine reactors, and AWE operates facilities which are able to store, cast, machine and recycle enriched uranium. However, the uranium enrichment process itself has never been undertaken at AWE and there are no plans to manufacture enriched uranium in new facilities at AWE 4. The UK has obtained enriched uranium for military purposes in the past from the Capenhurst enrichment plant formerly operated by British Nuclear Fuels (which stopped production of enriched uranium for military purposes in 1962) and through exchanges of special nuclear material with the US Department of Energy The Ministry of Defence's total audited stock of highly enriched uranium amounted to 21.86 tonnes in March 2002, and as this is enough to manufacture components for hundreds of nuclear warheads, there are no plans to produce any more ofthe material.AWE wishes to retain its enriched uranium handling capability for the foreseeable future in order to be able to guarantee the reliability of existing Trident warheads and produce a successor to the Trident warhead, should this be required. In order to do this AWE intends to build a new uranium handling facility, which it considers would represent the best value for money option.Currently, uranium processing and storage is undertaken across the AWE Aldermaston site in a number of facilities, some of which were constructed over 40 years ago and are reaching the end of their operational lives. The age and condition of the most important of these facilities, the A45 complex, is a major driving force behind construction of a new enriched uranium facility at Aldermaston. The project to design and build the new facility has been christened 'Project Pegasus' following AWE's tradition of naming site development infrastructure projects after star constellations. Project Pegasus Timetable Planning application submitted: November 2009 'Main Gate' project approval: End of 2010 Construction work commences: Autumn 2011 In service date: 2016 The project has close links with US counterparts at Oak Ridge. Both projects have benefited from trans-Atlantic exchange of information, and the two project teams have been encouraged to share common design elements, analytical approaches to developing safety bases, design and regulatory standards and other information that may be mutually beneficial To meet containment requirements and provide protection from attack by terrorists or others intent on destroying the facility, each building in the complex (except the entrance facility and offices) will have a concrete box structural form with the structure designed to withstand a range of extreme environmental and hazard loadings, including seismic, temperature and blast impact. The building's ventilation system will be designed to move air from areas of low contamination to areas of high contamination, before filtering and discharge from a stack. The facility will also be designed to reduce the risks from criticality, fire, and movements of nuclear material. Within the materials processing areas inside the facility gloveboxes, inert atmosphere, negative air pressure, and other engineered controls would serve to protect workers and the public from exposure to radiological and hazardous materials. Civil and structural design work for Project Pegasus has been carried out and we are now entering the next phase. Interested in joining the teams designing these new facilities, contact one of our recruiters to discuss further. http://www.nuclearjob.co.uk/newsitem.asp?ID=247 27/02/2012 12:23:54 We are delighted to be involved in assisting one of our major clients on the design phase of Project Pegasus – AWE Aldermaston's proposed Enriched Uranium Facility . The new facility, known as Project Pegasus by AWE's planners, is the latest development in AWE's site development strategy for modernising and rebuilding the facilities needed to develop and manufacture Britain's nuclear weapons. The new building will house accommodation, storage facilities, material handling areas and ancillary support services. Construction related infrastructure is all proposed including access roads, construction compound, fencing, gates and ancillary facilities”. AWE is responsible for designing and building Britain's arsenal of Trident nuclear warheads. Work at AWE covers the entire life cycle of nuclear warheads; from initial concept, assessment and design, through to manufacture and assembly, in-service support, and decommissioning and disposal. Enriched uranium is used to manufacture components of Trident warheads and also as fuel for nuclear submarine reactors, and AWE operates facilities which are able to store, cast, machine and recycle enriched uranium. However, the uranium enrichment process itself has never been undertaken at AWE and there are no plans to manufacture enriched uranium in new facilities at AWE 4. The UK has obtained enriched uranium for military purposes in the past from the Capenhurst enrichment plant formerly operated by British Nuclear Fuels (which stopped production of enriched uranium for military purposes in 1962) and through exchanges of special nuclear material with the US Department of Energy The Ministry of Defence's total audited stock of highly enriched uranium amounted to 21.86 tonnes in March 2002, and as this is enough to manufacture components for hundreds of nuclear warheads, there are no plans to produce any more ofthe material.AWE wishes to retain its enriched uranium handling capability for the foreseeable future in order to be able to guarantee the reliability of existing Trident warheads and produce a successor to the Trident warhead, should this be required. In order to do this AWE intends to build a new uranium handling facility, which it considers would represent the best value for money option.Currently, uranium processing and storage is undertaken across the AWE Aldermaston site in a number of facilities, some of which were constructed over 40 years ago and are reaching the end of their operational lives. The age and condition of the most important of these facilities, the A45 complex, is a major driving force behind construction of a new enriched uranium facility at Aldermaston. The project to design and build the new facility has been christened 'Project Pegasus' following AWE's tradition of naming site development infrastructure projects after star constellations. Project Pegasus Timetable Planning application submitted: November 2009 'Main Gate' project approval: End of 2010 Construction work commences: Autumn 2011 In service date: 2016 The project has close links with US counterparts at Oak Ridge. Both projects have benefited from trans-Atlantic exchange of information, and the two project teams have been encouraged to share common design elements, analytical approaches to developing safety bases, design and regulatory standards and other information that may be mutually beneficial To meet containment requirements and provide protection from attack by terrorists or others intent on destroying the facility, each building in the complex (except the entrance facility and offices) will have a concrete box structural form with the structure designed to withstand a range of extreme environmental and hazard loadings, including seismic, temperature and blast impact. The building's ventilation system will be designed to move air from areas of low contamination to areas of high contamination, before filtering and discharge from a stack. The facility will also be designed to reduce the risks from criticality, fire, and movements of nuclear material. Within the materials processing areas inside the facility gloveboxes, inert atmosphere, negative air pressure, and other engineered controls would serve to protect workers and the public from exposure to radiological and hazardous materials. Civil and structural design work for Project Pegasus has been carried out and we are now entering the next phase. Interested in joining the teams designing these new facilities, contact one of our recruiters to discuss further. http://www.nuclearjob.co.uk/newsitem.asp?ID=246 27/02/2012 12:21:13 American safety regulators gave the go-ahead today for the construction of two new nuclear power reactors. The vote by the five-member commission brought to an end a regulatory process lasting almost four years that confirmed the safety of building two Westinghouse AP1000 reactors at the Vogtle site in Georgia. It is the first combined construction and operating licence issued by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Workers stand in the excavated and waterproofed space for Vogtle 3's reactor building (Image: Southern) The review work of the NRC staff was celebrated by the commissioners in a confirmatory hearing today. Four commissioners voted to grant the licence, while chairman Gregory Jazcko abstained. He had wanted the licence issued on condition that Southern Company implement NRC recommendations developed in response to the Fukushima accident in Japan last year and said he "could not support issuing this licence as if Fukushima had not happened." The other commisisoners spoke to respectfully disagree with Jazcko. Kristine Svinicki said: "There is no amnesia individually or collectively regarding the events of 11 March 2011 and the ensuing accident at Fukushima." She added that NRC staff did not recommend and did not support Jazcko's idea of a condition being attached to the licence, "because we found it would not improve our systematic regulatory approach to Fukushima, nor would it make any difference to the safety of operating or planned reactors." Plant owner Southern applied to the NRC to build Vogtle units 3 and 4 in April 2008, and signed an engineering, procurement and construction contract with Westinghouse and its partner Shaw one week later. After a year the company had approval to begin limited construction work. The companies have now cleared and excavated the site, prepared for the concrete foundations of the reactor buildings, laid cooling water piping and put in place the foundations for the huge derrick crane for the simultaneous construction of two reactors. "This is monumental accomplishment for Southern Company and Georgia Power, our partners and the nuclear industry. We are committed to bringing these units online to deliver clean, safe and reliable energy to our customers." Thomas Fanning Southern Company The AP1000 is a modular design and assembly facilities at Vogtle have already made the containment vessel bottom head as well as the first containment vessel ring. They have also started on the biggest module of all, the 840 tonne CA-20, which creates spaces for used fuel storage, transmission, heat exchange and waste collection within the reactor building. 'Major equipment' such as steam generators and reactor vessels were ordered from Doosan of South Korea in June 2008 and work has started on the turbine island and cooling towers. A simulator for operator training was installed in November last year. Once Southern is in possession of the actual licence itself - likely within ten working days - it will be allowed to begin the pouring of concrete for structures related to nuclear safety and the reactors can be said to be officially under construction. The 1107 MWe pressurized water reactors are slated for start-up in 2016 and 2017. Researched and written by World Nuclear News http://www.nuclearjob.co.uk/newsitem.asp?ID=245 10/02/2012 11:24:01 We are delighted to have been awarded an exclusive contract to supply a number of Managerial and Engineering personnel to a new French client who are looking to establish and grow a UK business. They are very keen to hear from fluent French speaking Nuclear Engineers and Managers. In the first instance their preference will be for Electrical, control & Instrumentation biased backgrounds. Please contact us with your French & English CV`s . Interviews will be conducted in French. Various positions will require security clearance and British Nationals but not all. http://www.nuclearjob.co.uk/newsitem.asp?ID=244 19/01/2012 19:51:15 We are delighted to be assisting a major new client in staffing solutions for their Harwell based office. Please see our job pages for specific posts or call and ask to speak with a recruiter to discus this clients requirements. http://www.nuclearjob.co.uk/newsitem.asp?ID=243 19/01/2012 19:38:27 Our services have been engaged to assist in a large scale set of projects requiring Nuclear Technical Engineering expert's to assist in design & development of Nuclear power stations across Europe & Asia. We have a schedule of recruitment for 2012 and will be looking for Electrical Mechanical Civil and Safety Engineers. Ideally you will be at least bi lingual in English, French, German, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Mandarin or Japanese. Current locations for employment are London, Tokyo, Paris, Moscow, Marseilles and Dubai . Please register an initial interest and further job descriptions will be released http://www.nuclearjob.co.uk/newsitem.asp?ID=242 14/10/2011 11:49:44 Nuclear Energy Recruitment Solutions have appointed a new international recruiter to expand our european teams ability to work internationally without langauge barriers hindering progress.. We are now able to effectively work across the most important European sector with our new tri lingual French, German, English recruiter whi is also learning Mandarin. She has over 15 years international Energy Sector Recruitment experience, sourcing senior professional engineering & managerial level candidates. We look forward to reporting upon our Euro expansion progress. http://www.nuclearjob.co.uk/newsitem.asp?ID=241 24/06/2011 17:28:29 Nuclear Energy Recruitment Solutions have appointed a new international recruiter to expand our european teams ability to work internationally without langauge barriers hindering progress.. We are now able to effectively work across the most important European sector with our new tri lingual French, German, English recruiter whi is also learning Mandarin. She has over 15 years international Energy Sector Recruitment experience, sourcing senior professional engineering & managerial level candidates. We look forward to reporting upon our Euro expansion progress. http://www.nuclearjob.co.uk/newsitem.asp?ID=240 24/06/2011 17:27:24 We are delighted to have been awarded further contracts to support French clients entering into the UK Nuclear sector. We have a number of positions all with technical engineering backgrounds, ideally degree level qualifications in Electrical Engineering as a base. We have sales engineering, Business Development Support, Tendering & Bid management, Electrical Project Engineers and Electical Consulting Engineers. You should ideally have an intermediate level French and above, able to converse and present in French. Target audience is the UK Nuclear sector, Design Build Maintain repair refurbish Electrical related Nuclear Facilities. This will eventually lead to Nuclear new build programmes of work. Please register your interest and book your registration interview with one of our recruiters. http://www.nuclearjob.co.uk/newsitem.asp?ID=239 13/05/2011 16:33:44 European "stress tests" follow Fukushima accident In response to EU energy ministers agreeing on their need, the Western European Nuclear Regulators' Association (WENRA) has proposed “stress tests” for European nuclear plants - targeted reassessment of the safety margins of those plants in the light of the events at Fukushima. For a given plant, the reassessment will report on the most probable behaviour of the plant for each of the situations considered. The results may indicate a need for additional technical or organisational safety provisions. The scope of the assessment will take into account: Earthquake and/or flooding exceeding the design basis, other extreme external conditions leading to loss of safety functions, prolonged total loss of electrical power, prolonged loss of the ultimate heat sink.??Accident management issues will include core melt accident, including consequential effects such as hydrogen accumulation, and degraded conditions in the spent fuel storage.??Consideration should be given to: automatic actions, operators' actions specified in emergency operating procedures, and any other planned measures of prevention, recovery and mitigation of accidents. The situation outside the plant and the possibility of several units being affected at the same time will be taken into account. Clear guidance for each scenario will be developed by WENRA. Since the licensee has the prime responsibility for safety, it is up to the licensees to perform the reassessments, and the regulatory bodies can then independently review them expeditiously and publish them. WNN 23/3/11. Safety of NPP We are already experiencing demand for Safety Critical Analysis & Assessment Engineers to bolster existing teams for a number of clients in the UK. Please register your details and call to discuss with one of our recruiters. http://www.nuclearjob.co.uk/newsitem.asp?ID=238 31/03/2011 18:29:53 Page puts the Fukushima incident in its proper perspective: The Fukushima reactors actually came through the quake with flying colours despite the fact that it was five times stronger than they had been built to withstand. Only with the following tsunami – again, bigger than the design allowed for – did problems develop, and these problems seem likely to end in insignificant consequences. The Nos 1, 2 and 3 reactors at Daiichi may never produce power again – though this is not certain – but the likelihood is that Nos 4, 5 and 6 will return to service behind a bigger tsunami barrier. The lesson to learn here is that if your country is hit by a monster earthquake and tsunami, one of the safest places to be is at the local nuclear powerplant. Other Japanese nuclear powerplants in the quake-stricken area, in fact, are sheltering homeless refugees in their buildings – which are some of the few in the region left standing at all, let alone with heating, water and other amenities. Nothing else in the quake-stricken area has come through anything like as well as the nuclear power stations, or with so little harm to the population. All other forms of infrastructure – transport, housing, industries – have failed the people in and around them comprehensively, leading to deaths most probably in the tens of thousands. Fires, explosions and tank/pipeline ruptures all across the region will have done incalculably more environmental damage, distributed hugely greater amounts of carcinogens than Fukushima Daiichi – which has so far emitted almost nothing but radioactive steam (which becomes non-radioactive within minutes of being generated). And yet nobody will say after this: “don’t build roads; don’t build towns; don’t build ships or chemical plants or oil refineries or railways”. That would be ridiculous, of course, even though having all those things has actually led to terrible loss of life, destruction and pollution in the quake’s wake. But far and away more ridiculously, a lot of people are already saying that Fukushima with its probable zero consequences means that no new nuclear powerplants should ever be built again. Lets pray for common sense to prevail . Written by Lewis Page from the Register http://www.nuclearjob.co.uk/newsitem.asp?ID=237 22/03/2011 11:04:54 Workers continued to restore external power to the stricken Fukushima Daiichi units, although work was briefly interrupted when smoke was seen coming from unit 3. Efforts at the plant have been helped by assistance from both domestic and foreign companies. Workers at the site have already successfully connected an external power cable to the distribution switchboard for units 1 and 2. The integrity of each of the unit's electrical systems is being investigated before they are connected. Efforts to restore an external source of electricity to units 3 and 4 are continuing. At unit 4, cabling has been completed from a temporary substation to the main power centre. External power for units 3 and 4 should be in place 'in a few days' time', according to Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco). External power has already been connected to unit 5 and 6, allowing them to use their residual heat removal systems and transfer heat to the sea. This has been used to cool the fuel ponds and bring the units to cold shutdown status, meaning that water in the reactor system is at less than 100ºC. Tepco said that at 11.36am today, the service power supplied by emergency diesel generators in units 5 was partially restored through a transmission line using a power receiving facility of unit 6. At around 3.55pm, light grey smoke was seen coming from the fifth floor of the reactor building of unit 3. Tepco said that employees working around the unit were temporarily evacuated to a safe location. Monitors in the reactor pressure vessel and the containment vessel showed no change in the temperature or pressure, while no increase in radiation levels was detected. The amount of smoke was seen to decrease as investigations into its cause took place. The injection of seawater into the used fuel storage pond at unit 2 started yesterday. Tepco reported that a temporary water tank and a hose had been connected to the existing pool water clean-up system of unit 2 and seawater was now being pumped into the pond using a fire engine's pump. The company said that it is presumed that all the used fuel in the pond had been fully submerged before the seawater injection started. The water level is estimated to have since risen by some 30 centimetres thanks to the injection of 40 tonnes of seawater. Tepco said that a total of 12 fire engines are now being used to spray water into the used fuel pools and for water injection to cool the reactors. In addition, the Self-Defense Force has sent two of its tanks to the Fukushima-Daiichi site. These will be used as bulldozers to remove debris at the plant, clearing a path for further vehicles and equipment to access facilities at site. The steel plating of the tanks will help provide radiation protection to the workers within them. Industry assistance Several nuclear industry companies, both in Japan and overseas, have offered assistance to help in the efforts to stabilize the Fukushima units. Japan's Hitachi said that it established a 24-hour emergency response centre at its head office to assist in repair and recovery operations at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. The company said that engineers had been dispatched to work on joint teams formed in collaboration with Tepco and the Japanese government. Hitachi said it is also assisting in the procurement of materials required for on-site operations, and is providing support for work efforts. Toshiba has assigned some 700 workers to help in the work to increase the stability of the Fukushima Daiichi reactors, according to a Bloomberg report. The company was dispatching 100 workers to the Fukushima site today, a company spokesman said. Meanwhile, France's Areva has chartered a plane to take 3000 activated charcoal protective masks, 10,000 overalls and 20,000 gloves to Japan. In addition, the aircraft will also carry 100 tonnes of boric acid – a neutron absorber – supplied by EDF. French rescue workers left for Japan last week with radioactivity detection equipment provided by Areva subsidiary Canberra. Areva said that equipment in its Tokyo offices had already been made available to Japanese security teams. Groupe Intra –owned by EDF, CEA and Areva – maintains a fleet of robotics machines which can be used in the event of a major nuclear accident. Groupe Intra was formed in 1988 and is based on the industrial site of EDF's Chinon nuclear power plant. Although intended to be used at facilities belonging to its owners, the company has announced that it will ship robots and specialised equipment to Japan to help efforts at the Fukushima plant. Some 130 tonnes of equipment left for Tokyo on a giant Russian-built Antonov-225 transporter plane at the weekend. The shipment includes equipment to respond to radiological emergencies in hostile environments, including sampling equipment and remotely operated equipment. Researched and written by World Nuclear News http://www.nuclearjob.co.uk/newsitem.asp?ID=236 22/03/2011 10:33:11 We have recieved a number of approaches from European companies with an interest in expanding their operations across Europe`s Nuclear Energy Engineering Sector. We are currently retained and working for a number of well known international clients looking to appoint various senior posts over the next six months. We are looking for :- Tri Lingual Spanish French German & English, alternative languages also considered. Country Manager/Director Commercial Manager Contracts Manager Business Development Director Bid /Tender Manager Technical Director (Electrical) Oportunities currently based in Paris, Bonn, London & Madrid all positions will require extensive European travel. Please register your details and contact one of our team on the senior appointments http://www.nuclearjob.co.uk/newsitem.asp?ID=235 18/03/2011 14:17:03 We are experiencing increased demand for French speaking Engineers. We have a number of clients looking for French fluency alongside Electrical, Mechanical , Control & Instrumentation & Managerial Construction roles. Clients based in the UK & France have a number of senior engineering positions with Permenant posts for Paris, Marseille, Flammenville, Caderache as well as secondments to France for periods of upto three years. In addition we have a number of French Subcontractor firms looking for UK based security cleared Engineers with French languages skills to lead UK roles. Principle Electrical Engineer Principle EC & I Engineer Principle Safety Engineer Principle Environmental Engineer Principle Mechancial Design Engineer Please contact one of our recruiters to discuss your application. http://www.nuclearjob.co.uk/newsitem.asp?ID=234 18/03/2011 14:05:41 Japanese nuclear accident ongoing The magnitude 9.0 Miyagiken-Oki earthquake at 2.46 pm on 11 March did considerable damage, and the tsunami it created caused even more. It was centred 130 km offshore of the city of Sendai in Miyagi prefecture on the eastern cost of Honshu Island. Eleven reactors at four nuclear power plants in the region were operating at the time and all shut down automatically when the quake hit. Power was available to run the cooling pumps at most of the units, and they have since achieved cold shutdown. However, at Tepco's Fukushima Daiichi plant, where three reactors were shut down by the earthquake, the emergency diesel generators started as expected but then shut down an hour later when submerged by the tsunami. This sealed the fate of those reactors and led the authorities to order, and subsequently extend, an evacuation while engineers worked to restore power. About nine hours later mobile power supply units had reached the plant and were being connected. Meanwhile units 1-3 had only battery power, insufficient to drive the cooling pumps. The operating units which shut down were Tepco's Fukushima Daiichi 1, 2, 3, Fukushima Daini 1, 2, 3, 4, Tohoku's Onagawa 1, 2, 3, and Japco's Tokai. Onogawa 1 briefly suffered a fire in the non-nuclear turbine building, but the main problem centred on Fukushima Daiichi units 1-3. First, pressure inside the containment structures increased steadily and led to this being vented to the atmosphere on an ongoing basis. Vented gases and vapour included hydrogen, produced by the exothermic interaction of the fuel's very hot zirconium cladding with water. Later on 12th, there was a hydrogen explosion in the building above unit 1 reactor containment, and another one two days later in unit 3, from the venting as hydrogen mixed with air. Then on 15th, unit 2 ruptured its pressure suppression chamber under the actual reactor, releasing some radioactivity. Inside, water levels had dropped, exposing fuel, and this was addressed by pumping seawater into the reactor pressure vessels. The heat from the fuel is now about 3 MW thermal in unit 1 and 4.5 MW in units 2 & 3. Then a separate set of problems arose as the spent fuel ponds in the upper part of the reactor structures were found to be depleted in water. In unit 4, the fuel there got hot enough to form hydrogen, and another hydrogen explosion destroyed the top of the building and damaged unit 3's superstructure further. The focus since has been on replenishing the water in the ponds of units 3 and 4, with some success, through the gaps in the roof and cladding. Unit 4 is undergoing maintenance, and all its 548 fuel assemblies are in that pond, along with other new and used fuel, total 1535 assemblies, giving it a heat load of about 3 MW thermal, according to France's ISRN. Unit 3's pool contains 566 fuel assemblies. (There are also 6375 assemblies in undamaged central pool storage on site and 408 in dry cask storage.) Japan's Nuclear & Industrial Safety Agency eventually declared the accident as Level 5 on INES scale - an accident with wider consequences, the same level as Three Mile Island in 1979. As of early 18 March, no radiation casualties were reported, and few other injuries, though higher than normal doses were being accumulated by several hundred workers on site. http://www.nuclearjob.co.uk/newsitem.asp?ID=233 18/03/2011 13:55:04