Controversy Surrounds Sale of U.S. Reactors to China

By John Glenn

Proposed sale of reactors to China opposed by multiple interests but may offer hope for U.S. commercial reactor development.

China wants and needs to build reactors to meet its energy needs in the next century. Meanwhile, U.S. vendors such as Westinghouse, General Electric and ABB-Combustion Engineering have developed new designs to replace the current, aging generation of U.S. light water reactors. Considerable investments of time and money have been made to develop and assess the safety of these new designs by the vendors and the U.S. government. Between $10 and $20 billion in U.S. exports and thousands of U.S. jobs could result before 2010,if sales are permitted under the 1985 Peaceful Nuclear Cooperation (PNC) agreement.

Opposing Forces

Leading up to the summit with Chinese President Jiang Zemin, President Clinton agreed to certify, as required by the PNC, that China has stopped selling nuclear technology to third world nations such as Pakistan and Iran. Congress will review this change in policy pursuant to legislation passed in 1989 following the suppression of dissidents in Tiananmen Square in 1989. The advanced technologies that would be transferred relate more to improved efficiency and more reliable safety systems rather than to enhanced weapons production capability. However, the Chinese desire for these plants provides an opportunity to get nuclear proliferation and human rights issues discussed and for possible Chinese concessions.

In addition, the anti-nuclear forces within the environmental movement oppose the building of the plants based on environmental and safety issues. In part, the strength of this opposition may be the perception that the U.S. nuclear industry must have these sales to survive until, or if, U.S. energy providers decide to build the next generation of nuclear reactors. Similar strong environmental opposition has arisen in Canada to that government's proposal for sales of CANDU reactors to China.

Role of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Export of power reactors or power reactor components must be licensed by the NRC under its regulations in 10 CFR part 110. Chairman Jackson in an October 30, 1997, answer to questions from NRC employees noted:

"NRC is the export licensing agency for the export of nuclear technology for the U.S. Government, but that occurs under the umbrella of what is called the Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy Agreement, which we already have with China, but it is one that has not been fully implemented heretofore because of a number of concerns in areas related to nuclear export controls and China's activities with countries with which we had some difficulty, such as Iran.

In fact China has put into place a new export control regime both from the point of view of their laws as well as joining a nuclear suppliers group known as the Zangger Committee and giving assurances that it will not export nuclear technology to countries whose facilities are not safeguarded, and then more recently in writing some specific commitments to the President vis-a-vis its cessation or non-engagement of activities with Iran. If the President certifies China with respect to these requirements and the Congress accepts that, then the Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy Agreement can be fully implemented, but even once that occurs the NRC has a specific responsibility on a case by case basis each time there is an export license application to make certain determinations vis-a-vis the safeguarding of nuclear facilities in the country to which the export would be made and with respect to inimicality questions with respect to national defense and security. So there are specified requirements and determinations that we have to make on a case by case basis as we consider whether to issue an export license in each instance.

If, in fact, the activity picks up, and I think U.S. vendors certainly expect the activities to pick up, then our activities in those areas will also pick up. The Commission reviews those license applications on a case by case basis because of the national security and safeguards issues involved."

Standardized Reactor Designs

The design certification process defined by the NRC in 10 CFR Part 52 requires an applicant to provide the technical information necessary to demonstrate compliance with the safety standards set forth in NRC regulations. Applicants for design certification must also provide information related to the resolution of unresolved and generic safety issues, issues that arose after the accident at the Three Mile Island plant, and a design-specific probabilistic risk assessment (a detailed analysis of the design's vulnerability to certain accidents or events).

A Part 52 approval is expected to reduce the time for review of a specific application to construct and/or operate a facility using an approved design. Several standard designs have been submitted to NRC. These designs and current regulatory status are described in the following summaries:

Brief Design Descriptions

Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR): The General Electric ABWR design is a single-cycle, forced circulation, boiling water reactor with a rated power of 1300 megawatts electric (MWe). The uses improved electronics, computer, turbine, and fuel technology. The design is expected to show improvement in plant availability, operating capacity, safety, and reliability. The design also includes safety enhancements such as containment over pressure protection, passive core debris flooding capability, an independent water makeup system, three emergency diesels, and a combustion turbine (an alternate power source).

ABB-Combustion Engineering's System 80+: The System 80+ Standard Plant design uses a 1300 MWe pressurized water reactor. It is based upon evolutionary improvements to the standard CE System 80 nuclear steam supply system and the Cherokee-Perkins balance-of-plant design developed by Duke Power Co. ABB-CE and its partners are sharing in design activities. The System 80+ design has safety systems that provide emergency core cooling, feedwater and decay heat removal. The new design also has a safety depressurization system for the reactor, a combustion turbine (which is an alternate AC power source), and an in-containment refueling water storage tank.

Westinghouse AP600: The AP600 is a 600 MWe advanced pressurized water reactor that incorporates passive safety systems and simplified system designs. The passive systems use natural driving forces without active pumps, diesels, and other support systems after actuation. Active non-safety-related systems provide redundant active functions powered by non-safety-related equipment to support normal operation and minimize unnecessary use of passive safety-related systems.

Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (SBWR): The SBWR uses a 600 MWe boiling water reactor with simplified power generation, safety, and heat removal systems. The basic objectives of this design are to reduce the power generation costs, simplify plant safety, and reduce construction times based on existing technology. The SBWR uses natural circulation for coolant flow through the reactor. The emergency core cooling is provided by a gravity-driven core cooling system that reduces piping and eliminates pumps and the need for safety related diesel generators.

CANDU 3U: The CANDU 3U design is a single-loop, pressurized heavy water reactor rated at 450 MWe with two steam generators, four heat transport pumps. The design utilizes natural uranium fuel, separate heavy water moderator and reactor coolant, computer-controlled operation, and on-line refueling. Except for its smaller size and evolutionary design improvements, the CANDU 3U is similar in design to a number of CANDU reactors operating in Canada and other places in the world.

Modular High Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor (MHTGR): The MHTGR is a helium-cooled and graphite-moderated thermal power reactor. The fuel is millions of ceramic coated microspheres distributed in cylindrical rods which are inserted in large hexagonal graphite blocks. The blocks are stacked vertically within the reactor vessel through which pressurized helium coolant is circulated. The design includes passive reactor shutdown and decay heat removal features to minimize required reactor operator actions.

Process Inherent Ultimate Safety (PIUS): PIUS is a 640 MWe advanced pressurized water reactor designed by ABB-Atom of Sweden that utilizes natural physical phenomena to accomplish control and safety functions. The PIUS design consists of a vertical pipe, called a reactor module, which contains the reactor core and is submerged in a large pool of highly borated water. The reactor core is comprised of fuel elements that are similar to current PWR elements. The borated pool water is provided to shut down the reactor and to cool the core by natural circulation. Unlike most reactors, PIUS does not use control rods for controlling the nuclear chain reaction. The reaction is controlled by the boron concentration and temperature of the primary loop reactor water.

Power Reactor Innovative Small Module (PRISM): PRISM is a small, modular, pool-type, liquid-sodium cooled reactor. The reactor fuel elements are cylindrical tubes containing pellets of uranium-plutonium-zirconium metal alloy. The reactor size permits use of passive shutdown and decay heat removal features. The standard plant consists of nine reactor modules arranged in power blocks of three reactor modules of 465 MWe. Each module is located in its own below-grade silo and is connected to its own intermediate heat transport system and steam generator system. The steam generator and secondary system hardware are located in a separate building and are connected by a below-grade pipe-way. All the reactors on the site share a common control center, reactor maintenance facility, remote shutdown and radwaste facility, and assembly facility.

Design Review Status

ABWR: The NRC issued the final design safety evaluation report (NUREG-1503) for the ABWR in July 1994. The proposed ABWR design certification rule was revised and the final rule issued May 12, 1997.

System 80+: The NRC issued the final safety evaluation report (NUREG-1462) for System 80+ in August 1994.. The final rule was issued May 21, 1997.

AP600: On November 30, 1994, the NRC issued a Draft Safety Evaluation Report (DSER) which identified a number of issues to be resolved during the AP600 design certification review. In support of the passive design, Westinghouse established a comprehensive test program for the AP600. Testing was completed in 1994. The NRC is currently evaluating the data from all of Westinghouse's design certification test programs. The Final Design Analysis and Final Safety Evaluation Report are expected to be issued in the spring 1998.

Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (SBWR): GE Nuclear Energy submitted an application for final design approval and design certification of its SBWR design on August 27, 1992. In March 1996 GE announced the cancellation of the SBWR design certification application with an intent to shift the focus of its SBWR programs to plants of 1000 MWe or larger. The NRC closed out its review activities in early 1997.

CANDU 3U: NRC review of the CANDU 3U design has been terminated. Atomic Energy of Canada, Limited Technologies (AECLT) requested by letter dated March 9, 1995, that all NRC work on the CANDU 3U design certification review be discontinued because of anticipated high cost of NRC's review and the lack of any near-term market in the U.S.

MHTGR: An NRC review of the MHTGR design, sponsored by the Department of Energy (DOE), started in 1986. A draft Pre-application Safety Evaluation Report (PSER) was provided to the Commission in SECY-95-299 on December 19, 1995. At the request of DOE in March 1996, the review was terminated after a PSER had been issued to DOE for comment.

PIUS: In October 1989, ABB-Atom requested the NRC to perform a licensability review of its PIUS reactor design. However, since then, the NRC and ABB-CE have agreed that further work on the pre-application review of PIUS would not be meaningful given the limited NRC resources available. There is no projected date for a design certification application.

PRISM: DOE submitted the conceptual design for PRISM to NRC for pre-application review in November 1986. The NRC published a draft PSER in September 1989. DOE amended their design document in 1990 in response to NRC comments in the draft PSER. The NRC completed its review and published the final PSER (NUREG-1368), February 1994. There is no projected date for a design certification application.

Worldwide Nuclear Reactor Status

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, during 1996, construction of three new nuclear reactors started - two at Qinshan in China, and one at Onagawa in Japan - bringing the total number of nuclear reactors reported as being under construction to 36 in 14 countries at the end of 1996.

Nuclear power's share of electricity production stood at 40% or higher in nine countries in 1996: Lithuania, 83.4%; France, 77.4%; Belgium, 57.2%; Sweden, 52.4%; Slovak Republic, 44.5%; Switzerland, 44.5%; Ukraine, 43.8%;Bulgaria, 42.4%; Hungary, 40.8%. All in all, 17 countries and Taiwan, China relied upon nuclear power plants to supply at least a quarter of their total electricity needs.

Worldwide in 1996, total nuclear generated electricity grew to 2300 Terawatt-hours (TWh). This is more than the world's total electricity generation - 1912 TWh - from all sources in 1958. Overall nuclear power plants provided approximately 17% of the world's electricity production in 1996. Cumulative worldwide operating experience from civil nuclear reactors at the end of 1996 was over 8135 years.

As of May 1997, total in operation: 444; under construction: 35
Note: This total includes Taiwan, China where six reactors are in operation.

John Glenn is a consultant in nuclear materials handling and radiation protection. He has held several posisitions at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatry Commission including chief of the Radiation Protection and Healt Effects Branch, chief of the Medical, Academic and Commercial Use Safety Branch, and chief of the Nuclear Materials Safety Section Region I.