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Technical Review Middle East - Issue Six 2012
Power & Water
technologies for uranium extraction from phosphoric acid produced by phosphate rock miner and fertiliser producer, Jordan Phosphate Mines Company (JPMC). JPMC’s man mining operation is at Eshidiya in southern Jordan. But Jordan does not intend to enrich its own uranium to fuel its planned nuclear power operations in the near term, JAEC Public Affairs Section Head, Inas Shatnawi, confirmed. She said the Kingdom plans to use imported nuclear fuel, at least in the early years of nuclear power generation, while the uranium Jordan produces would be sold internationally, helping to provide part of the funding for the nuclear power plant (NPP). Jordanian officials have said that for strategic and economic reasons Jordan’s government cannot renounce its right to enrich its own uranium for nuclear power fuel. The Kingdom is a signatory to the United Nations nuclear non-proliferation treaty. But the US, among others, wants Jordan to emulate the UAE, which secured final approval to go-ahead with the first two of four planned NPPs at Baraka in July, and buy-in the enriched uranium for nuclear power generation. The UAE has signed deals not to enrich uranium itself or to reprocess spent fuel and has awarded fuel supply contracts to six international companies, including Areva and Rio Tinto. It is unlikely that Jordan would enrich its own uranium for the planned NPP, said an industry analyst. “There would be much opposition to such a move,” he said. “And there would be the capital cost of setting up the facilities to consider, coming hot on the heels of building the nuclear power plant.” Jordan’s Committee for Nuclear Strategy, established in 2007, set out a programme for nuclear power to provide 30 per cent of the Kingdom’s electricity by 2030 and provide for exports. Domestic electricity demand is projected to double by 2030 from the present day, and is expected to translate into a total electricity generation capacity need of 8,000 MWe by 2030, according to WNA, and require more than 15,000 MWe of capacity by 2040 up from 2,662 MWe in 2007, according to JAEC. Jordan envisages ultimately building three or four NPPs. According to JAEC’s Shatnawi, the Kingdom aims to have its first NPP in operation sometime between 2020 and 2025. The commission in May announced that it had short-listed two bidders to supply the technology for the proposed plant, and aims to award the contract in March or April 2013. Areva, in a 50:50 joint venture with
www.jaec.gov.jo
Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries named ‘Atmea’, is proposing the Atmea-1 reactor, a Generation 111+ plant with 1,100 MWe of power generating capacity, which has yet to built anywhere. Atomstroyexport, part of Russia’s Rosatom, has proposed its 1,100 MWe capacity AES-92 reactor. Interestingly, in July Areva and Rosatom signed a MoU for studying opportunities of strengthening their mutually beneficial cooperation in the nuclear sector. JAEC said the evaluation of technology suppliers took into account “the highest safety requirements, including lessons learned from Fukushima”. WorleyParsons worked with JAEC providing prepreconstruction consultancy services under a US$11.3mn contract awarded in 2009. That contract came to an end this past August. JAEC and the two successful bidders are now working to resolve certain outstanding technical issues, including the completion of the site selection process. According to Shatnawi, a final selection of the NPP site has not yet been made. However, attention is focused on a site in the vicinity of Jordan’s main wastewater treatment plant, Kherbat Al Samra, near Majdal in Al Mafraq province some 40 km north of Amman. Belgium’s Tractebel Engineering, a GDF Suez subsidiary, is working with JAEC on the plant siting. A site close to Aqaba was originally considered but the seismic characteristics of the Al Samra site are seen as much better. Additionally, cooling water for the NPP will be available via the treatment of wastewater at the Al Samra plant. Work is underway on a cooling system model based on that at
the Palo Verde NPP in Arizona, US. JAEC said the final stage of the technology selection process will be performed in parallel with the search for a strategic partner which would invest in and operate the NPP. The commission has said it would try and find a compatible “match” of technology supplier and strategic operator. The expectation is that a utility company from the technology supplier country would team with Jordan as the strategic partner and investor. Shatnawi confirmed that the commission expects to select the strategic investor/operator by March or April next year, but declined to name contenders. Under JAEC’s proposal, it is likely that the NPP will be owned and operated under a public-private partnership, with the strategic investor providing up to half the funding to build the plant. According to Shatnawi, the current idea is for the strategic partner to have full operational control of the NPP for say the first five years of its operation, by which time Jordan will have developed local nuclear expertise. ■
R&D Building of a 5 MW research and test nuclear reactor at the Jordan University of Science and Technology at Al-Ramtha recently got under way. The reactor, which is being built by a consortium comprising Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute and Daewoo, is slated to be operational by 2015. JAEC said and will serve as a training ground for Jordanian nuclear engineers and physicists who will man the country’s planned NPP in the future.