We mark the passing of year 2012 with a sense of satisfaction derived from numerous new accomplishments and milestones for our Company garnered by the diligence and perseverance of our associates here in the U.S. and overseas. We extend our year-end greetings to our clients, our personnel at all eight operation centers, and our suppliers who have helped make 2012 a memorable year of solid achievements for our Company.

Holtec International’s® Nuclear Power Division (NPD) received several new dry and wet spent fuel storage contracts from domestic as well as overseas clients. The number of nuclear plants that have adopted (under contract) our dry storage systems continued to grow in 2012 reaching forty-eight (48) reactor units in the U.S. and twenty-five (25) overseas.

The year 2012 also witnessed a record number of HI-STORM systems (95 overpacks containing over 4300 fuel assemblies) deployed. Out of 15 reactor units that loaded HI- STORMs this year, 10 utilized the services of our Site Services business unit. Holtec’s Site Services business unit can rightfully boast an enviable safety record (no recordable injuries) and an exceptional ALARA record (setting new low dose records for a number of sites). As of the end of 2012, nearly 28,000 fuel assemblies reside in the more than 540 Holtec supplied casks.

Several new technologies including the Shielded Transfer Cask (STC) for inter-unit wet transfer, and the HI-SAFE system for storing non-fuel waste were also debuted in 2012. Holtec’s innovative STC (patent pending) has thus far completed 10 inter-unit transfers relocating 120 spent fuel assemblies in their native wet state between two spent fuel pools at one site with exceedingly low crew dose. The use of the STC is the first-of-a- kind wet transfer cask to be implemented by Holtec in the industry. Another site successfully loaded over 200 control rod blades and other activated waste including stellite balls into Holtec supplied HI-SAFE systems (patent pending).

Photos of Holtec Newly Deployed Technologies: STC (left) and HI-SAFE during Fit-Up Testing at HMD (right)

Perhaps the most substantial event in the Company’s dry storage program in 2012 is the development of HI-STORM Consolidated Interim Storage (CIS). This ventilated storage system is compatible with every supplier’s canister and will store canisters underground (for maximum security) in a “double decker” arrangement to dramatically reduce the size of the Consolidated Interim Storage Facility envisaged by the Blue Ribbon Commission.

The development of our small modular reactor, SMR-160, continued apace in 2012 with nine new patent filings and completion of the preliminary design of all safety significant systems. Signing of the Memorandum of Agreement with the USDOE to build the first SMR-160 at the Savannah River National Laboratory grounds and the initiation of a number of topical reports, that quantify the various safety margins in SMR-160, which began in 2012, will continue into the next year.

All three of our manufacturing plants: Pittsburgh, PA (HMD); Orrville, OH (Orrvilon); and Lakeland, FL (NMD) continued their enviable record of near 100% on-time deliveries and an excellent safety record with reportable incidents a fraction of the national average. The shop floor space at HMD was expanded to over 600,000 sq. feet and outfitted with millions of dollars of new machinery to enhance the plant’s capabilities. The Holtec Training Center, established in 2011 at HMD, continued to evolve as the centerpiece of our drive for excellence in pool-to-pad cask loading operations by providing a hands-on learning experience for both Holtec and our clients’ personnel.

Stack-Up Configuration Station (Left) and Automated Welding System Station (Right) at the Holtec Training Center

Holtec’s Power Plant Components Division (PPCD), specializing in heat transfer equipment, engineered and delivered a large number of auxiliary heat exchangers for nuclear plants and feed water heaters/surface condensers for combined cycle plants to its worldwide clients. The Air Cooled Condenser Business unit of PPCD scored a technology home run in 2012 by successfully bonding aluminum fins to a stainless steel obround tube, an achievement that will make air cooled condensing possible for power plants in water challenged areas and in marine environments.

In closing, we would like to wish all of our readers a healthy and prosperous New Year.

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We regret to report that the country’s first NRC licensed consolidated interim storage facility planned for the Goshute reservation in Skull Valley, Utah, by Private Fuel Storage, LLC (PFS, LLC) has ceased due to opposition from the Department of Interior. PFS, LLC, an entrepreneurial group consisting of eight utilities in February 2006, secured a hard won approval from the NRC to build an autonomous consolidated interim storage facility comprised of up to 4,000 HI-STORM 100 systems, capable of storing a total of 40,000 tons of uranium. During the licensing process (1997-2006), the state of Utah litigated PFS’s application before the NRC and following approval in 2006, appealed NRC licensing decisions to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The resulting ASLB proceedings (ca. 2001-2005) were a spectacular success for PFS, LLC. The three panel Board agreed that the HI-STORMs buttressed steel and concrete cylindrical construction will maintain complete radiological confinement if struck by an F-16 aircraft laden with 1,100 gallons of fuel. The Board also ruled that the freestanding HI-STORMs will remain stable under a 10,000-year return earthquake postulated for the Skull Valley site. As a point of comparison, Fukushima, like most plants, was reportedly qualified for a 100-year earthquake.

Analysis of F‐16 Crash into HI‐STORM Array

Despite the NRC granted license and subsequent affirmation of the reliability of the dry storage system by the nation’s highest nuclear board, the Skull Valley project died on December 21, 2012 when PFS, LLC withdrew their unused license in the face of implacable opposition from the Department of Interior, who refused to give transit passage to the railcars bearing HI-STAR off-site transport casks since the transport casks would need to pass over Indian lands overseen by the Department on the way to Skull Valley.

Over the past decade, since helping secure the license for Skull Valley, Holtec has moved on to develop a belowground version of HI-STORM; ushering in a storage technology that is orders of magnitude more resistant to missiles, aircraft, earthquakes, and other calamitous events than the aboveground counterpart certified by the NRC and approved by the ASLB. As the public becomes educated in the physical ruggedness and assured safety of the underground HI-STORM technology, perhaps the new HI-STORM CIS sites will hopefully be met with a hospitable political environment for the sake of our country’s beleaguered used fuel management program.

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We are pleased to announce the start of manufacturing of the latest Holtec nuclear storage and transport container, a version designed for Ukraine, christened the Double Wall Canister (DWC). Start of manufacturing was recently approved by the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant after the Ukrainian nuclear regulator issued a “no-objection” certificate of Holtec’s design for DWC deployment at the Interim Spent Fuel Storage Facility-2 at Chernobyl. The DWC, shown in a dissected cutaway view in the figure below, is composed of two concentric stainless steel canisters that provide two non-degradable barriers against leakage of radioactivity to the environment. While the outer canister bears the brunt of the aggressive elements in the surrounding environment, the inner canister, protected from the ambient on both its inside and outside surfaces, can be counted on to last for centuries as a leak tight confinement vessel. As a result, the DWC has emerged in certain regulatory circles as the dream embodiment for extended interim (a century or longer) storage of used nuclear fuel. The initial manufacturing authorization is for five (5) DWCs with 231 DWCs ultimately being supplied by Holtec to store all of Chernobyl’s in-tact spent nuclear fuel. The manufacturing of the DWC for Ukraine’s Chernobyl plant (see photo of the shop bay below) is expected to be soon followed by a parallel program that will produce DWCs for EDF Energy’s Sizewell B Plant, located on the east coast of the United Kingdom.

DWC Manufacturing Station in the Fabrication Bay at HMD

“The DWC meets and exceeds the high bar of safety demanded both by the customer and regulator here in Ukraine. We are honored to have served as the catalyst for bringing forth this new milestone technology to the global dry storage industry. It should be re-assuring to the people of Ukraine that Chernobyl’s used nuclear fuel will reside in the most robust and impregnable containers deployed in the world at this time,” says Mr. Riaz Awan, Holtec’s VP in charge of Ukraine & Eurasia, based in Kiev, Ukraine.

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We are pleased to note, over the past two years, Holtec’s Power Plant Component Division (PPCD) has emerged as a prominent supplier of heat transfer equipment for Nuclear Power Plants. PPCD has designed, fabricated, and supplied numerous heat exchangers and other heat transfer equipment for Nuclear Power Plants based in the U.S. and overseas. Each piece of heat transfer equipment identified below was fabricated at Holtec’s Manufacturing Division (HMD) located in Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania. HMD is a 657,000 sq. feet state-of-the-art manufacturing facility, holding ASME stamps including Section VIII, Section III (Nuclear) and ISO certifications.

In addition, over the past three years, HMD’s punctuality in delivery of the heat transfer equipment, which includes several extremely large steam surface condensers and feedwater heaters has steadily improved, reaching nearly one hundred percent (100%) on-time delivery performance in 2012.

Annotated photos of some typical auxiliary heat exchangers for nuclear plants recently designed and supplied by PPCD are shown below:

Two (2) Low Pressure Feedwater Heaters for a PWR in South Carolina

Two (2) Moisture Separator Reheater (MSR) Shell Drain Heat Exchangers for a PWR in Florida

One (1) RHR Heat Exchanger for a BWR in Pennsylvania

Two (2) Replacement Lube Oil Cooler Tube Bundles for a PWR in Florida

Sixteen (16) Reactor Cooling Pump Heat Exchangers for AP 1000 Nuclear Power Plants in China

Six (6) Intermediate and High Intermediate Pressure Feedwater Heaters for a BWR in Minnesota

Two (2) CCW Feedwater Heaters for a PWR in Pennsylvania

Three (3) Sampling Heat Exchangers with Helical Coil for a PWR in Slovenia

Helical Coil for the Sampling Heat Exchangers

PPCD is a stand-alone business unit of Holtec International with the corporate mission to provide state-of-the-art custom engineered heat exchangers, pressure vessels, systems, and structures to fossil power, nuclear power, and renewable energy plants around the globe. PPCD is located at the company’s Corporate Technology Center in Marlton, New Jersey.

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Holtec has continued its technology leadership in the wet storage of nuclear fuel this past year with new contracts for development of high density racks for the latest generation reactors (APR-1400 and ABWR), for capacity expansion at operating plants, and for site construction services in which the Company has a storied past of heroic achievements going back to the 1980’s. A new milestone in site services was reached last month when the Company successfully de-gassed storage cells at a U.S. Nuclear Plant using remote means, liberating eight (8) used fuel assemblies that had lain entrapped in constricted storage cells for decades. Other pioneering undertakings in 2012 included analyses (and technical solutions, as needed) of Fukushima inspired events such as severe earthquakes, boron dilution, postulated loss of water, and energy impacts of wind born projectiles entering the spent fuel pool. A new passive pool cooling technology, named HI-COOL, was also developed for retrofit at operating plants.

The contracts initiated in 2012 include the APR-1400 for Barakah Units 1-4 under construction in the United Arab Emirates. Under an agreement signed with Toshiba America Nuclear Energy Corporation (TANE), Holtec will leverage its high seismic fuel rack design and analysis methodology to develop freestanding storage racks for the Combined Operating License Application (COLA) for South Texas Project Units 3 & 4. A similar agreement with Westinghouse a few years ago has led to the design and licensing of high density racks for AP-1000 followed by (the ongoing) supply of rack modules for VC Summer Units 2 & 3, Vogtle Units 3 & 4, and four (4) AP-1000 plants in China (see photo). Separately, the Company is carrying out the development of a state-of-the-art rack design for MHI’s US-APWR design certification.

Holtec has supplied wet storage racks to some 95 nuclear units in the US and almost one quarter of all operating plants in the world. The number of storage cells installed in the world’s fuel pools exceeds 170,000 at the time of this writing.This market dominance has been sustained by a string of technical innovations in all facets of fuel rack technology over the past quarter century. Among the notable hardware achievements is the introduction of industry’s (first porosity-free) metal matrix composite, Metamic®, at the turn of the century that has become the industry’s mainstay for reactivity control. Metamic has earned this status by permanently eliminating the risk of neutron absorber degradation and off-gassing that had plagued fuel racks since the inception of the high density racks in the late 1970s.

Experimentally validated dynamic simulation of the entire array of underwater free standing racks in a single dynamic model introduced in 1989, known as the Whole-Pool-Multi-Rack Analysis, is another vital technology bequeathed to industry by Holtec’s R&D, which has become an indispensable means for safety analysis of densely arrayed racks in fuel pools.

Similar pioneering analysis techniques for critically safety analysis and for analysis of beyond-design-basis accidents such as loss of pool water, uncontrolled lowering of loads in the pool, missile impact, and the like spawned by Fukushima, have been deployed to serve our clients needs around the world. Our decades-long drive to ensure that our clients’ in-plant fuel storage meets the most stringent criteria of safety will continue as we move forward into 2013.

AP-1000 (Region I) Rack Module
Fabricated at Holtec Manufacturing Division (HMD)
for Vogtle NPP

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We are pleased to announce the successful completion of our Friction Stir Welding (FSW) development program for joining Metamic-HT®; a nano-particle reinforced Metal Matrix Composite (MMC) that serves both as the neutron absorber and as the structural material of the fuel baskets in Holtec’s latest model Multi-Purpose Canisters (MPC) and transportation casks.  The successful demonstration and qualification of the joining process, the development of which began in earnest after the certification of Metamic-HT by the USNRC in 2009, now gives Orrvilon the option to utilize FSW instead of the previously planned Metal Inert Gas (MIG) welding process.

Trial runs on full-size panels have shown that FSW produces a sound joint configuration that is both visually and structurally superior to that obtained from conventional welding methods. Benefits of FSW include the virtual elimination of the heat affected zone and  residual stresses, which reduces the overall joint distortion that is generally prevalent in other welding methods.

In perhaps the swiftest transfer from R&D to manufacturing, Orrvilon is on schedule to incorporate this superior joining technology in the manufacturing of Metamic-HT baskets within the next month.  All procedure qualification and quality prerequisites required to introduce FSW in the manufacturing program are complete.  The FSW fixtures are in the process of being fine-tuned and a provisional patent application describing the novel aspects of the joining technology has been filed.

Located in Orrville, Ohio, Orrvilon is Holtec’s newest ISO-9000 certified fabrication facility with over 300,000 square feet of shop floor space, bringing Holtec’s U.S. manufacturing capacity to 1,000,000 square feet (93,000 square meters). A noted supplier of complex aluminum shapes, Orrvilon specializes in the manufacture of extruded and fabricated components made of a wide variety of exotic alloys. Manufacturing of the Metamic-HT baskets and Metamic (Classic) tubes is presently a major part of Orrvilon’s long term backlog.

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Holtec International is pleased to announce the Company has signed a contract with Exelon Generation Company, LLC (Exelon) to provide the HI-STORM FW (Holtec International Storage Module Flood and Wind) Dry Cask Storage System containing the MPC-89 for deployment at Clinton Power Station (Clinton), located near Clinton, Illinois. Exelon’s selection of Holtec’s highest capacity dry cask storage system, marks Exelon’s first implementation of the HI-STORM FW, enabling Clinton to store 89 used fuel assemblies in oversized storage cells with as little as three (3) years of cooling time.

Holtec® was awarded the Dry Storage contract through a competitive bidding process. Holtec’s contract includes the initial supply of eight (8) HI-STORM FW and MPC-89 systems, as well as one (1) HI-TRAC VW (VW for Variable Weight) transfer cask, and all necessary ancillaries to support Clinton’s initial dry storage loading campaign in 2015.

Clinton is the sixth Exelon site to implement Holtec’s dry cask storage systems. Exelon currently has over 110 HI-STORM 100 systems (the predecessor to Holtec’s highest capacity HI-STORM FW System) loaded at Braidwood, Byron, Dresden, LaSalle, and Quad Cities combined. Exelon’s selection of the HI-STORM FW for use at Clinton permits a maximum heat load of over 46 kW in the MPC-89. This high heat load provides Clinton the flexibility to develop an optimized loading strategy through the end of plant operation. The entire multi-purpose canister basket in the MPC-89 is manufactured from the industry’s first nano-particle based neutron absorber material, Metamic-HT. The low weight of the Metamic-HT fuel basket frees up valuable weight for adding shielding to the transfer cask. All equipment will be domestically fabricated at Holtec’s manufacturing facilities; namely at the 660,000-square-foot Holtec Manufacturing Division (HMD), located in Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania and at the 300,000-square-foot Orrvilon facility located in Orrville, Ohio.

Mr. Max Hollinden, Exelon’s Project Manager, stated “The higher capacity was the primary driver for selection of the MPC-89 System. This should lead to reduced duration of campaigns and associated reduced dose to the workers.”

Ms. Joy Russell, Holtec’s VP of Business Development, thanked Exelon for continuing to place their confidence in Holtec and added, “Holtec is pleased to be selected by Exelon to continue to serve their dry storage needs with the addition of Clinton to the fleet of Exelon sites located in the Midwest already using the HI-STORM system. We are committed to the successful execution of the dry storage project at Clinton and look forward to continuing to build upon our long-term partnership with Exelon.”

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We are pleased to announce the appointment of Tom Marcille to the position of Vice President of Engineering and Chief Nuclear Officer of Holtec’s wholly owned subsidiary, SMR, LLC. Most recently, Tom’s efforts were focused on the development of NuScale Power, a Corvallis, Oregon-based reactor developer, as their VP of Engineering and COO. Tom spent four years building the newly created company from the ground up, serving as its chief technical savant from February 2009 until February 2013 when a reorganization under the Company’s new owner, Fluor Corporation, led to Tom’s separation.

Prior to Tom’s employment at NuScale, he served as Chief Engineer at Los Alamos National Laboratory for advanced reactors for five years. Tom helped strengthen the laboratory’s naval reactor program by developing complex nuclear energy solutions, building effective teams and strategic partnerships, spearheading the development of efficient and effective engineering processes and producing a large body of technical work.

Mr. Marcille spent the first half of his career at General Electric (GE), steadily rising in the ranks as an NSSS designer, principal technologist, and fuels subject matter expert. He left GE for Los Alamos in 2004 to pursue his passion for the advancement of cutting edge nuclear reactor design.

Tom has been on the commercial side of the LWR and advanced nuclear reactor development business for his entire career. His reactor design and engineering experience includes in-depth work on the ABWR (U.S., Japan and Taiwan), ESBWR, GE-PRISM and NuScale power plants.

Tom is excited to join Holtec International’s SMR, LLC as Vice President and Chief Nuclear Officer. In his own words, “I’m very fortunate to have the opportunity to join a truly outstanding company, with unmatched design and manufacturing capabilities; one committed to developing and delivering a uniquely safe, secure and cost-effective SMR power plant”.

Tom reports to Dr. Bill Woodward, Senior Vice President, SMR, LLC. Dr. Woodward hailed the addition of Tom to the Company. Dr. Woodward stated, “We are pleased to welcome Tom, a high caliber engineer and one of our industry’s most experienced executives. We look forward to his contributions to our SMR-160 development team. NuScale’s loss is our gain.”

SMR, LLC, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Holtec International, based in Marlton, NJ. SMR, LLC’s core mission is to make the nuclear power generation unconditionally safe and an unobtrusive and benign presence in its host community. By exploiting gravity as the sole propellant in its reactor’s operation and keeping the reactors output sufficiently small, SMR, LLC aims to transform the manner in which nuclear reactors are designed and operated.

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For South Carolina, which is historically among the most nuclear loyal and nuclear savvy states in the union, an active interest in Department of Energy’s announced plans to provide partial funding to eligible SMR developers is quite natural. The state, that has seven operating reactors on its soil and whose Savannah River National Laboratory was at the forefront of America’s nuclear efforts during the Cold War, is now poised to host the rise of the emerging global industry in small modular reactors (SMR). Evidently mindful of the huge pay-off in well-paying jobs and growth of the nuclear technology infrastructure that the selection of the right partner will bring, a mid-state consortium of business groups, academic institutions, and nuclear operators (called “NuHub”) along with statewide counties and chambers of commerce spent nearly two years evaluating the competing SMR technology developers. We are delighted to report that the state government and NuHub along with its allied organizations across the state announced their decision on March 19, 2013, selecting Holtec as their sole SMR supplier. Reinforcing their commitment, NuHub and the coalition of regional institutions along with the State committed to work exclusively with Holtec to help us make our case to the DOE for the R&D funds for our SMR-160. The proposal for the second round federal funding opportunity from the U.S. DOE for small modular reactor (SMR) development is due on July 1, 2013, with the DOE anticipating making award(s) by January 16, 2014.

The State’s press release quotes Governor Nikki Haley expressing her enthusiasm for Holtec’s SMR technology: “We have a tremendous opportunity to be a global leader in nuclear technology by developing the nation’s first small modular reactors,” said South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley. “Holtec International is a highly competitive firm in SMR technology, and we are excited to partner with them.”

Secretary of Commerce Bobby Hitt agreed, noting “The nuclear industry has a robust history in South Carolina, due in part to partnerships that span local, regional and state and federal boundaries. Our statewide team approach to attracting business investment and jobs will serve a strong company like Holtec International well, and strategically position South Carolina to continue to lead the advanced manufacturing renaissance in a number of sectors including the nuclear industry.”

Mr. Steve Byrne, Chief Operating Officer and President of Generation and Transmission for South Carolina Electric & Gas added: “SCE&G has a long-standing relationship with Holtec at our current nuclear plant, V.C. Summer, and we hope to bring our new nuclear construction expertise to the table to support the development of the project.”

Among those extending an enthused welcome to Holtec are the counties in the southern part of the State that include and surround the Savannah River Site (SRS). As reported in Holtec Highlights issue HH 27.01, the DOE established a “memorandum of agreement” (MOA) with SMR, LLC (a Holtec International company) in December 2011 to host the construction of the first SMR-160 at SRS. The state’s and local community support for our technology completes the “virtuous circle” necessary to bring the project to fruition.

As a global leader in power generation technologies, Holtec has designed an indigenously developed SMR. Holtec’s SMR-160 is a 160 MW pressurized water reactor that has been designed to withstand the most severe natural disasters by relying on gravity under all operating and emergency conditions. Holtec International hails DOE’s support for SMR development and South Carolina’s all-out support for the Company’s SMR program.

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We are pleased to announce the successful completion of the largest initial loading campaign at an operating reactor in the U.S. On November 10th, the twelfth and final HI-STORM 100 cask for this campaign was successfully placed on the ISFSI pad at D.C. Cook Nuclear Power Plant (DC Cook). Completion of this loading campaign marks the close of the first campaign of a long-term project awarded by American Electric Power (AEP) to Holtec International (Holtec®) to assist AEP in establishing the dry spent fuel storage program at DC Cook. Holtec’s scope included performing many key facets of the engineering effort, fabrication of all ancillary equipment, fabrication of 16 HI-STORM 100 systems, completion of the NRC Dry Runs, and completion the loading operations for the first campaign at DC Cook.

Implementation of the dry spent fuel storage program at DC Cook ensued during the months of August through November with DC Cook’s first loading campaign. During this initial campaign the cask loading team safely loaded 384 PWR fuel assemblies into twelve MPC-32 canisters for safe storage within Holtec’s vertically ventilated HI-STORM 100 overpacks. This loading campaign provided a 157% increase in the DC Cook spent fuel pool capacity, removing 236.03 kW from the spent fuel pool, and providing sufficient capacity to the plant to allow full core off-loads for each refueling into 2015.

DC Cook set an ambitious overall dose goal budget for their first campaign of 3.404 Rem for the twelve cask campaign, which is under 285 mrem per cask. Attesting to the extensive experience and talent of the members of Holtec’s site services team, the exceptional support of the site radiation protection staff, and the exemplary stewardship of the project provided by AEP’s Mr. Paul Carteaux and Mr. Gary Weber, this goal was met with ample margins and without a single safety incident; touting the lowest dose cask loading at a mere 165 mrem. Mr. Larry Weber, AEP’s Senior Vice President and Chief Nuclear Officer, stated “AEP/D.C. Cook and Holtec worked very well together to get these great results. These results don’t happen by accident.”

The project also features the successful implementation of a Holtec designed Lateral Seismic Restraint (LSR) System. The LSR provides lateral support and stability to the HI-STORM/HI-TRAC stack-up configuration while the lift yoke is disengaged from the HI-TRAC prior to, during, and subsequent to MPC downloading operations, occurring in the plant’s Truck Bay.

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We are pleased to announce the first HI-STORMs have been loaded and placed on the ISFSI at ANAV’s Ascó Nuclear Power Plant in Tarragona, Spain. This two (2) HI-STORM campaign came to a successful close in May bringing the total number of HI-STORM systems loaded in Spain to fourteen (14). Ascó is a twin unit Westinghouse PWR, each unit is rated at approximately 1000 MW(e). The plant site is approximately a 2-hour drive from Barcelona in the country’s northeast region.

ENRESA awarded Holtec a contract in 2008 following a competitive bidding process under which Holtec has completed the first phase, including licensing the HI-STORM 100 and HI-STAR 100 Systems in Spain to accommodate the Ascó spent nuclear fuel, damaged fuel, and non-fuel hardware. The supply of ten (10) HI-STORM 100 systems and the compliment of ancillary equipment not presently owned by ENRESA was completed in March 2013. ENRESA and ANAV are both pleased with Holtec’s support throughout this project and during the loading campaign.

“This is a major milestone in the Ascó Project and I would like to congratulate ENRESA, ANAV, and Holtec’s project teams for this success.” said Holtec’s Senior Vice President of International Projects, Dr. Bill Woodward.

“It has been a long process and we feel proud of the successful culmination of this initial loading campaign” said Jordi Estrampes, ANAV’s dry cask team leader and Reactor Engineering and Nuclear Safeguards Supervisor at the Ascó Nuclear Power Plant.

“I would like to thank all the multidisciplinary project team for their commitment and its efficacious accomplishment” added José A. Gago, ANAV’s General Manager & CEO.

Dr. Pablo Zuloaga, Engineering Director of ENRESA added, “It is the hard work and dedication of all team members that has made this project a success.”

The ISFSI can hold up to 32 HI-STORM overpacks, each storing an MPC-32 containing 32 PWR fuel assemblies. It will cover the dry storage needs for the two Ascó units until the Spanish centralized interim spent fuel storage facility (ATC) is commissioned in 2017.

Holtec has three ongoing projects in Spain, Ascó, Jose Cabrera, and Trillo. Jose Cabrera, which has already completed successful loading of their HI-STORM systems, will be utilizing Holtec’s HI-SAFE technology later this year to store Greater Than Class C waste (GTCC).

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We are pleased to announce the signing of a new contract on June 7, 2013 between Holtec and Synatom to develop, license, and supply a high capacity cask for inter-unit wet transfer of used fuel at Tihange NPP. Synatom, responsible for managing the entire fuel cycle of the Belgian nuclear power plants, selected Holtec following a competitive international bidding process. Holtec’s new cask, named the  HI-STAR 120, will be designed to comply with the essential requirements of an IAEA certifiable transport cask and will be licensed in Belgium by the Federal Agency for Nuclear Control (FANC) for use at the Tihange site. Designed for transport in the wet (flooded) condition, the HI-STAR 120 cask will enable low temperature transport of fuel with as little as 24 months post-reactor cooling time. The design will account for the complex chemical, mechanical, and thermal interactions inherent to wet transport conditions.

Mr. Wim de Clercq, Chairman of Synatom, and Mr. Robert Leclere, Chief Executive Officer of Synatom, welcomed Holtec to the company’s distinguished list of able suppliers during the contact signature ceremony. Holtec’s President and CEO, Dr. Kris Singh, assured Synatom’s managers and executives that the Company understands the challenges inherent to designing a wet transfer cask and will spare no efforts to ensure safety, ALARA objectives, and to fully meet the expectations of FANC.

Dr. Richard Springman, Holtec’s Business Development Manager for International Projects, led Holtec’s biding efforts with Synatom and its engineering specialist, Tractebel. Synatom’s project team is led by Mr. Luc Janssen, Manager of the Reprocessing and Waste Department and Ms. Anne Boogaerts, Project Manager. Mr. Janssen expressed his personal confidence in Holtec’s capabilities to complete the project successfully.

Holtec successfully designed and licensed a wet transfer system for Entergy’s Indian Point Energy Center (IPEC) in the United States in 2012. The wet transfer system for IPEC has been used for two successful transfer campaigns thus far, completing eight transfers in September 2012 and an additional eight transfers in January 2013.

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We are pleased to announce Holtec International has signed three separate contracts with STP Nuclear Operating Company (STPNOC) for engineering services, equipment supply, and equipment installation for the South Texas Project (STP) nuclear facility. The facility is located on over 12,000 acres near Bay City, Texas, about 90 miles southwest of Houston. It consists of two Westinghouse Pressurized Water Reactors, which combined produce about 2,700MW each.

Under the first of the three contracts, Holtec will perform criticality analyses for the fuel storage racks located in the new fuel vault, spent fuel pool, and in-containment storage area of each STP unit. The objective of the criticality analyses is to develop optimized fuel storage patterns. Holtec will also perform/update the existing SFP boron dilution analyses to account for the cask transfer channel and cask loading area being in use, and for water additions necessary for cask handling and cask decontamination activities. Under the second STPNOC contract, Holtec will perform the installation of four existing fuel storage racks. Holtec will relocate the racks from their current storage location at STP and install two of the spent fuel storage racks in the fuel storage pool of each Unit.

In a long-term contract extending beyond decommissioning of STP Units 1 and 2, Holtec will provide the HI-STORM FW (Holtec International Storage Module Flood and Wind) Dry Cask Storage System including the MPC-37, and perform pool-to-pad cask loading services. Holtec was awarded the dry storage contract through a competitive bidding process. Holtec’s contract includes the initial supply of twelve HI- STORM FW systems, one HI-TRAC VW (VW for Variable Weight) transfer cask, all necessary ancillaries, and the performance of pool-to-pad cask loading services to support STPNOC’s initial dry storage loading campaign in 2016. Holtec will also perform engineering services to support the deployment of the dry storage systems.

The HI-STORM FW system is currently licensed to store the long STP fuel (~14 ft. active length compared to ~12 ft. standard PWR fuel) eliminating any licensing risk for STPNOC. All equipment will be domestically fabricated at Holtec’s manufacturing facilities; namely at the 660,000 square foot Holtec Manufacturing Division (HMD), located in Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania and at the 300,000 square foot Orrvilon facility located in Orrville, Ohio.

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We are pleased to announce that URS Nuclear, a unit of URS Corporation’s (URS) Energy & Construction Division, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Holtec International that gives URS an important role in the development of Holtec’s small modular reactor, the SMR-160. URS is among the largest architect-engineers based in the U.S., with over fifty thousand employees and a long and productive history as an EPC contractor in the global power industry. URS has provided engineering and construction services for the installation of nuclear power generation since the 1960s in the U.S. and abroad through its heritage companies Ebasco, United Engineers & Constructors, and Gibbs & Hill, and pioneered the concept of nuclear contract maintenance and modifications, and large-scale modular construction through predecessor companies Catalytic and Stearns-Roger.

Under the MOU, URS, based in Princeton, New Jersey with offices in Fort Mill, South Carolina, Warrenville, Illinois and Southfield Michigan, will assist Holtec in the design and qualification of the various plant systems and ancillaries as specified by Holtec. Because SMR-160 is envisaged to be a standardized design certified under 10CFR52, the equipment layout as well as the selection of hardware features must be made with careful consideration of the diverse climates and environmental conditions under which the power plants will be sited.

Commenting on the MOU, Mr. Art Lembo, General Manager and President of URS’ Power Group stated, “The emergence of small modular reactors is among the most significant advancements in the global power industry today. URS is eager to support Holtec in bringing this advanced and affordable nuclear option to the power generation market”.

Holtec’s signatory to the MOU, Mr. Pierre Oneid, President of SMR, LLC, (a wholly owned subsidiary of Holtec International), stated, “URS brings the breadth and depth of skills and capabilities in engineering, licensing, project management and construction that will help Holtec deliver a complete package of power plant technology and application”.

This MOU is founded on developing the SMR-160; however, Holtec and URS look forward to exploring other areas of mutual benefit in the power industry.

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PSEG Power Joins Team to Advance Design

Holtec International is pleased to announce that on July 1, the Company will submit its request for financial support to the Department of Energy pursuant to the Funding Opportunity Announcement #DE-FOA-0000800 dated March 11, 2013.

Our proposal has been prepared with substantial assistance from PSEG Power, which is New Jersey’s largest power generator and the operator of the Salem and Hope Creek nuclear plants in the southern part of the state. Under our strategic alliance with PSEG Power, the development of the Design Certification Application for the SMR-160 technology is being directly supported by PSEG Power. Through this unique collaboration, PSEG Power is contributing its core technical expertise, including reactor operations, operator training, procedure development, site safety, regulatory affairs, security, and licensing to inform the design from an operations and maintenance perspective. This expertise coupled with Holtec’s existing engineering and domestic manufacturing and fabrication capability should not only accelerate the certification of the SMR-160, but will also streamline the operation and maintenance of the new nuclear plant resulting in greatly reduced costs.

“We have enjoyed a strong working relationship with Holtec International for many years,” said William Levis, President of PSEG Power. “We have the utmost confidence in its team and capability and are pleased to join Holtec International in this exciting opportunity.”

“There is a growing domestic and international need for reactors of this size that are inherently safe, economic and secure,” continued Levis. “We believe the Holtec SMR-160 is best able to meet that need and we are prepared to deploy our expertise to assist Holtec in its mission.”

Dr. Kris Singh, Holtec’s President and CEO, hailed PSEG’s support of Holtec’s technology, stating “We thank PSEG Power for the confidence it has in our company and our reactor technology. We are committed to earn the confidence of the public by developing a reactor that is unconditionally safe and inherently secure from threats of any kind and from any quarter. PSEG Power knows that, with its help, we will be better positioned to meet our calling in full measure.”

“In addition to PSEG Power, we have assembled an all-star team of nuclear technology companies that will work under our subsidiary, SMR, LLC’s, leadership to ensure that SMR- 160’s detailed design fulfills our promise of providing an affordable and safe source of clean energy to the world . We will announce the names of our other key team partners separately,” says Mr. Pierre Oneid, President of SMR, LLC.

PSEG Power is an internationally respected nuclear operator with the three-unit Salem/Hope Creek site in South Jersey consistently performing in the top tier of U.S. nuclear plants. PSEG Power has been pursuing an early site permit (ESP) since 2008 to build additional nuclear generation capacity at the Salem/Hope Creek site.

Holtec International is a global supplier of nuclear equipment and services with active business relationships with 60 nuclear units in the U.S. as well as plants in the UK, Ukraine, Spain, Switzerland, Belgium, Sweden, China, South Korea and Japan. Holtec is America’s largest exporter of capital nuclear equipment.

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We are pleased to confirm that our wholly owned subsidiary, SMR, LLC submitted an application for the Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) to the DOE on July 1, 2013. The preceding two issues of this news bulletin headlined our strategic alliance with PSEG Power and the MOU with URS on the SMR-160 Development Project. In this issue, we proudly report that two other industry leaders, who were members of our 2012 FOA application, remain committed to the SMR-160 Team — CB&I and South Carolina Electric & Gas (SCE&G).

Under a new MOU, CB&I (which acquired Shaw in February 2013) will continue to support Holtec in the development of the SMR-160. CB&I is the only Architect-Engineer currently building new nuclear units in the U.S., with two Westinghouse AP1000^® units under construction at each site for Plant Vogtle and V.C. Summer.

Additionally, CB&I is providing the engineering, procurement and project management services for four new AP1000 nuclear units at two sites in China. With more than 50,000 employees, CB&I is the most complete energy infrastructure focused company in the world and a major provider of government services. The company possesses in-depth knowledge of the SMR-160 design, having served as a principal member of the SMR-160 Team in the previous FOA bidding cycle.

SCE&G, also a steadfast SMR-160 supporter since our 2012 bidding effort, is one of only two utilities currently building new nuclear units in the U.S. In contrast to 2012 when SCE&G backed both Holtec and another reactor developer, SCE&G is exclusively teamed with Holtec in this round of FOA.

As with PSEG Power and URS, both CB&I and SCE&G have had a long-term active business relationship with Holtec International and a long history of successful cooperation on numerous projects. “We should note that the combined resources of the SMR-160 Team constitutes over 80% of the professional work force in the U.S. presently engaged in new nuclear, which makes the SMR-160 development effort a truly national undertaking,” said Dr. William S. Woodward, Holtec’s top executive in charge of the SMR-160 Program.

The combined resources of CB&I and URS will help the SMR-160 Project shave at least one year from SMR-160’s detailed design development schedule. Both companies are prominently mentioned in our FOA grant application to the DOE.

SCE&G, with its immersion in the construction of two new AP1000 nuclear units at V.C. Summer, has provided a treasure trove of practical insight that is being woven into the SMR-160’s design and is reflected in the grant application. SCE&G is a leading member of NuHub, a statewide coalition of major South Carolina institutions that, earlier this year, selected SMR-160 as its exclusive technology choice for support and future development.

SMR-160 is a 160 MW(e) PWR designed to be powered only by gravity under all operational modes. All of SMR-160’s safety significant systems are passive; the plant does not need any source of external power to remain safe even under the most challenging scenarios such as station black-out or a loss-of-coolant accident. Holtec plans submittal of the Design Certification Application to the USNRC by December 2016.

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August 29, 2013, U.S. Army’s Aberdeen Proving Grounds: As engineers from Axpo Power AG (Holtec’s client), the Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate (ENSI), the Swiss Association for Technical Inspections (SVTI) and Holtec watched, the U.S. Army’s missile launcher delivered a picture perfect strike to a scaled model of the HI- STAR 180 transport cask, sending it tumbling into a catch box just as intended by our test engineers. In accordance with the Swiss regulator’s storage certification requirement, this missile test was designed to simulate the impact of a crashing aircraft on the HI-STAR 180 transport cask while in use as a spent fuel storage device. The missile was designed by Holtec’s engineers to deliver the “design basis impulse” using LS-DYNA. Calibration of the missile’s kinetic performance was calibrated over a year ago at the Aberdeen facility by hurling the missile against a “rigid” wall serving as the target. The data collected from the cask test showed that the missile struck the cask at a velocity exceeding 600 miles per hour which was over 17% greater than the target value and the location of impact was precisely that determined to impart the maximum stress levels on the containment boundary and to conservatively challenge the cask containment (to induce leakage of the cask’s contents) by parametric simulations on LS- DYNA.

The post-impact inspection of the cask showed that it weathered the impact with large performance margins confirming our dynamicists’ predictions; the measured post-impact helium leak rate from the cask’s containment boundary, as confirmed by SVTI, was 1000 times smaller than the established acceptance criteria.  Additionally, all of the body bolts in the containment boundary of the cask remained elastic and there was no breach of the containment boundary.

HI-STAR 180 has been designed as a dual-purpose cask for storage in accordance with Swiss regulations and in alignment with IAEA requirements for a type B(U)F cask. HI- STAR 180 was licensed by the U.S. NRC in 2009 under 10CFR 71 to transport high burn-up PWR fuel and MOX fuel (Docket Number 9325). Upon the Swiss regulator’s formal release, the first batch of 14 HI-STARs will be built at the Holtec Manufacturing Division (HMD) in Pittsburgh, PA.

Video clips of the test will be placed on the Holtec website (www.holtecinternational.com) within a few days.

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Holtec International is pleased to announce that PSEG Power has deepened their commitment to the development of the SMR-160. The Holtec SMR-160 is a pressurized water reactor designed by Holtec’s subsidiary SMR, LLC which employs gravity to cool the core under all operating and accident modes. It is a light water reactor with the reactor, steam generator, and spent fuel pool located inside the containment. The reactor core is located below grade. The Holtec SMR-160 has a rated electrical output of 160 MWe. Under terms of the agreement, PSEG Power will continue to offer their technical expertise, including reactor operations, operator training, procedure development, site safety, regulatory affairs, and security to inform the design from an operations and maintenance perspective. In exchange, PSEG Power has been granted an option to acquire an ownership interest in the technology, which paves the way for PSEG Power to be responsible for the training and operations of the SMR-160 when the new reactor units are built.

“This is an exciting time for PSEG and Holtec. I continue to believe the innovative SMR-160 is best able to meet the growing domestic and international need for smaller reactors that are inherently safe and secure,” said Mr. William Levis, President of PSEG Power. “This agreement takes our relationship one step further, presenting exciting opportunities for our Company and our employees, in addition to offering domestic development opportunities for our region. When the market for SMRs fully develops, I am pleased that PSEG will have a seat at the table.”

Dr. Kris Singh, Holtec’s President and CEO, hailed the new agreement stating, “PSEG is a premier nuclear operator, not just in the Northeast, but in the U.S. We’ve known that our design is compelling from the standpoints of safety and cost. Now we have the confidence that our SMR-160s will be operated with the same level of excellence that PSEG has exhibited in running its existing fleet of nuclear plants.”

On June 30, Holtec International submitted its request for financial support to the Department of Energy pursuant to the Funding Opportunity Announcement #DE-FOA-0000800 dated March 11, 2013.

“In addition to PSEG Power, we have assembled an all-star team of nuclear technology companies that will work under our subsidiary, SMR, LLC, leadership to insure that SMR-160’s detailed design fulfills our promise to provide an affordable and safe source of clean energy to the world. Collectively, team partners represent virtually the entire contemporary nuclear plant design and construction experience in the United States,” says Mr. Pierre Oneid, President of SMR, LLC.

PSEG Power is an internationally respected nuclear operator with the three-unit Salem/Hope Creek site in southern New Jersey consistently performing in the top tier of U.S. nuclear plants. PSEG Power has been pursuing an early site permit (ESP) since 2008 to build additional nuclear generation capacity at the Salem/Hope Creek site.

Holtec International uses domestic manufacturing facilities to supply nuclear equipment and services to nuclear units in the U.S. as well as plants in the UK, Ukraine, Spain, Switzerland, Belgium, Sweden, China, Korea, and Japan. Holtec is America’s largest exporter of capital nuclear equipment.

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Holtec International is pleased to announce that it has been awarded a pool-to-pad dry cask storage loading services contract at a large PWR Nuclear Station located in the south-central United States. This is the first time Holtec is performing loading services for this site. Holtec’s Site Services Division will provide turnkey loading services to place into storage 4 Holtec HI-STORM 100 dry cask storage systems at the site’s Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation (ISFSI). Holtec’s site emergency response team which includes our engineering and licensing staff is available around the clock to support any emergent issues that arise during the loading campaign. Holtec will apply lessons learned from previous loading campaigns as well as those from Holtec’s Users Group (HUG).

Under the direction of Steven Soler, Holtec’s Director of Site Services, Holtec has safely placed 156 Holtec dry cask storage systems into storage. Holtec’s loading crews consistently place systems into storage with increasingly low dose and a flawless safety record. Holtec’s site services plans to load a total of 42 HI-STORM systems at 8 different sites by the end of 2013. Over the next two years, over 121 additional systems will be loaded by Holtec’s site services group. Over 575 Holtec dry spent fuel storage systems are currently in service.

Holtec Pool-to-Pad Site Services Safety Record:

• Total number of casks loaded: 156
• No. of years of loading experience = 10 years
• Recordable injury: 1 (in year 2008)
• Lost time injury: 0 (since 2003)

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The Krishna P. Singh Center for Nanotechnology on Walnut Street in Philadelphia

The architectural masterpiece, named the Krishna P. Singh Center for Nanotechnology, was inaugurated on the University of Pennsylvania’s campus in West Philadelphia on October 4, 2013. The $92 million, 78,000 square foot luminescent glass edifice with the uniquely perched elevated cantilever (see photo below) is named after Holtec’s President and CEO, Dr. Kris Singh. This new arrival has been hailed in the media as “quite possibly the most beautiful building” in the region.

Addressing the dignitaries from around the world in the building’s Galleria, Penn’s President, Dr. Amy Gutmann asserted that the Singh Center’s laboratories, facilities, equipment and world-class faculty will “turbocharge” collaborative research on the campus, propelling the University to the forefront of cutting edge scientific research in nanotechnology. The Singh Center includes a 10,000 square foot Cleanroom, a 6,500 square foot Characterization Suite, 12,000 square foot of Laboratory Modules, as well as the country’s only Aberration Corrected Electron Microscope.

The innovative and elegant architectural design features of the Singh Center have elicited unqualified praise from the world of architecture. Only a few weeks old, the Singh Center has already won the 2013 American Architecture Award and the 2013 International Architecture Award, presented by the Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design and the European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.

Dr. Singh Speaks at the Dedication Ceremony

Dr. Singh is presented with the Dedication Plaque from University President Dr. Amy Gutmann and SEAS Dean Dr. Eduardo Glandt

Penn’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) Dean Eduardo Glandt, who hosted the ceremonies, spoke of the Singh Center’s transformative role for Penn’s science and engineering declaring, “For Engineering it completes a transformation of who we are…to a twenty-first century, high-tech innovation leader in information technology, biotechnology and nanotechnology”.

Dr. Kris Singh calls the Center “a temple to the age of Technium,” which is destined to incubate seminal advances in nanotechnology. Dr. Singh recognizes and honors the hard work of Holtec’s 800 person workforce in the nuclear power industry that “generated the capital which has allowed me to indulge my long-felt gratitude to my alma mater”.

A time lapse video of the construction of the Krishna P. Singh Center for Nanotechnology can be viewed by visiting Holtec’s website: http://www.holtecinternational.com/news/videos/.

Holtec Representatives who attended the Ceremony

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