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Nuclear
ASLB Bars San Onofre Unit 2 Restart Without Public Hearing
A three-judge panel of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC’s) Atomic Safety Licensing Board (ASLB) on Tuesday ruled that Southern California Edison (SCE) cannot restart Unit 2 of its shuttered San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) until the NRC holds a formal license amendment proceeding with full public participation.
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Nuclear
Westinghouse, China’s SNPTC Partner to Develop Global AP1000 Supply Chain
Westinghouse and China’s State Nuclear Power Technology Corp. (SNPTC) have teamed to further develop a supply chain within China for power plant equipment and components to be used in global AP1000 nuclear power plants.
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Instrumentation & Controls
Newly Developed Software Isolates Cyber Attacks on Networked Control Systems
A software algorithm developed by researchers from North Carolina State University promises to detect and isolate cyber attacks on networked control systems.
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Environmental
Power Plant Global Warming Suit Dismissed by Federal Court
A three-judge panel at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit that alleges carbon dioxide emissions by several power companies contributed to global warming that intensified Hurricane Katrina.
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Nuclear
“No Merit” in Challenges to NRC Approvals of AP1000, Vogtle 3 & 4, D.C. Circuit Rules
In an apparent legal victory for developers of new nuclear power plants in the U.S., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit denied complaints from environmental groups that federal approval of Southern Co.’s two new reactors under construction in Georgia did not address lessons learned from the Fukushima accident.
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Coal
AES Corp. to Retire 990 MW of Coal Capacity on Environmental Rule Concerns
AES Corp.’s subsidiary Dayton Power & Light (DP&L) plans to retire six coal-fired units representing about 390 MW at its 414-MW Hutchings coal-, gas-, and oil-fired plant in Miamisburg, Ohio, by June 2015 as a result of existing and expected environmental regulations, including the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS). The news comes on the heels of Indianapolis Power & Light Co.’s (IPL’s) announcement that it plans to retire 600 MW of coal-fired capacity to comply with environmental rules.
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Gas
FERC Announces Meeting on Coordination of Natural Gas and Electricity Markets
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) announced on May 9 that it will hold a commission meeting on May 16 to address the difficulties posed by inadequate alignment between how natural gas and electricity markets operate.
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News
Competition Announced for Next-Generation Power Electronics Manufacturing
In an effort to create more jobs, the Obama administration is launching competitions to create three new manufacturing innovation institutes with a federal commitment of $200 million across five agencies: Defense, Energy, Commerce, NASA, and the National Science Foundation. The energy-related institute will focus on next-generation power electronics manufacturing.
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Environmental
Carbon Capture, Use, and Storage Project Reaches Industrial Scale
Air Products and Chemicals hydrogen production facilities in Port Arthur, Texas, have successfully begun capturing carbon dioxide from industrial operations and are now using that carbon for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). The $431 million project, supported by $284 million from the Department of Energy (DOE), is being touted as a milestone in carbon capture, use, and storage (CCUS) for progressing beyond demonstration to industrial scale.
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Nuclear
Duke Suspends Nuclear Power Reactor Plans
Duke Energy said on May 2 that it told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) it plans to suspend its application for two proposed new nuclear units on its Harris site near New Hill in Wake County, North Carolina.