Existing fossil fuel–fired U.S. power plants must comply with state-specific goals to lower carbon pollution by 2030 under rules proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today. The so-called “Clean Power Plan,” which applies to existing power plants, seeks to cut carbon emissions from the power sector by 30% from 2005 levels by 2030. It […]

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[Corrected (May 30): See note below] A cooperative agreement finalized by NuScale Power and the Department of Energy (DOE) on Wednesday means the small modular reactor (SMR) developer will receive up to $217 million in matching funds over a five-year-period to perform engineering and testing necessary for design certification.  Last December, the Portland, Ore.–based company […]

A final rule establishing national technology-based effluent limitations guidelines and standards to reduce discharges of pollutants from nuclear and fossil fuel power plants to U.S. waters won’t be issued until at least September 2015, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has confirmed.  This April, the agency and environmental groups Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club […]

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As of May 16, the Department of Energy (DOE) will no longer collect the one-tenth-of-a-cent fee per kilowatt-hour of power generated by nuclear plants that was set by the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982.  In a letter dated May 12, the DOE notified generators storing spent nuclear fuel that is meant to be disposed of […]

The $930.7 million proposal by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to recover 90% of its budget authority through licensing, inspection, and annual fees to be charged to U.S. nuclear generators in fiscal year (FY) 2014 is a 7.7% hike from the year before, but it is “unjustified,” given the decline in the number of operating […]

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman on Tuesday announced his office would propose legislation that would require electric and gas utilities to assess and document their systems’ vulnerability to climate change. Though Schneiderman hasn’t yet set a date for when his office will propose the state bill, the legislation is likely to establish a framework […]

The Department of Energy (DOE) released a report on May 21 highlighting progress at five concentrating solar power (CSP) projects in the southwestern U.S. In the report, “2014: The Year of Concentrating Solar Power,” three DOE-supported technologies are featured: parabolic trough, power tower, and thermal storage. The DOE has helped finance the large-scale deployment of […]

A final rule released by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today will affect cooling water intake structures at 544 U.S. power plants and provide those plants with lower-cost compliance options than previously proposed to reduce fish impingement and entrainment. The final rule issued under Section 316(b) of the Clean Water Act applies to facilities that […]