International

China’s CAP1400—a reactor design based on Westinghouse’s AP1000 pressurized water reactor—has successfully passed the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA’s) Generic Reactor Safety Review. The milestone is significant for China, which plans to deploy the advanced reactor design in large numbers (Figure 4) as well as export the technology. 4. On the nuclear horizon. An artist’s […]

The years between 2002 and 2012 are called Golden Decade for the coal industry in China. After May 2012, the coal industry fell into depression. In the Golden Decade, a large amount of social capital inflow

Projections that coal utilization will decline faster than previously forecast have spurred Babcock & Wilcox Enterprises (B&W) to shed 200 jobs and restructure its traditional power business that serves coal-fired power generation in a bid to reduce overhead and improve efficiency. The Charlotte, N.C.–based energy and environmental technology and service company said on June 28 […]

The world’s power sector last year emitted a third of global sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions, 14% of nitrogen oxides (NOx), and 5% of total particulate emissions (PM2.5), but those emission values have fallen drastically over the last decade even though coal power generation has seen a surge, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in a […]

When the UK, the European Union’s (EU’s) second-largest economy, voted to leave the union on June 23, reactions were swift and sometimes unexpected, but what does the Brexit vote mean for the nuclear power industry, which is an increasingly global one? Based on comments made at this week’s World Nuclear Exhibition (WNE) outside Paris, the […]

The second World Nuclear Exhibition (WNE) began on June 28 in Le Bourget, just outside Paris, with the usual mixed messages about the need for and challenges of nuclear power globally. During the opening ceremony, Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), noted that the event was being held in the same […]

Although it’s not widely publicized, a majority of the energy used to generate electricity is wasted in the form of heat discharged to the environment. For better or worse, that’s just the way a typical thermal power plant works. Fuel, such as coal, biomass, natural gas, or uranium (in the case of nuclear plants), is […]

Enrico Viale, head of global thermal generation for the Italian energy company Enel, kicked off an international power industry event yesterday with a keynote presentation describing the “needs” of utilities in the future.

Guinness World Records recognized GE’s HA gas turbine for powering the world’s most efficient—up to 62.22%—combined cycle power plant. The first unit equipped with an HA turbine officially began operation on June 17 at EDF’s plant located in Bouchain, France. “Today we are making history with this power plant for the future,” said Steve Bolze, […]

Domestic uranium production is falling to levels not seen since the early 2000s, which are themselves equal to production during the dawn of the nuclear age in the 1950s. Prospects for any sort of rebound look bleak, as a joint venture between GE, Hitachi, and Toshiba is looking to import Russian-designed fuel assemblies for use in […]