News

The new Navigator 600 phosphate analyzer from ABB Instrumentation greatly reduces the amount of reagents and maintenance associated with phosphate monitoring while providing high accuracy and reliability. Designed for phosphate-dosed high-pressure boilers in the power generation industry, the Navigator 600 phosphate analyzer provides accurate monitoring of phosphate concentrations (0 to 15 ppm PO4) in a […]

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson defended the science behind the agency’s so-called “endangerment finding” at a Senate hearing on Tuesday—the day after she told coal-state lawmakers that the agency could begin phasing in permit requirements controlling greenhouse gases emitted by large stationary sources beginning in 2011.

The UK’s nuclear safety and security regulator last week raised a regulatory issue against Westinghouse’s AP1000 nuclear reactor design, saying it was not satisfied that the modular construction methodology could protect the third-generation pressurized water reactor from severe weather or physical impact. The finding comes on the heels of a similar issue raised by the […]

A $1 billion settlement negotiated by CPS Energy and Nuclear Innovation North America (NINA) last week ended a bitter legal dispute between the companies and could allow the proposed nuclear expansion of the South Texas Project (STP) near Bay City, Texas, to proceed.

The Department of Energy on Monday conditionally offered California solar company BrightSource Energy more than $1.37 billion in loan guarantees to support construction and start-up of three utility-scale concentrated solar power plants (CSP) in the Mojave Desert of southeastern California.

A draft bill being circulated by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) seeks to create a federal clean electricity standard that could require utilities to supply 13% of electricity from “clean” sources by 2012, reach 25% in 2025, and 50% in 2050.

BP America, Caterpillar, and ConocoPhillips have pulled out of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP), an alliance of business and environmental groups that has been pushing for cap-and-trade legislation.

An executive order issued by Arizona’s Governor Jan Brewer, a Republican, directs the state’s Department of Environmental Quality not to adopt rules under the Western Climate Initiative’s (WCI’s) cap-and-trade program without legislative authorization—but it stops short of withdrawing the state from the coalition that plans to implement a regional emissions trading program by January 2012.

The Arkansas Supreme Court is scheduled on April 15 to hear oral arguments in Southwestern Electric Power Co.’s (SWEPCO’s) appeal of a court decision that took away a permit to build the 600-MW John W. Turk Jr. coal-fired power plant in Hempstead County—the nation’s first ultrasupercritical project.

The first of two new supercritical 615-MW coal-fired units at the $2.3 billion Oak Creek power plant have come online, We Power said last week. Construction continues to complete the second 615-MW unit, and it is expected to be commercially operational later this year.