News

Marking a notable milestone for nuclear component additive manufacturing, four 3D-printed fuel assembly channel fasteners have been installed and are now operational at Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA’s) Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant Unit 2 in Athens, Alabama. Channel fasteners are a type of bracket that attaches to the top of the nuclear fuel assembly to hold […]

The international business arm of Russia’s state-owned nuclear power company has received a license that will allow construction of small modular reactors (SMRs), based on the design used in the country’s icebreaker shipping fleet, at ground-based nuclear power plants. Rusatom Overseas JSC (RAOS JSC), the company representing parent company Rosatom’s international interests, on Aug. 9 […]

Intensifying drought conditions in California and historically low water levels at the Oroville Dam on Aug. 5 forced the state’s Department of Water Resources (CDWR) to shut down the 644-MW Edward Hyatt Power Plant—the fourth largest energy producer of all California’s hydroelectric facilities. Similar conditions across the West are prompting a careful watch over hydropower facilities.

Marking another milestone in an industry-led accelerated quest to commercialize accident tolerant fuels (ATF), nuclear fuel test rods containing Westinghouse’s EnCore technologies that completed their inaugural cycle at Exelon’s Byron nuclear plant have shipped to Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). While initial visual inspections show “no signs of degradation,” the irradiated fuel will now be […]

The first reactor in the second phase of an expansion at the Hongyanhe Nuclear Power Plant in China has entered commercial operation, with five reactors now online at the site in Liaoning Province in eastern China. China General Nuclear (CGN) on Aug. 1 announced the 1,080-MW Unit 5 at Hongyanhe is now in its steady-state […]

Entergy Texas will seek approval for a 1.2-GW hydrogen and natural gas–fired combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) power facility in Orange County, Texas. The Beaumont-based Entergy Corp. subsidiary on July 29 announced it intends to file a Certificate for Convenience and Necessity with the Public Utility Commission of Texas “within the coming months” to build […]

A digital mining company has an agreement to purchase a second power plant in Pennsylvania, as the group increases its coal refuse reclamation operations in the state to provide energy for its bitcoin mining operations. Stronghold Digital Mining, a bitcoin (BTC) miner headquartered in Kennerdell, Pennsylvania, on Aug. 3 said its purchase of the Panther […]

West Virginia’s only remaining coal refuse–fueled facility, the 80-MW Grant Town Power Project, is a 2021 Top Plant winner for powering on, despite challenges, to remediate 530,000 tons of coal refuse annually while reclaiming roughly 30 acres of land per year. 

The costs for wind and solar power generating systems have decreased dramatically over the past decade. According to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the global weighted-average levelized

A remote area in Australia recently recorded an important power generation achievement, as the region received all its electricity from solar power and battery energy storage. The town of Onslow, located in

The U.S. electric grid is a complex web of interconnected power lines. It functions remarkably well, considering that it is a constant work in progress. Yet, what has served adequately in the past may not be

China in late June began operating two of the world’s first 1-GW hydropower turbines at the Baihetan Hydropower Station in southwest China. When the project’s 16 generating units are completed by July 2022

The truth about plastic placed in recycling bins is that most ends up in landfills. Converting the energy stored in plastic into electricity via waste-to-energy power plants offers a beneficial option

Monitoring steam turbo-generators in a typical thermal power station is normally straightforward without any particular issues, but Huntly presented special challenges. When the time came to replace the legacy

South Africa’s longstanding ambitions to expand its nuclear power capacity gained some ground this July, after the nation’s nuclear regulator announced it would convene a public hearing relating to a

Implementation of an intelligent operations and maintenance framework has improved operation rates, reduced unexpected shutdowns, and increased power generated per unit of waste at energy-from-waste power

Food and beverage manufacturers around the globe generate greenhouse gas emissions from high-strength organic wastes, much of which is too concentrated to send to local wastewater treatment facilities. To develop new approaches to solving that problem, Leyline Renewable Capital is partnering with PurposeEnergy to convert Ben & Jerry’s ice cream waste into clean water, fertilizer, […]

POWER and Chemical Engineering magazines are hosting the fifth annual Connected Plant Conference (CPC), taking place Aug. 30–Sept. 1, 2021, at the Renaissance Austin Hotel in Austin, Texas. CPC is the only event specifically covering the digital transformation taking place in the power generation and chemical process industries. CPC includes a look at the technology […]

Bangladesh Scraps 8 GW of Coal-Fired Projects. Bangladesh’s government on June 26 approved the Power, Energy, and Mineral Resources Ministry’s proposal to scrap 10 coal-fired power plants, given their lack

Tom Fanning, CEO of Southern Company, reported during the company’s earnings call on July 29 that hot functional testing (HFT) had been completed on Vogtle Unit 3, and that the “next and final major milestone” is fuel load. “We project fuel load to occur sometime near year-end 2021 or early in 2022,” he said. The […]

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is an independent agency that, among other things, regulates the interstate transmission of electricity. Its ultimate mission is to “Assist consumers in obtaining economically efficient, safe, reliable, and secure energy services at a reasonable cost through appropriate regulatory and market means, and collaborative efforts.” In the past, FERC has […]

Exelon Generation has filed plans to decommission its Dresden and Byron nuclear power plants in Illinois, citing a lack of action from state lawmakers on clean energy legislation that would help save the facilities. The nation’s largest operator of nuclear power plants on July 28 said it has submitted its plans to the Nuclear Regulatory […]

The Biden administration is moving to add more safeguards to the nation’s critical infrastructure by establishing a new voluntary public-private collaboration that will focus wholly on industrial control systems (ICS) cybersecurity. The administration formally launched the “Industrial Control Systems Cybersecurity Initiative” in the “National Security Memorandum on Improving Cybersecurity for Critical Infrastructure Control Systems” signed by […]

IBM Security reported on July 28 that the average cost of recent data breaches was $4.24 million per incident, the highest cost ever recorded by the company in 17 years of tracking the metric. Notably, data breaches in the U.S. were by far the costliest, exceeding $9 million per incident on average. The findings were […]

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is set to establish more stringent standards on water pollution from coal-fired power plants. The EPA on July 26 announced it would reinstate Obama-era regulations that were rolled back by the Trump administration. An EPA official on Monday said the new rule would impact about 100 coal-fired plants. The agency […]

The U.S., UK and other countries want world governments to commit to a phaseout of the use and financing of coal-fired power generation, but officials who met at the G20 Environment Ministers Meeting summit in Naples, Italy, this past week ended their talks without an agreement on the future of the fuel. The topic will […]

Facing a federal charge for honest services wire fraud in a corruption case related to the billion-dollar nuclear plant bailout in Ohio, FirstEnergy Corp. has agreed to abide by the terms of a three-year deferred prosecution settlement to get the charge dismissed. In court filings on July 22, the Akron, Ohio-based public utility holding company […]

The American Clean Power Association (ACP)—a 2021-launched pan-renewables trade group—may be poised to merge with the U.S. Energy Storage Association (ESA) starting on Jan. 1, 2022. The groups’ intent to pursue a merger, announced on July 22, still requires ESA’s member approval. If successful, it would combine the two trade association’s staff programs and members, […]

Energy companies continue to work on providing solutions to optimize the power grid, part of their efforts to support the integration of renewables and help ensure the reliable delivery of electricity. Such systems are part of the digital transformation of power generation, bringing increased flexibility to the power supply, supporting faster power restoration after outages, […]

Numerous energy facilities were afflicted by the major flooding event that inundated parts of Europe last week, and at least one major power generator has said the damage will likely mount into a “mid-double-digit million euro sum.” The flooding, which was caused by a cold, low-pressure area dubbed “Bernd,” crawled slowly across the continent over two […]