Nuclear

General Electric’s (GE’s) power unit has said it will end manufacturing operations at its plant in Salem, Virginia, next year, with more than 260 workers losing their jobs, according to union officials. Officials noted that 42% of the affected workers are eligible for retirement. The plan announced June 8 said the Salem plant, which opened […]

Xcel Energy, citing “historically low” costs for wind and solar power, said it wants to double its generation from renewable sources. Colorado’s largest utility also said it will retire two coal-fired units representing 660 MW at its Comanche Generating Station in Pueblo at least 10 years ahead of schedule. The changes were outlined in a […]

The Trump administration’s attempt to prop up uneconomic “fuel secure” generators in competitive markets is just the latest in a string of recent “extra-market” interventions that experts said imperil independent organized markets for electricity. In a recent white paper, Raymond Gifford and Matthew Larson, energy partners at Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP, said the restructured administrative […]

Chris Crane, CEO of Exelon Corp., seemed to take umbrage with the way comments he made on June 5 were reported by Utility Dive. The website published the headline “Exelon CEO: No grid emergency to justify DOE coal, nuke bailout,” but Crane went out of his way to clarify his position while on stage participating […]

Optimization through advanced testing and modeling tools will increase NuScale Power’s small modular reactor (SMR) capacity by 20%, which could make it “even more competitive with other electricity generation sources,” the Portland, Oregon, company announced on June 6. The breakthrough would boost the power capacity of a 12-module SMR plant currently planned by Utah Associated Municipal […]

San Diego, June 5, 2018 – The U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) on Monday awarded General Atomics (GA) a total of nearly $3 million in funding to continue development of two key technologies associated with GA’s Energy Multiplier Module (EM2) concept. The awards are part of ARPA-E’s Modeling-Enhanced Innovations Trailblazing Nuclear […]

When Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico on September 20, 2017, no one could predict the level of devastation those 155-mph sustained winds would deliver. In its wake, Maria plunged the entire island of Puerto Rico into darkness, and decimated its aging distribution, transmission and generation infrastructure. By all predictions, it was going to […]

Few entities have expressed approval of the Trump administration’s plan that includes a directive for system operators to buy or arrange purchase of energy or capacity from designated “fuel secure” power plants for two years until the Department of Energy (DOE) can address “grid security” challenges. The 41-page draft memo dated May 29—which was presumably authored […]

ABB has won orders from the Ministry of Electricity in Iraq to deliver five fixed and 15 mobile 132 kilovolt substations that will help strengthen the power grid and provide electricity in central Iraq. The government of Iraq is rebuilding the country and investing in its grid as part of its ambitious plan to develop […]

Reactions from U.S. energy and legal and regulatory groups began pouring in minutes after the White House confirmed on June 1 that President Trump has directed the Department of Energy (DOE) to act immediately to stop the loss of uneconomic coal and nuclear plants.  White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a June 1 […]