Nuclear

The European Union’s (EU’s) much-watched Taxonomy Climate Delegated Act—the world’s first “green list”—unveiled by the European Commission (EC) on April 21 qualifies several power-producing sectors in its technical screening criteria for sustainable investment decisions. However, it delays controversial decisions on gas and nuclear.  The EC adopted the Delegated Act as part of an ambitious package […]

JANESVILLE and FITCHBURG, Wis., April 20, 2021 – SHINE Medical Technologies LLC and Phoenix LLC today announced that the companies have completed a merger under which Phoenix has become a wholly owned subsidiary of SHINE. SHINE is a next-generation nuclear technology company focused on unlocking the power of fusion technologies to benefit the planet and […]

Emirates Nuclear Energy Corp. (ENEC) said Unit 1 of the Barakah nuclear facility has entered commercial operation, nine years after construction of the Arab world’s first nuclear power plant began. ENEC made the announcement April 6. Unit 1, operated by Nawah Energy Co., has been providing electricity to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) since reaching […]

A major chunk of President Joe Biden’s $2.25 trillion transformational plan to overhaul the nation’s infrastructure is dedicated to re-energizing America’s power infrastructure. The initiatives garnered the industry’s approval—with notable exceptions. The “American Jobs Plan,” released on March 31, strives to jumpstart the U.S. economy, which drooped under burdens posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. But […]

Scientists at the DIII-D National Fusion Facility have released a new design for a compact fusion reactor that can generate electricity and help define the technology necessary for commercial fusion power. General Atomics, which operates the DIII-D facility in San Diego, California, for the U.S. Department of Energy, says the approach is based on the […]

The nuclear power industry is brimming with technological innovation, particularly when it comes to small reactors that can provide power for several different applications. This is especially true in Canada

New Mexico has sued the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), challenging the legality of the agency’s proceedings involving separate proposals to build and operate two consolidated interim storage facilities (CISFs) for spent nuclear fuel (SNF) in New Mexico and Texas.  In a complaint filed on March 29 against the NRC and the U.S. government, New Mexico […]

The global push for carbon neutral and zero-emissions power generation has brought renewed interest in nuclear power, particularly for smaller units that are scalable and in some cases mobile, able to provide power in remote areas. Analysts say smaller nuclear reactors are more cost-effective, as they’re considered a more manageable investment for power generators as […]

Centrus Energy, a firm under contract with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to demonstrate production of high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) with domestic technology, says it expects to begin producing the advanced nuclear fuel material by June 2022 at the American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, Ohio. Centrus President and CEO Daniel Poneman said on March […]

If you were alive and living in the U.S. during the 1970s, you probably remember waiting in long lines to fill your car with fuel. Yet, gasoline wasn’t the only item in short supply during the “Me Decade”—natural gas was seemingly running out and electricity demand was growing so much that new power plants were […]

The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) has kicked off a five-year partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to educate state public service commissioners and commission staff about barriers and possibilities related to the U.S. nuclear fleet.  The non-profit organization whose members include state regulatory agencies in all 50 states said on March […]

Southern Co. has announced another delay in hot functional testing for the first unit of its two-unit expansion at the Vogtle nuclear plant in Georgia. The utility in a March 19 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said its subsidiary Georgia Power “now expects the start of hot functional testing for Unit 3 […]

Saint John, New Brunswick (March 18, 2021) – Moltex Energy is thrilled to receive $50.5 million from the Government of Canada’s Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF) and Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA) to advance its project to design and commercialize a molten salt reactor and spent fuel recycling facility. “Our government supports the use of this […]

COMMENTARY Throughout my career—and also POWER magazine’s long history—thermal power generation has been the greatest source of dispatchable electricity generation. In my view, policymakers have run a very good and smooth evolution of power generation diversity off the rails. The Biden Administration and Democrat Congress policies constitute an anti-American war on carbon. These policies, if […]

Michell Bearings has successfully completed station blackout (SBO) tests on a thrust and guide bearing used within the reactor coolant pump at a new build nuclear power plant. In what is thought to be one of the world’s first successful bearing run downs, the test demonstrated the bearing’s ability to survive a station blackout condition […]

When evaluating resource adequacy requirements, many power companies and grid operators have used a methodology that originated more than 70 years ago. This probabilistic reliability approach has generally performed adequately through the years. It has generally evaluated loss-of-load events occurring at frequencies of one-day-in-10-years (1-in-10) to be acceptable in terms of system reliability. However, it’s […]

The Arab world’s first nuclear power plant has received an operating license for its second unit, and the facility’s timeline still calls for commercial start-up of the first unit later this year. The Barakah nuclear power station, in the Al Dhafrah region of Abu Dhabi, will include four units with 5,600 MW of generating capacity […]

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) and Estonian firm Fermi Energia OÜ have entered into a teaming agreement to support potential deployment of a BWRX-300 small modular reactor (SMR) in the Baltic country. The agreement between the technology company and the firm established in 2019 by nuclear industry professionals comes two years after the companies inked […]

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) in freshly revealed data on March 4 reported that the Texas grid suffered 1,796 generating or energy storage outages or derates as winter storm Uri bore down on the state in mid-February.  The grid operator made the list public in a letter it sent to lawmakers in the […]

A sweeping climate proposal introduced by U.S. House Democrats on March 2 sets a stringent clean energy electricity mandate for power retailers nationwide, requiring they procure 100% of their power supplies from zero-emitting generation by 2035.  Among its slew of measures aimed at achieving net-zero emissions nationwide by 2050, the Climate Leadership and Environmental Action […]

In a brief interview this February, Francesco Venneri, Ultra Safe Nuclear Corp. CEO, explained to POWER why the company’s development of its proprietary fully ceramic microencapsulated (FCM) fuel is significant for the future of advanced nuclear, and how the company plans to roll it out.  Seattle-based Ultra Safe Nuclear Corp. (USNC), developer of the 5-MWe […]

4th March 2021: Actavo Industrial Solutions, a provider of engineering services to the world’s leading industrial companies in the petrochemical, power, oil and gas, marine, nuclear and pharmaceutical sectors has been awarded a ‘Certificate of Excellence’ by the trade association ACAD. Actavo received a 100% score in an asbestos audit for its outstanding standards at […]

Tristructural isotropic (TRISO) particle fuel has long been used in high-temperature gas-cooled nuclear reactors, but it is seeing a resurgence as a result of other applications. Modern TRISO fuel designs are

Koji Okamoto, director general of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency’s (JAEA’s) Collaborative Laboratories for Advanced Decommissioning Science (CLADS), can pinpoint the specific moment that cemented his

TORONTO, Canada (Feb. 24, 2021) — X-energy has delivered its second information package to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) as part of the regulator’s Pre-Licensing Vendor Design Review (VDR), achieving another significant milestone toward demonstrating our Xe-100 small modular reactor (SMR) design’s compliance with regulatory requirements in Canada. “The Xe-100 is a remarkably simple […]

NASA’s next-generation Mars rover Perseverance, which successfully launched on July 30 atop an Atlas 5 rocket from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, will depend on a “nuclear battery” for electrical power when it completes its seven-month journey to the Red Planet.   Idaho National Laboratory (INL) celebrated the launch of the rover, […]

Since 1990, nuclear power has consistently supplied about 19% to 20% of the electricity used in the U.S. However, very few nuclear plants have been added to the U.S. fleet over that time. Currently, the only new nuclear project in the U.S. is Southern Company’s Plant Vogtle expansion, which is expected to add two new […]

WASHINGTON, DC (February 10, 2021) — The non-profit organization Beyond Nuclear filed suit in federal court today to prevent the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) from licensing a massive “consolidated interim storage facility” (CISF) for highly radioactive waste in Andrews County, west Texas. In its Petition for Review filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals […]

Honeywell is gearing up to reopen the Metropolis Works plant in Metropolis, Illinois—the U.S.’s sole uranium conversion facility—and restart production of uranium hexafluoride (UF6) by early 2023. The Charlotte, North Carolina–based global technology giant told POWER in a statement on Feb. 9 it has communicated to employees and officials its intent to reopen the facility, which […]