Nuclear

The coronavirus pandemic is altering the power landscape, with utilities and other power generators forced to adjust for load disruptions. Power consumption is changing as commercial and industrial electricity users close their businesses, and load is shifting to the residential sector with workers now settled in home offices, and students practicing remote and distance learning. […]

The coronavirus pandemic is altering the power landscape, with utilities and other power generators forced to adjust for load disruptions. Power consumption is changing as commercial and industrial electricity users close their businesses, and load is shifting to the residential sector with workers now settled in home offices, and students practicing remote and distance learning. […]

The U.S. power sector is rallying together to implore state and local governments to treat sector-wide “mission-essential employees” with higher priority and ensure they have top-level access to testing and personal protective equipment (PPE) amid the intensifying COVID-19 pandemic. In a four-page April 2 white paper presumably addressing federal leadership, the Electricity Subsector Coordinating Council […]

Federal regulators with oversight over U.S. power matters have issued a series of actions over recent weeks to respond to the potentially devastating impact that COVID-19, the new coronavirus, could have on North American power workforce operations and reliability. POWER will update this post regularly with COVID-19 response news and documents from federal and state […]

Operators of the world’s nuclear reactors are doing more than keeping the lights during the coronavirus pandemic. Along with taking steps to protect their workforce, and having plans in place to keep their facilities running at a time of critical need for power, they also are using nuclear technologies to detect and fight COVID-19. From […]

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on April 2 said it is dispatching a first batch of equipment to more than 40 countries, designed to enable a nuclear-derived technique to rapidly detect the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. The program is part of IAEA’s response to requests for support from its members. “IAEA staff are working […]

Energy companies and equipment suppliers to the power generation industry have been at the forefront of efforts to battle the COVID-19 pandemic. Utilities have suspended shutoffs of services to customers impacted by the economic crisis, and have instituted protocols to maintain proper staffing levels to ensure the reliable delivery of electricity during a time when […]

Southern Co. in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on April 1 said the COVID-19 pandemic “could disrupt or delay construction, testing, supervisory and support activities” at the Plant Vogtle nuclear expansion project in Georgia. The company in the filing said, “It is too early to determine what impact, if any, the […]

The U.S. has 96 licensed-to-operate nuclear power reactors and two reactors under construction. But the average age of the nation’s 96 licensed nuclear units is about 39 years old. That has been of some concern to the nuclear industry, which has provided roughly a fifth of the nation’s power since the 1990s. About 88 of […]

The world has become a very different place over the past few months with the outbreak of a new coronavirus—COVID-19. The virus has forced travel bans and literal lockdowns in several countries. The NCAA and

Group Readies Hydrogen Production Plant in Japan. A consortium including Toshiba, Tohoku Electric Power, and Japan’s New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) in March said it has

As one of the U.S.’s premier energy companies, Southern Company is committed to providing a safe work environment for employees. It regularly implements best-in-class safety procedures to ensure compliance

The Turkey Point nuclear generating facility in Florida in December 2019 became the first U.S. nuclear plant to receive authorization from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to extend its operating life from 60

In Part 1 of this series, published in the March 2020 issue, POWER explored how existing reactors may leverage advances in nuclear fuel to boost power generation safety and economics. This installment surveys

The regenerative feedwater cycle of modern fossil and nuclear power plants normally includes four or five low-pressure, closed (tube surface-type) feedwater heaters (CFWHs). However, maximum efficiency can be

The European Commission in December 2019 announced its new European Green Deal, a set of major policy and legislative proposals that position the EU as the global leader on environmental and climate issues. Since then, the Commission has published a draft EU climate law and is seeking stakeholder input on potential revisions to the Energy […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on March 28 told industry that it is prepared to grant requests from individual nuclear generators for exemptions from work-hour controls specified in its rules to help provide more flexibility to the sector as it grapples with workforce issues related to the COVID-19 public health emergency. The objective of the […]

The two-unit expansion of the Plant Vogtle nuclear power plant in Georgia reached another milestone March 27, with the placement of the Unit 4 containment vessel top head. Friday’s work comes about one year after the Unit 3 containment vessel top was lifted into place. “Placement of the Unit 4 top head is a culmination […]

Challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. nuclear industry has asked the Trump administration to ensure nuclear workers, suppliers, and vendors will have access to nuclear plants and personal protective equipment (PPE) during the 2020 spring and fall refueling outage seasons and beyond. All but two of the nation’s nuclear sites had scheduled planned outages  […]

Honeywell International’s uranium conversion plant in Metropolis, Illinois, has received the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC’s) approval to run for 40 more years. The approval for the nation’s sole conversion facility is key to ensure it can continue supplying  uranium hexafluoride (UF6), a basic component of enriched nuclear fuel used in commercial nuclear power reactors. The […]

WASHINGTON, March 23, 2020 — The nation’s investor-owned electric companies, public power utilities, and electric cooperatives are working together to protect the energy grid and ensure continued access to safe and reliable electricity during the COVID-19 global health crisis. The electric power industry has been planning for years for an emergency like the COVID-19 pandemic, as […]

New York, March 24, 2020: Eka Software Solutions, the #1 cloud platform for commodity management, announced the release of COVID-19 Risk Monitoring, a free app designed to help customers and prospects quickly gain visibility into supply chain risks to better assess and mitigate risk. The app provides specific insights into the impact of COVID-19 by […]

The agency that regulates nuclear power in the U.S. is preparing to allow reactor operators to work longer shifts, and could also issue new rules that would let facilities put off some maintenance and plant inspections. The actions are in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Comments during a Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) conference call on […]

Power industry analysts who’ve spoken with POWER agree there will be an impact to power load due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the loss of much of the U.S. commercial and industrial demand for power, and certainly an uptick in the amount of demand from the residential sector as more people work from home, away […]

U.S. electric utilities and other energy companies are preparing to have key personnel remain at power plants and operations centers to ensure the facilities remain online during the coronavirus pandemic. The federal government considers power plants part of the nation’s critical infrastructure. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is responsible for working with power […]

Oklo, developer of the 1.5-MW Aurora micro-reactor, has submitted the first-ever combined license application (COLA) for an advanced non-light water reactor (LWR) to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The move formalizes the start of a new era for nuclear regulation in the U.S. The Silicon Valley company, which last year received a first-of-its-kind site use […]

A new report from a half-dozen environmental groups says global banks financed $2.7 trillion of fossil fuel projects from December 2015, when the Paris Agreement on climate was reached, through year-end 2019. The report said funding for such projects has increased in each of the past four years. “Banking on Climate Change 2020,” published March […]

Energy Harbor Corp., the new name for the former FirstEnergy Solutions (FES) after FES’s bankruptcy, on March 13 said its Beaver Valley nuclear plant in Shippingport, Pennsylvania, will remain open. FES in March 2018 had told state regulators it would close the plant in 2021 because it was no longer economic to operate. Energy Harbor […]

While it is currently highly dependent on natural gas generation today, about 95% of ISO-New England’s (ISO-NE’s) interconnection request queue—a proposed total capacity of 20.9 GW—comprises wind, solar, and battery projects. That clearly indicates that developers in New England’s wholesale market “are looking to take advantage of state incentives, declining technology costs, and revenues from […]

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) granted a 20-year license extension for Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station Units 2 and 3. The extension authorizes the two reactors—both of which began commercial operation in 1974—to continue operating through 2054. “We are pleased with the NRC’s decision to grant a subsequent license renewal for Peach Bottom Units […]