Nuclear

An innovative nuclear wastewater treatment approach that could provide a cost-effective alternative to fixed-column ion-exchange plants is poised to enter the nuclear market. Atkins, a company that

An arc flash is the explosive energy released when an electrical fault causes an arc. This rapid release of energy causes excessive temperatures in addition to air and metal in the path of the arc expanding

Economic pressures coupled with new and proposed regulations to reduce air emissions and regulate cooling water use and the management and disposal of coal combustion residuals (CCRs) continue to drive the

Shutdown, turnaround, and outage events are extremely complex, with multiple stakeholders all focused on minimizing the time assets are offline, delivering their scope on budget, and ensuring zero safety

State-of-the-art automation systems are common at power plants these days. Still, many plants start up units in a very manual way. When startups were rare, the implications were minimal, but as units cycle

A major part of maintaining a power plant at peak efficiency is dealing with or preventing damage from corrosion and corrosive objects that can enter air and water intake systems, including pipes and fluid

MONTREAL: July 30, 2019 – Comprehensive Decommissioning International, LLC (CDI), a joint venture company of SNC-Lavalin (TSX:SNC) and Holtec International, has been awarded its first commercial contract, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, to decommission the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in Lacey Township, Ocean County, New Jersey. Under the contract with Holtec, CDI will […]

A new report released July 31 details continued growth in global energy storage, driven by lower costs for lithium-ion batteries. Research company BloombergNEF (BNEF) in its latest forecast published Wednesday said energy storage installations worldwide will grow across the next two decades, from the 9 GW/17 GWh of capacity deployed as of last year, to […]

A team that reviewed Southern Nuclear Company’s (SNC’s) April 2019 Vogtle Units 3 and 4 Re-baseline of Forecast Schedule and Cost said it believes the working schedule predicated on commercial operation dates of May 23, 2021, and May 23, 2022, for the respective units, is unachievable. Furthermore, the reviewers said the regulatory-approved schedule from the […]

NuScale Power, Rolls-Royce, and China National Nuclear Corp. (CNNC)—three companies working on different small modular reactor (SMR) technology—recently announced positive developments for their respective designs. NRC Makes Progress on NuScale Design Review Portland, Oregon-based NuScale said on July 22 that the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) completed the second and third phases of its SMR […]

Nuclear power advocates suggest there are many benefits associated with nuclear energy. They point to high-paying jobs; billions of dollars in economic activity for plant-hosting communities; and secure, reliable, baseload electricity. But the most-important benefit of nuclear power may be that it emits no greenhouse gases, and therefore does not contribute to climate change. According […]

Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) on July 24 said it will decommission its Fukushima Daini nuclear station. The plant is located just south of the larger Fukushima Daiichi plant, site of a meltdown in March 2011 after an earthquake and tsunami heavily damaged the Daiichi facility. The four reactors at Daini automatically shut down after […]

Venture capital investments in battery storage companies and projects rose significantly year-over-year through the first six months of 2019, according to a report from Mercom Capital Group. That level of activity is consistent with the growth in energy storage noted by speakers on July 24 at the Storage Week Plus conference in San Francisco, California. […]

Beijing, China (July 24, 2019) — Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) today released a report which analyzes the impacts of implementing electricity markets in China and quantifies the benefits, which will help regulators identify which electricity power plants are at risk of closure due to market reforms and determine the best ways to handle challenges in […]

CHARLOTTE, N.C., July 23, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — EnergySolutions, Inc. announced today it has signed a term sheet with GPU Nuclear, a subsidiary of FirstEnergy, to negotiate the asset transfer of Unit-2 of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station (TMI-2) located near Middletown, Pennsylvania.  Unit-2 has been in a safe and stable storage condition […]

Ohio’s Gov. Mike DeWine (R) on July 23 quickly signed a controversial nuclear subsidy bill that narrowly passed the state’s House of Representatives on Tuesday, making Ohio the fifth state in the nation to prop up nuclear power.  Lawmakers passed H.B. 6 with a 51–38 vote Tuesday. The bill passed the state Senate on July […]

WESTMINSTER, Colorado (July 17, 2019) — Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association is pursuing an aggressive Responsible Energy Plan to transition to a cleaner energy portfolio, while ensuring reliability, increasing member flexibility and with a goal to lower wholesale rates. “Our membership and board are unified in our pursuit of a cleaner, reliable and lower-cost resource portfolio,” said […]

In a bid to enhance the reactor oversight process (ROP), staff at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has recommended the commission change qualitative descriptions for some color labels that signify risk, scale back on the time and scope of some annual inspections at the nation’s nuclear power fleet, as well as increase intervals between inspections.  […]

According to the Energy Impact Center, a Washington, D.C.-based research institute focused on deep decarbonization, CO2 emissions “must go net-negative by 2040, globally across all energy sectors” to begin countering climate change. The only way it sees to accomplish this is to “produce energy inexpensive enough to make carbon negative fuels that compete with fossil […]

Inter-lab collaboration between the New York Power Authority (NYPA) and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is paving the way for a greener and more resilient power grid – and attracting interest from businesses and government in the process. The Analysis Laboratory for Synchrophasor and Electrical Energy Technology (ALSETLab) at Rensselaer in collaboration with the Advanced Grid Innovation […]

U.S. utility Portland General Electric has launched a first of its kind project that will integrate smart grid technologies at a very large scale in the US. The smart grid test bed will accelerate the utility’s energy decarbonization and clean energy efforts, in partnership with customers. Some 20,000 customers across three neighborhoods, Hillsboro, Portland and Milwaukee, will participate in the utility’s demand […]

The Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) on July 16 threw its support behind Georgia Power’s plan to add 2,260 MW of new renewable power generation to the utility’s portfolio, on the same day the PSC signed off on the company’s effort to decommission its long-running coal-fired Plant Hammond. Georgia Power earlier this year submitted a […]

New York City-based LS Power on July 15 said it would end a project to expand its natural gas-fired Troy power plant in Ohio if state lawmakers pass legislation to subsidize the state’s two nuclear power plants. LS Power in a news release Monday said, “Handouts to nuclear plants jeopardize the economics of the other […]

A fully digital nuclear reactor instrumentation and control system (I&C)—the first of its kind in the U.S.—at a Purdue University research reactor in West Lafayette, Indiana, has been licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).  Upgrades to digitalize Purdue University Reactor Number 1 (PUR 1)—a pool-type12-kWt reactor (that runs at 1 kW) originally built in […]

In line with global emissions targets, energy markets are moving ever more quickly to take up renewables. Such a move is obviously important to ensure carbon reduction targets can be met. This does however create an issue—one that’s not been given the attention it deserves—of the impact this has on the conventional power plants that […]

Investments in renewable energy projects slowed in the first half of 2019, primarily due to a 39% year-over-year drop in China, the world’s largest renewables market, according to data published July 10 by BloombergNEF (BNEF). BNEF said investments in China dropped to $28.8 billion, the lowest figure for any six-month period since 2013. China is […]

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and members of Congress are looking at legislation concerning research and regulation of energy storage. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who chairs the Energy and Natural Resources committee, on July 9 said there is bipartisan interest in combining a handful of bills on energy storage, dealing with research and development […]

WILMINGTON, North Carolina—July 10, 2019—GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) announced today that it has been awarded a contract by Comprehensive Decommissioning International, LLC (CDI) to decommission reactor internals and the reactor pressure vessel at the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in Lacey Township, New Jersey. Employing cutting edge technology, GEH will dismantle, segment and pack […]

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is behind on its proposed revisions to the Obama administration’s effluent limitations guidelines (ELGs) for steam electric power plants.  In an e-mail to POWER on July 9, the EPA confirmed that the agency was still “working expeditiously” to complete the proposed rule, and it has yet to submit it to […]

The Czech government on July 8 gave preliminary approval for Elektrárna Dukovany II, a subsidiary of utility ČEZ, to build at least one new nuclear power unit in the country, along with as many as three more at existing nuclear power plants at Dukovany and Temelín. The country’s Ministry of Industry and Trade made the […]