Nuclear

Energy Secretary Rick Perry on March 22 said his department will guarantee up to $3.7 billion in additional loans to finance continued construction of two new nuclear reactors at the Vogtle plant in Georgia. While Perry and other government officials stressed the importance of the project to the U.S. nuclear industry, critics called it a […]

The United States Energy Association (USEA) is an association of public and private energy-related organizations, corporations, and government agencies that helps increase understanding of the world’s energy issues. Barry Worthington has been the executive director of the USEA for more than 30 years. During that time, he has seen the association grow from a two-person, […]

WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 22, 2019) – The U.S. Department of Energy has announced $36 million in awards for 18 projects as part of the High Intensity Thermal Exchange through Materials and Manufacturing Processes (HITEMMP) program, as well as the final OPEN+ Cohort, High Temperature Devices. These project teams seek to develop new approaches and technologies for the […]

A German business magazine reports that Siemens is exploring options for its struggling gas turbine business, and could look to form a joint venture with Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI). Manager Magazin on March 21 said Siemens “wants to accommodate the large turbine business of the Japanese Mitsubishi Group and in the future hold only a […]

Energy Secretary Rick Perry will reportedly announce March 22 that the Trump administration will finalize $3.7 billion in loan guarantees to support completion of the Vogtle nuclear plant construction project. The announcement is expected when Perry visits the site near Waynesboro, Georgia, on Friday along with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Southern Co. CEO Tom […]

A report from an independent market monitor for PJM Interconnection shows that natural gas-fired power generation topped coal-fired output in PJM in 2018, the first time that gas has topped coal in the history of the largest U.S. grid operator. The “2018 State of the Market” report from Monitoring Analytics LLC, which includes Volume 1 […]

Dominion Energy has reached an agreement with utilities in Connecticut to keep the Millstone Power Station, the state’s only nuclear power plant, in service for at least another decade. Dominion announced the deal March 15, the deadline the company had to tell ISO New England, the regional grid operator, whether it would retire the two […]

The U.S. has agreed to build six nuclear power plants in India, according to a joint statement from the two countries issued March 13 in Washington, D.C. The countries held two days of talks this week, discussing international security and nuclear cooperation. The talks involved Andrea Thompson, the U.S. undersecretary of state for arms control […]

Nathan Myhrvold, the long-time polymath idea man for Bill Gates, his former boss at Microsoft, on March 12 told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC’s) annual regulatory information conference, “Energy is the fulcrum that gives leverage to human ingenuity.” Nuclear, he said, must be a large part of providing that leverage to the world. Myhrvold, speaking […]

Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), the Japanese utility that took on the behemoth task of controlling and decommissioning the six-unit Daiichi nuclear power plant in Fukushima prefecture after the March 11, 2011, accident, recently released a video showing progress at the site.  Source: https://www4.tepco.co.jp/en/news/library/archive-e.html?video_uuid=t820ghcq&catid=61795 The disaster began as a 15-meter (49-foot) tsunami inundated and disabled the […]

Exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the U.S. continue to rise, as the use of natural gas for power generation increases in countries such as China, South Korea, Japan, and Mexico. Data from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) shows that four U.S. LNG export facilities combined to ship 483 LNG cargoes in 2018, a […]

A Wyoming bill designed to keep coal-fired power plants operating in the state was signed into law by the state’s governor last week, one of several developments worldwide that impacted the power generation landscape in early March. Also in the U.S., the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) defended its hiring of a contractor that led the […]

Minnesota and Wisconsin recently joined the list of states aiming for a 100% clean-energy future, while some Illinois lawmakers are pushing for not only carbon-free power, but also 100% renewable energy. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) was the latest to announce a set of policy proposals designed to lead his state’s electricity sector to 100% […]

Johannesburg, South Africa (March 2, 2019) – Zimbabwe recently resumed the construction of the $1.5 billion Hwange Expansion Project for Units 7 and 8 as it aims to progressively implement the Vision 2030 which will transform Zimbabwe into an upper middle class economy. The $1.488 billion project is being funded by China Exim Bank, Sinohydro […]

Energy supplies are tight in the Pacific Northwest, a region that has been stricken with unseasonably frigid weather and is bracing for deep freezes as a mass of Arctic air descends on the region.    The Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), a federal power marketer that sells wholesale power from 31 federal dams and one nuclear […]

After the Great Tohoku Earthquake and tsunami, and ensuing crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in March 2011, Japan issued stringent safety regulations and reviews that affected its entire 50-reactor fleet. It meant that as each Japanese nuclear reactor entered its scheduled maintenance and refueling outage, it could not returned to operation until restart […]

Dust collection plays a vital role for safe and efficient power plant operation. There are a number of dust collection options available to plant designers, and baghouses have gained wide acceptance. The

America’s energy mix is undergoing a period of rapid change. The way we generate electricity in this country looks dramatically different than it did just a decade ago, as wind and solar have matured and

Fast neutron reactor systems have the potential to extract 60 times more energy from uranium compared to existing thermal reactors, and they contribute to a significant reduction in the burden of radioactive

Battery storage technology has moved in fits and starts, but today experts note that rapid advances make it difficult for safety standards to keep pace. Developers of storage systems are designing projects to

The Distribution System Is Newest Energy Transition Frontier in Europe. The European power sector is urging member states and regulators within the European Union (EU) to speed up development of

Rosenergoatom, Russia’s state-owned nuclear plant owner and operator, said it set another nuclear power production record in 2018. The company generated 204 TWh from its 35 reactors—1.4 TWh more than in

Eight years after Germany decided it would halt nuclear power production by 2022, the country that relied on lignite and hard coal for 38% of its generated power in 2018 will phase out coal by 2038 or earlier

U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry on February 28 said nuclear power and the use of clean coal technology are the way to combat climate change and reduce emissions from the energy sector. Perry, speaking at a joint press conference in Washington, D.C., with Fatih Birol, director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), said, “We believe […]

Multinational power and gas giant ENGIE, which embarked on an aggressive transition toward zero-carbon three years ago, saw tempered revenue growth over 2018, owing in part to its disposal of thermal generation businesses in the UK and Poland, and the 1-GW Loy Yang B coal-fired power plant in Australia. ENGIE CEO Isabelle Kocher, who outlined […]

Carol Holahan, counsel in Foley Hoag’s Energy & Cleantech practice, was a guest on The POWER Podcast. Holahan advises large regional generators and other participants in the wholesale and retail competitive electricity markets on policy initiatives, changing environmental regulations, decommissioning and sale of plants, and matters pending before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). During […]

Medical and dental facilities, nuclear power plants and other sites can now simplify their radiation safety program by accessing dosimetry technology and services from single provider TEWKSBURY, Mass. (February 25, 2019) – A new dosimetry monitoring service from Thermo Fisher Scientific enables medical and imaging facilities, dental offices, veterinary clinics, nuclear power plants, laboratories and […]

General Electric’s (GE’s) sale of its biopharma unit on February 25 is designed to reduce the company’s overall debt load, and CEO Larry Culp said the deal is the latest step in his plan to strengthen the whole of GE, particularly the company’s struggling Power division. GE on Monday agreed to sell the biopharma part […]

Arizona’s largest utility wants to support its renewable power portfolio by adding as much as 850 MW of battery storage capacity to its solar power plants by 2025. Arizona Public Service Co. (APS) made the announcement February 21. Don Brandt, the utility’s chairman and CEO, in a statement said, “Arizona is already a national leader […]

Hitachi and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), two giant Japanese companies with substantial stakes in the world’s power sector, are separately rethinking future business directions as sizable disruptions shake up prospects for traditional market growth. In recent months, Hitachi refined its business model to prepare it for explosive demand in  digitalization solutions, focusing heavily on grid […]