Nuclear

Washington state’s latest effort to fight climate change, Initiative 1631 (I-1631), is on the November ballot. With a broad coalition of support from business, environmental, and special interest groups

Ørsted Snaps Up Deepwater Wind in Major U.S. Offshore Wind Deal. Danish offshore wind farm developer Ørsted in October entered into an agreement with U.S.-based D.E. Shaw Group to buy a 100% equity interest

Despite significant milestones to become a fully regulated utility, FirstEnergy Corp. on October 25 reported third-quarter losses of $512 million on revenue of $3.1 billion. The results largely reflect charges related to the court-approved settlement in the bankruptcy cases of its competitive subsidiaries FirstEnergy Solutions (FES) and FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co. (FENOC), the company said. […]

The Jackson Hole Center for Global Affairs—a bipartisan think tank—will host the “Jackson Hole Global Forum: Climate Solutions, Coal Communities, and Economic Diversification,” in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, November 8–9, 2018. Among the sessions on day one is a panel titled “What Is Coal’s Future?” Charles K. Ebinger, nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council, will […]

GE’s Global Research Center and Nuclear fuel business partnering with three National Labs (Los Alamos, Oak Ridge and Idaho) and with the Exelon and Southern Company utilities to develop and test more advanced fuel rod technologies Project will tap Global Research’s deep technical strength in materials science, 3D printing and jet engine technologies to develop […]

A subsidiary of grid operator PJM Interconnection has joined with a Switzerland-based group to build and evaluate a blockchain-based tool to help the U.S. power generation industry. Energy Web Foundation (EWF) and PJM Environmental Information Services (PJM-EIS) on October 25 said they would collaborate on developing and testing a reference implementation of EWF’s open-source Energy […]

Unit 1 at the Haiyang nuclear power plant in Shandong, China, successfully completed a 168-hour full-power continuous operation test, meeting the requirement for commercial operation, State Power Investment Corp. Ltd. announced on October 23. Its AP1000 reactor is the first nuclear unit to be placed in operation in Shandong, an eastern province on the Yellow […]

Proactive equipment maintenance continues to be a priority for power plant operators. ServiceMax, a GE Digital company that provides field service management software, on October 25 announced it has launched its Predix ServiceMax Asset Service Management (ASM), a new offering to help operators “transform their entire asset maintenance process from a break-fix model to a […]

Modules precede concrete placements inside Unit 4 containment vessel New aerial video highlights significant progress at construction site ATLANTA, Oct. 22, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — Georgia Power announced today the placement of two key floor modules at the Vogtle nuclear expansion near Waynesboro, Georgia. These module placements, referred to as CA35 and CA33, will be followed […]

Iraq signed a memorandum of understanding on October 15 to develop power plants in the country with General Electric (GE). The Financial Times on October 18 said the $15 billion deal was brokered after senior officials in the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump warned Iraq that relations with the U.S. would be threatened if Iraq […]

October 18, 2018 — The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has granted Exelon Generation Company’s request to modify the emergency preparedness plan for the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in Lacey Township, N.J., to reflect the plant’s decommissioning status. The changes include exemptions from specific NRC requirements that may not be applicable to a plant that has […]

The White House may have shelved an effort to force grid operators to buy power from uneconomic coal and nuclear plants amid opposition inside the administration, Politico reported on October 15.  The publication reported “four people with knowledge of the discussions” have confirmed that opposition from the president’s own advisers on the National Security Council […]

Dominion Energy has filed an application to extend the operating licenses for two 45-year-old nuclear reactors at the Surry Power Station through 2052 and 2053—when they will be 80 years old.  Surry’s Unit 1 and 2, located near Newport News, Virginia, are three-loop Westinghouse pressurized water reactors (PWRs) that began operation in December 1972 and […]

Test Your Knowledge The quizzes provided here offer an easy way to test your knowledge of various power-related subjects. If you want to learn more about the quiz topics, follow links to articles from the POWER archive, which are provided on each individual quiz webpage. Competitive Maintenance Strategies Quiz https://www.powermag.com/test-your-knowledge-competitive-maintenance-strategies/ Scaffold Safety Quiz https://www.powermag.com/test-your-knowledge-scaffold-safety/ Monitoring and Treatment of Closed-Loop […]

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has declined to rehear a case that challenges nuclear subsidies in Illinois, effectively dealing a blow to a group of competitive generators, which have fought the measure for several years. In an order issued on October 9, the appellate court said its full judicial panel had voted to deny […]

Packing 150 mph winds, Hurricane Michael has made landfall along the Florida Panhandle. The almost–Category 5 storm might well be the strongest to hit the Emerald Coast in more than 100 years. Not since Hurricane Opal, back in 1995, has there been a storm even remotely as strong as Michael to strike the coastal area. Causing major havoc […]

BADEN, Switzerland (October 9, 2018) — GE Power announced it won the contract to deliver the turbine island equipment for El Dabaa nuclear power plant project in Egypt through AAEM its joint venture with Atomenergomash. GE Power will supply the basic design of four conventional island, supply four nuclear turbine generator sets, including the Arabelle half-speed steam […]

Brussels, 8 October 2018: Nuclear power is essential if the world is to keep global warming to below 1.5 degrees, according to the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPPC). Indeed, for electricity generation, the share of nuclear will need to increase significantly in order to meet global targets. According to Debra […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has issued key safety and design approvals for the Advanced Power Reactor 1400 (APR1400), a South Korean third-generation nuclear reactor design.  The U.S. regulatory body on September 28 issued a final safety evaluation report and a standard design approval (SDA) for the APR1400, which is designed by South Korean state-owned […]

A handful of nuclear power projects around the world completed notable achievements recently: Rostov 4 entered commercial operation, Tianwan 4 achieved first criticality, the Akademik Lomonosov floating nuclear power plant completed fuel loading, Leningrad II-1 received its commissioning permit, and the dome was installed on Karachi 3. Rostov 4 Rostov Unit 4 was placed into […]

Natural gas combined cycle, wind, and residential solar photovoltaic technologies may be the least-expensive way to generate power across a wide swathe of the U.S., an interactive map published and recently updated by the University of Texas (UT) at Austin’s Energy Institute shows.  The interactive chart (Version 1.4.0, retrieved on October 4, 2018), first published […]

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) suggests that if states fully implement the Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule—which it proposed in August 2018 to replace the 2015 Clean Power Plan—by 2025, U.S. power sector carbon dioxide emissions could be about 34% below 2005 levels. At the end of 2016, they had fallen 24%, and by the end […]

It’s no secret that U.S. nuclear and coal-fired power plants are struggling to remain viable in competitive markets. Many plants have been retired for economic reasons long before the facilities reached the

Every power generation facility is unique, as are the functions and maintenance requirements for their equipment. Keeping equipment in working order and avoiding downtime is critical. Plants will sometimes use

Advanced digital technologies, including robotics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, are transforming the way electric power companies do business, in ways that benefit the companies and their

Corrosion products can form quickly in power plant systems if water, air, and metal are allowed to occupy the same space. Localized corrosion can take any of several distinct forms, such as stress corrosion

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in July issued a long-awaited decision in the case Cooling Water Intake Structure Coalition v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), upholding the EPA’s

Safety should be the top priority on any job site and goes hand in hand with operational excellence. Risk mitigation and safety are exceptionally important for power plants due to the nature of the industry

Scorching temperatures during the summer of 2018 forced a swathe of power plants across the world to reduce power or shut down temporarily, owing to warmer-than-usual temperatures of cooling water and other

Silicon Valley Power implemented a system using machine-learning technology to monitor critical power plant components. The solution has proven to reduce downtime and save money. Furthermore, its wireless