Nuclear

Challenge:
After a major refurbishment, a Canadian nuclear plant required additional process and boiler feed water for plant start-up and commissioning.
The plant’s raw water supply contained measurements ranging from 1-10 NTU, conductivity from 70-100 and color units ranging from 180-420. The plant also experienced highly variable flow rates, ranging from 0-600 GPM, and issues with the

“My sense as I speak to you here today is that nuclear energy is toast,” said New York Times Reporter Eduardo Porter, as he opened a panel discussion titled “Nuclear Energy and the Clean Energy Future” held at the New York University School of Law on March 23. “Despite the challenge from climate change that […]

Two environmental groups on March 22 filed a notice of intent to sue Florida Power & Light (FPL) in federal court over leaks from the utility’s Turkey Point Nuclear Plant south of Miami that have raised concerns about contamination of area drinking water. The problems began several years ago, after FPL completed an uprate at Turkey […]

South Africa’s National Nuclear Regulator (NNR) announced on March 15 that it has received two nuclear installation site license applications from Eskom Holdings, the only designated, cabinet-confirmed majority owner and operator of nuclear power plants in the country. The applications were for Thyspunt in the Eastern Cape and Duynefontein in the Western Cape. The Thyspunt […]

On March 13, three of Germany’s 16 states held regional elections that were largely seen as a referendum on Chancellor Angela Merkel’s increasingly controversial refugee policies as well as the waning importance of energy and climate policies. Perhaps the biggest challenger and winner in this election was the far right, those against both the Energiewende […]

The proposed expansion of the Hinkley Point nuclear plant in the U.K., a joint project between French-based EDF and Chinese firm CGN, was thrown into fresh doubts this month as EDF’s CEO said the project cannot proceed without additional financial support from the French government. The hugely expensive project—at £18 billion ($25.5 billion) it would […]

It’s been five years since the Great Tohoku Earthquake and tsunami prompted a crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan, but the world’s nuclear power sector is still lurching from its aftershocks. The Crisis at Daiichi Endures Five years ago, nearly a day after the 3-minute, 9.0-magnitude Great Tohoku Earthquake struck northeastern Japan—and unleashed […]

The 4-GW three-unit Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station has broken its own generation record, producing the highest electricity output of any nuclear plant in the world. APS, the Arizona utility that operates the plant, said Palo Verde generated 32.5 million MWh in 2015, making it still the only U.S. power plant to ever produce more […]

MPW’s Bundle Blaster Side Cleaner system is designed to remotely clean the shell side of small to medium
sized tube bundles, up to 36 feet in length. The tube bundle is placed on hydraulically actuated rollers to
incrementally turn the bundle during the cleaning process while the cleaning head runs horizontally on a track
over the bundle. MPW’s

The world’s first 1,400-MW Advanced Pressurized Reactor (APR1400), a South Korean Generation III design, has now been connected to the grid. Nearly eight years since construction kicked off in October

At the ballyhooed Paris climate conference last December, a little-noticed event occurred that could lead to important developments for electric generators. At the Paris meeting, some 80

Germany’s Energiewende (energy transition) was adopted as policy beginning in September 2010, some six months before the disaster at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant, and full legislative support was

China, which is seeing a nuclear plant boom with 30 reactors already in operation and 24 under construction, is accelerating development of its first 60-MWe (200-MWt) floating nuclear reactor. China General

“The one thing that is most difficult to enhance is one of the most important components of a nuclear power plant and that is the people,” said William D. Magwood IV, director-general of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA). Magwood’s comment came during a February 29 press conference releasing the […]

Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Ernest Moniz reaffirmed that the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in Carlsbad, N.M., is on track for reopening later this year, but he did not offer any encouragement to those in the southwest corner of the state who support using the site for permanent disposal of the country’s spent nuclear fuel.

According to Steve Byrne, COO of South Carolina Electric and Gas Co. (SCE&G), 85% of the major equipment necessary to build V.C. Summer Units 2 and 3 is onsite, and of the remaining components, a lot of them are physically constructed waiting to be transported or are already loaded on ships headed to South Carolina. […]

Despite the positive attributes of nuclear power—zero carbon emissions, reliable generation, low fuel costs, and a small footprint—the outlook for new nuclear in the United States is “bearish,” said Anthony Ianno, a Morgan Stanley managing director who follows the electricity business as an investment banker and dealmaker.

It’s looking less and less likely that the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) will ever finish construction as it was once envisioned for its Bellefonte Nuclear Plant. POWER confirmed through a media spokesperson that the TVA has notified federal authorities that it is withdrawing its application for two combined construction permits and operating licenses for Units […]

Problem
A Florida pulp and paper mill faced a complicated, dangerous process to clean its power boiler during scheduled outages.
Previous efforts to clean the boiler included manual water blasting from scaffolding, which posed a safety risk to workers below due to the potential for falling debris.
Solution
The Operations team at MPW Industrial Services recommended that the facility’s

Wisconsin’s Senate has voted to lift a longstanding ban on building new nuclear plants unless a federal site exists to store the waste and it can be shown to benefit ratepayers. The Senate voted 23–9 for Senate Bill 384, with several Democrats joining Republicans in voting for the measure. The bill now heads to the […]

EDF Energy announced on February 16 that it is extending the closure dates for four of its nuclear plants in the UK. Heysham 1 and Hartlepool will be extended by five years to 2024, while Heysham 2 and Torness will be extended seven years to 2030. The decision follows extensive technical and safety reviews, according […]

Closure of Exelon’s 614-MW R.E. Ginna and Entergy’s 882-MW James A. FitzPatrick nuclear plants will leave New York with a statewide power deficiency starting in 2019, the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) has concluded. A generator deactivation assessment issued on February 11 that is focused on reliability impacts stemming from the deactivation of the FitzPatrick […]

Case Study: MPW’s Automation Simplifies RO Replacement Process for Indiana Energy Plant

Entergy Corp.—owner and operator of the Indian Point nuclear power plant located in Buchanan, N.Y.—announced on February 6 that it had discovered elevated levels of tritium in samples from three of its groundwater monitoring wells at the facility. The samples were taken as part of the plants ongoing comprehensive groundwater-monitoring program. Although the company said […]

Reports out of Germany suggest that the city of Aachen plans to sue the Tihange nuclear power plant over what it claims is the plant’s failure to adequately address safety issues at the facility. Aachen—a city with roughly 250,000 people—is located about 71 km (44 miles) west of Cologne on Germany’s border with Belgium and […]

INDUSTRIAL WATERMPW’s emergency response pays off for Virginia Challenge:
When a Virginia power station had an issue with its existing Reverse Osmosis [RO] process, it called on MPW to supplement its water needs during an excessively cold winter.
The plant lost RO functionality at one of its four power-production units, which would severely damage its ability to

Following rigorous safety checks, Kansai Electric Power Co. on February 1 restarted a unit that uses a uranium-plutonium mixed oxide (MOX) fuel at its Takahama nuclear plant in Japan’s Fukui prefecture. The unit is the third restarted in Japan since the country’s Nuclear Regulation Agency (NRA) idled all reactors and began safety checks in the […]

There is perhaps no industry in the U.S. experiencing a greater range of fortunes than nuclear power. Across much of the country, nuclear plants that must compete in deregulated markets are often economically

RWE Abandons Hard Coal Construction Project. RWE scrapped plans to complete the 800-MW Block D of the Hamm hard coal plant in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia on December 18, citing damage and delays

In a leap for fast neutron power technology, Russia’s Rosatom has connected Unit 4 of its Beloyarsk nuclear plant in the Urals region to the grid. The 880-MW BN-800 unit–the latest generation of fast reactors