Nuclear

With 16 reactors providing roughly 18% of the UK’s electricity needs, nuclear power is a vital part of the country’s energy supply. The trouble is that all but one of the aging reactors is expected to be permanently shutdown within the next 12 years. Recent developments, however, indicate that there is no reason for the […]

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will today miss a legally set deadline to issue finalized standards for cooling water intake structures for all existing power generating facilities under Section 316(b) of the Clean Water Act.  The EPA’s 2004 Phase II Cooling Water Intake Structure rules were suspended in July 2007 in response to the Second […]

In an email interview with POWER, Xue Wei, manager for Emerson Process Management Power & Water Solutions, China Business Development, provided some insight into the current state of control systems for Chinese power plants. His responses, edited for style, follow. POWER: How widespread are “state-of-the-art” control systems (yours and others) in new generating plants in […]

A tidal wave of pent-up federal regulations could surge across much of the electricity industry in 2014. In recent years, Congress has been unable to enact new laws in energy, which has led a frustrated

The business environment for generating companies worldwide continues to become increasingly complex, and not just as a result of regulations. Even in the U.S., the concerns and constraints faced by generators

Several new nuclear plant construction milestones were recorded worldwide in October and November. CPR-1000. On Nov. 23, China’s 18th large reactor, Hongyanhe 2, was connected to the grid. The $8.2 billion

Jordan Picks Russian-Built AES-92 For First Reactor. Jordan in early November chose Rosatom’s reactor export subsidiary AtomStroyExport to supply AES-92 nuclear technology for its first nuclear power plant

A study proposed by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) could shed more light on how safe it is to store high-burnup used nuclear fuel in dry casks. In an August 2013–released draft test plan

By 2035, renewables will hold a 30% share of the global power mix, but only 1% of the world’s fossil fuel–fired power plants will be equipped with carbon capture and storage (CCS), reports the

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on Dec. 24 formally issued a Notice of Violation to Southern California Edison (SCE) for failing to properly vet the design of replacement steam generators at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in California. The steam generators later developed excessive tube wear, forcing SCE to shut down the plant in […]

JSC Rusatom Overseas and Fennovoima have signed a plant supply contract to construct a nuclear plant of the AES-2006 pressurized water reactor design (Figure 1) in northern Finland, the companies announced on Dec. 21. 1. The AES-2006 is the latest upgrade to the Russian VVER unit. Currently, 18 VVER units operate in European Union countries. […]

The Fort Calhoun Station, Omaha Public Power District’s (OPPD’s) 478-MW nuclear reactor that was offline for nearly three years to address longstanding issues, including flooding from the  Missouri River in 2011, is ready to restart, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has deemed.  The federal regulatory body on Tuesday concluded OPPD was ready to safely restart the […]

U.S. nuclear reactor enriched uranium fuel supplier USEC will voluntarily file for bankruptcy protection as part of a restructuring plan to boost financial support for its much-watched gas centrifuge uranium enrichment project at the American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, Ohio.  The company announced on Dec. 16 that it had reached an agreement with majority shareholders […]

NuScale Power is the winner of the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) March 2013–announced funding opportunity to help design, certify, and commercialize small modular reactors (SMRs) in the U.S.  The DOE’s long-awaited second award announcement means the government will invest up to half of the total project cost required to help NuScale Power’s 45-MWe SMR design […]

No environmental impacts would preclude renewing the operating licenses for two pressurized water reactors (PWR) at the South Texas Project nuclear plant in Bay City, Texas, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) concluded on Friday.  The federal regulatory body issued a final environmental impact statement (SEIS) for the proposed renewal of operating licenses for Units 1 […]

Arkansas Nuclear One Unit 2 was taken offline the morning of Dec. 9 due to a transformer fire in the site switchyard. Operators at the plant declared an “Unusual Event” at 8 a.m. CST and notified the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) of the situation. An Unusual Event is the lowest of four nuclear emergency classifications […]

Duke Energy submitted its decommissioning plan to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) this week for the company’s retired Crystal River nuclear plant in Florida. The 860-MW plant, located about 85 miles north of Tampa, went into service on March 13, 1977. It has been shutdown since September 2009 when engineers discovered a delamination, or separation […]

“No industry stays static over time. Change is inevitable,” said the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) John Norris in a house subcommittee hearing today. For the electric sector, he said in prepared remarks, “The time of incremental change is clearly over.” The Dec. 5 hearing before the House Energy & Commerce Committee, Subcommittee on Energy and Power was […]

The Department of Energy (DOE) last week said it would enter negotiations with Global Laser Enrichment (GLE) for the sale of the depleted uranium hexafluoride inventory after it selected the GE-Hitachi division’s proposal to build and operate a laser enrichment facility at the shuttered Paducah enrichment site in Kentucky. The DOE will also enter into […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has extended the expiration date of the construction permit for the unfinished Unit 2 at the Watts Bar Nuclear Power Plant (WBN) to Sept. 30, 2016. WBN is located about 10 miles south of Spring City, Tenn., and is owned by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). TVA requested the extension […]

In 1973, an obscure economist from Britain’s National Coal Board, which then owned and operated all the coal mines in the country, published a book that posited—as the title proclaimed—that Small Is

First Kundankulam Unit Synchronized to Grid. The state-owned Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) on Oct. 22 synchronized to the grid the first of two units at the Kundankulam Nuclear Power

Georgia Power has completed placement of the basemat structural concrete for the nuclear island at the Vogtle Unit 4 site, where it is the second of two units currently under construction. Georgia Power says that the basemat concrete placement was completed in just under 41 hours, an efficiency it says matches the best time achieved […]

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on Monday directed agency staff to complete the long-delayed safety evaluation report (SER) for the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) license application to build the Yucca Mountain permanent waste repository. Reflecting the Obama administration’s opposition to the repository, the DOE in 2010 withdrew from the NRC its June 2008–submitted application to […]

So long as the federal government has no viable alternative to Yucca Mountain as a repository for nuclear waste, nuclear power ratepayers should not be charged an annual fee to cover the cost of that disposal, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled on Tuesday. Finding for petitioners that include the National Association […]

The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (MPUC) will hire a nuclear engineering consultant to investigate cost overruns associated with Xcel Energy’s Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant Life Cycle Management/Extended Power Uprate Project. The project, at an estimated cost of $320 million, was authorized by the MPUC in 2009 and included necessary upgrades to increase the 600-MW plant […]

U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz announced last week that the final shipment of low enriched uranium (LEU) derived from Russian nuclear weapons had departed from the port of St. Petersburg, Russia. “For two decades, one in ten light bulbs in America has been powered by nuclear material from Russian nuclear warheads. The 1993 United States-Russian […]

Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) today began the delicate process of removing spent fuel from Unit 4 of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. The six-unit site has two reactor groups, comprising Units 1–4 and Units 5 and 6. Unit 4 is the only reactor of its group that did not suffer a meltdown following […]

The European Commission announced last week that safety standards applied in Taiwanese nuclear power plants are generally high and comply with international state-of-the-art practices. The peer review—performed by the European Commission and the European Nuclear Safety Regulators’ Group (ENSREG)—did, however, strongly recommend further improvements in view of Taiwan’s vulnerability to natural hazards, such as earthquakes, […]

By 2035, renewables will hold a 30% share of the global power mix but just 1% of the world’s fossil fuel–fired power plants will be equipped with carbon capture and storage (CCS), reports the International Energy Agency (IEA) in its newly released World Energy Outlook (WEO-2013). The annual report presents a central scenario in which global […]