Latest
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News
Electronic Differential Pressure Sensor
The Deltabar FMD72 Electronic Differential Pressure measurement system launched by Endress+Hauser uses two pressure sensor modules connected electronically to a single transmitter and eliminates the need for impulse lines or capillaries and their related issues of icing up, clogging, leaky taps, dry/wet leg inconsistencies, and problems with temperature changes. Ambient temperature changes cause measurement drift […]
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Commentary
Veterans and Utilities: A Valuable Partnership
The brave men and women of the U.S. military spend years crafting special skills and developing traits that prepare them for the challenging assignments they will be given throughout their terms of service. They receive orders for tours of duty and venture without hesitation into places steeped in peril and instability. Because of their consistently courageous responses to unimaginable challenges, civilians herald America’s servicemen and women as heroes. How can we begin to repay our veterans for defending our freedom?
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Water
THE BIG PICTURE: Regulation Road
To view a larger version of this graphic, download the file here.
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Nuclear
FPL Gets NRC OK for 10% Extended Uprate of St. Lucie Unit 2
Florida Power & Light (FPL) on Monday got the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC’s) approval to increase power¬¬¬ output of St. Lucie Unit 2 by 17%, from 853 MWe to 1,002 MWe. The regulator had in July approved a similar uprate for St. Lucie Unit 1, and its decision on Monday means FPL can fully proceed with its $3 billion plan to boost nuclear output and save on future fossil fuel costs.
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Nuclear
NRC Says Wolf Creek’s January Loss of Power Was of Substantial Safety Significance
An inspection has shown that loss of offsite power at the Wolf Creek nuclear power plant near Burlington, Kan., in January had substantial safety significance and will result in additional inspections and regulatory oversight, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said on Friday.
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Nuclear
Three Mile Island Trips Due to Flow Imbalance in Coolant Pump
Exelon’s 852-MW Three Mile Island Generating Station near Harrisburg, Pa., on Thursday automatically tripped owing to a flux to flow imbalance of the "C" reactor coolant pump, a filing with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) shows.
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Solar
California’s Streamlined DG Interconnection Process Bodes Well for Solar
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) last week approved a deal involving the state’s major utilities and renewable energy advocates that is aimed at streamlining the process for connecting distributed generation (DG) resources to the grid. The CPUC’s action will make it easier for small amounts of distributed resources—such as rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) systems—to connect to the grid. The agreement also revises upward the amount of DG that can be connected to a specific power line segment without the need for supplemental studies.
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Nuclear
GE-Hitachi’s Global Laser Enrichment Plant Gets NRC OK, Other Projects Falter
A license issued by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on Tuesday greenlights operation of a proposed plant that will use laser technology to enrich uranium for fuel in commercial nuclear power reactors. If built as proposed on a 1,600-acre site at General Electric–Hitachi Global Laser Enrichment’s (GLE’s) global headquarters in Wilmington, N.C., where GLE currently operates a fuel fabrication plant, the facility would be one of two new enrichment plants expected to be operational by 2020, even though several others have received NRC approval and federal government funding.
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Coal
House Passes Legislative “Stop the War on Coal Act” Package, Takes Aim at Carbon, Coal Ash Rules
In its last legislative act before the November election, the U.S. House of Representatives on Friday passed by a vote of 233 to 175 the controversial "Stop the War on Coal Act," a legislative package of measures that seeks to bar the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from promulgating carbon emission rules, calls for an analysis of the cumulative economic impacts of certain environmental rules, and would create a state-based program to regulate coal ash.
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Nuclear
New Bill to Limit Timespan for Reactor License Renewal Applications
A bill introduced by U.S. Reps. John Tierney and Ed Markey on Wednesday could prevent the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) from granting operating license renewals to reactor owners that apply more than 10 years before a current facility license expires.