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As much as 55% of Unit 1’s reactor core at the quake-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is thought to be damaged; Unit 2’s core is estimated to be 35% damaged, as is 30% of Unit 3’s core, the Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) said today. Seven weeks after the crisis began, the utility—which has also admitted damage of the spent fuel rods at Unit 4—continues all efforts to cool the affected reactors.

NRG Energy, the majority owner and operator of the South Texas Project, on Tuesday said it was pulling its financial support for a multibillion-dollar project to build two new advanced boiler water reactors (ABWRs) at its nuclear plant in Matagorda County, Texas, because the  Japanese nuclear crisis had “diminished prospects” for that project.

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) on Thursday said it would retire 18 older coal-fired units at three power plants starting next year as part of plans to idle or retire 2,700 MW of its 17,000 MW of coal-fired capacity by the end of 2017. The federally owned utility plans to replace the capacity with nuclear—proceeding with plans for Watts Bar Unit 2 and Bellefonte—as well as renewables, natural gas, and energy efficiency.

The Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) unveiled a two-stage plan to put units at its quake and tsunami–crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant into cold shutdown within six to nine months, and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said that if efforts go as planned, the amount of radiation may not increase.

Entergy Corp. on Monday asked a federal court to stop Vermont from closing its Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant next year. Federal nuclear regulators last month extended the plant’s operating license by 20 years, but Entergy still requires a state permit.

Liberal and conservative U.S. Supreme Court justices on Tuesday skeptically met arguments that power plant owners that emit global warming–causing greenhouse gases (GHGs) can be sued for damages. Justices questioned the court’s jurisdiction to decide on emissions standards, the vast scope of the case, and factors to assess the best available technologies to curb GHG emissions.

An internal investigation has shown that hydrogen gas, which had not been fully purged from the generator during unit maintenance at the coal-fired L.V. Sutton Steam Electric Plant in New Hanover County, N.C., ignited and caused an explosion that killed one worker on March 15, Progress Energy said in a statement.

The Department of Energy (DOE) on Monday announced a conditional commitment for a $2.1 billion loan guarantee to support Units 1 and 2 of Solar Trust of America’s Blythe Solar Power Project. The two-unit 484-MW concentrating solar thermal plant will be built near Blythe, in Riverside County, Calif.

Plans to build and operate the Cape Wind project nearly 5 miles offshore in Nantucket Sound, Mass., were approved on Tuesday by the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement (BOEMRE). Cape Wind Associates now says that construction of what could be the first U.S. offshore wind farm could begin as early as this fall, but the controversial project must still overcome several hurdles.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Charleston District, have completed the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the Combined Licenses (COL) for the proposed V.C. Summer Units 2 and 3 reactors, concluding that there are no environmental impacts that would preclude issuing the COLs for construction and operation of the proposed reactors at the site, near Jenkinsville, S.C.