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In August 2009, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued its fourth Early Site Permit for two new units at Southern Nuclear’s Vogtle site and its first for the Westinghouse AP1000 pressurized water reactor design. The two new units planned for Vogtle also became the reference plant for the AP1000 under NuStart in June 2009. This means Vogtle Units 3 and 4 will be the first licensed installations of the new AP1000 reactor design in the U.S. Plant Vogtle is expected to get the NRC’s approval to begin construction in 2011.

Using modularization in the construction of nuclear containment vessels can be one way to control both cost and schedule when building the next generation of U.S. nuclear power plants. Although the advantages of modularization can be significant, each new reactor design and plant site poses unique construction challenges and must be individually analyzed to determine the benefits of this approach.

If the planned expansion of nuclear power materializes, it will amplify demands on a nuclear fuel supply system that is only beginning to recover from decades of neglect.

Olkiluoto 3, the world’s first EPR whose construction in Finland has been plagued by major delays, in September reached a significant milestone as its 200 – metric ton, 47-meter-diameter steel dome was hoisted into position 44 meters above the ground.

This September — a year after Vattenfall launched the world’s first oxyfuel pilot plant for carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) at the Schwarze Pumpe lignite-fired plant south of Berlin, Germany — three high-profile and long-awaited carbon capture tests started operation around the world.

While the global spotlight is fixed on India’s massive coal-fired power capacity expansion, the country with meager uranium reserves has been pressing on with a unique long-term program that pushes for research and development of nuclear reactors using all three main fissionable materials.

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) looking into new power generation cycles have designed an innovative oxyfuel system that uses a pressurized coal combustor to capture and concentrate carbon dioxide emissions for direct injection into deep geological formations.

Denmark in September inaugurated a 209-MW offshore wind park — the world’s largest to date — off the west coast of Jutland, in the North Sea.

In 2007, Exelon Corp. began the Centralized Performance Monitoring (CPM) pilot program. The goal was to reduce downtime costs and lost revenue associated with the 25% of unplanned forced losses across its fleet of 17 nuclear power units without additionally taxing existing personnel or adding new personnel.

Corrosion of steel water pipes in the safety-related piping systems of aging U.S. nuclear power plants is fast becoming a safety concern and a significant operational cost, not to mention an indication of potential future liability for nuclear utilities currently constructing new plants or retrofitting existing sites.