Latest

  • Scenario training improves emergency response preparedness

    A key maxim of the military is “train like you fight, and fight like you train.” The same applies to emergency response training, which should be a part of a plant’s routine operation. Don’t risk waiting until an accident occurs to test your response plan. At approximately 8:30 a.m. on a Tuesday morning, the Paducah […]

  • St. Lucie Nuclear Generating Station, Unit 2, Hutchinson Island, Florida

    Top Plant: The team that handled this reactor vessel head and steam generator replacement project set a new industry standard for integrating a highly complex maintenance outage.

  • Map of nuclear power plants in North America

    Courtesy: Platts Data source: Platts Energy Advantage and POWERmap. All rights reserved.

  • Securing continuous mobile data connections

    For busy staff in the field, nothing is more frustrating than having laptop computers or smart phones crash due to lost connections when those devices lose wireless coverage. Often, important data is obliterated and workers have to waste precious time reentering the lost information. The irony is that wireless data connections, which are increasingly being […]

  • California’s GHG plan gives power heaviest load

    On Sept. 12, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and California Energy Commission (CEC) took the next step in the implementation of Assembly Bill (AB) 32, California’s ambitious greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions – reduction initiative, with the release of a 300-page proposed decision on GHG regulatory strategies.

  • The nuclear option

    Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman spoke at the recent 2008 Nuclear Energy Summit that was convened to discuss the importance of nuclear power to a healthy U.S. economy.

  • U.S. starts smiling at nuclear power

    The year 2008 is shaping up nicely for nuclear power in the U.S. Since September 2007, when NRG Energy and the South Texas Project Nuclear Operating Co. filed the first complete U.S. nuclear plant license application in 29 years with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), a dozen more companies and consortia have followed suit. And […]

  • Workforce management lessons from women in power generation

    Do you have enough women working in your power plant? Forget for a moment equal opportunity laws. More important is the knowledge that the programs and culture changes that would make women more likely to consider a plant career are the same ones that would make it more attractive to many younger men.

  • JCP&L’s SCADA-controlled adaptive relay scheme saves 25 SAIDI impact minutes

    In 2005, Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L), a subsidiary of Akron, Ohio – based FirstEnergy Corp., initiated a project to identify protection system improvements that could be made to proactively combat wind- and lightning-related weather events that create sustained power outages (Figure 2). JCP&L determined that these changes had the potential to improve the […]

  • Rope scope

    Karl Storz’s new 6-mm videoscope combines measurement capabilities with ease-of-use features in an advanced multipoint measuring system. Quartz glass limits the risk of scratching the lens while significantly brighter optics enhance image quality. The videoscope’s multiple interchangeable tip adaptors allow for near and far focus, and — at the same time, without changing tips — […]