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  • TOP PLANT: Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Plant Unit 4, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia

    Owner/operator: Rosenergoatom Fast-neutron reactors are pivotal to Russia’s ambitious nuclear power plans. The successful construction, grid-connection, and testing of the country’s first BN-800 reactor at its Beloyarsk nuclear plant is a major achievement in the right direction. Since the Soviet Union began its first experimental nuclear power projects in the 1940s, Russia has embraced nuclear’s […]

  • TOP PLANT: Ningde Nuclear Power Plant, Fujian Province, China

    China is on an epic build-out of its nuclear generating capacity, and developing indigenous expertise and technology is central to that goal. The first completed plant leveraging the nation’s CPR-1000 design

  • TOP PLANT: Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station, Delta, Pennsylvania

    Owner/operator: Exelon Generation and PSEG Nuclear/Exelon Generation When decision-makers choose to increase the maximum output of a nuclear power plant through an uprate, it sets in motion a process that can take many years and countless man-hours to complete. The success of Peach Bottom station’s extended power uprate project shows that all the long hours […]

  • Advanced CFB Technology Gains Global Market Share

    Circulating fluidized bed (CFB) technology is taking a growing share of the international coal-fired power generation market, particularly in the Pacific Rim and China. Indigenous designs are also growing in

  • Next-Generation FGD Wastewater Bioreactor Technology Introduced for ELG Compliance

    Compliance with one of the latest federal environmental regulations, the Effluent Limitations Guidelines (ELG), can be both costly and complicated. A newly available option offers features and capabilities that may make it a more attractive alternative than conventional approaches. In September 2015, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized a new rule affecting flue gas […]

  • Ultra-High-Pressure Cavitation Peening Offers New Way to Maintain Components in Operational Nuclear Reactors

    To power generation professionals, the word “cavitation” typically has negative connotations, but a new process offers a way to control this normally destructive effect and deploy it as a cost-effective life-extension technique. As operators of commercial nuclear energy facilities consider subsequent license renewals and life extensions, finding new ways to safely maintain reactor components remains […]

  • Pushing the Ultra Envelope: Advanced Power Technologies Are Mainstream in China

    China, which continues to build more new coal plants than any other nation, is also on the forefront of deploying the most advanced coal plant technologies. However, these advanced units could face

  • The State of Solar: New Tech, Outdated Rate Designs

    As installed capacity in the U.S. continues its breakneck growth, the solar photovoltaic sector is poised for another leap forward with a variety of new technologies—if increasingly ill-suited regulations and rate designs can be updated to keep pace. The global solar market has moved beyond its early, uncertain days. The luxury of behaving like start-ups […]

  • Meet the Beetles

    Bark beetles have discovered the good life in California’s overgrown forests. A combination of extended drought and mild winters has led to an enormous infestation of these pests. They have killed over 66

  • Wind Turbine Repowering Is on the Horizon

    The world’s first wind farms are reaching the end of their expected lifetimes. As they become outdated, or just inefficient, many developers are considering repowering. Here’s a look at where repowering activity is happening the most and why. Since the world’s first wind turbine used to convert wind energy into electricity was built by Professor […]