Latest

Issuance of the revised final Waste Confidence Decision and Temporary Storage Rule will be delayed until at least early October, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) announced on Thursday.  The NRC cited “time lost” and a “lapse of appropriations” during the October 2013 government shutdown, which has forced the federal regulatory body to “reschedule several public […]

The U.S. Commerce Department will begin fresh antidumping and countervailing duty investigations of imports of certain crystalline silicon photovoltaic products from China, as well as an antidumping duty investigation of imports from Taiwan. The department announced today that the scope of the new investigations, petitioned for by SolarWorld Industries, specifically excludes products covered by existing […]

The European Union (EU) should emit 40% less carbon dioxide than it did in 1990 and produce 27% of its energy from renewables by 2030, declares a new framework on climate and energy presented by the European Commission (EC) on Wednesday.  The communication setting out the 2030 framework is now expected to be debated by the […]

 The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) proposed New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from new power plants violates the Energy Policy Act (EPACT) of 2005, a suit filed in federal court by the state of Nebraska alleges.  The state alleges, as have a number of Republican lawmakers, that the EPA relied on […]

FutureGen 2.0, the government-backed but long-stalled carbon capture and storage (CCS) project proposed for Meredosia, Ill., will get about $1 billion in cost-shared federal funding, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced on Jan. 22.  A Record of Decision (ROD) published in the Federal Register marks the DOE’s decision to provide $1 billion of financial assistance […]

A federal court on Wednesday upheld the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA’s) 2012 determination that the 130-turbine Cape Wind offshore wind farm proposed for Nantucket Sound, south of Cape Cod, Mass., posed “no hazard” to air navigation.  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit’s decision in Town of Barnstable, Mass. v. FAA […]

Alabama Power Co., a subsidiary of Southern Co., has applied for air permits that would authorize the company to retrofit four coal-fired electric generating units, enabling them to add the capability to burn natural gas as a primary fuel. The Alabama Department of Environmental Management gave public notice of the application on Jan. 8. The […]

Officials from Wolf Creek Generating Station, a 1,200-MW nuclear plant located northeast of Burlington, Kan., met with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on Jan. 22 to review actions the company has taken in response to the NRC’s issuance of a chilling effects letter on Aug. 19, 2013. The NRC defines a “chilled work environment” as […]

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)—which notes that geomagnetic disturbances (GMD) can have potentially severe, widespread impact on the bulk electric power system—has issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR) to approve its first reliability standard concerning GMD operations. The NOPR issued on Jan. 16 concerning Reliability Standard EOP-010-1 is designed to mitigate the effects […]

A former chemistry manager at a nuclear power facility was fined $500 and sentenced to 18 months’ probation on Jan. 16 for engaging in deliberate misconduct in connection with a matter regulated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). Daniel Wilson pleaded guilty to felony charges of fabricating chemical test results regarding diesel fuel used to […]