Editorial

Oregon State University’s Northwest National Marine Renewable Energy Center was awarded up to $40 million by the DOE on December 21 to create a wave energy test facility in Newport. Source: OSU

Department of Energy budget, FY 2016. Source: DOE

Governor of Texas Rick Perry at Southern Republican Leadership Conference, Oklahoma City, OK May 2015. By Michael Vadon (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

5. Ouch! A used 465-ton steam generator being removed from the Paluel 2 plant fell on March 31, 2016, slightly injuring one person. Two other workers suffered from shock. Source: ASN

4. Steam generator channel head. Inspections are being conducted on several French steam generators in which the steel may have unacceptably high carbon concentrations. Source: ASN

3. Pierre-Franck Chevet. Chevet is chairman of the French nuclear safety authority, Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire (ASN). Earlier this year he acknowledged, “Nuclear safety and radiation protection are facing unprecedented challenges.” Source: ASN

2. Red hot. Creusot Forge is one of only a few facilities in the world capable of making the parts needed to manufacture primary components for nuclear islands. However, material anomalies identified in components made at the forge have raised quality concerns. Source: ASN

1. Progress? The Flamanville 3 project was originally expected to take 54 months to complete. It has been under construction for twice that time already, and costs have more than tripled to €10.5 billion. Although currently expected to reach commercial operation by the end of 2018, that timeline may be overly optimistic. Source: Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire (ASN)

Each of the new units at RWE’s Westfalen coal-fired power plant was to have a capacity of 800 MW. Though Unit E is online, startup troubles for Unit D’s steam generator in 2014 contributed to its mothballing. Courtesy: RWE Power

Watts Bar Unit 2 went into commercial operation on October 19, 2016, 43 years after construction initially began in 1973. Courtesy: Tennessee Valley Authority

The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change website showed that both conditions for entering into force had been met on October 5, 2016. Source: http://unfccc.int/paris_agreement/items/9485.php

The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change website includes a searchable database of signatory countries’ nationally determined contributions (NDCs). Source: http://www4.unfccc.int/ndcregistry/Pages/Home.aspx

Artist’s rendition of Earth’s magnetosphere. Source: NASA http://sec.gsfc.nasa.gov/popscise.jpg

Facebook’s Prineville, Oregon, data center, in a photo taken January 2012. Courtesy: Creative Commons, Intel Free Press

The 1,140-MW coal-fired Allen Steam Station in Gaston County, N.C., is one of 39 power plants included in a new study by Duke University researchers looking at the effects of climate change on power plant output. Courtesy: Duke Energy

Solar photovoltaic panels on Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument Visitors Center (August 2016). Courtesy: Gail Reitenbach

Wind turbine blades moving by rail in southern Colorado, August 2016. Courtesy: Gail Reitenbach

News conference following talks between Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on August 9, 2016. Courtesy: kremlin.ru

FERC Commissioner Tony Clark announced Aug. 4 that the agency’s September meeting will be his last. Courtesy: FERC

Announced deals in the power and utilities sector. Courtesy: PwC

3. Blackstart support. The red pin indicates the location of Exelon’s eight-unit, 352-MW Southeast Chicago Energy Project. The gas-fueled simple cycle units can be restarted without outside power and could be used to re-energize the grid and bring other plants back online in the event of a major power system failure. Courtesy: Google Maps/Exelon

1. Losing proposition. Exelon’s Clinton Nuclear Generating Station, shown here, and its Quad Cities nuclear plant have lost a combined $800 million over the past seven years. Courtesy: Wikipedia/By Daniel Schwen

Exelon President and CEO Chris Crane. Courtesy: Exelon

2. New member of the family? Exelon and Entergy are discussing terms of a possible Exelon acquisition of the James A. FitzPatrick Nuclear Power Plant in upstate New York. Source: Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Map of Turkey. Source: U.S. State Department

Electricité de France sidewalk utility cover. Courtesy: Gail Reitenbach

Lighting fixtures, Amsterdam shop window, June 2016. Courtesy: Gail Reitenbach

The International Energy Agency’s Fatih Birol said that although nuclear capacity increases to 2040, there is “no real renaissance in sight.” Source: POWER

Panelists for the “Nuclear and Renewables in a Low Carbon Economy” session at the 2016 World Nuclear Exhibition in Le Bourget, France, June 28 (left to right): Gérard Kottmann, president of WNE and AIFEN; Prof. John Loughhead, chief scientific advisor, Department of Energy and Climate Change, UK; Dr. Kelvin Kemm, chairman, South African Nuclear Energy Corp.; Fatih Birol, executive director, International Energy Agency; Jean-Bernard Lévy, CEO, EDF. Source: POWER

Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, spoke at the opening session of the 2016 World Nuclear Exhibition at Le Bourget, outside Paris, on June 28. Source: POWER