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The number of companies pulling out of the nuclear business continues to grow. Just weeks after Louisiana-based engineering firm The Shaw Group announced it would sell its 20% stake in the nuclear company Westinghouse back to partner Toshiba, German engineering conglomerate Siemens said that, prompted by the German government’s decision to phase out nuclear power by 2022, it would quit the nuclear business.

A German finance court in September questioned the constitutionality of a controversial tax on fuel used in nuclear power plants, a decision that could influence rulings in various finance courts around the country that are reviewing complaints by nuclear operators regarding the levy.

The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in southern France, the world’s biggest nuclear fusion research project, is seeing a revival. After a budget shortfall last year and cost projections that continue to escalate, in September, the project got the European Parliament’s (EP’s) backing for an autonomous budget that seeks to guarantee transparent and reliable financing while limiting cost overruns. Japan also announced that it would increase its budget for ITER by 50% (the current ITER director-general is Japanese). Also in September, scientists announced that after an 18-month shutdown to upgrade the Joint European Torus (JET)—the world’s largest magnetic fusion device—the machine is ready to test materials to be used inside ITER (Figure 5).

Wärtsilä to Provide Rwanda with Engines for Lake Methane Power. Wärtsilä on Sept. 30 said it was awarded a contract by KivuWatt, a subsidiary of the New York–based international power company ContourGlobal, to supply a power plant to the Republic of Rwanda. The turnkey project is of particular significance because the power plant will utilize […]

For seven years in a row, the number of new nuclear construction starts increased markedly. Then the accident at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi plant occurred, prompting shutdowns of existing plants and a rethinking of future plans in many countries. Nevertheless, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) expects “continuous and significant growth” in the use of nuclear […]

BIRNS introduced what it is calling the “world’s most advanced, seismically qualified (per IEEE-344) emergency lighting solution” for nuclear containment: the BIRNS Emergency Light Fixture-LED. The slim-profiled, wall-mounted system provides in excess of 24 hours of continuous, brilliant LED light in the case of power loss in nuclear power facilities and is capable of withstanding […]

E Instruments International launched the E8500 combustion analyzer, a complete portable tool for EPA compliance-level emissions monitoring and testing. The E8500 is ideal for regulatory and maintenance use in boiler, burner, engine, turbine, furnace, and other combustion applications. The analyzer includes electrochemical sensors for oxygen, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides (measuring both low and true values), […]

Building on the success of the Fluegas 2700 combustion gas analyzer, the new SERVOTOUGH FluegasExact integrates Servomex’s unique Flowcube flow sensor technology to give users even more confidence in their combustion gas measurements. The analyzer features a patented zirconium oxide cell for oxygen measurement and a thick film catalytic sensor for measuring carbon monoxide (CO) […]

The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently concluded that the agency failed to follow prescribed policies in its peer review of the technical support document that provided the justification for its 2009 “endangerment finding” on greenhouse gases. The OIG report is timely, but in an unexpected way.

The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently concluded that the agency failed to follow prescribed policies in its peer review of the technical support document that provided the justification for its 2009 “endangerment finding” on greenhouse gases. The OIG report is timely, but in an unexpected way.

Water has long been energy production’s silent partner. In the past, we Americans seemed to take it for granted that plentiful water supplies would be available for a variety of energy needs ranging from the operations of coal-fired power plants to natural gas production activities.