POWERnews

A new study from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) says the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) should reevaluate the formula with which it calculates nuclear reactor decommissioning costs. In an analysis of 12 of the nation’s 104 reactors, decommissioning costs calculated for five reactors were 76% less than what would be required, Congress’ investigative arm says.

Duke Energy and Progress Energy customers would not shoulder charges for costs of about $450 million related to the utilities’ proposed $26 billion merger if the North Carolina Utilities Commission (NCUC) speedily approves the deal, according to an agreement between the companies and the state regulatory body that was disclosed Monday.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia heard oral arguments last week in a case that examines whether the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) should be required to continue the licensing process for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository proposed for Nevada.

No timetable has been set for the restart of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) despite “erroneous reports” in the media that referred to June dates, Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Chair Gregory Jaczko said on Monday.

Integrys Energy Group subsidiary Wisconsin Public Service Corporation (WPS) on Monday filed for a Certificate of Authority (CA) from the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin (PSCW) to install Regenerative Activated Coke Technology (ReACT) at its 321-MW Weston 3 plant.

Spanish wind turbine manufacturer Gamesa on Monday said it would start the permitting process for the installation of its first offshore prototype, the 50-Hz G128-5.0 MW at Arinaga Quay in Spain’s Gran Canary Island—not Cape Charles, Va., as it had initially proposed. The decision was driven by technical and wind resource considerations, offshore market trends, and investment return criteria, the firm said.

Canadian energy firms TransAlta, Capital Power, and Enbridge last week scrapped plans for the much-watched Project Pioneer, a joint effort the companies were to undertake with the Canadian federal government and Province of Alberta to demonstrate commercial-scale viability of carbon capture and storage technology (CCS).

Duke Energy and some of the Indiana’s key consumer groups on Friday reached a settlement agreement that resolves a disagreement concerning the utility’s consumer-paid cost overruns for its 618-MW integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) plant at Edwardsport, Ind. The $3.3 billion coal-fired plant is almost complete and on schedule to begin operations this fall.

The nation’s complex, patchwork system of regional and local power plants, power lines, and transformers is in the worst shape it has ever been, with 70% of transmission lines and power transformers aged more than 25 years, and 60% of the nation’s circuit breakers currently more than 30 years old, suggests new report from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). At least $566 billion will be needed to revitalize the grid through 2020, the group warns.

Small-scale technology tests by the U.S. and Japan in the North Slope of Alaska have extracted a steady flow of natural gas from methane hydrates, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) said on Wednesday. If new research efforts to conduct long-term production tests in the Arctic and Gulf Coast are successful, they could unlock a “vast, entirely untapped resource” that would hold significant enormous potential for U.S. energy security, the agency said.