POWERnews

Japan’s new Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda could push for use of existing nuclear reactors in Japan for a longer period than advocated by outgoing Prime Minister Naoto Kan.

The Department of the Interior (DOI) last week approved a transmission line on public lands that will connect a 250-MW solar power project to the grid in California. The line will connect to the Imperial Solar Energy Center West Project in Imperial County.

Utilities are scrambling to reconnect nearly two million customers in 14 East Coast states who have been without power for three or four consecutive days since Hurricane Irene pummeled the region.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has sent a more proficient inspection team to Dominion’s quake-hit North Anna nuclear power plant in Mineral, Va., to further investigate effects of the Aug. 23 5.8-magnitude quake whose epicenter was only five miles away from the twin-reactor station in Mineral, Va., after Dominion told the NRC that initial reviews determined the ground motion resulting from the quake may have exceeded the plant’s design basis.

On Tuesday, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approved changes to emergency preparedness regulations affecting existing nuclear power plants, those that might be licensed and built in the future, and research and test reactors.

The City of Alexandria, Va., and Houston-based GenOn on Monday agreed to shutter the company’s 482-MW coal-fired Potomac Generating Station (PRGS) by Oct. 2012. Community groups had fiercely opposed the 1949-built plant’s continued operation, citing concerns about its age and emitted pollution, but the plant has been seen as a key facility that maintains reliability for Washington, D.C.

Rural electric cooperative utilities in 14 states will receive up to $900 million in loans from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Rural Development’s Rural Utilities Service to help them upgrade, expand, maintain, and replace power infrastructure in rural areas of the U.S. The funding, announced on Monday, is expected to support construction of nearly 1,500 miles of line and improve 1,700 miles of existing line.

Dominion’s North Anna nuclear plant in Virginia shut down on Tuesday following a loss of offsite power as 10 other nuclear stations in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, North Carolina, and Michigan reported “unusual events” to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) after a 5.8-magnitude temblor rattled the East Coast.

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) board on Thursday gave the federally owned corporation much-anticipated authorization to complete a nuclear unit at the federally owned corporation’s Bellefonte site near Scottsboro, Ala. However, the TVA may reportedly finance the $4.9 billion completion by selling and leasing its Watts Bar Unit 2 reactor—a project expected to be completed in 2013—as well as its John Sevier combined cycle gas plant.

Regulations proposed by Canada’s Ministry of Environment on Friday could force utilities, starting in July 2015, to shutter new coal-fired plants not outfitted with carbon capture and storage systems and plants reaching the end of "economic” lifespans to shut down—unless the plants’ greenhouse gas (GHG) emission levels could be reduced to those of natural gas combined-cycle plants. The federal government said the new rules could gradually phase out traditional coal units, which would have a significant impact on reducing emissions from the coal-fired generation sector.