fuel

  • How (and Why) Using DVR Modeling Will Improve Power Plant Performance

    Traditional power plant performance indicators do not always provide reconcilable data. This means plant personnel may be making operational changes based on inaccurate information. An innovative data

  • All Fuels Are Important, but Thermal Power Generation Is Still Number 1

    COMMENTARY Throughout my career—and also POWER magazine’s long history—thermal power generation has been the greatest source of dispatchable electricity generation. In my view, policymakers have run a very good and smooth evolution of power generation diversity off the rails. The Biden Administration and Democrat Congress policies constitute an anti-American war on carbon. These policies, if […]

  • New modification of Russian VVER-440 fuel loaded at Paks NPP in Hungary

    DECEMBER 14, 2020 — After the recent refueling at power unit 3 of the Hungarian Paks NPP, its VVER-440 reactor has been loaded with a batch of fresh fuel including 18 fuel bundles of the new modification. The new fuel will be introduced at all four operating power units of the Paks NPP, and the […]

  • How the Clean Energy Transition Is Intensifying the Energy-Water Nexus

    Decarbonization is posing a fundamental dilemma that could have widespread serious implications for the power sector: the clean energy transition, if not properly managed, could increase water stress, or be

  • Rosatom will develop REMIX fuel fabrication at the site of the Siberian Chemical Plant in Seversk

    AUGUST 26, 2020 — The Investment Committee of Rosatom has approved the project of modernization of the experimental shop-floor for nuclear fuel fabrication at the site of the Siberian Chemical Combine (SCC), an enterprise of TVEL Fuel Company of Rosatom in Seversk, Tomsk region (West Siberia). This will enable SCC to manufacture fuel assemblies with […]

  • Belarus Plant Loads Fuel; Second Reactor Set for 2022

    Russian energy officials said they have begun loading fuel into the first reactor at the new Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), while at the same time confirming plans for the start-up of a second reactor at the site in Astravets. The plant is the first nuclear power facility to be built in Belarus. The project […]

  • $122 Million Earmarked for Coal ‘Innovation Centers’

    Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette said the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is ready to make about $122 million available to establish what the DOE calls “innovation centers” for coal. Brouillette and the DOE on June 26 said these centers will focus on the manufacturing of value-added, carbon-based products from coal. The facilities also would work […]

  • Framatome and the Technical University of Munich to develop new fuel for research reactor

    May 4, 2020 – Framatome and the Technical University of Munich (TUM) recently began the commercial development of uranium-molybdenum fuel (UMo) for nuclear research reactors. Framatome and TUM will design and install the fuel manufacturing production line, and develop, produce and irradiate new fuel prototypes. The project will take place at the CERCA Research and Innovation […]

  • Coal Plant Conversion to Non-Recyclable Plastic Waste Combustion Advances

    A hundred metric tons of innovative fuel pellets derived entirely from biogenic and plastic waste material—which would otherwise be bound for a landfill—have been successfully produced, marking a

  • U.S. Nuclear Industry Shaved Generating Costs by 7.6% Compared to 2018

    The U.S. nuclear power fleet last year achieved its lowest recorded average total generating costs in two decades—$30.42/MWh—though it ran at a record-high 93.4% average capacity factor. Total generating costs were 7.6% lower last year compared to the prior year, and have fallen nearly 32% since 2012. The numbers, highlighted in the Nuclear Energy Institute’s […]

  • New Boosts for Commercial Production of HALEU Advanced Nuclear Reactor Fuel 

    Efforts to commercialize production of high-assay, low-enriched uranium (HALEU) fuel, which is needed for an array of advanced reactors, ramped up this week with two major announcements.  As the Department of Energy (DOE) contracted Centrus Energy to demonstrate production of HALEU fuel for advanced reactors at the DOE’s American Centrifuge Plant in Piketon, Ohio, private […]

  • Off-Grid Microgrid: Solar + Batteries + Thermal Generation

    Today’s microgrid installations showcase a variety of configurations and control systems. Commercial and industrial sites are finding innovative ways to power their operations, particularly those in remote

  • FERC Thwarts ISO-NE’s Attempt to Keep Mystic Gas Units Online

    The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on July 2 denied ISO-New England’s (ISO-NE’s) request for a tariff waiver to keep two gas-fired units—a total capacity of 1,700 MW—at Exelon’s Mystic Generating Plant in Boston, Massachusetts, running to address “fuel security risks.” The commission instead gave the grid operator a year to submit permanent tariff revisions […]

  • Westinghouse AP1000 Plant in China Will Load Fuel

    SANMEN, China (April 25, 2018) — Westinghouse Electric Company, China State Nuclear Power Technology Corporation (SNPTC), and CNNC Sanmen Nuclear Power Company Limited (SMNPC) announced today that the world’s first unit of AP1000 nuclear power plant located in Sanmen, Zhejiang Province, China, has received the fuel load permit from China’s National Nuclear Safety Administration (NNSA) […]

  • GE-Hitachi Exits Nuclear Laser-Based Enrichment Venture

    GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy is pulling out of Global Laser Enrichment (GLE), a company that in 2012 got the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC’s) unprecedented approval to build and operate a full-scale laser uranium enrichment facility. The move was precipitated by a change in business priorities, but it doesn’t necessarily mean the GLE’s proprietary SILEX technology is […]