news

The Trump administration has released a second loan disbursement of $56.8 million to Holtec International as part of an up to $1.52 billion loan guarantee for the restart of the 800-MW Palisades Nuclear Plant in Michigan. The funding, a key step in reviving the shuttered facility, reinforces a loan guarantee initially issued under the Biden […]

Texas A&M University System has unveiled four nuclear developers with which it plans to explore building and operating small modular reactor plants (SMRs) at its Texas A&M-RELLIS campus near College Station. The project—dubbed “The Energy Proving Ground”—is part of a state-supported initiative to deploy operational advanced reactors in Texas within the next five to seven […]

Lee Zeldin has been sworn in as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) 17th administrator, inheriting an agency that the power industry sees as increasingly central to the future of U.S. energy policy, grid reliability, and regulatory uncertainty. At his confirmation hearing on Jan. 16, Zeldin, a former congressman from New York’s First District with […]

Talen Energy has reached an agreement with PJM Interconnection, the Maryland Public Service Commission, Maryland electric utilities, consumer representatives, and the Sierra Club to extend operations at its 1.3-GW coal-fired Brandon Shores power plant and 774-MW oil-fired H.A. Wagner units until May 31, 2029, under a reliability-must-run (RMR) contract. If approved by the Federal Energy […]

PJM Interconnection and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro have settled a lawsuit over PJM’s capacity market pricing, agreeing to lower the grid operator’s auction price cap from over $500/MW-day to $325/MW-day. The move comes as PJM acknowledges a capacity shortage could affect its system as early as the 2026/2027 delivery year. The agreement announced on Jan. […]

Facing a projected surge in power demand across the country, NextEra Energy is taking steps to potentially restart its shuttered 615-MW Duane Arnold nuclear plant in Iowa as early as 2028, while also signing a new partnership with GE Vernova to develop natural gas generation projects that could be paired with renewable energy and storage. […]

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has selected Bechtel, Sargent & Lundy, and GE Hitachi to spearhead the initial planning and design phases for a potential BWRX-300 small modular reactor (SMR) at its Clinch River Nuclear site in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The collaboration, announced on Jan. 23, will leverage an innovative contracting model designed to streamline […]

Advanced nuclear technology firm Oklo is partnering with Texas-based prime and backup solutions company RPower to roll out an innovative “phased energy model” that will combine natural gas and nuclear to offer a scalable and sustainable turnkey solution for data centers. The companies on Jan. 17 said they signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to […]

Sweden has broken ground on its final repository for spent nuclear fuel (SNF)—a milestone reached after 40 years of research and development—making it the world’s second deep geological repository (DGR) now under construction. Svensk Kärnbränslehantering AB (SKB), a nuclear fuel and waste management company owned by Sweden’s nuclear operators, officially announced the start of construction […]

Competitive generation giant Constellation has agreed to acquire Calpine Corp. in a $16.4 billion deal that is set to create the largest producer of clean and reliable energy in the U.S. with an asset portfolio of more than 60 GW. The definitive agreement, announced on Jan. 10, includes a cash and stock transaction valued at […]

Advanced nuclear firm Oklo has partnered with Switch, a Las Vegas-based data center designer, builder, and operator, to deploy 12 GW of Aurora powerhouses through 2044 in a  historic deal hailed as “one of the largest corporate clean power agreements ever signed.” The two companies announced a groundbreaking Master Power Agreement on Dec. 18 to […]

In yet another major set of deals spearheaded by a tech giant in support of nuclear power development, Amazon will back the deployment of 5 GW of new X-energy small modular reactor (SMR) projects by 2039, starting with an initial four-unit 320-MWe Xe-100 plant with regional utility Energy Northwest in central Washington. Separately, Amazon signed […]

The U.S. Senate on April 30 passed—by unanimous consent—a bill to ban imports of unirradiated low-enriched uranium (LEU) produced in Russia. The bill now heads to the president’s desk for signature into law. The Senate passed the Prohibiting Russian Uranium Imports Act (H.R. 1042), which the House of Representatives passed (also by unanimous consent) by […]

The shift to clean energy is triggering growing concerns about the sustainability, resilience, and integration of the power sector’s complex supply chains. Here are five trends to watch. The power sector’s

Japanese firms JERA and IHI Corp. have launched the world’s first large-volume fuel ammonia demonstration testing at JERA’s 1-GW Unit 4 of its 4.1-GW Hekinan Thermal Power Station in Aichi Prefecture

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) is forming a group of qualified supply chain companies to help ensure the deployment of its BWRX-300 small nuclear modular reactor (SMR). The move comes as power companies vie for components amidst a supply chain strain that has led some sectors to delay critical infrastructure projects and ramped up competition […]

Ontario Power Generation (OPG) will partner with GE Vernova to complete a 15-year project to refurbish the iconic 1.7-GW Sir Adam Beck I and II hydroelectric complex near Niagara Falls. The C$1 billion ($724 million) project unveiled on April 16 will comprise the first phase of OPG’s larger plans to overhaul all five of its […]

In 2002, the government of Saudi Arabia moved to step up the private sector’s role in the kingdom’s economy by opening the production of power and desalinated water. Saudi firms Abunayyan Trading Co., Abdulkadir Al Muhaidib & Sons Co., and MADA Group for Industrial and Commercial Development sensed a tremendous opportunity, forming ACWA Power Projects […]

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has moved to retire its iconic 1.3-GW Kingston Fossil Plant in Tennessee in 2027 and replace it—with notable urgency—with a 1.5-GW modern complex featuring a combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plant, aero-derivative turbines, 100 MW of battery storage, and up to 4 MW of solar generation. The nation’s largest public […]

Marking the completion of its spin-off from GE, GE Vernova began trading on the New York Stock Exchange on April 2 as an independent company “singularly focused” on accelerating the energy transition. The measure, approved by GE’s Board on Feb. 29, effectively establishes GE Vernova as a giant purpose-built firm that will leverage its technology […]

India in March began fuel loading at a 500-MWe/1,250-MWth prototype fast-breeder reactor (PFBR) located at Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu, marking a crucial phase for the second stage of the country’s ambitious

As renewable energy capacity increases on power grids, battery energy storage systems become more and more important. While lead battery technology is not new, it is evolving. Advanced lead batteries offer a

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has directed its staff to publish a proposed rule and draft guidance to create Part 53, a much-awaited risk-informed and technology-inclusive licensing framework geared toward advanced technologies, including non-light-water-reactors (non-LWRs). In a staff requirements memorandum (SRM) made public on March 4, the commission directed staff to incorporate several changes to […]

The Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) is warning reliability challenges have grown urgent as the nation’s power system grapples with a “hyper-complex risk environment.”  The grid operator that serves 15 U.S. states and the Canadian province of Manitoba, in its updated Reliability Imperative report released on Feb. 22, flagged several critical challenges that the region […]

Ansaldo Energia has successfully demonstrated its constant pressure sequential combustion (CPSC) technology—designed for a novel, hydrogen-optimized combustor based on its flagship GT36 H-class gas turbine model—can flexibly operate with up to 100% hydrogen fuel. The breakthrough announced on Feb. 13 marks a major triumph for the FLEX4H2 (or Flexibility for Hydrogen) program, a four-year European […]

EnergyAustralia has begun operations at the 320-MW Tallawarra B gas-fired power station in New South Wales (NSW)—Australia’s first peaking power plant capable of operating on a natural gas and hydrogen fuel blend. The project’s start on Feb. 19 also marks GE Vernova’s first deployment of a hydrogen-capable dual-fuel 9F gas turbine. The $300 million ($196 […]

Fifty-eight projects spearheaded by major U.S. power stakeholders will receive up to $3.5 billion in federal funding to improve grid flexibility and boost power system resiliency against extreme weather and climate change, the Biden administration announced on Oct. 18. The projects mark the  Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) first competitive selections under the Grid Resilience and […]

A number of companies with ties to the power industry revealed new projects and other interesting developments this week. The following are some the more noteworthy announcements that POWER has been monitoring. Landfill Gas to Renewable Natural Gas Project Enters Service in Missouri Vision RNG (VRNG) said its Landfill Gas (LFG) to Renewable Natural Gas […]

The U.S. government has set out to fast-track technology development enabling hydrogen and ammonia combustion in power-generating gas turbines, furnishing six novel industry-led projects with a combined $24.9 million on May 19. Projects include development of hydrogen-ready combustion technologies for F-class retrofits, more efficient hydrogen and ammonia burners, and a potential demonstration of a rotating […]

An unprecedented array of risks—ranging from capacity shortfalls, extreme weather, extended drought, supply chain issues, cybersecurity, solar PV tripping, fuel constraints, to wildfires—could imperil the reliability of nearly every North American bulk power system (BPS) region west of the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) this summer, the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) warned in […]