Russia
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Nuclear
Conflict in Ukraine Threatens Nuclear Power Plants and Radioactive Waste Disposal Facilities; Operations Continue
In its most recent update on the status of Ukrainian nuclear power plants (NPPs), issued to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on March 2, the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate of Ukraine (SNRIU) said it maintained communications with the country’s NPPs and that all units “continued to operate as before.” Of Ukraine’s 15 reactors, more […]
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Nuclear
Poland Secures NuScale SMR as Urgency for Nuclear Energy Ramps Up Across Central, Eastern Europe
NuScale Power has signed a definitive commercial agreement with mining and processing firm KGHM Polska Miedź S.A. to deploy a VOYGR power plant of up to 924 MWe as early as 2029 to support KGHM’s copper and silver production in Poland. Under an “early works agreement” signed in a ceremony on Feb. 14 in the […]
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T&D
Frost-Heaving Problems and Solutions for Power Engineers
For the progressive development of modern civilization, access to minerals is critical. The main recoverable reserves of such minerals are often located at high latitudes. For example, a significant number of the world’s hydrocarbon deposits are located above 60 degrees North latitude. Our company, Noyabrskie Power Grids, is also located in this area, and its […]
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Legal & Regulatory
International Trade Laws and the Clean Energy Industry: How to Keep Regulatory Issues from Short-Circuiting Your Company’s Growth
New restrictions on international trade have become near-daily headlines. Sanctions, export controls, restrictions on foreign investment in the U.S., and actions prohibiting the importation of goods produced using forced labor affect all U.S. companies including those in the clean energy sector. Keeping up with these ever-evolving regulations is a difficult task, but getting smart about […]
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Engineering
Power Plant Repowering with District Heating Supply
District heating systems offer a great way to improve fuel utilization at power plants. Two projects—one in the U.S. and one in Russia—that involved adding gas turbines and heat recovery steam generators
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News
Rosatom Group Building Energy Storage Portfolio
Russia’s state-owned nuclear power company Rosatom continues to diversify, as one of the group’s subsidiaries has acquired a major stake in a South Korean manufacturer of energy storage products. RENERA LLC, which is Rosatom’s integrator company for the energy storage business, and also a subsidiary of TVEL Fuel Company of Rosatom, on March 5 announced […]
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Nuclear
First Turbine Module Delivered for Turkish Nuclear Plant
Turkey’s first nuclear power plant reached a milestone with delivery of the first steam turbine module for the project, four months ahead of schedule. GE Steam Power, which is supplying all the major equipment for the plant’s four turbine islands, on Jan. 12 announced it had delivered the module to Atomenergomash, an engineering company and […]
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News
POWER Digest [December 2020]
Norwegian Group Buying Vietnam Wind Farm. Norway’s SN Power AS in November agreed to purchase 100% of the shares in the 39.4-MW Dam Nai Wind Power project in Vietnam from Mekong Wind Pte. Ltd., a group owned
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Nuclear
Belarus Brings Country’s First Nuclear Plant Online
The first reactor of the first nuclear power plant in Belarus was connected to the grid on Nov. 3. The Belarusian Nuclear Power Plant, also known as the Astravets plant, will have two operating reactors with a total 2.4 GW of generation capacity when completed in 2022, according to its current timeline. The plant has […]
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Fuel
Rosatom Accepts First MOX Fuel Batch for BN-800 Fast Reactor
Rosatom, the Russian state-owned nuclear energy company, said it is ready to receive a shipment of the first full reload batch of fresh uranium-plutonium mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel for the BN-800 fast reactor at the Beloyarsk Nuclear Power Station, the nation’s oldest operating nuclear energy facility. The company on July 23 announced the Mining and Chemical […]
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Nuclear
U.S. Bank Set to Lift Ban on Supporting Nuclear Power
A government-run development bank is expected to end its ban on investment in nuclear energy, a move that could allow U.S. companies to take a greater role in foreign nuclear power projects. The U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) as early as this week could lift its prohibition on supporting nuclear power. The DFC on […]
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Hydro
Small hydropower plant Verkhnebalkarskaya in Russia put into commercial operation
Voith delivered the main equipment for the hydropower plant The commissioning was carried out by Voith with remote assistance due to travel restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic The new power plant will ensure stable production of clean electric-ity in the Republic Kabardino-Balkaria, Russia KABARDINO-BALKARIA, RUSSIA. On June 25, 2020, all three units of the […]
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Press Releases
Rosatom Announces Four New Nuclear Power Units Will Be Built in Russia
Moscow (June 26, 2020) – Preparations are now underway in Russia to build new power units in the Leningrad and Smolensk regions. The corresponding decision was signed by Alexey Likhachev, Rosatom State Atomic Corporation Director General. Сommenting on this decision, Likhachev said: “The Russian nuclear power industry has approached this stage with newly developed types […]
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Waste to Energy
Waste-to-Energy Strategies Are Not Dead
Few waste-to-energy (WTE) plants have been completed in the U.S. since the mid 1990s, but the story is different around the world, where WTE technology is seen as a suitable solution to municipal solid waste
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News
POWER Digest [May 2020]
OPG Reaches First Criticality at Darlington 2, Delays Work at Unit 3. Ontario Power Generation’s (OPG’s) Darlington Unit 2 reactor, the first of four reactors the company is overhauling at the Darlington
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Gas
GE Completes Major Inspection on SGT-800* to Modernize Bashkir Generation LLC’s Ufa TPP2 Plant to Help Cope with Russian Winters
GE’s modernization of Bashkir Generation Company LLC’s TTP-2 Plant was completed on time, successfully and safely The project is expected to extend the maintenance interval by 25% at the TPP-2 plant—equivalent to approximately seven months GE’s localized support through its GE Energy Technology Center in Kaluga, including a SGT-800* spare parts warehouse, ensures availability of […]
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Nuclear
Nuclear Fuel Working Group Outlines How U.S. Could Regain Global Leadership
The U.S. will attempt to regain its international standing as a world leader in nuclear energy through a three-pronged strategy that will essentially seek to strengthen the full domestic nuclear fuel cycle, possibly deny imports of nuclear fuel fabricated in Russia or China, and promote advanced reactor technologies. The strategy is outlined in the White […]
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News
POWER Digest [February 2020]
Indonesia Readying to Build 145-MW Floating Solar Plant. Pembangkitan Jawa Bali (PJB), a subsidiary of Indonesian state electricity company PT PLN, is planning to begin construction of the $129 million Cirata
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Nuclear
MOX Nuclear Fuel Loaded in Russian Reactor, More to Come
Power plant engineers have loaded 18 mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel assemblies in Unit 4 at the Beloyarsk nuclear power plant in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia. Distinct from traditional nuclear fuel with enriched uranium, MOX fuel pellets are based on the mix of nuclear fuel cycle derivatives, such as plutonium oxide bred in commercial reactors and uranium oxide […]
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Nuclear
Exelon Installs New Accident Tolerant Fuel at Illinois Nuclear Plant
Global Nuclear Fuel (GNF), a GE-led joint venture with Hitachi Ltd. that supplies boiling water reactor fuel and fuel-related services around the world, said lead test assemblies utilizing its ARMOR-coated zirconium cladding and IronClad Accident Tolerant Fuel solutions have been installed at Exelon’s Clinton nuclear plant in Illinois. “We continue to work with our customers […]
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Press Releases
Rosatom subsidiary awards contract for construction of BREST-OD-300 fast reactor facility and power unit
Siberian Chemical Plant (a subsidiary of TVEL Fuel Company of Rosatom in Seversk, Tomsk region, West Siberia) has signed the contract with Concern Titan-2 engineering company for construction and installation works within the project of BREST-OD-300 lead-cooled fast neutron reactor facility. The total contract value is 26.3 billion rubles. The contractor will accomplish construction of […]
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News
Russia Offers to Expand Nuclear Power in Africa
South Africa is the only country on the African continent with nuclear power generation, but Russia is working to make nuclear power a reality for more African nations. Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke
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Infographics
THE BIG PICTURE: The Diffusion of Nuclear Technology
A historical analysis of nuclear power technology by researchers from the German Institute for Economic Research suggests that none of the 674 reactors developed globally since 1945 were developed based on “economic grounds”—as private investments in the context of a market-based competitive system. Until the 1950s, only four major countries dominated nuclear technology by establishing independent […]
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Fuel
Russia Completes First-Phase Testing of Nuclear Accident-Tolerant Fuel
Russia has completed the first phase of nuclear accident-tolerant fuel (ATF) reactor testing at a government research facility. The achievement paves the way for ATF testing at a Russian commercial nuclear plant, which could begin in 2020. TVEL Fuel Co. of Rosatom, a company that provides nuclear fuel to 72 reactors in 14 countries, including […]
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News
A Busy Summer for New Nuclear Power Plants
Several new nuclear plants around the world marked important milestones over the summer. Among notable projects are those that began second units of new third-generation reactor designs—such as the EPR
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News
China, Russia Looking to Build Nuclear Plants in Argentina
Argentina, the first Latin American country to adopt nuclear power when the Atucha I plant began operation in 1974, has plans to expand its nuclear generation, with Russia and China vying to implement their
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News
TRITON/TRISIS Cyberattacker Has a New Target: Power Sector
XENOTIME, a cyberthreat activity group thought responsible for TRISIS/TRITON malware attacks on safety instrumented systems (SIS) at an oil and gas Middle Eastern facility in 2017, has been probing power company networks in the U.S. and elsewhere, new intelligence from industrial control systems (ICS) security firm Dragos shows. “In February 2019, Dragos identified a change in […]
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News
Iran Expands Plans for Nuclear Power
Nuclear power in Iran has struggled to gain a foothold, with the country dogged by political power struggles, international sanctions, and significant scrutiny of its nuclear program for decades. The country
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Cybersecurity
New Cyberattack by Group Behind TRITON/TRISIS Reported
Cybersecurity firm FireEye has uncovered and is responding to a new intrusion at an unnamed critical infrastructure facility that it suggests in an April 10 blog post was perpetrated by the group behind the TRITON attack, which prompted a process shutdown at a Middle Eastern facility in 2017. But while details of the new attack are sparse, […]
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Connected Plant
Hackers May Already be in Your Infrastructure—Now What?
Cyber-attacks on industrial control systems (ICSs) are no longer a hypothetical. As pieced together by the Wall Street Journal, in 2017, Russian hackers attacked a small construction company, exploiting the organization’s connections with utilities and government agencies. Through an integrator, the hackers accessed computer-network credentials, giving them the ability to get into computer systems that […]