October, 2011

A draft environmental impact statement released Friday indicates there are no environmental impacts that would prevent Detroit Edison from building a new reactor at its Fermi nuclear plant between Detroit, Mich., and Toledo, Ohio . The utility applied for a combined license to build a GE-Hitachi Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor in 2008, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission...

On Friday Canadian regulators published their post-Fukushima Daiichi report on nuclear safety, concluding the country’s reactors could stand up safely to the conditions that triggered the crisis in Japan. As in the United States, the Canadian government ordered inspections of its operating nuclear plants and a review of their accident preparedness in response to the March station blackout that...

Although conditions within damaged reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant are improving, ongoing analysis of the station blackout and Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s response continues to unveil disturbing details of the March accident. Developments over the last week include ...

A company seeking to built Utah’s first power reactors took another step in the licensing process Thursday. Blue Castle Holdings appeared before the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as part of the early site permit process for two new reactors that would be built near Green River, Utah.

A reactor design that first went before U.S. regulators in the late 1980s may gain final approval next week. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission announced Wednesday it will publish its decision regarding General Electric’s amended Advanced Boiling Water Reactor design on Nov. 1.

More than 1 million acres of federal land near the Grand Canyon will be off limits to new mining claims for 20 years under a proposal supported by the Bureau of Land Management and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. On Wednesday, the BLM released a final environmental impact statement supporting the proposal, although the favored alternative in the FEIS does not affect existing claims...

This video, shot Thursday and released the next day , shows the inside of Fukushima Daiichi unit 2.

Exelon, the biggest operator of power reactors in the U.S., will move its headquarters for nuclear operations from Illinois to Pennsylvania. Crain’s Chicago Business, quoting regulatory filings, reported the shift from Warrenville, Ill., to suburban Philadelphia will affect about 100 positions, roughly a third of which are currently unfilled.

Westinghouse Electric Company today announces the signing of a multi-million dollar contract to design the Low and Intermediate Level Waste Repository at the Kozloduy nuclear power plant site in Bulgaria. The contract was signed by a consortium comprised of Spanish waste management company ENRESA, Westinghouse Electric Spain (WES) and DBE Technology. The customer for the work is SERAW, the Bulgarian...

Florida Power and Light Co. was given the go-ahead to raise an additional $196 million to fund uprates at its St. Lucie and Turkey Point reactors, as well as planning for two new units. On Monday the Florida Public Service Commission voted unanimously to approve the request, citing state laws relating to nuclear construction.

Unit 2 at Sweden’s Oskarshamn nuclear plant shut down safely Saturday night following a small fire in its turbine hall. Firefighters on site immediately extinguished the flames, but the reactor was left offline as plant operator Oskarshamnsverkets Kraftgrupp (OKG) investigates the incident.

It seemed fitting that I read the latest book by Michael Schermer, co-founder of the transcontinental non-stop bicycle Race Across America, while guiding a series of bicycle tours with Dakota Bike Tours (www.dakotabiketours.com) through Badlands National Park, the Black Hills and Devils Tower regions. Shermer’s thesis that belief comes first and supporting evidence follows provided plenty of...

The world’s oldest operating civilian reactor will be decommissioned earlier than expected, its owners announced. Oldbury unit 1 will stop electrical generation in February, plant owners Magnox and Nuclear Decommissioning Authority announced last week. The BBC reported the UK reactor was originally scheduled to continue operating through next year.

Unit 1 at Florida’s St. Lucie nuclear plant is back online after condenser pressure levels prompted safety systems to shut it down last week. According to a Nuclear Regulatory Commission event report, the reactor tripped at 5:28 a.m., Wednesday, following elevated condenser backpressure caused by a circulating water pump malfunction.

The chief nuclear officer of Dominion today told the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission that the North Anna Power Station successfully withstood an earthquake without any significant damage because its robust design included multiple, designed-in safety margins. David A. Heacock, president and chief nuclear officer of Dominion, said the lack of damage from the Aug. 23 earthquake clearly demonstrated...

Developments over the last week at the Japanese nuclear plant blacked out by the March earthquake and tsunami include: TEPCO Anticipates Cold Shutdown By End of Year Tokyo Electric Power Co. may declare that its three severely damaged reactors at the plant have reached cold shutdown status earlier than planned. A six month update to its “roadmap” to bring the plant under...

Some 800 workers will lose their jobs at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Watts Bar 2 project under a renegotiated contract with primary contractor Bechtel Power Corp. TVA has announced it will take over more of the management responsibilities for completing the reactor. In a statement, TVA vice president Mike Skaggs said, "As we announced this past summer, the pace of...

Upstate New York’s Nine Mile Point nuclear plant will see three changes in its senior management at the end of the month, Constellation Energy Nuclear Group announced Wednesday. CENG, a joint venture between Constellation and French energy firm EDF, appointed former Sequoyah nuclear plant manager Ken Langdon as plant vice president of Nine Mile Point, effective Oct. 31.

A rate increase by Florida Power and Light Co. for nuclear plant uprates and the licensing of two new reactors will go before state regulators Monday with the blessing of the Florida Public Service Commission staff. Earlier this week, the agency released its recommendation that FPL be allowed to raise $196 million for projects in 2012 at its St. Lucie and Turkey Point nuclear plants...

As industry and government continue to vet options for storing nuclear waste, reprocessing regularly comes up as a way to handle America’s backlog of spent fuel sitting at reactor sites around the country. Within this discussion, fast reactor technology has re-emerged as an option for recycling the fuel, and a petition seeks to return research funding to this proven technology. As contributor...

Speaking at the Governor’s Conference on Energy, former Environmental Protection Agency head Christine Todd Whitman pointed to nuclear power as an important, safe and environmentally friendly source of future electrical generation.

Contractors hydro cutting through the containment building at the Davis-Besse nuclear plant have discovered small cracks in its concrete. Quoting a FirstEnergy spokeswoman, the Toledo Blade reported one hairline crack is 30 feet long, and engineers will continue to study it this week. The utility was quick to point out the cracks are not similar to the concrete delamination that occurred...

Peach Bottom unit 3 is back online after a 34-day refueling outage that also saw a range of other inspections and maintenance. With the help of 2,500 temporary workers, Exelon replaced 1/3 of the unit’s fuel and performed more than 15,000 inspections and maintenance tasks, according to the company. The reactor was restarted Saturday night and was operating at 68 percent power Monday...

In a reversal of his party's previous position, UK Energy Secretary Chris Huhne said he now supports the development of nuclear energy as part of efforts to fight climate change. “Nuclear energy has risks, but we face the greater risk of accelerating climate change if we do not embark on another generation of nuclear power... Nuclear can be a vital and affordable means of...

The government of uranium-rich Mongolia has reportedly abandoned negotiations to store spent nuclear fuel for countries it exports to. The Manichi Daily News, a Japanese newspaper, reported Saturday that Mongolian President Tsakhia Elbegdorj issued a presidential order last week prohibiting negotiations on waste storage with foreign states and international organizations.