June, 2012

This week, Japan prepared to bring its first reactor back into service since the Fukushima Daiichi accidents last year, while on Wednesday Tokyo Electric Power Co. detected a record amount of radiation in the basement of Fukushima unit 1. Recent developments related to the Tokyo Electric Power Co. nuclear plant severely damaged following last year's earthquake and tsunami include ...

Westinghouse and Parsippany, N.J.-based engineering firm Curtiss-Wright announced an agreement Thursday to collaborate on large motor refurbishments in nuclear plants.

Canadian nuclear manufacturer Candu has announced the UK will study the use of its Enhanced Candu 6 reactor to generate power using MOX fuel.

A recent Department of Energy decision will add further corrosion testing to its vitrification plant planning at the Hanford site, adding time and money while delaying a cost and schedule baseline for the overall project.

In 1999, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) signed a contract with a consortium, now called Shaw AREVA MOX Services, LLC to design, build, and operate a Mixed Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication Facility. This facility will be a major component in the United States’ program to dispose of surplus weapon-grade plutonium.

The inspector general of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has confirmed a number of allegations of abusive behavior by outgoing chairman Gregory Jaczko.

Another court has denied efforts by the state of Vermont to appeal federal regulators' decision to extend the license of the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant.

Unit 1 at the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant has completed a refueling outage, adding badly needed generation capacity in California where both units of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station remain offline. The 1,151 megawatt Westinghouse reactor at Diablo Canyon began the planned outage April 23 and returned to full power Friday.

Equipment problems prompted operators to shut down the boiling water reactor at the Fermi nuclear plant Monday. At about 1:30 p.m. its condenser lost vacuum suction, the Monroe Evening News reported. The shutdown proceeded without any problems, and all other equipment operated as designed, a spokesman for DTE Energy said.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission finished its review of FirstEnergy’s investigation into concrete cracking at the Davis-Besse nuclear plant in Ohio and found the company’s conclusions to be sound.

An impasse in labor negotiations continues at Entergy’s Pilgrim nuclear plant in Massachusetts, with union members voting down the latest contract offer and picketing near the plant. The rejected contract proposal is the latest in two months of negotiations between Entergy and the Utility Workers Union of America Local 369.

Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency faced further embarrassment this week for neglecting to use US Department of Energy radiation data during evacuations near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Meanwhile, the Japanese parliament approved the creation of a new and more independent agency that will replace NISA by September. Recent developments related to Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s...

Security procedures at a Swedish nuclear plant turned up explosive material in a truck en route to a restricted area Wednesday. Vattenfall, the majority owner of the Ringhals plant, reported the object was found during routine inspections of cargo entering the plant.

Diakont announced this month that a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed with Structural Integrity Associates, Inc. The MoU leverages Structural Integrity’s engineering experience in buried piping and flaw assessment with Diakont’s robotic inline inspection equipment to offer a comprehensive in-field inspection of buried and underground piping to help nuclear power plants...

Electric regulators in Florida are taking a second look at a previously rejected bid by Gulf Power to raise money from ratepayers to help finance land that could potentially be used for a new nuclear plant.

Operators took a reactor at Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna nuclear plant offline Tuesday to fix a small coolant leak. In a report to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the plant described leakage into the drywell as being caused by a leak at a “welded joint on the 'A' reactor recirculation piping."

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission pointed a finger at the design of steam generators manufactured by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries as it summarized recent inspections of premature tube wear at Southern California Edison’s San Onofre nuclear plant.

Entergy and a union representing workers at its Pilgrim nuclear plant in Massachusetts have reached a tentative breakthrough in labor negotiations that have left the plant without a substantial number of its local workers for two weeks.

On Monday, EDF awarded the largest contract to date for new reactor construction at the UK’s Hinkley Point nuclear plant. The French company said it selected a joint venture formed by European heavy construction firms Bouygues and Laing O’Rourke as the preferred bidder for $2.52 billion in civil works at the site.

Rolls-Royce will refurbish its Derby manufacturing plant and build naval reactors for new submarines in the UK under a $1.6 billion contract announced Monday. The rebuilt factory will build reactor cores for a new class of craft planned to replace the Vanguard subs carrying Trident nuclear missiles.

On Saturday, Japan’s government granted permission for a restart of two Kansai Electric Power Co. reactors at the Ohi plant – the first units to return to service since the accidents at Fukushima Daiichi last year.

A North Carolina environmental group claims an unpublished study related to the merger of Duke Energy and Progress Energy could suggest repairs at the Crystal River nuclear plant would need to be more extensive than originally thought. Quoting a source claiming to represent Duke shareholders opposed to the merger, NC WARN said Duke’s board commissioned a study of concrete delamination that has...

The first reactor restart in Japan since last year’s earthquake and tsunami could be approved as early as this weekend, while in the capital Japanese legislators have agreed to a complete overhaul of the country’s nuclear regulatory framework. Developments over the last week related to Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s severely damaged reactors at Fukushima Daiichi include ...

The Department of Energy has agreed to further funding for research at Usec’s American Centrifuge Project under a wide-ranging agreement that reorganizes its oversight and transfers assets to DOE.

The primary builder of nuclear plants in India has reached an agreement to begin negotiations on Westinghouse AP1000 reactor construction in the state of Gujarat, the Pennsylvania-based company announced Wednesday.