Nuclear Power Industry News

Westinghouse and China’s SNPTC Sign MOU to Develop and Deploy Small Modular Reactor Technology

Nuclear Street News Team — Fri, 17 May 2013 17:20:00 GMT

Westinghouse Electric Company and State Nuclear Power Technology Corp. (SNPTC) announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to establish a partnership that would enable the two companies to work together to develop a Small Modular Reactor (SMR) standard design, based on the Westinghouse Small Modular Reactor technology, that shall be licensable both in the U.S. and China.

Westinghouse believes that global investment and access to global markets are essential components to making commercial operation of SMR plants a reality, and this MOU provides a potential path to establish such a mutually beneficial, long-term partnership.

“Both Westinghouse and SNPTC have expressed the desire to build a framework for cooperation in SMR development that explores the potential of both domestic and international markets. Toward that end, we are in the early stages of negotiations of an agreement that we expect will provide design, licensing, construction, and operational certainty that no other SMR supplier can match. We expect to be the first to market with the support of our Missouri-based partners in the U.S. and SNPTC in China,” Westinghouse Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer Kate Jackson said. “Our partnership with SNPTC will position our SMR design for international markets by combining the expertise of two leading technology providers. We will bring to market a highly innovative SMR design that uses proven components and systems, and provides superior safety performance, efficiency, ease of operation, cost predictability, and rapid deployment.”

Westinghouse expects that this partnership would accelerate the commercial deployment of SMR technology in the U.S., and anticipates the SMR plants deployed in the U.S. would be sourced and manufactured in-country.

The Westinghouse SMR design is derived from the Westinghouse AP1000 nuclear power plant, which received U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Design Certification in 2011.

Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant Weekly Review

Nuclear Street News Team — Fri, 17 May 2013 10:34:00 GMT

The last week in Japan brought positive news at Fukushima Daiichi – where Tokyo Electric Power Co. said an underground tank leak was much smaller than originally thought – and bad news for two other nuclear plants, where decisions by regulators are likely to keep them offline.

Recent developments related to the 2011 nuclear accidents that followed Japan's earthquake and tsunami include:

Underground Tank Leak Overestimated

On Thursday, TEPCO announced that closer inspection showed one of Fukushima's underground tanks holding radioactive water leaked about 20 liters, as opposed to 120 metric tons as estimated earlier, Kyodo reported. Two other underground tanks are also leaking, and TEPCO has been moving the water into above-ground storage.

Regulator Questions Safety of Tsuruga Plant, Monju Breeder Reactor

Two other plants confronted decisions by Japan's new nuclear regulator Wednesday that threaten their operation in the future. The Nuclear Regulation Authority said it considers a fault underneath a reactor at Japan Atomic Power Co.'s Tsuruga plant to be active. The new agency lacks the authority to force the plant's decommissioning, but the Yomiuri Shimbun reported the NRA's chairman said the agency did not plan to carry out safety inspections required for it to restart. The agency might reopen the issue if more seismic data becomes available.

The NRA also halted a proposed test run of the Monju breeder reactor, the Japan Times reported. The agency said almost 10,000 components at the plant went uninspected, and that the Japan Atomic Energy Agency facility suffered from poor communication and management. Monju is a sodium-cooled fast breeder reactor that uses recycled MOX fuel. It began operating in 1994 as a research facility but was shut down for 14 years following a sodium fire in 1995. When the Fukushima accidents idled nearly all of Japan's reactors, Monju was preparing to restart after repairing damage from a fuel-loading device that fell into its reactor vessel.

Ernest Moniz Confirmed as New Head of DOE

Nuclear Street News Team — Fri, 17 May 2013 09:28:00 GMT

The Senate has unanimously confirmed a former member of the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future to head the Department of Energy.

Ernest Moniz will take the position vacated by Steven Chu and lead the agency charged with overseeing a broad range of energy and nuclear cleanup initiatives.

The U.S. nuclear industry's main trade group congratulated Moniz on his appointment Thursday, encouraging him to continue support for small modular reactor research and the MOX fabrication plant at the Savannah River Site. Nuclear Energy Institute CEO Marvin Fertel also urged him to resume licensing for the Yucca Mountain repository for spent nuclear fuel.

"Having served on the Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future, Dr. Moniz has a clear sense of the course our nation should take to safely, securely and successfully manage commercial used nuclear fuel and high-level radioactive waste from U.S. defense programs over the medium and long terms. This includes development of a repository for long-term disposal," Fertel said.

Moniz is a professor of physics and engineering systems at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. According to his Blue Ribbon Commission biography, he has been on the MIT faculty since 1973 and served as a DOE undersecretary from 1997 until early 2001.

Duke: Catawba Tritium Release Poses No Health Risk

Nuclear Street News Team — Thu, 16 May 2013 10:26:00 GMT

Duke Energy said tritiated water leaked from its Catawba nuclear plant on Wednesday, reporting the event to regulators but emphasizing tritium levels were within safe limits.

More than 100 gallons leaked from a fiberglass discharge pipe from a unit 2 turbine building sump, according to a report filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission early Wednesday morning. At that point, crews were installing a temporary sump pump in the turbine building to isolate the leak. The report put the tritium concentration at 8.964 E-6 uCi/mL.

In a release, Duke noted that level stands at less than half the Environmental Protection Agency's limit for drinking water.

"Once we found the water, we immediately took action to isolate the pipe, and repair plans are in progress," Catawba Site Vice President Kelvin Henderson said in a release. "All water is contained at the Catawba site and is not in close proximity to any drinking water wells."

Duke owns the plant near Charlotte, N.C., with the North Carolina Municipal Power Agency No. 1, the North Carolina Electric Membership Corp. and the Piedmont Municipal Power Agency. According to the NRC, Catawba operates two Westinghouse reactors first licensed in the mid-1980s.

Chinese Companies Pitch Their Reactor Designs for Tentative South African Nuclear Project

Nuclear Street News Team — Thu, 16 May 2013 09:26:00 GMT

China's nuclear industry is wasting no time in wooing South Africa as it considers building several new reactors to meet its expanding energy needs.

The country's government will make a decision on whether to move forward with a 9,600 megawatt project this year, Public Enterprise Minister Malusi Gigaba recently told Ventures Africa. If approved, the project would be broken into three stages, each building 3,200 megawatts of capacity. The country currently generates about five percent of its power from two reactors at Eskom's Koeberg plant. Rumors of a potential bid solicitation to build new plants have circulated for more than a year.

At a conference Tuesday, three Chinese companies publicized their interest in the project. They included China National Nuclear Corp., according to a report in Engineering News, an Africa-focused magazine. At the Energex Africa exhibition near Johannesburg, the State Nuclear Power Technology Corp. also made the case for its Westinghouse AP1000-based CAP1400 reactor, while China Guangdong Nuclear Power Holding Corp. pitched its ACPR1000 design based on French technology.

At Plant Vogtle, New Construction Photos and Good News From the Court

Nuclear Street News Team — Wed, 15 May 2013 10:26:00 GMT

Construction at Georgia's Plant Vogtle, where Southern Co. is leading a project to add two Westinghouse AP1000 reactors, continued to make visible progress in April. That work will continue unabated thanks to an appeals court decision Tuesday rejecting a suit by nine environmental groups opposed to the expansion. The Atlanta Business Chronicle reported that the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals decided not to hear the case, which sought to reopen the licensing of the AP1000 following the Fukushima Daiichi accidents in Japan.

Meanwhile, at the massive construction site near Augusta, the unit 3 reactor pressure vessel arrived by rail as workers furthered their progress assembling cooling towers, nuclear islands, containment vessels and other structures.

Ruling on SONGS Could Delay Restart

Nuclear Street News Team — Wed, 15 May 2013 09:23:00 GMT

A panel of experts within the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has ruled plans that could allow a reactor at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station to run under reduced power amount to a license amendment requiring a potentially lengthy hearing process that could delay the restart planned for this summer.

Recently installed steam generators at both SONGS reactors experienced premature tube wear that has kept the plant idle for more than a year. With peak summer demand just around the corner, Southern California Edison planned to restart unit 2 temporarily at partial power after meeting the inspection and technical requirements outlined in an NRC confirmatory action letter related to the steam generators.

Friends of the Earth sought to stall or halt a restart, and on Tuesday the NRC's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board sided with the environmental group, according to an NRC release. Whether the ruling on the hearing requirement for the confirmatory action letter will actually delay a restart, though, is uncertain. The board's decision can be appealed to NRC commissioners. Further complicating the matter, SCE has pursued a second track to restart the reactors, filing for an amendment to unit 2's license that potentially could allow it to restart before a hearing takes place.

Exciter Vibration Shuts Down North Anna Reactor

Nuclear Street News Team — Tue, 14 May 2013 10:31:00 GMT

Operators bringing North Anna unit 2 out of a refueling outage shut down the reactor again after reports of vibration and arcing in the main turbine.

The Westinghouse reactor was at 60 percent power Friday when workers reported increased vibration and arcing on a bearing of the main generator exciter, according to a report filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The manual trip actuated auxiliary feedwater pumps automatically, and decay heat was removed using condenser steam dumps, according to the NRC.

A Dominion spokesman told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that about 20 people were troubleshooting the generator, including Siemens technicians and workers on site for the earlier refueling outage that began April 7. The unit remained offline Monday, and Dominion would not estimate when it would return to service.

Westinghouse, China's SNPTC Form AP1000 Supplier Certification Joint Venture

Nuclear Street News Team — Tue, 14 May 2013 09:30:00 GMT

The companies building the first AP1000 reactors in China announced a joint venture Monday that will further their cooperation and potentially encourage cross-border supplier networks for the reactor's equipment.

Westinghouse and State Nuclear Power Technology Corp. said the joint venture, called SNPTC-WEC Nuclear Power Technical Services (Beijing) Co., will provide AP1000 supplier qualification services globally. It will help develop the supply chain for the Westinghouse reactors in China, while also qualifying suppliers from other countries to enable both imports and exports.

“This joint venture also provides the opportunity for collaboration in new markets. We expect to provide new opportunities for business both within and outside of China. By forming this joint venture, we have a mechanism for delivering our goods and services together to a broader range of customers," Westinghouse CEO Danny Roderick said in a release.

SNPTC is the general contractor at the Sanmen and Haiyang plants, whose four units will be the first operational AP1000s in the world. The generation III reactor was designed by Pennsylvania-based Westinghouse, which is owned by Toshiba.

China represents, by far, the largest market for reactors and related products in the world, with 28 units currently under construction, according to the World Nuclear Association. Plans have called for an additional six AP1000 reactors to be built at Sanmen, Haiyang and Xudabao. Another 20 AP1000 units were planned for inland sites but put on hold following the country's post-Fukushima regulatory changes, and the reactor design has been mentioned in proposals for dozens of other Chinese sites with less-concrete timelines.

GAO Releases More Details on Contested Y-12/Pantex Contract

Nuclear Street News Team — Mon, 13 May 2013 10:25:00 GMT

Questionable procurement decisions at the National Nuclear Security Administration have emerged with the release of a ruling on a contested contract awarded for management of the Y-12 and Pantex sites.

Babcock & Wilcox currently oversees the sites and was among the bidders that challenged the award to a Bechtel-led consortium called Consolidated Nuclear Security in January. The Government Accountability Office, which hears appeals of federal contract decisions, announced its recommendation to reopen the contract process earlier but only recently released its detailed reasoning for doing so.

In its ruling, the GAO stated, "We sustain the protests based on the agency’s failure to reasonably evaluate the feasibility and size of the offerors’ proposed cost savings, as required by the terms of the solicitation."

It noted that the source selection authority – the official in charge of picking the winning bidder – changed days before the award. Earlier, NNSA staff evaluated the likelihood that cost savings proposed in each bid would actually be realized. But, the GAO said, the new SSA "acknowledged that he did not perform any independent cost savings analysis, and further testified that he was unaware that various portions of the proposed cost savings had been evaluated by the CSAC (the agency’s own 'financial management specialists') as 'not reasonable,' 'partially reasonable,' or 'cannot determine.'"

The amounts of the questionable savings associated with each bid were redacted from the ruling released to the public. Nonetheless, the GAO said NNSA should have considered them and sought additional information where appropriate.

In its conclusion, the ruling read, "We also recommend that, based on that evaluation, the agency make a
new source selection decision taking into consideration the relative size of the offerors’ feasible cost savings."

Turbine Trip Shuts Down Calvert Cliffs Reactor

Nuclear Street News Team — Mon, 13 May 2013 09:34:00 GMT

Unit 2 at the Calvert Cliffs nuclear plant remained offline Friday after a turbine trip shut down the reactor automatically earlier in the week.

Just before 10 p.m., Wednesday, the reactor tripped automatically from full power, according to a report filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Safety systems performed as designed, and unit 1 remained at full power.

A Constellation Energy spokesman told the Baltimore Sun that steam valves leading to the turbine closed for unknown reasons, shutting down the turbine. The unit 2 reactor had not experienced an automatic shutdown since 2010. According to the NRC, operators shut down unit 1 manually last August following the unexpected insertion of a control rod.

Both units at the plant near Annapolis, Md., are Combustion Engineering pressurized water reactors first licensed in the mid-1970s.

Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant Weekly Review

Nuclear Street News Team — Fri, 10 May 2013 10:29:00 GMT

Tokyo Electric Power Co. is drilling wells to divert groundwater around its severely damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Meanwhile, the company also predicted a slight increase in radiation levels at the plant boundary and the demolition of a cover surrounding unit 1.

Developments this week related to the nuclear plant blacked out following Japan's 2011 earthquake and tsunami include:

New Groundwater Strategy

An estimated 400 metric tons of groundwater flows into Fukushima reactor buildings daily and comes in contact with radioactive contaminants. After controlling the damaged reactors, storing that radioactive water soon became the biggest challenge at the plant, with 280,000 tons in surface tanks, another 100,000 tons in reactor basements, and little room to store more. On Tuesday, TEPCO announced it dug 12 wells west of the reactor buildings to pump out groundwater before it reaches the units. If TEPCO receives approval, the Asahi Shimbun reported, the company plans to discharge that water into the sea.

Dose at Plant Fence to Increase

Also on Tuesday, TEPCO said it may exceed a self-imposed 1 millisievert per year dose limit at the plant's boundary, Kyodo reported. The dose may rise to 7.8 millisieverts per year because of water transfers from leaking underground storage tanks.

Cover Coming Off Unit 1

TEPCO plans to temporarily remove a cover placed around unit 1 in October of 2011 to help contain radioactive contaminants. According to a TEPCO release and a Kyodo report, its removal this fall will facilitate debris removal from around the spent fuel pool and eventual fuel removal. With reactor and SFP temperatures under control, and with nitrogen injection and dust suppression measures in place, the cover removal is not expected to increase dose levels significantly outside the unit. TEPCO estimated the operation will increase the dose at the site perimeter by 0.0004 millisieverts per year.

Photo: An image of an upper level of unit 1 taken with a camera suspended from a balloon in October. Source: TEPCO

Trespassing Y-12 Protestors Await Sentencing

Nuclear Street News Team — Fri, 10 May 2013 09:30:00 GMT

Three anti-nuclear-weapons protesters who defaced the side of the Y-12 highly enriched uranium facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn., remained in jail Thursday following their conviction the previous day.

Megan Rice, Michael Walli and Greg Boertje-Obed were convicted on felony counts, but a U.S. district judge remained undecided as to whether they would be released until their sentencing Sept. 23. Lawyers for the defendants argued that their crime was not violent and did not require them to remain in jail before sentencing.

The judge is also considering a motion to dismiss a charge asserting the protestors intended to disrupt the national defense, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported. Y-12 closed for 15 days after the incident, which prosecutors argued amounted to successful interference.

The protestors cut through fences and made their way unobstructed to the side of a Y-12 building, pouring human blood on it and painting an anti-weapons message. The incident caused significant embarrassment for the Department of Energy and its National Nuclear Security Administration that runs the site, and it resulted in the termination of the site's private security contract.

NRC, Southern Co. Settle Investigation into Radiation Exam Cheating at Farley Nuclear Plant

Nuclear Street News Team — Thu, 09 May 2013 10:26:00 GMT

Southern Co. and federal regulators have reached an agreement to resolve allegations that an employee helped other workers cheat on exams at the Farley nuclear plant in Alabama.

Through a form of third-party mediation known as the alternative dispute resolution process, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the plant settled apparent violations that date back to 2010 and 2011. In a release Tuesday, the NRC said a Farley security officer helped other security officers during radiation worker training exams or took the test for them.

Southern avoided a civil fine by opting for the mediation process and agreeing to take a number of steps to enhance safety and integrity across its nuclear fleet. They include an evaluation of the company's testing, fleet-wide warnings about willful misconduct, and a fleet-wide stand-down to address the issues raised by the investigation. The company also agreed to evaluate its remedial actions annually until 2015.

Southern operates two Westinghouse reactors at Farley that generate 1,776 megawatts. Both units are in the licensee response column of the NRC's action matrix – a designation for plants that are not undergoing supplemental inspections from the NRC for safety problems.

Rosatom Offers EDF Cooperation, Potential Investment in Turkish Nuclear Plant

Nuclear Street News Team — Thu, 09 May 2013 09:26:00 GMT

French nuclear firm EDF and Russia's Rosatom are in discussions to work more closely, a French publication has reported, potentially including co-ownership of Turkey's first commercial nuclear plant.

Les Echos recently quoted Rosatom Deputy General Director Nikolai Spassky as saying the French government's current emphasis on keeping corporate investments within France will not last, and that Rosatom has offered to work with EDF on nuclear projects in Kaliningrad, Russia, and Turkey. Rosatom is financing the $20 billion, 4,800 megawatt Akkuyu project and owns 100 percent of its equity.

In an interview with Bloomberg, a Rosatom spokesman confirmed that the company is interested in selling as much as 49 percent of its stake in the plant. He added that the company will also consider working with frequent EDF partner Areva and other suppliers on a tender basis.

An Areva-Mitsubishi Heavy Industries consortium was recently chosen to build Turkey's second nuclear plant at Sinop, which GDF Suez will operate.

Trailer Released for Pro-Nuclear Documentary

Nuclear Street News Team — Wed, 08 May 2013 10:25:00 GMT

Since its airing at the Sundance Film Festival, a new documentary by Robert Stone has raised a contentious question among environmentalists: If global warming poses the greatest environmental threat of our time, shouldn't we make use of existing nuclear technologies that can meet growing global energy demand without greenhouse gas emissions?

The film, structured around environmentalists who've changed their minds on nuclear power, will open next month. In the meantime, its producers recently released this trailer:

(Please visit the site to view this video)

Stone, whose critical film on nuclear weapons testing in the Bikini Islands was nominated for an Oscar, has directed a broad range of documentaries, including episodes of "American Experience" on PBS.

"It’s no easy thing for me to have come to the conclusion that the rapid deployment of nuclear power is now the greatest hope we have for saving us from an environmental catastrophe. Yet this growing realization has led me to question many of the founding tenets of traditional environmentalism, from the belief that we can dramatically reduce our energy demand through energy efficiency to the belief that solar and wind power will one day power the planet," Stone said in his director's statement for "Pandora's Promise." "If there was a single 'ah-ha' moment it was when I was granted entry into a room in France (the size of a basketball court) where all the waste from powering 80 percent of the country for 30 years is stored: four cylindrical tubes 10 meters long and 1 meter wide are all that’s left from powering the city of Paris for 30 years with clean nuclear energy! I thought, 'My God, what on Earth were we thinking?'”

Kewaunee Nuclear Plant Powers Down for the Last Time

Nuclear Street News Team — Wed, 08 May 2013 09:33:00 GMT

After generating 148 million megawatt-hours during nearly four decades in service, operators disconnected Wisconsin's Kewaunee nuclear plant from the Midwestern grid at 11 a.m. Tuesday.

The 556 megawatt Westinghouse reactor near Green Bay entered service June 16, 1974. Dominion acquired the unit from Wisconsin Public Service Corp. in 2005 but later tried unsuccessfully to sell it. Dominion's decision last fall to close the plant came as Kewaunee's power purchase agreements were ending amid low projected electricity prices in the region. Kewaunee turned out to be the only reactor the company could acquire in the region, the Green Bay Press Gazette noted, leaving it unable to benefit from the economies of scale associated with proximity to other Dominion reactors.

"This decision was based purely on economics. The dedicated employees have operated the station safely and well," David Heacock, Dominion's chief nuclear officer, said in a release. "We will keep our focus on safety as we transition the station toward decommissioning."

Workers will begin placing the plant into SAFSTOR, starting by moving the 121 fuel assemblies from the reactor into the spent fuel pool. Federal regulations allow 60 years for the utility to completely decommission the site.

During that time, 50 to 100 people will continue to work at the plant, according to WFRV news. An update in late March indicated about half of the 632 people working at the plant will lose their jobs this year, with 202 positions scheduled for elimination at the close of this month.

Operators Shut Down Palisades Nuclear Plant to Find Tank Leak

Nuclear Street News Team — Tue, 07 May 2013 10:29:00 GMT

The Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan shut down early Sunday morning when water leaking from a tank passed a threshold set earlier by federal regulators.

The leak from the safety injection refueling water tank had increased to 90 gallons per day before the manual shutdown, according to an event report filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, exceeding a 34 gallon limit. At that point, the report indicated plant workers had not found the source of the leak or the cause of its increase.

An NRC spokeswoman told the Kalamazoo Gazette that the plant released about 79 gallons of radioactive water into Lake Michigan, although it was highly diluted and did not present a risk to public health. The paper noted the tank was also the source of a leak that seeped into the control room and caused a shutdown last year – one of four in 2012.

Entergy owns the plant near South Haven, Mich., which uses a single Combustion Engineering pressurized water reactor first licensed in 1971, according to the NRC.

Indian Supreme Court Upholds Commissioning of New Reactors

Nuclear Street News Team — Tue, 07 May 2013 09:30:00 GMT

India's largest nuclear power project has cleared yet another hurdle toward full operation with a Supreme Court decision issued Monday.

Justices dismissed a petition to prevent operation of the Kudankulam nuclear plant near the southern tip of the country. The court said it had to balance the economic and scientific benefits of the plant with "minor radiological detriments," The Hindu reported. The justices also noted that the fast-growing country will have to double electricity production to keep up with increases in demand, and that nuclear power will eventually be less expensive than alternatives.

Atomstroyexport built both VVER-1000 reactors at the plant under a $3 billion contract, according to the World Nuclear Association. The long-delayed first unit underwent fuel loading last fall following widespread local protests that pushed back its commissioning. It is expected to start operation soon, with the second unit about eight months behind the first. The court ruling, while allowing the project to proceed, also noted that the reactors' operation is still contingent upon final approvals from the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd. and the Department of Atomic Energy. Looking past the reactors' completion, India and Russia have discussed building several more VVER units at the plant and elsewhere in the country.

L-3 MAPPS to Introduce MAAP5 Severe Accident Simulation on Ling Ao Phase II Simulator

Ali Morris — Mon, 06 May 2013 19:30:00 GMT

L-3 MAPPS announced today that it has won an upgrade contract from Daya Bay Nuclear Power Operations and Management Co., Ltd. (DNMC) to equip the Ling Ao Phase II full scope simulator with a severe accident simulation model to enhance training scenarios that simulate degraded reactor core conditions. The project, which underscores L-3 MAPPS’ continued commitment to DNMC, will commence immediately and is slated to be in service at the beginning of 2014.

“Since the Fukushima accident in 2011, we have seen increased demand for severe accident simulation on real-time nuclear plant training simulators,” said Michael Chatlani, vice president of marketing & sales for L-3 MAPPS Power Systems and Simulation. “This upgrade project is important to L-3 MAPPS as it will allow us to field exciting new simulation products and solutions in the near term and to once again provide DNMC with a successful solution.”

L-3 MAPPS will connect the Electric Power Research Institute’s (EPRI) Modular Accident Analysis Program (MAAP5) to the Ling Ao Phase II simulator. MAAP5 is a software program that performs severe accident analysis for nuclear power plants, including assessments of core damage and radiological transport.* The simulator will also be equipped with new 2-D and 3-D animated, interactive visualizations of the reactor vessel, containment building and spent fuel pool to provide operators with additional insight into the behavior of the plant during severe accidents. The 2-D graphics will be enabled with L-3’s Orchid^® Control System and 3-D visuals will be powered by Bridgeworks^© from TriLink Systems.

In addition to the normal operations and abnormal, off-normal and emergency event training for which the simulator is currently extensively used, the upgraded Ling Ao Phase II simulator will be used for training scenarios relating to degraded reactor core conditions that result in fuel melting, including cladding oxidation and hydrogen generation, vessel failure, containment failure and fission product release.

The Ling Ao Phase II nuclear plant, owned by Ling Dong Nuclear Power Company, comprises the first two CPR1000 nuclear generating units that were put into commercial operation – the first unit in September 2010 and the second in August 2011. The CPR1000 is a Chinese standard design featuring a 1,080-megawatt (MWe) three-loop pressurized water reactor (PWR). The Ling Ao Phase II full scope simulator, built by L-3 MAPPS in cooperation with AREVA and Siemens, was put into service in August 2009.

L-3 MAPPS, a division of L-3 Marine & Power Systems, has over 30 years of experience in pioneering technological advances in the marine automation field and over 40 years of experience in delivering high-fidelity power plant simulation to leading utilities worldwide. In addition, the company has more than four decades of expertise in supplying plant computer systems for Canadian heavy water reactors. L-3 MAPPS also provides targeted controls and simulation solutions to the space sector. To learn more about L-3 MAPPS, please visit the company’s website at www.L-3com.com/MAPPS.

Comprising 25 operating companies, L-3 Marine & Power Systems (L-3 M&PS) is a worldwide leader in maritime automation and control, navigation, communications, dynamic positioning, and power distribution and conditioning for the U.S. Navy, allied foreign navies and commercial customers worldwide. L-3 M&PS also produces full-fidelity simulators for increased operator proficiency, resulting in safe operations for leading international utilities and ship operators. With over 85 locations in 19 countries, L-3 M&PS is a cohesive, global partner with extensive capabilities and a proven track record in delivering the highest level of technology, service and integration. To learn more about L-3 Marine & Power Systems, please visit the company’s website at www.L-3com.com/MPS.

Headquartered in New York City, L-3 employs approximately 51,000 people worldwide and is a prime contractor in C³ISR (Command, Control, Communications, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) systems, platform and logistics solutions, and national security solutions. L-3 is also a leading provider of a broad range of electronic systems used on military and commercial platforms. The company reported 2012 sales of $13.1 billion. To learn more about L-3, please visit the company’s website at www.L-3com.com.

Safe Harbor Statement Under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995

Except for historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this news release are forward-looking statements. Statements that are predictive in nature, that depend upon or refer to events or conditions or that include words such as “expects,” “anticipates,” “intends,” “plans,” “believes,” “estimates,” “will,” “could” and similar expressions are forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements set forth above involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from any such statement, including the risks and uncertainties discussed in the company’s Safe Harbor Compliance Statement for Forward-Looking Statements included in the company’s recent filings, including Forms 10-K and 10-Q, with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The forward-looking statements speak only as of the date made, and the company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

# # #

*A valid license to MAAP5 from EPRI is required prior to a customer being able to use MAAP5 with Licensee’s simulator products. EPRI does not endorse any third-party products or services.

Bridgeworks is a trademark of Bridgeborn, Inc.

Orchid is a trademark of L-3 Communications MAPPS Inc. All other products are trademarks of their respective companies.