August, 2012

The other day, we mentioned Babcock & Wilcox’s small reactor project and its indirect use in the Gubernatorial race in Indiana. Now, another vendor of small reactors, NuScale, has attracted some press attention from Reuters. It’s especially nice to see that NuScale has overcome its financial difficulties...

Here's a summary of what went on in the energy markets last week: Electricity peak prices fell $1-$16 last week across the country to all settle below $40/MWh. “Next-day power markets were mixed but generally lower across the U.S. to open the workweek Monday, Aug. 20, as traders eyeballed higher...

The following news article originally appeared in NEI’s Nuclear Energy Overview. Hurricane Isaac had no impact on the three Gulf Coast nuclear energy facilities, but operator Entergy made extensive preparations, including shutting down Waterford 3 before the storm made landfall Wednesday morning. The...

The following news article originally appeared in NEI’s Nuclear Energy Overview. Member nations of the International Atomic Energy Agency have made “significant progress” in nuclear safety since the accident at Fukushima Daiichi, the organization’s director general said this week. Yukiya Amano cited...

The following news article originally appeared in NEI’s Nuclear Energy Overview. The industry has submitted for NRC endorsement revised guidance for implementing the agency’s post-Fukushima order to install additional used fuel storage pool instrumentation. The revision clarifies several points based...

The following news article originally appeared in NEI’s Nuclear Energy Overview. The use of nuclear energy will continue to increase globally, even though last year’s accident in Japan has curbed expansion, the International Atomic Energy Agency says. “The Fukushima Daiichi accident resulted in a slowing...

Mike Pence (l) and John Gregg Indiana has no nuclear energy facilities. It might never have them – well, never say never – and nothing, such as a ban, actually stops the state from having them. But any large infrastructure project needs a local advocate; one with authority in the state helps, too. So...

Nuclear energy facilities are built to withstand hurricanes and have a proven history of success. With reactor containment structures of steel-reinforced concrete, nuclear energy facilities are some of the most robust in the U.S. infrastructure. Besides being built strong, nuclear plant operators train...

Reuters has released a poll gauging the attitude of Japanese businesses toward nuclear energy. Based on a number of stories I’ve read, I expected the numbers to be extremely dismal. And while not exactly warming, they’re not nearly as awful as anticipated, either. About one in five big Japanese firms...

Industry/Regulatory/Political The International Atomic Energy Agency’s Annual Report for 2011 notes that while the Fukushima Daiichi accident slowed the growth of nuclear energy, it did not reverse it. The IAEA projects at least 90 new reactors to be in operation globally by 2030, a 7 to 8 percent reduction...

This is interesting, but it doesn’t seem quite enough: Japan developed an adsorbent that attaches the uranium-loving chemical group amidoxime to a plastic polymer. ORNL examined the binding process between the plastic and chemical groups and used that knowledge to enhance the uranium-grabbing characteristic...

Here's a summary of what went on in the energy markets last week: Electricity peak prices fell from $3 to $11 last week across the country in continuing mild weather to settle in a range of $31-52/MWh. Gas at the Henry Hub fell 13 cents to average $2.79/MMBtu for the week, and the rig count continued...

The following news article originally appeared in NEI’s Nuclear Energy Overview. The NRC’s regulatory framework and processes for considering off-site property damage from unintended releases of radioactive material are “sound” and provide enough flexibility to account for economic consequences in the...

Below is a summary of actions by the U.S. nuclear energy industry in response to the accident at Fukushima Daiichi. These actions include proactive initiatives taken by the industry and a tailored, comprehensive industry response to new regulatory requirements. Analyzing and Capturing Lessons Learned...

Media Matters for America and Fox News are not the best friends in the media landscape, with the former often calling out the latter for what it perceives as bias in its reporting. I have no particular brief on that subject. But I do recognize that the energy business has done a fair amount to bring...

The 560-foot tall lift derrick at Plant Vogtle (Southern Company). That is one mighty big crane . Here are all the details from Southern Company: Testing has begun on a major component in the construction of two new nuclear units at Plant Vogtle 3 and 4 – a 560-foot tall heavy lift derrick, one of the...

Industry/Regulatory/Political The International Atomic Energy Agency says its member nations have reported “significant progress” in nuclear safety in the past year, including assessments of safety vulnerabilities at nuclear energy facilities, emergency preparedness and response, and enhanced communications...

Color Bloomberg unimpressed : Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government says RWE AG’s new power plant that can supply 3.4 million homes aids her plan to exit nuclear energy and switch to cleaner forms of generation. It’s fired with coal. And Herr Dieter Helm, energy policy professor? Also not impressed:...

The CANDU's fuel assembly Way up north, a group of nuclear engineers are striking against contractors of Canada’s Candu Energy. They haven’t had a new contract since January 2011 and, presumably, want to negotiate a new one. Striking nuclear engineers from SNC-Lavalin Group Inc's Candu Energy...

Thanks to the folks at the ANS Nuclear Cafe for pointing to this video from Idaho National Laboratory 's Center for Advanced Energy Research. It's all about the CAVE: a "computer assisted virtual environment" that enables researchers " to literally walk into their data and examine...

It should come as no surprise that environmentalists oppose the use of nuclear energy in the same way they oppose coal or the fracking technology that is unlocking huge new reserves of natural gas. Currently nuclear energy provides about twenty percent of the electricity used in the U.S. Their attack...

Over the last few days, we've seen thousands of stories around the Web concerning a study that concluded that radiation released into the atmosphere from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power had caused mutations in the local population of butterflies . At the same time, another piece of research noted...

The following news article originally appeared in NEI’s Nuclear Energy Overview. The NRC’s plan to require licensees to evaluate the potential loss of a nuclear energy facility’s ultimate heat sink, or long-term cooling source, as part of flooding hazard re-evaluations will extend the time needed to...

The following news article originally appeared in NEI’s Nuclear Energy Overview. The NRC has published a report describing actions taken and planned by the agency and the nuclear energy industry to enhance safety following the Fukushima Daiichi accident. The U.S. national report was prepared in conjunction...

Dry cask storage It is not every day that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission advises everyone to “take a deep breath,” but when it comes to people misconstruing the facts about new plant licensing activities following a recent order, that is exactly what happened. In a nutshell—last week, the NRC issued...