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AP1000 Reactor Set for Commercial Operation in China

September 20, 2018

An AP1000 nuclear reactor at the Sanmen power plant in China will likely be the first of its kind to begin commercial operation, with reports saying the reactor could come online as early as September 21.

A statement from China National Nuclear Power Company, issued to the stock exchange in Shanghai on September 20, said the reactor is expected to be ready for operation Friday after a 168-hour test run. The Sanmen plant is in east China’s Zhejiang province.

Snowy Yao, an analyst in Hong Kong with China Securities International Finance Holding Company, told Bloomberg: “It’s a landmark event for China’s nuclear power industry. It’s safe to say China is now one of the leaders in the world’s civil nuclear power industry.”

The AP1000, a pressurized water reactor designed by Westinghouse, is the same reactor being built for Units 3 and 4 at the Vogtle plant in Georgia, the long-delayed project that continues to be beset by cost overruns and legal squabbling over its construction.…

Appeals Court Backs Illinois’ Nuclear Subsidies

September 14, 2018

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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on September 13 upheld subsidies offered by Illinois to help struggling nuclear power plants. The court rejected arguments from power producers and some Illinois energy consumers that so-called zero-emission credits (ZEC) are preempted by the Federal Power Act. Opponents argued the program violates the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution, saying it usurps the authority of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and FERC’s jurisdiction over wholesale electricity markets.

The ruling was in the case Electric Power Supply Association et al. v. Star et al.

The Electric Power Supply Association (EPSA), an advocacy group for the electric power industry, along with other independent generators and some Illinois energy consumers had said the state’s ZEC program and the $ 235 million in yearly subsidies sent to a pair of Exelon Corp. nuclear plants as part of the state’s Future Energy Jobs Act directly impacted wholesale markets.

The latest appeal in Illinois was filed after a judge in July 2017 dismissed an earlier appeal by EPSA and a group of power generators.…

EPA Schedules One Hearing on Proposed ACE Rule

September 12, 2018

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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on September 10 announced it will hold one hearing to get input from the public and stakeholders on its Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule, the Trump administration’s replacement for the Obama-era Clean Power Plan (CPP).

The EPA said it has scheduled an all-day hearing October 1 at the Ralph H. Metcalfe Federal Building in Chicago, which is home to EPA’s Region 5 headquarters. The agency did not rule out the possibility of more hearings. The Clean Air Act requires the agency to hold at least one hearing on proposed regulations, if requested, and comments received during any formal hearing are noted as part of the official regulatory record.

The Trump administration held one public hearing and three listening sessions after it said it would repeal the CPP, which was never implemented and remains in legal limbo. The Obama administration held four hearings after it proposed the CPP.

The Sierra Club, which along with other environmental groups has been critical of the ACE rule, in a statement charged the EPA—specifically agency head Andrew Wheeler—is fearful of how the proposed regulation is being viewed by the public.…

‪The Curious Case of a Two-Billion-Year-Old Nuclear Reactor

September 10, 2018

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A rock sample from Oklo in Gabon, the world’s oldest and only natural reactor. Courtesy: IAEA Bulletin

Scientists appear to have unraveled the mystery of uranium ore found at a mine in Oklo region of the Central African state of Gabon that exhibits a lower proportion of uranium-235 (U-235)—the fissile sort.

According to an August 10 bulletin from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the first response that physicists had when they first found the high-grade ore in 1972 was that it wasn’t natural: “At first, all the physicists could think of was that the uranium ore had gone through artificial fission, i.e. that some of the U-235 isotopes had been forced to split in a nuclear chain reaction. This could explain why the ratio was lower than normal,” the bulletin says.

All natural uranium today contains 0.720% of U-235. “If you were to extract it from the Earth’s crust, or from rocks from the moon or in meteorites, that’s what you would find.…

Report: 10% of U.S. Coal Mined in 1H2018 Went to Plants Scheduled to Retire

September 8, 2018

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More than 10% of the coal mined from eight U.S. regions in the first half of 2018 was sent to coal plants scheduled for retirement between this year and 2032, according to a report from S&P Global Market Intelligence. The trend is another troubling sign for the struggling coal industry.

The analysis released September 7 comes two weeks after the Trump administration announced changes to emissions regulations in an effort to allow coal-fired plants to run longer. The administration has made helping the coal industry a priority, citing coal generation’s importance to national security.

The report also said that more than 6% of the coal mined in the United States in 2017 was delivered to power plants that are scheduled for closure over the next decade. The information comes from an S&P Global Market Intelligence analysis of coal production and fuel delivery data.

S&P said just more than 330 million tons of coal was produced by U.S. basins in the first six months of this year, and at least 33.6 million tons went to plants that are scheduled to be shuttered by 2032.…

Several States Urge Federal Court to Rule on Clean Power Plan

September 6, 2018

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Seventeen states have asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to reject the Trump administration’s efforts to further delay the court’s decision on legal challenges to the Clean Power Plan.

In a filing with the court on September 4, the attorneys general of California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington, noted that the case—State of West Virginia, et. al. v EPA (No. 15-1363)—claimed that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has taken “undue advantage” of the now 18-month-long abeyance granted to the agency by the federal court to allow it to review the rule.

The states were joined by the District of Columbia, and the cities of Boulder, Colorado; Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, and South Miami, as well as Florida’s Broward County.

The EPA is “prolonging the delay through a series of notices that do not come close to fulfilling EPA’s statutory obligations,” the filing claims.…