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Georgia Power Orders First Fuel Load for Vogtle Unit 4

March 6, 2020

The post Georgia Power Orders First Fuel Load for Vogtle Unit 4 appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Georgia Power on March 5 announced it has ordered the first nuclear fuel load for Vogtle Unit 4, as work continues on the first new-design reactors in the U.S. in more than 30 years. Fuel for Unit 3 of the two-unit expansion at Vogtle was ordered last summer.

The completion of the fuel order for Unit 4 is another milestone for the project at the Plant Vogtle site near Waynesboro, Georgia. The project is now approximately 84% complete, according to Georgia Power. The two AP1000 (Advanced Passive) units each have generation capacity of 1,117 MW.

Southern Co., the parent of Georgia Power, in an email to POWER on Thursday said the order consists of 157 fuel assemblies, each 14 feet tall. According to Georgia Power, “The fuel will eventually be loaded into the reactor vessels to support startup once the reactors begin operating.…

UAE Set to Start First Nuclear Plant; Sweden, Germany Shut Units

January 2, 2020

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The post UAE Set to Start First Nuclear Plant; Sweden, Germany Shut Units appeared first on POWER Magazine.

The first nuclear power plant in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) reportedly will come online in early 2020. The report comes one day after Sweden on Dec. 30 shut down one of four reactors at the nation’s largest nuclear plant, closing Unit 2 at the Ringhals facility after more than 40 years of operation.

Germany also shut down the Philippsburg nuclear plant on Tuesday, part of that country’s planned phase-out of nuclear power by year-end 2022. The plant’s operating license was set to expire at midnight Central European Time on Tuesday.

The Al-Ittihad newspaper on Dec. 31 said one unit of the $ 24.4 billion Barakah plant in the UAE will enter commercial operation in the first quarter of 2020, and testing on a second reactor is set to begin soon, according to information from the Emirates Nuclear Energy Corp. (ENEC). The ENEC has said it is nearing issuance of an operating license for the first reactor.…

New Jersey’s First Offshore Wind Farm Will Be a Mammoth 1.1-GW Ørsted Project

June 23, 2019

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Danish renewables firm Ørsted’s 1.1-GW Ocean Wind project is the winner of New Jersey’s first award for offshore wind, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) said on June 21.

Ørsted, with support from Public Service Enterprise Group’s (PSEG) non-utility affiliate, vied for the award with two other offshore wind developers that submitted bids between September and December 2018 in response to the state’s first offshore wind solicitation. Other bidders included Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind, a partnership between EDF Renewables and Shell New Energies, and Boardwalk Wind, which was sponsored by Norwegian multinational company Equinor.

NJBPU unanimously granted the award to Ørsted after evaluating wide criteria, including offshore wind renewable energy certificates (OREC) purchase price, economic impact, ratepayer impact, environmental impact, the strength of guarantees for economic impact, and the likelihood of successful commercial operation.

The agency said Ørsted’s economic development plans were the most detailed and could result in net economic benefits of $ 1.17 billion to the state.…

First Commercial AP1000, EPR Reactors Connected to Grid

July 9, 2018

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Two nuclear energy milestones were reached in the past week, as the world’s first commercial AP1000 and EPR reactors were connected to China’s power grid.

Westinghouse announced Sanmen 1, the first AP1000 unit, was connected to the grid June 30, one day after Électricité de France (EDF) connected the first EPR reactor—Taishan 1—to the system. The EPR is a third-generation pressurized water reactor, with technology by EDF and France’s Framatome. Taishan 1 is the first of two, 1.7-GW reactors at the site, which is owned by TNPJVC, a joint venture of China General Nuclear (CGN), which owns 51%; EDF, which owns 30%; and Yuedian, a Chinese electric company that owns 19%.

The 1.1-GW Sanmen 1 reactor is the first of four new AP1000 plants under construction in eastern China. The AP1000, also a pressurized water reactor, is the technology being used for two new reactors at the Vogtle nuclear plant in Georgia. Unit 3 at Vogtle is scheduled to come online in November 2021, with Unit 4 following a year later.…

First AP1000 Nuclear Units Reach Key Milestones

June 23, 2018

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Two Westinghouse AP1000 nuclear power plants being constructed in China have successfully completed significant project milestones.

Sanmen Unit 1—the world’s first AP1000 reactor—achieved initial criticality on June 21. Initial criticality is a nuclear industry term meaning the reactor’s neutron population has remained steady from one generation to the next and the nuclear fission chain reaction is self-sustaining for the first time.

“Today we completed the final major milestone before commercial operation for Westinghouse’s AP1000 nuclear power plant technology,” Westinghouse President and CEO José Emeterio Gutiérrez said in a press release announcing the accomplishment. “We are one step closer to delivering the world’s first AP1000 plant to our customer and the world—with our customers, we will provide our customers in China with safe, reliable and clean energy from Sanmen 1.”

The next significant step is connecting the unit to the electric grid. Assuming work continues on schedule, Sanmen Unit 1 will be the first AP1000 nuclear power plant to commence operation.

Meanwhile, at the Haiyang facility, fuel loading began on Unit 1—another AP1000 reactor.…

DOE’s First Advanced Fossil Fuel Loan Guarantee Commitment Awarded to Methanol Plant with Carbon Capture

December 25, 2016

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The Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) first loan guarantee under an $ 8 billion solicitation for advanced fossil energy projects may go to a methanol production facility in Lake Charles, La., that will employ carbon capture technology for enhanced oil recovery.

The DOE said in a statement on December 21 that it offered a conditional commitment to guarantee loans of up to $ 2 billion to help build the facility. If built, the facility will be the world’s first methanol production facility to use carbon capture technology. It would also be the first facility in the U.S. to derive methanol from petroleum coke (petcoke), which is a byproduct of oil refining.

The proposed plant will produce methanol, hydrogen, and other industrial gases and chemical products using petcoke as a feedstock. It proposes to capture 77% of carbon dioxide from the petcoke gasification plant. The gas will then be compressed and transported to oilfields in Texas for enhanced oil recovery.

The DOE’s solicitation issued in December 2013 under Title XVII of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 sought applications for loan guarantees to finance U.S.…