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License Issued for Barakah Nuclear Unit 2

March 10, 2021

The post License Issued for Barakah Nuclear Unit 2 appeared first on POWER Magazine.

The Arab world’s first nuclear power plant has received an operating license for its second unit, and the facility’s timeline still calls for commercial start-up of the first unit later this year.

The Barakah nuclear power station, in the Al Dhafrah region of Abu Dhabi, will include four units with 5,600 MW of generating capacity when complete. It is being built by Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO) and will feature four APR-1400 pressurized water reactors. The plant is expected to supply about one-quarter of the peak power demand for the United Arab Emirates (UAE), according to government officials.

A Long Road to Completion

The UAE’s nuclear regulator on March 9 announced the operational license for Unit 2. Unit 1 was connected to the UAE’s national power grid in August of last year, and in December 2020 reached 100% of reactor power capacity during testing. Hamad Al-Kaabi, deputy chairman of Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR) and the UAE’s representative at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in a media briefing Tuesday said construction of Unit 3 is 94% complete, with Unit 4 at 87% complete (Figure 1).…

Is Nuclear Power Poised for a Resurgence?

February 14, 2021

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The post Is Nuclear Power Poised for a Resurgence? appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Since 1990, nuclear power has consistently supplied about 19% to 20% of the electricity used in the U.S. However, very few nuclear plants have been added to the U.S. fleet over that time. Currently, the only new nuclear project in the U.S. is Southern Company’s Plant Vogtle expansion, which is expected to add two new reactors to the grid by the end of next year. Still, there are 50 reactors under construction around the world—12 of them in China—and several countries are considering adding more.

“There has been a fundamental shift in the thinking around the world. As climate change has become front and center as the number one issue globally—environmental issue and societal issue—the recognition that nuclear can and should play a part in helping us overcome the climate change problems has shifted a lot of thinking in governments that I talk to around the world, but also even with people that are environmental-minded—people that have been, in the past, anti-nuclear—and start seeing that nuclear now is and should be part of the solution.…

First Turbine Module Delivered for Turkish Nuclear Plant

January 13, 2021

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Turkey’s first nuclear power plant reached a milestone with delivery of the first steam turbine module for the project, four months ahead of schedule.

GE Steam Power, which is supplying all the major equipment for the plant’s four turbine islands, on Jan. 12 announced it had delivered the module to Atomenergomash, an engineering company and the nuclear power division of Rosatom, Russia’s state-owned nuclear power company.

The Akkuyu nuclear power plant (NPP) is located in Büyükeceli, Mersin Province, in Turkey. The first unit of the $ 20 billion, 4.8-GW project is planned to come online in 2023. Akkuyu will feature four, 1.2-GW VVER (water-water energetic reactor) units from Rosatom; all four reactors are planned to enter service by year-end 2026.

Arabelle Steam Turbine

Each Arabelle steam turbine that will be used in the Akkuyu project includes three modules: the high pressure/intermediate pressure (HIP) module, and two low-pressure modules.…

Vogtle Receives First Shipment of Nuclear Fuel

December 11, 2020

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The two-unit expansion of the Vogtle nuclear power plant in Georgia reached another milestone as Georgia Power received the first shipment of nuclear fuel for Unit 3 of the project.

The utility on Dec. 9 said receipt of the fuel follows completion and inspection of several construction areas at the site in Waynesboro, Georgia. Those areas included the fuel vault and spent fuel pool. The fuel handling area of Unit 3 has been turned over to the operations staff; Georgia Power said the Vogtle site has “implemented specific and comprehensive policies, procedures and security measures to safely receive, handle and store the nuclear fuel.”

The Vogtle expansion is adding two, 1,100-MW AP1000 reactors to the nuclear plant, where two other reactors—Units 1 and 2—have operated since 1987 and 1989, respectively. The team leading the expansion, a project which would provide the U.S. with the country’s first new large-scale nuclear reactors in more than 30 years, earlier this year successfully completed the pre-startup review process conducted by the World Association of Nuclear Operators.…

Bipartisan Legislation Introduced to Boost Advanced Nuclear, Preserve Existing Nuclear

November 23, 2020

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Legislation introduced on Nov. 17 by a bipartisan group of senators on the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works (EPW) will seek to strengthen the nuclear fuel supply chain, help incentivize commercial deployment of new reactor designs, and create a credit program to preserve existing nuclear reactors at risk of premature shutdown.

The American Nuclear Infrastructure Act (ANIA) of 2020, introduced by U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyoming), EPW chairman, and Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), and Cory Booker (D-New Jersey), follows the Nuclear Energy Innovation and Modernization Act (NEIMA), which President Trump signed into law in January 2019.

NEIMA, sponsored by the same senators, requires the Nuclear Regulatory (NRC) to develop a rule to license advanced reactors, as well as greater clarity into the process by which the commission develops its budget and recovers its costs through fees.…

FirstEnergy Fires CEO as Nuclear Bailout Probe Continues

November 1, 2020

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FirstEnergy Corp. President and CEO Charles “Chuck” Jones was fired late Thursday after an internal review found Jones and two other company executives violated company policies in connection with an alleged bribery scheme.

The case is connected to a legislative bailout of the state’s nuclear power plants that occurred in 2019. The law, known as House Bill 6 (HB 6), meant state electricity ratepayers would pay more in their bills to subsidize the state’s nuclear plants, along with two coal-fired power plants jointly owned by the state’s utilities.

Thursday’s action came after two of the four lobbyists charged in the federal racketeering probe entered guilty pleas in the case.

Federal agents in July arrested Larry Householder, an Ohio Republican lawmaker and former Speaker of the House, and four other men, including lobbyists for FirstEnergy and its former subsidiary FirstEnergy Solutions, now known as Energy Harbor.…