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First Turbine Module Delivered for Turkish Nuclear Plant

January 13, 2021

The post First Turbine Module Delivered for Turkish Nuclear Plant appeared first on POWER Magazine.

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.…

Exelon Makes Plans to Retire Byron and Dresden Nuclear Plants in 2021

August 28, 2020

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In a stunning announcement, Exelon Generation, which operates the largest U.S. fleet of nuclear plants—21 reactors at 12 facilities in Illinois, Maryland, New York, and Pennsylvania—said it will retire the Byron and Dresden generating stations next fall for economic reasons.

“Although we know in our heads that shutting down the uneconomic Illinois plants is necessary to preserve even more jobs elsewhere, our hearts ache today for the thousands of talented women and men that have served Illinois families for more than a generation and will lose their jobs because of poorly conceived energy policies,” Christopher Crane, president and CEO of Exelon, said in a statement. “But we are only about a year away from shutdown and we need to give our people, the host communities, and regulators time to prepare.”

Massive Clean Energy Generation

The Dresden Generating Station (Figure 1) has two operating boiling water reactors that combine for a total net generating capacity of 1,845 MW.…

Assembly Phase Underway for ITER Nuclear Project

July 28, 2020

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Officials with the ITER project in France said work has started on the assembly of giant components needed for construction of an experimental nuclear fusion reactor, a project designed to demonstrate the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion energy for peaceful use.

The ITER group, in a ceremony July 28 that was broadcast online (see video below), marked the start of the machine assembly of the international experimental tokamak nuclear fusion reactor. Countries involved in the project include the United States, Russia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, and member states of the European Union, with a total of 35 countries participating. The project (Figure 1), being built in Cadarache, France, is expected to start up in 2035.

The project has had large budget overruns, as well as several delays as the partner countries have tried to coordinate financing and cooperation on technical issues. The exact price tag is not known, as participating countries have not divulged their commitments, but Bernard Bigot, the project’s director, on Tuesday said the estimated budget for the European Union is about 20 billion euros ($ 23.5 billion).…