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Nuclear Fuel Working Group Outlines How U.S. Could Regain Global Leadership

April 24, 2020

The post Nuclear Fuel Working Group Outlines How U.S. Could Regain Global Leadership appeared first on POWER Magazine.

The U.S. will attempt to regain its international standing as a world leader in nuclear energy through a three-pronged strategy that will essentially seek to strengthen the full domestic nuclear fuel cycle, possibly deny imports of nuclear fuel fabricated in Russia or China, and promote advanced reactor technologies.

The strategy is outlined in the White House’s Nuclear Fuel Working Group’s (NFWG’s) long-awaited findings released on April 23 in its report, “Restoring America’s Competitive Nuclear Advantage: A Strategy to Assure U.S. National Security.” President Trump convened the group, which includes representatives from various executive branch agencies, in July 2019 after the Department of Commerce in May 2019 found that uranium imports posed a threat to national security. The NFWG was tasked with examining domestic nuclear fuel production and options to revive the entire nuclear fuel supply chain.

Strong Emphasis on the Front-End of the Nuclear Cycle

The NFWG report, which Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette described as a “roadmap” in a call with reporters on Thursday, sets out three key priorities.…

COVID-19 May Delay Vogtle Nuclear Expansion

April 2, 2020

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Southern Co. in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on April 1 said the COVID-19 pandemic “could disrupt or delay construction, testing, supervisory and support activities” at the Plant Vogtle nuclear expansion project in Georgia.

The company in the filing said, “It is too early to determine what impact, if any, the COVID-19 outbreak will have on the current construction schedule or budget” for the two new nuclear reactors at the site near Waynesboro, Georgia. Southern said state and federal government actions designed to slow the spread of the virus, such as stay-at-home or shelter-in-place orders, could bring disruptions to both the labor pool and supply chains.

The company said effects of the coronavirus pandemic “could disrupt or delay construction, testing, supervisory and support activities at Plant Vogtle Units 3 and 4.”

John Kraft, a spokesperson for Georgia Power, the lead utility on the project, told POWER on Wednesday that “Construction work continues at the site under continuing enhanced protocols designed to reduce worker-to-worker contact and keep areas that workers frequent, cleaned and sanitized. …

Pennsylvania Move to Join RGGI May Save Nuclear Plant

March 17, 2020

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Energy Harbor Corp., the new name for the former FirstEnergy Solutions (FES) after FES’s bankruptcy, on March 13 said its Beaver Valley nuclear plant in Shippingport, Pennsylvania, will remain open. FES in March 2018 had told state regulators it would close the plant in 2021 because it was no longer economic to operate.

Energy Harbor President and CEO John Judge said the decision to keep the plant open came after Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf said the state would join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a program for capping and decreasing carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from the power generation sector that currently includes 10 states in the U.S. Northeast and mid-Atlantic.

Energy Harbor, headquartered in Akron, Ohio, was announced as the new name for FES in late February. The company while operating as FES was the unregulated power generation arm of FirstEnergy Corp.;…

A Decade of Turmoil: How Nuclear and Coal Have Struggled to Survive

January 8, 2020

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The post A Decade of Turmoil: How Nuclear and Coal Have Struggled to Survive appeared first on POWER Magazine.

The past 10 years have been filled with trials and tribulations for both the nuclear and coal power industries. From accidents to plant closures there has been little to cheer about. Still, nuclear and coal power continue to provide reliable baseload generation to billions of customers around the globe. Here’s a look back at the decade that was.

Nuclear Power: Promises and Pitfalls

The 2010s began with the power industry in the midst of a “nuclear renaissance.” Nuclear power had emerged from a long slumber in the U.S. Ground had been broken on the Vogtle expansion in August 2009, which was the first new nuclear power project to commence construction in the U.S. since the Shearon Harris plant received its permit in 1978.

But the renaissance was short lived. On March 11, 2011, the Great Tōhoku Earthquake—a magnitude 9.0 temblor called “Japan’s most forceful quake” in recorded history—generated a series of tsunami waves that reached run-up heights as high as 39 meters (128 feet), setting off the worst nuclear disaster in 25 years.…

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

January 2, 2020

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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.…

Canada Plan to Store Nuclear Waste near Lake Huron Draws U.S. Ire

December 10, 2019

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The post Canada Plan to Store Nuclear Waste near Lake Huron Draws U.S. Ire appeared first on POWER Magazine.

A group of U.S. lawmakers has asked Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to reconsider that country’s proposed plan to store its nuclear waste at a site near Lake Huron, northeast of Detroit, Michigan.

The site, at Huron-Konloss/South Bruce, in Bruce County, Ontario, is one of two communities chosen by the Nuclear Waste Management Organization (NWMO), which consists of Canada’s nuclear power generating companies and includes Ontario Power Generation, New Brunswick Power Corp., and Hydro-Quebec. The NWMO was established by Canada’s parliament in 2002, and is responsible for designing and implementing the country’s plan for the long-term management of used nuclear fuel.

Bruce County is home to Ontario Power Generation’s Bruce Nuclear Generation Station, the country’s largest nuclear power plant with more than 6 GW of generation capacity. The station, known as Bruce Power, has eight reactors, the most of any operating nuclear station worldwide.…