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Nuclear Waste Bill Gains Traction in the House

November 22, 2019

The post Nuclear Waste Bill Gains Traction in the House appeared first on POWER Magazine.

A bill to amend the Nuclear Waste Policy Act (NWPA) of 1982 and give the Department of Energy (DOE) the authority to site, build, and operate one or more interim storage sites that would consolidate spent nuclear fuel (SNF) from decommissioned nuclear reactors has passed out of committee and been reported to the full House of Representatives.

The full U.S. Energy and Commerce Committee amended the May 2019-introduced “Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act of 2019” (H.R. 2699) by voice vote on Nov. 20. The committee received it from the subcommittee on Environment and Climate Change on Sept. 26. It now goes to the full House, where its future is uncertain. However, Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, Jr.—a Democrat from New Jersey—was hopeful that it would move the nation closer to a “real national solution for moving spent fuel to an interim facility and, ultimately, to a permanent repository.”…

Westinghouse Will Acquire Rolls-Royce’s Civil Nuclear Business

September 28, 2019

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The post Westinghouse Will Acquire Rolls-Royce’s Civil Nuclear Business appeared first on POWER Magazine.

Westinghouse Electric Co. will acquire Rolls-Royce’s Civil Nuclear Systems and Services businesses in North America for an undisclosed amount under a “definitive agreement” announced on Sept. 26.

The transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals, will see Westinghouse absorb Rolls-Royce’s civil nuclear service businesses in the U.S. and Canada, along with sites at Mondragon, France, and Gateshead, UK, which are currently part of Rolls-Royce’s Power Systems business unit.

The sale does not include the instrumentation and controls business based in Grenoble, France, but Rolls-Royce said in a statement that “remains under review.” It also does not include the company’s UK new build operations or small modular reactor activities.

The merger will conjoin two of the most traditionally significant nuclear businesses in the U.S. and the UK and give the two industry giants more clout in the global nuclear power operating plant services sector.…

Three More Nuclear Plant Owners Will Demonstrate Hydrogen Production

September 12, 2019

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The post Three More Nuclear Plant Owners Will Demonstrate Hydrogen Production appeared first on POWER Magazine.

FirstEnergy Solutions (FES), Xcel Energy, and Arizona Public Service (APS) will demonstrate hydrogen production at three nuclear plants they own starting in 2020 and 2021. The projects, selected as part of the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Office of Nuclear Energy’s Advanced Reactor Development Project funding pathway, aim to improve long-term competitiveness of the nuclear sector as more cheap natural gas and renewable power resources flood power markets.

Funded by the DOE, the demonstrations will take place at FES’ Davis-Besse plant in Ohio, APS’ Palo Verde plant in Arizona, and an Xcel nuclear plant in Minnesota.

The three utility awards, which the DOE announced on Sept. 10 as part of the sixth round of funding under the December 2017-issued U.S. Industry Opportunities for Advanced Nuclear Technology Development funding opportunity announcement (FOA), follow a similar selection of a first-of-its-kind project spearheaded by Exelon at a still-to-be determined existing nuclear site in an organized power market under the DOE’s H2@Scale concept.…

Southern Nuclear Adds New Power Plant Simulators

August 19, 2019

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GSE Systems said it has delivered and commissioned three additional full-scope simulators for Southern Nuclear’s new Operations Training Centers. The simulators are for the Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant, Edwin I. Hatch Nuclear Plant, and the Joseph M. Farley Nuclear Plant.

Simulators provide efficient hands-on learning for power plant operators. While power plants of any type can benefit from simulators, nuclear plants perhaps gain the most value, as missteps on a live reactor plant can result in grave consequences. Simulators generally operate on personal computers and are provided for a broad audience of technical and non-technical professionals, students, and instructors.

GSE said Southern Nuclear’s additional simulators will add flexible scheduling and increased capacity that can drive operator performance. The simulators will also offer more availability to each plant’s engineering and maintenance staff, who find the simulators useful for virtually commissioning plant changes, validating plant procedures, management certification, and a variety of other training activities. Furthermore, the simulators are said to have been upgraded with some of the latest technology, including GSE’s new OpenSim 7.0 simulator operating system and enhanced containment modeling program and its PSA-HD program to train operators on beyond-design-basis events.…

DOE Speeds Up Development of Experimental Fast Reactor, Sustain Flagging U.S. Nuclear Sector

August 9, 2019

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The Department of Energy (DOE) officially launched development of its Versatile Test Reactor (VTR), a fast reactor that will foster experiments with much higher neutron energy and flux compared to the nation’s existing 35 research reactors to develop advanced nuclear fuel for future nuclear power plants in the U.S. The facility, it says, is necessary to keep the nation technologically competitive with China and Russia.

The agency on Aug. 5 published a Notice of Intent in the Federal Register announcing it would develop an environmental impact statement (EIS) to study impacts of building the novel experimental reactor. The DOE will accept public comment on what the draft EIS should include until Sept. 4, and it plans to issue a draft EIS analysis within “the next several months” for public comment.

On Monday, the DOE also announced that it is considering two locations for the VTR: Idaho National Laboratory (INL) in eastern Idaho, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory in eastern Tennessee. Two sites, INL and the Savannah River site in South Carolina, are also under consideration for the fabrication of the fuel needed to run the VTR.…

Worried About Climate Change? Save Nuclear Plants [PODCAST]

July 27, 2019

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Nuclear power advocates suggest there are many benefits associated with nuclear energy. They point to high-paying jobs; billions of dollars in economic activity for plant-hosting communities; and secure, reliable, baseload electricity. But the most-important benefit of nuclear power may be that it emits no greenhouse gases, and therefore does not contribute to climate change.

According to Nuclear Matters, a national coalition that works to inform the public and policymakers about the benefits of nuclear energy, nuclear power is playing an essential role in the U.S.’s clean energy future. The group says nuclear power accounted for more than 55% of the country’s clean energy generation in 2018, and phasing out nuclear energy would create devastating environmental impacts for the world.

Carol Browner, former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator and former energy and climate change senior advisor to President Obama, was a guest on The POWER Podcast. Browner, who currently serves on the Nuclear Matters Advocacy Council, said, “Air pollution is a major burden to human health, and electricity generation is a major source of air pollution.…