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Chinese Reactor Is Ahead of Schedule as U.S. Nuclear Projects Flounder

May 28, 2017

China National Nuclear Corp. (CNNC) completed the dome lift at Fuqing Unit 5—the world’s first power plant being constructed utilizing the HPR 1000 (also known as the Hualong One) reactor design—15 days ahead of schedule on May 25.

The feat was no small accomplishment. The dome weighs about 340 metric tons and has a diameter of 46.8 meters (more than half the length of a U.S. football field). It was said to be the world’s largest and highest dome lift ever undertaken at a nuclear construction site (Figure 1). The dome—composed of 153 prefabricated components divided into five layers—ensures the integrity of the unit’s reactor building.

1. Up, up, and away. The hemispheroid dome was lifted into place on Fuqing Unit 5’s reactor building on May 25. Courtesy: CNNC

“That the dome was lifted 15 days in advance proves that CNNC can construct the HPR 1000 which is a national key project in the field of nuclear power,” Wang Shoujun, chairman of CNNC, said in a press release.…

Ohio Committee Suspends FirstEnergy’s Nuclear Power Rescue Plan

May 20, 2017

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Ohio-based FirstEnergy’s plan for a rescue of its two uncompetitive Ohio nuclear plants took a nosedive May 17, as the Ohio House Public Utilities Committee suspended action on the company’s proposal to charge its customers a fee to subsidize the plants.

FirstEnergy’s plan mimics programs adopted in Illinois and New York to create “zero energy credits,” or ZECs, allowing the company to make competitive bids into the PJM regional wholesale market.

The chairman of the House committee, William Seitz, a Cincinnati Republican, suspended further hearings on the measure (House Bill 178). “We have heard over 10 hours of testimony on this bill. I have given proponents and opponents a chance to make their case. I am not sensing a keen desire on the part of the House members to vote on this and doubt that we will have more hearings in the near future unless something cataclysmic happens,” Seitz said.

Cleveland newspaper The Plain Dealer suggested “cataclysmic events might include a decision by FirstEnergy Solutions to seek bankruptcy protection from its creditors or a decision by the company to immediately close its four nuclear power plants.”…

Vogtle, V.C. Summer Project Owners Buy More Time to Mull Fate of Nuclear Units

May 1, 2017

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The owners of the Vogtle and V.C. Summer nuclear expansions separately secured a few more weeks to allow work to continue onsite at each project while they decide how to proceed with the half-built AP1000 reactors after Westinghouse’s financial debacle.

In Georgia, owners of the project to expand Plant Vogtle extended an interim assessment agreement with Westinghouse until May 12. But Georgia Power’s parent company Southern Co. also revealed it is negotiating a new service agreement that could engage Westinghouse to provide design, engineering, and procurement services in the event Southern Nuclear Operating Co.—Southern Co.’s nuclear unit operations arm—takes over management of construction at Units 3 and 4.

And in South Carolina, owners of the project to expand V.C. Summer extended a similar agreement through June 26. The project owners detailed their concerns and options in a recent ex parte briefing at the South Carolina Public Service Commission (PSC)

Vogtle Agreement Extended Until May 12

Georgia Power and Vogtle’s other owners on April 28 extended an interim assessment agreement with Westinghouse before it was set to expire, giving them until May 12 to assess the project.…

Sale of FitzPatrick Nuclear Plant Final

April 5, 2017

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The James A. FitzPatrick nuclear power plant officially belongs to Exelon Generation. The sale of the Scriba, NY plant, finalized on March 31, has been long-expected.

“We look forward to bringing FitzPatrick’s highly skilled team of professionals into the Exelon Generation nuclear program, and to continue delivering to New York the environmental, economic and grid reliability benefits of this important energy asset,” Chris Crane, president and CEO of Exelon, said in a release.

The FitzPatrick plant, an 838-MW boiling water reactor commissioned in July 1975, was put on the chopping block in late 2015 by then-owner Entergy Corp. The company cited economics in its decision to power down the plant, saying it was no longer feasible to run the plant in the current climate.

Exelon and Entergy announced in July 2016 that they were working to strike a deal for the sale of the plant. The announcement came shortly after the New York Department of Public Services released a proposal to subsidize zero-emissions nuclear plants upstate.…

U.S. Nuclear: From Hope to Despair

March 30, 2017

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A decade ago, the annual Platts nuclear energy conference in Washington was brimming with optimism over a coming “nuclear renaissance,” as licensing requests poured into the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and companies announced ambitious plans for new nuclear construction. Ten years later, the not-so-under-the-surface theme of the conference was nuclear survival.

“The question is survival,” former Entergy nuclear executive Bill Mohl told attendees at the annual Platts nuclear energy conference in Washington, D.C., in early February. Mohl, who led Entergy’s merchant power business and retired February 28, went on to explain that Entergy’s long-term strategy of buying up single-unit nuclear plants at bargain-basement prices and bidding them into the regional transmission operator (RTO) and independent system operator (ISO) competitive wholesale markets was a miserable failure.

It seemed like a really good idea at the outset, but a combination of factors undercut the strategy, and Entergy is now exiting merchant nuclear power in as big a way as it entered. Vermont Yankee is shuttered.…

Global Nuclear Fuel Update

January 26, 2017

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Uranium oxide, the basic fuel for nuclear power plants, has recently sold at prices not seen in the past 13 years. In fact, the price is less than the cost of production in many cases. That could be a problem, because little is being done to increase the fuel supply, even though the world is adding new and larger reactors.

Late last year, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Nuclear Energy Agency and the International Atomic Energy Agency released a joint 550-page report titled Uranium 2016: Resources, Production and Demand. It was the 26th edition of the now-biennial report, commonly referred to as the Red Book,with data current as of January 1, 2015.

One potentially concerning revelation was that total identified uranium resources had only increased by 0.1% since the previous report had been issued. A reason cited for the minuscule uptick was that very little investment had been made in exploration due to depressed uranium market conditions.

Indeed, the price for uranium oxide (U3O8) has been in a death spiral (Figure 1).…