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Dominion to Seek 80-Year Lifetime for North Anna Nuclear Reactors

November 20, 2017

Dominion Energy will formally ask the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to relicense its two reactors at the North Anna Power Station for 20 more years—effectively extending their operating lives up to 80 years.

Dominion Energy Virginia notified the federal regulatory body of its intent to relicense the two reactors in Louisa County, Virginia, which it will file in 2020. The company in November 2015 notified the NRC of its intent to seek a 20-year license renewal of its two units at the Surry power station, in southeastern Virginia, during the spring of 2019.

The 1,892-MW North Anna plant’s Unit 1 began commercial service in 1978 and Unit 2 in 1980. The 1,676-MW Surry plant’s Unit 1 began commercial service in 1972 and Unit 2 in 1973. All four units’ licenses were renewed for 20 years in March 2003. The North Anna’s units are currently authorized to operate until between 2038 and 2040. At Surry, the reactors are licensed until 2032 and 2033.…

Graham Goes to Bat for Small Modular Reactors in Funding Bill Markup

July 21, 2017

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When it comes to nuclear power, the U.S. is not living up to its potential, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told appropriators during a July 20 full committee markup of the Senate’s fiscal year 2018 (FY18) Energy and Water Development Appropriations Bill.

“When it comes to nuclear power, we’re just so far behind the times and I think now’s the time to catch up,” Graham said while presenting an amendment that would address language in the bill he believes to be problematic to the future development of small modular reactors.

According to Graham: “The current report language prohibits funds for engineering design or regulatory developing for next generation light water reactor technology. That language is being perceived by those in the small modular reactor world as basically an impediment to producing small modular reactors.”

Graham went to note that the U.S. has not successfully built a new nuclear reactor in decades, and those under development—the Virgil C. Summer Nuclear plant in Graham’s home state of South Carolina and Southern Co.’s…

Six Years After Fukushima, Only Three Reactors Operating in Japan, More Poised to Restart

March 10, 2017

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Six years after the Fukushima disaster prompted an electricity crisis in Japan and sent tremors throughout the world’s nuclear power sector, Japan is determined to continue its reliance on nuclear for nearly a fifth of its power needs in the long term.

Nuclear will make up 20% to 22% of Japan’s power mix by 2030, under a long-term plan issued in 2015, Hirohide Hirai, the director general of Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI), told attendees at CERAweek by IHS Markit, which is taking place in Houston this week.

On March 11, 2011, nearly a day after the 3-minute, 9.0-magnitude Great Tohoku Earthquake struck northeastern Japan—and unleashed a tsunami that killed 20,000 people—the world learned that Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s (TEPCO’s) Fukushima Daiichi and Daini nuclear plants were in peril after rising waters inundated and disabled offsite power supplies.

All of Japan’s nuclear power plants were shut down for safety checks after the disaster. Six years later, only three of 45 operable reactors have come online: Kyushu Electric’s Sendai 1 and 2 (restarted in 2015), and Shikoku Electric Power Co.’s…

Uranium Production Near Historic Lows as U.S. Reactors Look to Russia

June 2, 2016

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Domestic uranium production is falling to levels not seen since the early 2000s, which are themselves equal to production during the dawn of the nuclear age in the 1950s. Prospects for any sort of rebound look bleak, as a joint venture between GE, Hitachi, and Toshiba is looking to import Russian-designed fuel assemblies for use in U.S. reactors.

A Trickle of Uranium

U.S. uranium production, which peaked at nearly 45 million pounds of uranium concentrate (U₃O₈) in 1980, fell precipitously in the 1980s and 1990s before leveling off at around 5 million pounds since 1991, according to data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA). The U.S. produced 3.7 million pounds in 2015 while importing 57 million pounds, about half of it from Canada and Kazakhstan.

Meanwhile, U.S. uranium inventories have climbed steadily during the 2000s, reaching 121 million pounds at the end of 2015, the EIA said—enough to supply two years of domestic demand. But that glut, and spot prices that have fallen steadily over the same period, have not deterred the major players from looking for new sources of uranium.…