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Commentary: Pressing Forward With Vogtle, a Nuclear MVP

January 6, 2018

Georgia wasn’t looking for an award or recognition when we set out to build new nuclear reactors in our state. Yet we now find ourselves as the last team on the field as our commissioners unanimously voted to move forward with a new cost and schedule for the Plant Vogtle new nuclear units—keeping the project alive just months after South Carolina walked off the field. This “experiment” here in Georgia is all that is left of the nuclear renaissance bludgeoned by cheap natural gas prices and a Japanese tsunami. Here is why I wanted to move forward.

Plant Vogtle is one of two Georgia nuclear sites. The plant’s existing two units came online in 1987 and 1989 amid cost overruns and controversy and now serve the state’s energy consumers as the crown jewel of our generation fleet. Disappointingly, Units 3 and 4 are running behind schedule and set to cost substantially more than we anticipated—almost double. The success of the first two units clearly played a role in us moving forward, with the hindsight that the addition of two more units most likely will work out.…

Bangladesh Turns to Nuclear Power

December 27, 2017

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We were standing in Volgodonsk, Russia, on a bridge that connected the third and fourth units of the Rostov Nuclear Power Plant (NPP). The fourth unit was under construction, and the deputy chief engineer of the Rostov NPP, Alexander Belyaev, told us that we were about to witness something unique.

It was December 1, 2015, and winter was officially starting in Russia. Walking into the massive fourth unit as a member of a group of journalists from Bangladesh touring the site, I quickly realized part of the construction had not yet been completed—the heating. Amid freezing cold weather, we were directed into an elevator that took us to the top floor of Unit 4.

“Now we are going to enter into the reactor room where the nuclear pressure vessel has just been installed,” said Belyaev. “It is one of those rare occasions where you can see the inside of a reactor vessel, because when the uranium fuel will be loaded then it will be confined and you will not be able to see inside.”…

Two More Japan Nuclear Units Will be Decommissioned

December 24, 2017

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Kansai Electric Power Co. (KEPCO) announced it will permanently close two older nuclear reactors in Japan, rather than invest nearly 100 billion yen ($ 900 million) to bring the units up to the country’s new safety regulations. Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) created new standards for the country’s nuclear plants after the meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in March 2011.

KEPCO on December 22 said it will decommission reactors No. 1 and No. 2 at the Oi facility in central Japan over the next year. Each unit has a generation capacity of 1,175 MW. The reactors, which came online in March 1979 and December 1979 respectively, will be the largest decommissioned in the country since the Fukushima disaster, which occurred when a 9.0-magnitude earthquake caused a massive tsunami that flooded the Fukushima plant in the northeastern part of the country. The resulting release of radiation was the largest since the Chernobyl meltdown in Russia in 1986.

Japan idled all 50 of its remaining nuclear units after the Fukushima incident.…

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

November 20, 2017

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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.…

FERC’s Chatterjee Has Interim Plan to Prop Up Coal, Nuclear Plants

November 16, 2017

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Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Acting Chairman Neil Chatterjee, who has said he is “sympathetic” to a rule that would help prop up struggling U.S. coal and nuclear power plants, apparently is ready to move forward with an interim plan to keep financially troubled plants operating while his agency continues to consider a market-changing cost proposal from the Department of Energy (DOE).

Utility Dive on November 15 reported that Chatterjee is “considering regulatory action,” saying FERC could issue a “show cause” order directing regional transmission organizations (RTOs) and independent system operators (ISOs) to update market tariffs to keep baseload plants, or those with “necessary resilience attributes,” operating or show why those plants should not continue to remain online. That would provide time for FERC to institute rules regarding electricity grid resilience and market compensation.

Neil Chatterjee, acting chairman of FERC, says he is ready to implement an interim plan to help struggling coal and nuclear plants. Courtesy: FERC

Chatterjee, who said he has not detailed his plan with other FERC staff, told Utility Dive his proposal would be “messy” and “uncomfortable.”…

Startup of Olkiluoto 3 Nuclear Plant Delayed Again

October 12, 2017

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Continued problems with construction of the Olkiluoto 3 nuclear power plant in Finland have pushed the facility’s expected start date into 2019, meaning operations will not begin until at least 10 years after the original proposed start of commercial service.

Project owner Teollisuuden Voima Oyj (TVO) on October 9 announced further delays. TVO project director Jouni Silvennoinen in a statement said: “We are very disappointed by this additional delay. There is still substantial work to be accomplished in the project.”

The 1.6-GW Olkiluoto 3 project is being built by a group led by Areva, France’s state-owned nuclear group. The nuclear plant, where construction began in 2005, was originally expected to begin operation in 2009. According to an October 9 Reuters story: “An Areva spokesman said the reactor would produce its first power at the end of 2018, but the ramp-up to full production would delay the commercial start-up to May 2019. He said hot-testing would start in December 2017, nuclear fuel would be loaded in August 2018, first grid connection would be in December 2018 and the commercial start would be May 2019.”…