News

The Volgodonsk branch of AEM-technology, the large component manufacturing division of Russian nuclear plant builder Rosatom, said Friday that the bottom of the reactor pressure vessel for Turkey’s first nuclear power reactor at Akkuyu (Unit 1) had been manufactured.(read more)

Four new nuclear power plants have been approved in China, according to a Chinese media report, marking the end of a two-year gap in nuclear plant approvals.(read more)

Georgia Power's fourth quarter timeline video has been released to the public and includes highlights for 2018, as well as recent progress on the two-reactor expansion project in Waynesboro, Georgia.(read more)

Russian nuclear power giant Rostatom has announced progress on both Leningrad Phase II units 1 and 2 recently, noting successful safety tests on Unit 1 and a significant concrete pour for the Unit 2 reactor building.(read more)

South Korea’s Nuclear Safety and Security Commission has approved of the start of Shin-Kori Unit 4, the regulator said on February 1 following an inspection by the Korea Institute of Nuclear Safety.(read more)

The second steam generator for China National Nuclear Corporation’s Fuqing Unit 6 has been successfully installed, the company announced.(read more)

The fourth International Atomic Energy Agency review of the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Generating Station disaster site in Japan concluded that significant progress had been made in contaminated water management and worker safety, but said difficult cleanup challenges remain.(read more)

The French nuclear power industry has signed an agreement with labor unions and the French government designed to set goals and broadly defined strategies for the country’s energy future, but only through 2022.(read more)

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Officer of Environmental Management (EM), charged with addressing the country’s Cold War legacy, said this week that the program to convert uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) into a more stable form had converted more than half of the 9,000 metric ton annual goal for 2019 in just the final quarter of 2018.(read more)

Nuclear power services giant Orano Group, formerly Areva, said its logistics division, Orano TN, had concluded a strategic partnership agreement with testing and certification company Bureau Veritas. The agreement is meant to support “the development of maritime transport flows of material from the nuclear cycle,” Orano said.(read more)

The nuclear power regulator in Belgium, the Federal Agency for Nuclear Control, has authorized the restart of Doel Unit 2, which is now scheduled for grid connection on February 4, plant operator Engie Electrabel said.(read more)

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on Thursday issued a pared-down version of the new Mitigation of Beyond-Design-Basis Events rules, a 212 page document that spells out the latest safety enhancements required of U.S. nuclear power plants as a reaction to the 2011 meltdown disaster at the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant in Japan.(read more)

President Donald Trump signed the new Nuclear Energy Innovation and Modernization Act into law on December 14, making it the second nuclear power support bill that the president has signed since taking office.(read more)

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, the nuclear services group partnered by GE with Hitachi in 2007, said Tuesday it had completed the segmentation of reactor internals at Oskarshamn Nuclear Power Plant Unit 2 in Sweden.(read more)

French utility and nuclear plant developer EDF said Tuesday that full pressure and temperature simulations known as hot tests would get underway at the long-delayed Flamanville Unit 3 Pressurized Water Rector (PWR) in the second half of February.(read more)

With the results of a successful pilot project behind it, GSE Systems said Tuesday it has been awarded a contract from a major US nuclear operating company to deliver a Data Validation & Reconciliation (“DVR”) solution for the utility’s large fleet of nuclear reactors. (read more)

Westinghouse Electric Company has been awarded $93.6 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in support of their accident-tolerant fuel program, EnCore fuel, the company said Friday.(read more)

Horizon Nuclear Power parent Hitachi Ltd. of Japan and the British government both reaffirmed their commitments to nuclear power Thursday, on the heels of Hitachi’s announcement that the company was pulling away from two large U.K. projects due to failed financial negotiations.(read more)

---Press Release---– Converted simulator is expected to be in service by the third quarter of 2020 –L3 MAPPS announced today that it is under contract with Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co., Ltd. (KHNP) to repurpose the Wolsong Unit 1 (Wolsong 1) CANDU* full scope operator training simulator to become the primary training simulator for Wolsong Unit 3 (Wolsong 3). (read more)

Small modular reactor (SMR) developer NuScale, majority owned by Fluor Corporation, said Tuesday it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Jordan Atomic Energy Commission (JAEC) to pave the way for a feasibility study to look into SMR deployment in the country.(read more)

Operators at the Novovoronezh nuclear plant in Russia said the VVER-440 Unit 4 reactor at the plant reached 100 percent of is rated capacity on January 10 following an extensive upgrade project expected to allow the plant to operated through 2032. In the same week, Rosenergoatom said that its fleet had set new generation records in 201(read more)

Media reports from Britain and Japan on Monday were speculating on the possibility that Hitachi was set to pull out of the $20.5 billion Wylfa Newydd nuclear power plant project with several key news outlets concluding that Hitachi’s withdrawal from the project was conclusive.(read more)

Entergy Corporation said Friday it had completed the sale of Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee to subsidiaries of NorthStar Group Services, which will decommission the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station site.(read more)

Entergy Corporation said Friday it had completed the sale of Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee to subsidiaries of NorthStar Group Services, which will decommission the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station site.(read more)

Modular light water reactor developer NuScale Power and the business group Ultra Electronics Energy (Ultra) on Thursday unveiled a new safety display and indication system using field programmable gate array (FPGA) technology that represents the first application of FPGA technology for real time display and monitoring in the U.S. commercial nuclear industry.(read more)

Westinghouse Electric Company, which emerged from bankruptcy in August, announce the first phase of organizational changes meant to focus the company on its customer base and "strengthen its global services and supply chain management capabilities."(read more)

As of January 9, at 4 p.m. in China, a fourth Westinghouse designed AP1000 reactor has reached the critical milestone entering commercial operations status, the industry-acknowledged designation assigned to reactors that have proven themselves through a week of full steam operations.(read more)

Russian engineering regulator Glavgosexpertiza has approved of the design documentation for the lead-cooled Brest-OD-300 fast reactor that is slated for the Siberian Chemical Combine (SCC) complex near Tomsk in Russia.(read more)

The Kaiga nuclear power plant’s Unit 1 has established a new world record for continuous operations for a nuclear power plant, drawing the new line in the sand at 962 straight days of operations, 21 days beyond the previous record, the Nuclear Power Corporation of India said.(read more)

Dominion Energy said Wednesday it had completed the purchase of Scana Corporation, providing symbolic closure to the South Carolina utility’s failed aspirations to construct two AP1000 reactors at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Generating Station in Jenkinsville, S.C.(read more)

Russian nuclear power giant Rosatom said in December that Unit 4 at the Tianwan NPP in China had begun commercial operations as of 22 December at 3:17 a.m. local time.(read more)

No doubt about it: Bill Gates’ annual letter to friends, family, and the entire world says that the United States is falling behind other world powers in the field of nuclear energy and urges leaders to get back “into the game.”(read more)

Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD) exited the emergency classification level called a “notification of an unusual event” (NOUE) at its Cooper Nuclear Station. NPPD initially declared the NOUE at 9:04 a.m. Saturday after discovering a hazardous gas environment in the basement of the plant. While investigating the gas, safety and plant personnel detected a fire within a pipe chase.(read more)

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Monday it had renewed the operating license of the Waterford Steam Electric Station for an additional 20 years, allowing the pressurized water reactor run by Entergy Operations to continue operating through Dec. 18, 2044.(read more)

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Nuclear Energy (NE) said it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) along with the Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems (UAMPS), and Battelle Energy Alliance (BEA) that outlines the department's intention to initiate a potentially 12-module plant that would be constructed at the Idaho National Laboratory under the UAMPS' Carbon Free Power Project (CFPP).(read more)

The International Atomic Energy Agency has handed the final report over to Nigeria's Minister of Science and Technology Ogbonnaya Onu related to the country's preparedness to purchase and operate a second research-oriented nuclear reactor, which is expected to be larger than the one already operating in the country. (read more)

The UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has recommended several steps to Vietnam to develop stronger infrastructure to support development of a multipurpose research reactor the country hopes to have up and running in 2026.(read more)

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it had renewed the operating license of the River Bend Nuclear Generating Station for an additional 20 years, allowing the plant to operate through Aug. 29, 2045.(read more)

Integral Molten Salt Reactor developer Terrestrial Energy announced Thursday that it has signed on BWXT Canada Ltd. for a design services to support development of key components of the company's Generation IV IMSR power plant.(read more)

French nuclear services company Framatome is developing a mobile solution to reliably analyze the content of final storage containers of low and medium radioactive waste.(read more)

Russia’s Mining and Chemical Combine (MCC) said this week that it had completed the next stage of creating a beta-voltaic power source based on the isotope NI-63 that would effectively lead to a nuclear powered battery with an operational lifespan of 50 years.(read more)

French nuclear services and supply company Orana on Thursday announced the testing phase of its new uranium conversion plant at Triscastin in the Rhone Valley had been completed, meaning the plant was now commissioned as an industrial, manufacturing complex.(read more)

British nuclear power services company Wood Group said Tuesday it had landed a $66 million, 10-year contract to provide digital controls technologies to the Sellafield nuclear power facility.(read more)

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Tuesday said it had recommended a fine of $232,000 imposed on the Wolf Creek Nuclear Operating Corp., after a whistleblower at the Kansas nuclear power plant had been put on paid administrative leave, which the regulator considered an “adverse” response to safety concerns that he raised.(read more)

Framatome has successfully completed commissioning for a project to modernize the safety Instrumentation & Control (I&C) system in unit 3 of the Forsmark* nuclear power plant operated by the Swedish utility Forsmarks Kraftgrupp AB, a subsidiary of Vattenfall.(read more)

British nuclear power services company Cavendish Nuclear, said it had won the contract to dismantling and demolition Scotland’s oldest nuclear reactor, the Dounreay Materials Test Reactor. The multi-million dollar contract was awarded following a competitive tendering exercise, the company noted.(read more)

The Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (ENEC) said Sunday that Cold Hydrostatic Testing (CHT) had been completed for Unit 3 of the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant in Abu Dhabi, UAE.(read more)

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said a team of experts has concluded an eight-day mission to the Republic of the Philippines having completed an Integrated Nuclear Infrastructure Review (INIR), which assessed the country's nuclear infrastructure development. (read more)

Officials at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in Carlsbad, New Mexico, said the plant would suspend incoming shipments for three weeks beginning January 7, so that maintenance tasks could be done.(read more)

The China General Nuclear Power Group and French subsidiary of EDF, Framatome, announced Friday that Unit 1 of Taishan nuclear power plant had become the world's first EPR to enter into commercial operation. The announcement was made at a press conference in Beijing.(read more)