News

Russian nuclear power giant Rosatom has confirmed the initial start up of the Akademik Lomonosov, the country’s first floating nuclear power plant.(read more)

The Department of Energy is seeking the public’s response to a draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) that would pave the way for fuel development for reactors that would use high-assay, low enriched uranium (HALEU) fuel, although those reactors have yet to be built. (read more)

The U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) announced Thursday that its team of experts has completed a review of long-term operational safety of Unit 1 at Atucha Nuclear Power Plant in Argentina, arriving at the conclusion that the plant's safety status had good points and areas that could benefit from improvements.(read more)

The Canadian government said this week that it would invest about U.S. $37.5 million in General Fusion as a step towards construction of a fusion reactor for the future, while creating around 400 new jobs to boost the economy.The funding is channeled through the Strategic Innovation Fund.(read more)

A Canadian nuclear supplier association, the Organization of Canadian Nuclear Industries (OCNI), and the Romanian Atomic Forum Association (ROMATOM) have signed a cooperation agreement meant to support and guide the two groups' nuclear power endeavors, the OCNI said.(read more)

The Council of State in France has revoked the government’s decree calling for an annulment of utility EDF’s operating license for the Fessenheim nuclear power plant in northeastern France.(read more)

Twenty-two days after setting a national record for continuous days of operation for a domestic nuclear reactor, Unit 1 at India's Kaiga NPP has gone on to set a world record for a pressurized heavy water reactor, pushing past the 895th day record this week, the Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) has announced.(read more)

Los Angeles-based AECOM, a global engineering and construction management firm, said Wednesday that the Department of Energy had executed a 12-month contract extension to Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS), an AECOM-led joint venture with Atkins Nuclear Secured, LLC, member of the SNC-Lavalin Group, for its management of the waste storage tanks at the Hanford Site in Washington state.(read more)

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it had agreed to further cooperative efforts with the International Association for Environmentally Safe Disposal of Radioactive Materials (EDRAM) to strengthen and devise solutions for the disposal of high level radioactive waste.(read more)

British engineering and project management company Nuvia, with a significant presence in the nuclear power industry, said Monday that the government had selected Nuvia to be the technical adviser for the country's Advanced Modular Reactor Feasibility and Development program.(read more)

A study done by the L’Institut de Radioprotection et de Surete Nucleaire (IRSN) in France reiterated the country’s regulatory position that mixed-oxide fuel will help keep the country’s spent fuel storage “in balance.” The data challenges the country’s envisioned diminished role of nuclear power in the future.(read more)

GE said that its Global Research Center in Niskayuna, N.Y., has received a $33.7 million Department of Energy contract to continue development of advanced fuel rod technologies that have both improved performance and a “more robust” capacities during accident conditions.(read more)

A see-saw legal battle over the restart of the Ikata nuclear power plant’s Unit 3 owned by the Shikoku Electric Power Company has swung back in favor or a restart with a court decision issued last week.(read more)

The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration has issued a contract termination notice to the consortium constructing the mixed-oxide fuel (MOF) fabrication facility in South Carolina at the Savannah River Site after years of backpedaling on the project that is now 70 percent complete.(read more)

A second Westinghouse designed AP1000 nuclear power unit in China, Haiyang 1, has reached commercial operating status having competed a full week of operations at full power.(read more)

Constellis, a leading provider of operational support and risk management services, announced Tuesday that Centerra, a Constellis company, has been selected to provide physical security for Nuclear Fuel Services, Inc. (NFS) in Erwin, Tennessee(read more)

Hitachi Nuclear Energy Europe, Ltd., (HNE) said Monday that it had appointed three additional partners to support delivery of Wylfa Newydd project in the United Kingdom, noting that each of the three were "a significant UK employer."(read more)

Georgia Power on Monday announced completed placement of two key floor modules at the Vogtle nuclear expansion near Waynesboro, Georgia, which will be followed by large concrete placements inside the Unit 4 containment vessel.(read more)

Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev on Friday officially approved an accord with Russia that calls for design, construction and partial financing of a two-unit nuclear power plant expected to be built in the central Asian nation to supply the country with about 20 percent of its electricity supply.(read more)

French nuclear service giant Orano said Monday that "near industrial scale" tests are under way to verify a vitrification process that could be part of the solution for radioactive sludge and mineral absorbents at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Generating Station in Japan.(read more)

French engineering group Assytem said Thursday that it has been hired to assist Rosatom's export division AtomStroyExport with obtaining licenses and permits needed to construct Egypt's firs nuclear power plant.(read more)

Dominion Energy said this week it had filed an application with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to renew Surry Power Station's operating licenses for an additional 20-year term, which makes it the third nuclear plant in the country to seek permission to operate its reactors for up to 80 years.(read more)

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Thursday that it had Exelon Generation Company’s request to modify the emergency preparedness plan for the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in Lacey Township, N.J. in a manner that reflects the power plant's decommissioning phase.(read more)

The reactor core for the former research reactor at the University of Arkansas' SEFOR site has been lifted and is close to making its journey to the National Security Site in Nevada, an Energy Solutions spokesman confirmed.(read more)

An International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team of expert visited Belarus, which is building its first nuclear power facility, to assess its preparedness in the event of a nuclear, radiological emergency. The IAEA noted strengths and areas that could use improvements, the agency said.(read more)

A fourth Westinghouse-designed AP1000 reactor has been connected to the grid in China, the State Power Investment Corporation (***) announced.(read more)

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it had issued the order approving the transfer of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant operating license from Entergy to NorthStar. The request for the transfer...(read more)

Two Indian 220MWe nuclear power plants reached operational milestones on the same day, setting a national record for days of continuous operations at the Kaiga Unit 1 nuclear plant and a personal best continuous run at the Rajasthan 3 reactor.(read more)

With years of losses and a company breakup behind it, French multinational nuclear power specialist Orano said Friday that it would hire 1,500 workers in all phases of its business.(read more)

Idaho National Laboratory has announced nearly $3.9 million in funding for 13 university-led projects to develop instrumentation and tools needed to monitor and conduct experiments in a proposed fast spectrum test reactor.(read more)

Westinghouse Electric Company and its customers, China State Nuclear Power Technology Corporation (SNPTC) and CNNC Sanmen Nuclear Power Company Limited (SMNPC) announced Thursday that the world's first AP1000 plant located in Sanmen, Zhejiang Province, China, is now considered "fully operational."(read more)

From 70 to 10 to 1 regional option, Uzbekistan has reportedly opted for Tudakul Lake as the site of its future nuclear power plant.(read more)

Technicians at the Vogtle nuclear expansion near Waynesboro, Georgia, have placed the first of four reactor coolant pumps (RCPs) into the Unit 3 containment vessel, Georgia Power has announced.(read more)

GE Power said Monday it won the contract to deliver the turbine island equipment for El Dabaa nuclear power plant project in Egypt through AAEM its joint venture with Atomenergomash -- a contract is valued at $700 million.(read more)

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued a final safety evaluation report and standard design approval for Korea Electric Power Corporation and Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power’s Advanced Power Reactor 1400 (APR1400), a step that deems the reactor "technically acceptable," but does not fully certify the design.(read more)

Russia’s Federation Services for Ecological, Technological and Nuclear Supervision, Rostekhnadzor, has licensed Rosatom’s Rostov NPP Unit 4 as approved for commercial operations, the state-owned nuclear plant builder said.(read more)

Nuclear fuel and service provider Centrus Energy Corp. said Friday that it had been awarded a $15 million Work Authorization from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for decontamination and decomissioning (D&D) that will focus on preparing the Department’s K-1600 facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee for demolition.(read more)

Following a leadership summit in India, Russian and Indian leaders signed a pact that could pave the way for a six-reactor construction deal at a site yet to be determined. (read more)

The Areva-Siemens consortium building the 1.6 GW Olkiluoto 3 European Pressurized Reactor in western Finland will revisit the timetable for start up in December, taking into account delays in testing, utility-operator Teollisuuden Voima (TVO) said this week.(read more)

Russian nuclear power giant Rosatom said Wednesday that Baltijskiy Zavod specialists completed (on October 2, 2018) loading nuclear fuel into the second of two reactors – the portside reactor – of the world-only floating nuclear power plant ‘Akademik Lomonosov’, which is based on the site of FSUE Atomflot in Murmansk.(read more)

U.S. Department of Energy has has extended Fluor-BWXT's Portsmouth's cleanup and decommissioning contract at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Pike County, Ohio, with a 30-month extension valued at approximately $850 million, BWXT announced.(read more)

For forty-one years four cooling towers of the VI nuclear power station in Jaslovske Bohunice in western Slovakia punctuated the skyline. On Monday, the last of the four towers from the original plant was pulled down.(read more)

French regulator ASN (Autorite De Surete Nucleaire) chastised the utility EDF this week in a letter that says that certain welds at the nearly completed Flamanville 3 reactor in Normandy have not been monitored correctly, despite previous concerns and earlier mandates to improve oversight.(read more)

The five Nuclear Regulation Authority commissioners in Japan have approved of the Japan Atomic Power Company's plans to upgrade safety at the Tokai II single-reactor power plant in late September with a unanimous vote, which could put the company on track for a restart by 2021.(read more)

Nuclear reactor developer Transatomic Power, which aimed to create molten-salt reactor and make use of used reactor fuel, said Tuesday that it is shuttering its operations and would open source its intellectual property to other developers.(read more)

On 30 September 2018, 14:27 (Beijing time) the reactor plant of Tianwan NPP unit No 4 that is under construction in China with the technical assistance of Rosatom Engineering Division, has been brought to minimum controllable level of power. This is the final stage of the first criticality procedures, Rosatom announced (read more)

The head of training at the nearly complete Belarus Nuclear Power Plant in Ostravets said nearly all of the jobs involved in operating Unit 1, scheduled to be operational in the middle of next year, had been filled.(read more)

The state of Wyoming in a signing ceremony this month in Cheyenne became the 38th state to be authorized to take over regulatory jurisprudence over certain radioactive materials, in this case oversight of licensing, rulemaking, inspection and enforcement regarding source material involved in uranium or thorium milling and management.(read more)

Exelon Corporation on Thursday applauded the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruling that said this week that the state’s Zero Emissions Credit (ZEC) energy strategy did not run afoul of federal statutes.(read more)

BWX Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: BWXT) announced Friday that its Nuclear Fuel Services, Inc. (NFS) subsidiary was awarded a contract valued at $505 million for the downblending of 20.2 metric tons of highly enriched uranium (HEU) to produce low enriched uranium (LEU) suitable for use as commercial nuclear reactor fuel and for national defense programs.(read more)