News

The Kyushu Electric Power Company in Japan shut down one of the country's three operating nuclear reactors Thursday for a scheduled maintenance outage that was agreed to in the heightened safety awareness prompted by the 2011 disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi power station 150 miles northeast of Tokyo.(read more)

Two New York State departments said this week they had been directed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to investigate last Friday's oil spill at the Indian Point Energy Center. Both the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the Department of Public Service (DPS) announced they would look into the matter as it pertains to “the operational reliability and safety of the aging nuclear power plant.”(read more)

The Nuclear Energy Institute said Tuesday that it its Chief Operating Officer Maria Korsnick would replace retiring Chief Executive Officer Marvin Fertel, who is scheduled to step down on Dec. 31.(read more)

Westinghouse Electric Company said it would purchase Nuclear Logistics Ind., noted as the largest third-party supplier of safety related equipment solutions to the nuclear industry, the company said Wednesday.(read more)

U.S.-based Westinghouse Electric Company said that it had reached an agreement with Ukraine's National Nuclear Energy Generating Company, NAEK Energoatom, to strengthen ties in order to “enhance the safety and operations of Ukraine's nuclear power fleet.”(read more)

The European Commission announced Tuesday that the European Parliament had ratified the so-called Paris Agreement that sets a climate change target for the planet. The parliament's approval, the Commission said, means that enough parties to the accord, representing enough of the world's emissions producers, have ratified the agreement to push it into force after a 30 day waiting period.(read more)

Electricity generated by nuclear power plants will jump from 2.6 trillion kilowatt hours to 4.5 trillion kilowatt hours in 2040, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), said the agency's Annual Energy Outlook 2016 report released on Monday.(read more)

The Tennessee Valley Authority said the newest U.S. nuclear power reactor, Watts Bar Unit 2, had completed ascension tests on Friday, Sept. 30, and was ready to enter into pre-commercial operations, which is the start of a 20-day cycle at full power that precedes declaring the unit fully commercial.(read more)

Irving, Texas, based Fluor Corporation said Friday that its a joint venture with Westinghouse, called Mid-America Conversion Services, had signed a contract valued at $318 million to operate the depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) conversion facilities at the Department of Energy's Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Paducah, Kentucky.(read more)

The joint venture with Electricite de France (EDF) and China General Nuclear Corporation (CGN) now has a name and that joint venture, called Nuclear New Builds Generation Company (NNB), has already begun signing contracts, AREVA announced Friday.(read more)

Three of Japan's most prominent industrial firms, Hitachi Ltd., Toshiba Corporation and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., are discussing a merger of their domestic nuclear fuel operations as a method to consolidate their losses sustained and expected as a result of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant disaster of March 2011(read more)

Electricite de France (EDF) announced Thursday that the final contracts have been signed to clear the path for the Hinkley Point C power plant that is expected to provide up to 7 percent of Britain's power generation when commissioned. The dates of completion for the two European Pressurized Reactors (EPR) are estimated at this point, with earth work begun but no substantial concrete in place for the Somerset site, to be 2025-2026.(read more)

Nuclear power can significantly contribute to two of the world’s most pressing priorities—combating climate change and ensuring sustainable development—the International Atomic Energy Agency said in two reports published this week as the agency opens its Scientific Forum: Nuclear Technology for the Sustainable Development Goals in Vienna.(read more)

Talen Energy said it had plans to shut down the Susquehanna nuclear power plant's Unit 2 reactor within the next month for what is anticipated to be a brief maintenance outage prompted by the development of cracks in turbine fan blades.(read more)

--Press Release--L-3 MAPPS announced today that it is has been awarded contracts by DTE Energy to upgrade its Fermi 2 nuclear power plant simulator. The updates include enhancements of select plant models and replacement of the audiovisual (A/V) system on the full scope operator training simulator, along with the addition of a new classroom simulator. The projects are ongoing and are scheduled to be completed by the first quarter of 2017. (read more)

AREVA NP said Monday it had developed and demonstrated, during a recent nuclear plant outage in the United States, a new ultrasonic testing technique that successfully included off-axis inspection for cracks in a boiling water reactor's (BWR's) core shroud welds. The new approach, the company said, pairs a phased array technique and a specialized multi-axis manipulator.(read more)

AREVA said Friday that it was continuing on several levels with the investigation of manufacturing and paperwork anomalies that involve components made at the Le Creusot forge. In April 2015, an audit of records at the forge found numerous discrepancies. The investigation, however, began with the discovery during an inspection at the Flamanville EPR reactor at the end of 2014.(read more)

The governments of the Republic of Tunisia and the Russian Federation signed an agreement on Monday that lays the groundwork for peaceful uses of atomic energy.(read more)

Holtec International said Friday that it had achieved an industry first in creation of a large rectangular cask for activated waste that passed a succession of 30-foot “free drop” tests without any breach of its containment boundary.(read more)

Canadian engineering and construction company SNC-Lavalin said Thursday it had signed an agreement in principle for a Joint Venture with China National Nuclear Corporation and Shanghai Electric Company that would foster development of Advanced Fuel CANDU Reactors (AFCR) in mainland China and, in turn, in the global export market.(read more)

Operators of the closed down Ignalina nuclear power plant in Lithuania, which last produced electricity in 2009, can move forward with a critical decommissioning step with the licensing of an interim radioactive waste storage facility that can now accept spent fuel generated by the facility's two RBMK-1500 reactors.(read more)

With partisan politics casting a shadow over the process, India is reportedly negotiating with the U.S. government's Export-Import Bank for a loan of up to $9 billion in order to help finance a six-unit nuclear build that involves Westinghouse Electric's AP1000 technology(read more)

--Press Release--L-3 MAPPS announced today that it participated in the official inauguration ceremony of ENGIE Electrabel’s (Electrabel) Tihange 1 full scope operator training simulator on September 21, 2016. The new simulator, declared Ready For Training on March 4, 2016, is housed in the expanded training center located at the Tihange nuclear power plant in Huy, Belgium. (read more)

Tracking the progress of the first new nuclear reactors to be built in the United States in a generation. Check out the latest time lapse video from Georgia Power showcasing more than six years of construction in just two minutes.(read more)

The leader of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party policy committee said Wednesday that it was time to make a “concrete decision” concerning the country's Monju sodium-cooled fast-breeder reactor that has been plagued with problems, including an accident in 1995 that that has limited its time in operation.(read more)

China General Nuclear (CGN) told investors Tuesday that the fourth unit at the Hongyanhe nuclear power plant in the Liaoning province, an 1087 MWe CPR-1000 reactor, had entered into commercial status, having completed all of the commissioning operations and testing.(read more)

China's Legislative Affairs Office of the State Council has drafted new rules for nuclear plant development that would have companies clear their projects through local stakeholders.(read more)

The European Union's non-judiciary Court of Auditors has issued a report saying that eight Soviet-designed nuclear reactors in Lithuania, Bulgaria and Slovakia are underfunded and behind schedule when it comes to agreements made to have them decommissioned.(read more)

Operator Electricite de France took the Heysham Unit 2 reactor in northwestern Britain off line on Friday, establishing a new record for continuous operations of a commercial nuclear power plant: 940 days.(read more)

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said that an environmental review of the Enrico Fermi's Unit 2 reactor license application revealed no causes why the plant could not be granted a 20-year extension on its operating permit, which is due to expire on May 20, 2025.(read more)

The decision by the British government has given rise to a renewed since of optimism throughout the nuclear power industry in the post-Fukushima Daiichi era, especially in China.(read more)

Among the first companies to announce orders following the British government's approval of the Hinkley Point C project is General Electric, which told Reuters that it would receive $1.9 billion through a contract to supply utility Electricity de France with major components for the two reactors, which are expected to cost close to $24 billion.(read more)

The completed, but never commissioned Bataan nuclear power plant n the Philippines could have an unlikely new sponsor, Slovenia, which is reportedly poised to assist in the rehabilitation and commissioning of the plant where construction was completed in 1984, two years prior to the Chernobyl disaster.(read more)

The controversial Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant project was given a green light Thursday by the British government, which said it would be allowed with the inclusion of security-oriented conditions.(read more)

Terrestrial Energy USA said Tuesday that the company has been invited by the Department of Energy to apply for a loan guarantee through its Loan Program Office as part of a program established by Title XVII of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, a step that signifies the department's approval of the company's Part I application.(read more)

Check out the latest pictures from Georgia Power on the construction progress of the Westighouse AP1000s for Vogtle Units 3 and 4. (read more)

Swiss-based utility Axpo said Tuesday that the forged replica of the rector pressure vessel (RPV) Ring C for the Beznau Unit 1 reactor, the oldest operating reactor in Switzerland, confirmed the presence of aluminum oxide inclusions in the plant's component, but that the model also proves that the reactor is safe to operate.(read more)

South Korea's largest-ever recorded earthquake led to the shut down of four reactors at the Wolsong Nuclear Power Plant near the city of Gyeongju, a coastal city in the southeastern corner of the country. At least one combined cycle power, gas-fired power plant, the Ulsan 4 facility, shut down automatically as a result of the quake that was felt throughout the country. However, no other nuclear power plants out of 25 in the country were shut down because of the 5.8 magnitude tremor.(read more)

Energy Fuels Inc. on Tuesday announced its revised business plan covering the next 16 months, stating it intended to maintain current production, but expand the company's “production optionality,” referring to its ability to gear up quickly for increased production should market conditions improve(read more)

Up for sale on Monday: A fixer-upper nuclear power plant in Alabama that has already cost its owners about $5 billion and more than 40 years of time, but is still $8 billion short of completion, according to a recent estimate.(read more)

Iran, along with Russian builders, publicized the start of the two-unit Bushehr II nuclear power plant on Friday with a ground-breaking ceremony in which the first foundation stones for the two new units...(read more)

Part of the layoff picture at the Fort Calhoun nuclear plant near Omaha, Neb., is coming clearer with a filing with the Nebraska Department of Labor.(read more)

The Japanese Electric Power Company (J-Company) said Friday that the operational start for the country's first plutonium-uranium mixed oxide fuel plant would be delayed by two years to allow time for safety tests by the country's nuclear industry regulator.(read more)

Japan's Shikoku Electric Company has announced that Unit 3 at the Ikata nuclear power plant in the Ehime prefecture has re-entered commercial operation status, making it the third nuclear reactor to regain this distinction since the post Fukushima Daiichi moratorium on nuclear power was imposed.(read more)

The Nuclear Regulator Commission (NRC) said it had issued mid-cycle assessment letters to the nation's 99 operating commercial power plants, which concern their performance form January through June...(read more)

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said staff will meet with officials from the Wolf Creek Operating Company to discuss a violation given a designation of a white or low to moderate level concern, an incident involving a backup diesel generator that failed to work properly during a test.(read more)

Maryland-based GSE Systems said Wednesday that it had received orders for mission-critical updates to multi-unit nuclear site simulator platforms for customers in the United Kingdom and Japan, pushing their order backlog to over $6 million. These two projects include options that could grow backlog significantly further, the company said.(read more)

Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) and Ukraine's Energoatom have signed a memorandum of understanding that outlines cooperation agreements that could bring to completion the third and fourth units at the Khmelnitsky nuclear power plant that was begun in the mid-1980s, but halted in 1990 and again in 2015 amid contractual disagreements with Russia's Rosatom, which had taken up the project after the initial work stoppage.(read more)

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) announced that it had issued a Confirmatory Order to FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company (FENOC), pertaining to a lapse in medical record reporting by one of the plant's licensed operators.(read more)

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Wednesday that a Confirmatory Action Letter had been issued to Casper, Wyoming-based Cameco subsidiary Power Resources Inc, outlining corrective steps the regulator and the company have agreed to deploy following two incidents of radioactivity leakage.(read more)