News

The Wisconsin state assembly will vote in January on legislation that could open the door for new nuclear power plants, a spokeswoman for Speaker Robin Vos said. The effort to roll back restrictions on nuclear power that were put in place after the 1979 accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power...(read more)

Wednesday will be the last day for commercial power production for the last operating Magnox nuclear reactor, the Unit 1 reactor at Wylfla on the island of Anglesey in North Wales. Just as the last day of 2014 was the shut off day for the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant in Vernon, Vt., Wednesday...(read more)

Copper, oil and gold had a tough year in commodities markets, but immediate delivery prices for nuclear fuel – in market lingo, the UX-U3O8 spot price – rose 18 percent to an average of $39 a pound in 2015, according to market analysts. The price climbed from an average of $33 in 2014...(read more)

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called the shipment of more than 25,000 pounds of low-enriched uranium materials from Iran on Monday a “one of the most significant steps” in the international agreement that allows for lifting sanctions against the Middle Eastern country that was suspected...(read more)

Canada's nuclear power regulator said that it has granted Ontario Power Generation Inc. (OPG) a renewed operating license for the Darlington Nuclear Generating Station in Clarington, Ontario, which is responsible for 20 percent of Ontario's electricity needs. The four-reactor plant of CANDU...(read more)

A Bangladesh government spokesman with the Ministry of Science and Technology said that a $12.65 billion deal signed on Christmas Day with Russian nuclear build entity Rosatom cleared the way for a 2016 construction start for two 1,200 megawatt capacity reactors slated for Ruppur (alternate: Roopur)...(read more)

French nuclear power group AREVA said Monday that its board of directors had reviewed bids for the sale of nuclear instrumentation business Canberra and selected the offer from Mirion-Charterhouse. AREVA is shedding several businesses to “refocus its business on nuclear cycle processes,”...(read more)

Maryland-based uranium fuel supplier Centrus Energy Corporation, said it had reached an agreement with its Russian counterpart Techsnabexport (Tenex) to extend a 2011 agreement through 2026 under modified terms that “reflects the changing fuel market.” Centrus President and Chief Executive...(read more)

Reuters News service reported Wednesday morning that India was close to signing a deal with Westinghouse Electric Company to build six nuclear reactors in the state of Gujarat. The deal is expected to be signed in the first half of 2016, the wire service said. Reuters said the information came...(read more)

AREVA NP has been selected by the utility Vattenfall Europe Nuclear Energy to decontaminate the primary loop of the Krümmel nuclear power plant, located in Geesthacht near Hamburg, Germany. The work is expected to begin before the end of the year and completed in 2016. AREVA said it would employ...(read more)

Westinghouse Electric Company said Tuesday that testing had validated the integrity of the containment vessel of the Haiyang Nuclear Power Plant under construction in China, marking a significant milestone in the delivery of one of the world's first AP1000 nuclear power plants. The plant under...(read more)

Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee (ENVY) said it would accelerate its schedule for transferring spent nuclear fuel from a “wet” cooling system to a “dry” storage system. The transfers will begin in 2019, two years earlier than originally planned, the company said. The change,...(read more)

French nuclear group AREVA said Thursday last week it had concluded a series of agreements with CEA (French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission) for the management of nuclear facilities being dismantled at Marcoule and for assistance with onsite work covering the period 2016 to 2020. ...(read more)

Kyushu Electric announced a series of safety measures that it will undertake to heighten preparedness for both natural and man-made emergencies that could threaten the two Sendai nuclear power plant reactors that were restarted on Aug. 11 and Oct. 15, respectively. The company's announcement coincides...(read more)

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has granted license extensions for 81 nuclear reactors that allow them to operate for up to 60 years – 20 years past their original expiration dates. This week, the NRC said it was preparing for the possibility of extending the commercial viability of commercial...(read more)

Westinghouse Electric Company wiith subsidiary WesDyne Sweden AB has been selected by OKG AB to develop and qualify techniques and equipment to inspect the core shroud support at OKG AB’s Oskarshamn unit 3 Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) in Sweden. The contract scope includes developing and qualifying...(read more)

Nuclear power giant AREVA said this week that it had presented preliminary strategies to the French nuclear regulatory agency ASN – the French Nuclear Safety Authority --- for studying and improving quality controls at two French facilities, the Le Creusot testing laboratory and the firm's...(read more)

New drone footage shows the colossus that is the containment structure – and structures – at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine that was the site of the world's worst radioactive accident in history as of April 1986, when an explosion destroyed Unit 4 at the plant. Workers...(read more)

Twelve years of investigations into Iran's development of nuclear weapons came to close Tuesday with a consensus agreement among 35-nations to adopt a report that says activities for developing atomic capabilities for military use were halted in Iran in 2009. Scrutiny of Iran's nuclear ambitions...(read more)

The South African Cabinet has approved a nuclear power procurement option for the country's Department of Energy that opens the door for assessing proposals for 9.6GW of electricity from nuclear power, Business Day is reporting. One media source, News24, says the decision cements a deal with Russia...(read more)

Japan and India have signed letters of agreement that outline cooperation in civil nuclear power and in other industrial developments. The highlights of the cooperation accords allow for Japan to export its nuclear power technology and services to India and for the development of a bullet train in India...(read more)

With a conference in Paris hailed as the largest ever gathering of world leaders, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ended in triumph Saturday with an agreement between 196 countries that aims to hold global temperature change to less than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial...(read more)

Georgia Power announced Friday the latest milestone in the expansion of Plant Vogtle near Waynesboro, Georgia – the placement of the lower ring for Unit 4. The 1.9 million-pound lower ring was lifted into place by the heavy lift derrick, one of the largest cranes in the world. The ring is...(read more)

Japanese conglomerate Toshiba Corp, parent company to nuclear power giant Westinghouse Electric, is seeking assistance from financial firms to help fund a three-reactor project slated for a site close to the existing Sellafield nuclear fuel reprocessing facility in West Cumbria, England. Toshiba is...(read more)

Due to rising international tensions, there may be a four-reactor construction project up for grabs in Turkey. Various media are reporting that deteriorating relations between Turkey and Russia have lead to the cessation of work on a $20 billion nuclear plant project. The stories, which include...(read more)

International nuclear power corporation AREVA said that a subsidiary, AREVA Federal Services, had won an $8.6 million U.S. Department of Energy contract for design and fabrication of rail cars for nuclear material transportation. The rail cars are to be used for large-scale transport of used nuclear...(read more)

Westinghouse Electric Company said Thursday that its nuclear fuel facility in Columbia, South Carolina, the Columbia Fuel Fabrication Facility, had reached a business milestone, having completed its 100,000th nuclear fuel assembly. The milestone has two critical ramifications -- let's call them...(read more)

The Tennessee Valley Authority has completed fuel loading for the Watts Bar Unit 2 reactor near Spring City, Tenn., local media are reporting. Crews moved 193 nuclear fuel rods into place with the final fuel assemblies moved just after 2 a.m. Tuesday, the Times Free Press reported. The fuel-loading...(read more)

California-based hazardous waste systems company Kurion Inc. on Tuesday announced the acquisition of British robotics firm Oxford Technologies for an undisclosed sum. Kurion's existing Robotic Systems and Services team has delivered and designed over 180 systems for projects around the world....(read more)

I nstallation of a second bridge crane at the Donald C. Cook Nuclear Power Plant in Michigan while the plant was in operation was named the Best Nuclear Power Project of the Year, it was announced Monday night at the Power Generation Week 2015 event in Las Vegas. The installation saved the plant –...(read more)

The Nuclear Regulator Commission said Tuesday that the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Plant east-southeast of Toledo, Ohio, had been granted a 20-year extension on its operating license. The single-reactor plant is now authorized to operate through April 22, 2037. FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co. applied...(read more)

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy said it had been awarded a contract to provide outage services for the Tennessee Valley Authority's Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant near Decatur, Ala, through 2020. The $70 million contract calls for a full range of outage services for the three GE boiling water reactors...(read more)

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it would adjust its Reactor Oversight Process starting in January by adding one more white-level inspection finding – going from two to three – that would be the equivalent of one yellow warning in its color-coded inspection matrix. The NRC uses...(read more)

It was the scientists turn at the COP21 climate conference in Paris on Thursday, which featured four prominent climate specialists who advocated for a major investment in nuclear power in order to for conference participants to limit global temperature increases to 2 degrees Celsius or less in the coming...(read more)

A day after TransCanada Corporation signed a pricing deal with the Ontario Independent Electricity System Operator that would extend the life of six units at the Bruce Power nuclear power plant – with a complementary maintenance and upgrade plan valued at $9.73 million – Bruce Power announced...(read more)

Oregon-based NuScale Power said Wednesday it had signed a contract with AREVA Inc., for procurement of fuel assemblies for its small modular reactors, currently under development. AREVA's HTP advanced pressurized water reactor fuel has been designed for us in the SMR's. Mechanical and thermal...(read more)

TransCanada Corporation said Thursday that it was committed to expenditures of at least $13 billion ($9.73 billion US) for assert management (AM) and major component replacements (MCR) at the eight-reactor Bruce Power facility in Ontario that would extend the lives of units 3 through 8 at the world's...(read more)

How do you judge the time it takes to construct a nuclear power plant? Over the course of a lifetime, it is a sizable project. In the scope of history, it's the blink of an eye. Compliments of Southern Company, this time-lapsed photography clip of the Waynesboro, Ga., Vogtle 3 and 4 construction...(read more)

The government of Belgium and French utility Engie have signed an agreement that will keep the Doel 1 and 2 nuclear reactors operating until 2025 with steep outlays from the utility engineered to help the country move towards a nuclear power phase out. The deal, which includes payments to the government...(read more)

French utility giant EDF has awarded two major contracts, the companies signing the deals announced. One contract, valued at “tens of millions of euros” was awarded to AREVA for the dismantling of vessel internals of the Superphenix reactor in Creys-Malville, France, near the French border...(read more)

Thirty-nine companies from France, which employ a combined 4.4 million people, have pledged to invest $47.75 billion in research and development within the next five years that will focus on limiting global climate change to less than 2 degrees Celsius. The pledge was announced as leading scientists...(read more)

Georgia Power has shared a clip of the arrival of the fourth and final 1.3 million-pound steam generator at the Vogtle nuclear expansion site, showing the last leg of the massive component's journey from South Korea to Waynesboro, Ga. The steam generator for Unit 4 arrived through the Port of...(read more)

French nuclear power giant AREVA Inc. said Wednesday it has garnered several contracts totaling more than $11 million to provide cyber security services to several U.S. utilities. Through these services, the company will enhance the protection of the digital systems at the customers’ nuclear power...(read more)

Assembly members for the small town of Ikata in the Ehime Prefecture in southwestern Japan on Tuesday approved the restart of the No. 3 reactor at the local nuclear power plant operated by Shikoku Electric Company, according to media reports. The approval coincided with the central government's...(read more)

Westinghouse Electric announced the purchase of two nuclear power plant support systems that it said would help assure that boiling water reactor units with BWR plant-specific computer systems can continue with current equipment to maintain operability. The company said the products, TREK and DASie...(read more)

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said late last week that it had renewed the operating licenses for Unit 1 and 2 at the Byron nuclear power plant in Illinois for an additional 20 years. The two Exelon Generation Company reactors can operate through Oct. 31, 2044 and Nov. 6, 2046, respectively, the...(read more)

Government officials from Egypt and counterparts at Russian nuclear plant construction giant Rosatom hailed the signing of financing and construction deals that call for four third-generation nuclear reactors to be built within the next 12 years near the seaside city of Dabaa, Egypt. Agreements were...(read more)

Georgia Power announced a significant concrete-pouring milestone achieved at the Plant Vogtle expansion project near Waynesboro, Georgia – the recently completed 15-hour continuous pour for the Unit 3 “turbine tabletop.” The milestone marks the first turbine tabletop placement for...(read more)

A week after it was announced that British engineering firm Atkins had reached a definitive agreement to buy the Projects, Products and Technology division from EnergySolutions Inc., the U.S. nuclear waste management company announced it had signed agreement to buy Waste Control Specialists, LLC, a wholly...(read more)

Just twelve days prior to a global summit on climate change convenes in Paris, Britain's Energy Secretary Amber Rudd said in a speech that the United Kingdom would phase out coal-burning power plants within 10 years in favor of nuclear, natural gas and renewable power sources. For some, the United...(read more)