News

A Toshiba company spokesman confirmed the company was seeking a partner to support its majority stake in its U.S. nuclear power subsidiary Westinghouse Electric Company, but underplayed its connection to an accounting scandal in which Toshiba overstated profits. Spokesman Hirokazu Tsukimoto said Toshiba...(read more)

SCANA Corporation subsidiary South Carolina Electric and Gas (SCE&G) said Tuesday that the company had accomplished two construction milestones at V.C. Summer’s Unit 3 this week, including the placement of the 32-metric ton CAO4 module on the containment vessel bottom head. The module is...(read more)

A French weekly, Le Canard enchaine, has claimed that nuclear power giant Areva has known since 2006 that the steel in the reactor pressure vessel head construction for some of its build projects had high levels of carbon that caused the steel to be more brittle. In early April it was announced by...(read more)

Southern Company video update of the new nuclear power plants at Vogtle for 2nd Quarter, 2015. (Please visit the site to view this video)(read more)

A new report on the nuclear power sector in the United States, prepared for Nuclear Matters by the consulting and research firm The Brattle Group, concludes that the industry adds $60 billion annually to the country’s gross domestic product. With that dollar contribution, including $103 billion...(read more)

A critical funding mechanism for the U.S. nuclear power sector’s export business, the U.S. Export-Import Bank, now has one foot in the grave and could be sacrificed in the name of conservative idealism. The Export-Import Bank of the United States provides loans and loan guarantees for companies...(read more)

Austria has filed a long-expected legal challenge to the funding mechanism put in place for the Hinkley Point C nuclear build in southwest England, which was approved by the European Commission in October. The British government said it would support an elevated price for electricity generated at...(read more)

India’s engineering, manufacturing and construction giant Larsen and Toubro (L&T) has built the country’s first two 700 MWe steam generators designed for the Kakrapar Atomic Power Station Unit 3 operated by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited. The first generator for the...(read more)

Kyushu Electric Power Company technicians will begin loading the Sendai No. 1 reactor in Japan with fuel rod bundles this week after the plant passed a regulatory inspection on July 3. The four-day operation involves moving the nuclear fuel rods one by one form a storage pool to the reactor. It will...(read more)

In northern Indiana, due east from Chicago, a small start-up company with eight employees is touting a metal-joining process said to create a seal “much stronger than traditional welding methods,” according to the Elkhart, Indiana, Truth, a hometown newspaper that should have truth high on...(read more)

The Tokyo Electric Power Company, owner and operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiihi nuclear power plant, has turned to the International Atomic Energy Agency for help evaluating is shuttered Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant. TEPCO is reportedly turning to international experts to evaluate the plant...(read more)

[UPDATED]The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) will send a third shape-changing robot into highly radioactive portions of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in August, seeking information that can help technicians decide the best method for removing spent or molten reactor fuel from...(read more)

South Carolina Electric & Gas Company (SCE&G), principal subsidiary of SCANA Corporation, announced that it has entered into a settlement agreement with the South Carolina Office of Regulatory Staff and the South Carolina Energy Users Committee related to the company’s petition to update...(read more)

French nuclear plant construction firm Areva, which announced this week it would sell its Canberra Industries Inc. subsidiary, has signed a series of agreements with the China National Nuclear Corporation and China Guangdong Nuclear Power, the company said Tuesday. A press release said the deals also...(read more)

Westinghouse Electric Company said it has been awarded a contract by Arizona Public Service to provide the first continuous mobile boration system designed for use at the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station. The Mobius system provides a continuous supply of highly borated water at high flow rates...(read more)

The Natural Resources Canada, known as NRCan, and the British Department for Energy and Climage Change (DECC) have signed a memorandum of understanding that allows for greater cooperation in the field of nuclear energy. The deal will build on the partnership between Candu Energy Inc. and GE Hitachi...(read more)

Monday came and went without a formal complaint filed by Austria over the subsidy planned for the proposed Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant proposed for southwest Britain. Austria has been threatening to file a complaint concerning the subsidy, claiming it is illegal under European Union rules...(read more)

The European Union has contributed $2,240,400 to nine partners to establish the security of fuel supply for Russian-designed nuclear power plants in the region, Westinghouse Electric Company said Monday. The aim of the program is to establish an alternate fuel supply for nuclear power plants that...(read more)

The bidding process for six to eight nuclear power plants in South Africa – a deal potentially worth $80 billion or more – will begin in July, the government in Johannesburg said. The program is being billed as a potential 1-trillion rand program. Without naming a specific date, the government...(read more)

The U.S. Department of Energy announced Wednesday that it had agreed to $1.8 billion in loan guarantees that represent the final phase of funding for the Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant construction project inWaynesboro, Ga. The additional two units under construction represent the first...(read more)

Germany’s nuclear power phase out begins its final phase with the closing of the 1.3 GW Grafenrheinfeld nuclear power plant this Saturday. The plant is the first of the final nine plants scheduled for decommissioning, which represent the nine newest plants in the country, according to German media...(read more)

“More than 70 new nuclear reactors are now under construction, but that’s not nearly enough to make a strong dent in CO2 emissions worldwide,” said Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor of nuclear science and engineering Jacopo Buongiorno recently. “So the question is...(read more)

Japan’s central government has approved a $50 billion expenditure over five years to help with restoring areas hit by the March 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake -- a 9.0-magnitude seismic jolt -- and the follow up tsunami that, among other things, crippled the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant...(read more)

Russia and Saudi Arabia have announced an agreement that allows for cooperation in the use of nuclear energy for producing electricity in the country that is famous for its oil exports capacity. In yet another signal that the Middle East is concerned about the longevity of its oil export business...(read more)

German utility E.ON’s announcement that it plans to close down OKG Aktiebolag’s Oskarshamn Unit 2 reactor in southeastern Sweden by 2020 for economic reasons was met with opposition by minority shareholder Fortum, a Finnish energy group. In a statement, Fortum said, “On the contrary...(read more)

Nuclear power is expected to attract $1.3 trillion in investment between 2015 and 2040, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance’s most recent annual report on the energy industry, but there are “seismic shifts” in the works that will, essentially, rearrange the industry as we know...(read more)

Construction, engineering and defense contractor Day and Zimmermann, based in Philadelphia, said Monday it had been awarded a six-year alliance contract by Southern Nuclear to provide fleet maintenance and modification services at the company’s six nuclear reactors at three different locations...(read more)

Construction of a four-reactor nuclear power plant in northern Turkey will include French, Turkish and Japanese construction firms, Japanese media announced late last week. The construction arrangement will include the French company Bouygues and “two or three” Turkish contractors who...(read more)

One of the largest cranes in the world went to work at Georgia Power’s Vogtle Unit 4 construction site in Waynesboro, Ga., last week, as more than 120 workers labored to build and place a 64,000-pound modular unit inside the new reactor’s nuclear island. The CA-04 module, weighing in at...(read more)

Westinghouse Electric Company announced Thursday it had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Nuclebras Equipamentos Pesados S.A.“ to collaborate on the fabrication of AP1000 nuclear power plant components and equipment in Brazil." The agreement was signed in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil...(read more)

Third Way, a think tank that says it “answers America’s challenges with modern ideas aimed at the center,” said this week that venture capital is flowing into nuclear power start ups in the United States in sizable numbers. While venture capital for solar and wind power, hydro-fracking...(read more)

A long list of political and business officials attended a signing ceremony at the Barakah nuclear power plant construction site on Wednesday, marking the installation of the second reactor vessel at what will be the first nuclear power plant in the Middle East. The signing ceremony did not involve...(read more)

--Press Release-- San Diego, California – Diakont, a leading provider of high-tech solutions for the nuclear industry, has developed an innovative approach for providing high resolution inspections of Torus coatings within BWR nuclear power plants using remotely operated underwater vehicles...(read more)

How is the U.S. nuclear power industry reacting to the on-the-ground events that occurred in March 2011 at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan? As is well known, the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami event at the plant that breached protective barriers knocked out the...(read more)

For the first time in South Korea, the country’s nuclear power plant operator Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Company said it would decommission one of its nuclear reactors, starting with the oldest plant in the country. Reports say that the government wants to use the Kori No. 1 pressurized...(read more)

The head of the International Energy Agency, a think tank for developed countries on energy matters, said China is making a sizeable effort to turn around its coal-based energy economy in a time when the world’s focus is on the threat of climate change. Maria van der Hoeven said that China is...(read more)

Rutgers University announced Monday that a team of university scientists had isolated a strain of bacteria that “breathes” uranium, which may make it invaluable in decontaminating groundwater at sites like uranium mills where radioactive material was processed for nuclear weapons. The...(read more)

GE Hitachi executive Jay Wileman is in line to succeed Caroline Reda as the president and chief executive officer of the company should GE be able to close on a deal to purchase French turbine maker Alstom. Wileman is currently the general manager of nuclear power plants, but Reba, in an email confirmed...(read more)

Japanese Cabinet ministers on Friday endorsed a new schedule for decommissioning the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant that increases an emphasis on safety, while allowing for further delays in spent fuel removal of up to 40 months. Removing melted or intact fuel from fuel pools in the...(read more)

The U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency said its Board of Governors has approved an agreement with Kazakhstan for the establishment of a nuclear fuel Low Enriched Uranium Bank, which will maintain a reserve of LEU “as an assurance supply mechanism for Member States in case they cannot...(read more)

A state-based study group in Virginia, the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy, says that nuclear power is clean and safe and could help turn the state’s energy deficit into an energy surplus. The state of Virginia will require 4,000 megawatts more in 2021 than it does today and the...(read more)

Stressing the importance of a secure system for nuclear power plant computer systems, a Pittsburgh-based software company SpiralGen Inc. said Thursday it would use Department of Energy Small Business Innovation Research funding to adapt technologies developed for military use “to provide new inner...(read more)

Nuclear power lobbyists in Washington are squaring up to face down a critical end-of-the-year deadline, which is when an export agreement with China concerning nuclear technologies would end if Congress does not renew the plan. China has been increasing its commitment to nuclear power at a time in...(read more)

“We are the largest operating seawater [desalinization] plant on the West coast at this time,” asserts Terrence East, GE Water Field Area Manager at the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant near San Luis Obispo, California. The Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant, asserts Forbes magazine, is...(read more)

While Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 remains a matter of international dispute, the United Nation’s nuclear power watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, has declared that the nuclear power plant on the peninsula is Ukrainian. On the ground, Ukraine has jurisdiction of...(read more)

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Monday that it had approved the first step of "Project Aim," a plan to downsize the agency to “meet the demands of an evolving work load, while maintaining its ability to project public health and safety.” In so many words, the stalled demand...(read more)

Global Nuclear Fuel said Monday that it had been awarded an extension on its fuel supply contract for four of Entergy’s boiling water nuclear power plants in a deal worth more than $100 million. The contract extension runs through 2021 and calls for eight fuel reloads or two each at the FitzPatrick...(read more)

International engineering firm Atkins said it had been awarded a Tokyo Electric Power Company contract to assess fire hazards at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station in Japan. The company will prepare a Fire Hazards Analysis for the entire Fukushima Daiichi site, “which will...(read more)

The government in Canada has effectively delayed granting approval for a deep well radioactive waste repository at the Bruce nuclear power plant until after a federal election that takes place in October. The decision on the low-level to medium-level waste repository was expected in early September...(read more)

U.S. nuclear power innovator Westinghouse Electric is keeping busy in Sweden, announcing a new contract for the delivery of new CR99+ control rods to the Forsmark Nuclear Power Plant for Units 1 and 2. The contract was signed by Forsmarks Kraftgrupp AB and involves rod assemblies made at the Westinghouse...(read more)