The US Department of Energy (DOE) is teaming up with GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) and providing USD5.8 million in funding for a project to demonstrate how three construction technologies from other industries can be applied to advanced reactor designs, to improve the economics of bringing advanced reactors to market. The Advanced Construction Technology (ACT) …

The levelised costs of electricity generation of low-carbon generation technologies are falling and are increasingly below the costs of conventional fossil fuel generation, according to a report by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) and the International Energy Agency (IEA). The cost of electricity from new nuclear power plants remains stable, yet electricity from the …

Horizon Nuclear Power is in discussions about transferring its Wylfa Newydd and Oldbury nuclear-build sites to another developer. Horizon confirmed in September that it was scrapping its work at the sites after parent company Hitachi failed to agree a funding deal with the UK Government. It later asked Whitehall to delay a decision on a …

The UK government is short on time to replace its ageing nuclear power fleet, but will a new energy white paper be enough to bring investors back to the sector? Queen Elizabeth II opened the world’s first commercial nuclear power station at the site of today’s Sellafield plant in west Cumbria, England, in 1956.The last …

Mining giant BHP (NYSE: BHP; LSE: BHP) has shelved a planned US$2.5 billion expansion of its Olympic Dam copper, gold and uranium mine in South Australia, after studies of the ore body revealed weaker than expected results. While the mine yielded more than 50,000 tonnes copper in the three months to Sept. 30, which was …

The nuclear industry should work with policymakers on the design of market mechanisms that can produce a clear price signal to attract investors to this low-carbon form of electricity, Jostein Kristensen, partner with economics consultancy firm Oxera, told participants in World Nuclear Association’s Strategic eForum last week. Markets currently do not reflect the value of …

As the single-largest carbon-free source of electricity, nuclear power often plays a big part in plans to decarbonize energy. Many policymakers insist that nuclear must be part of any solution to avoid the worst consequences of climate change over the coming decades. But as the debate over preserving existing nuclear plants and supporting advanced nuclear …

IN JUNE, EDF ENERGY ANNOUNCED it had completed the 49,000-metric-tonne concrete basemat for the second EPR reactor at Hinkley Point C in Somerset. The milestone was achieved “on schedule”, despite the coronavirus pandemic and a reduction of “more than half” in the number of workers on site since March. Completion came less than a year …

Uranium has outperformed major commodities this year, even as the energy sector has suffered from a drop in petroleum demand tied to the coronavirus pandemic. The crisis was a “black swan event” that pushed supply-demand fundamentals into a “structural shortfall,” says Scott Melbye, executive vice president at Uranium Energy Corp. “Substantial global uranium mine disruptions” …