Byron nuclear plant, facing 2021 closure, getting refueling outage in October

Exelon Corp. is taking its Byron Unit 2 nuclear station offline for a nearly three-week planned outage to refuel. The 33-year-old Unit 2 is being taken offline early in October for 19 days of maintenance, refueling and upgrades. The workforce employed on the project includes 700 employees of owner Exelon as well as 1,200 additional …

TerraPower and Centrus team up for HALEU production

TerraPower has announced plans to team with nuclear fuel and services provider Centrus Energy to establish commercial-scale, domestic production capabilities for high-assay, low-enriched uranium (HALEU). This, it says, will be needed to fuel many next-generation reactor designs, including the recently announced Natrium Power Storage System designed by TerraPower and GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy. Existing reactors …

U.S. Department of Commerce Announces Draft Amendment to the Suspension Agreement on Uranium from the Russian Federation

Today, the U.S. Department of Commerce (Commerce) and the State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom (Rosatom), on behalf of the Government of the Russian Federation, initialed a draft amendment to the Agreement Suspending the Antidumping Investigation on Uranium from the Russian Federation (Agreement), which was originally signed in 1992.  This amendment, if finalized, will extend the …

China ditches US nuclear technology in favour of home-grown alternative

The US-developed AP1000 technology was once the basis of China’s third-generation nuclear power But China’s Hualong One is now the preferred option China has switched from American nuclear power technology to a domestically developed alternative as worries over energy security and geopolitical uncertainties increase. The AP1000 technology, designed by America’s Westinghouse Electric Company, was once …

China loads fuel at first nuclear unit with home-grown reactor

FUZHOU, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) — Fuel loading started Friday at China’s first nuclear power unit using Hualong One technology, a domestically developed third-generation reactor design, bringing the unit one step closer to operation. The loading started at 3:30 p.m. at the No. 5 nuclear power unit in the city of Fuqing, east China’s Fujian Province, …

Markets lack a price signal for nuclear investment

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 …

China readying for nuclear expansion, says Zheng

The future of nuclear power in China is promising, Zheng Mingguang, Chief Engineer at China’s State Power Investment Corporation (SPIC) told World Nuclear Association’s Strategic eForum 2020yesterday. He believes both the use of large and small-scale reactors will find applications in China beyond just electricity generation. Speaking during the high-level panel Driving investment towards nuclear projects, …

For nuclear plants operating on thin margins, growing climate risks prompt tough choices

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 …

Tianwan nuclear power plant’s unit 5 ready for commercial operation

Unit 5 at Tianwan nuclear power plant, developed by China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) and located in Lianyungang in East China’s Jiangsu province, successfully completed its full-power continuous operation assessment on Sept 8, meaning it now meets the conditions for commercial operation. To date, the number of nuclear power units in the service of CNNC …