The Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) newest nuclear reactor, Watts Bar unit 2, has reached first criticality. The 1165 MWe (net) pressurized water reactor is the first nuclear unit to start up in the USA since Watts Bar 1 in 1996.
World Nuclear News 24th May 2016 read more »
Following the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, Greenpeace USA released a new report Tuesday on the 166 near misses at U.S. nuclear power plants over the past decade. Of the incidents identified in Nuclear Near Misses: A Decade of Accident Precursors at U.S. Nuclear Plants, 10 are considered by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to be important precursors to a meltdown.
Eco Watch 24th May 2016 read more »
An official with the Nuclear Energy Institute (NEI) said last week 15 to 20 nuclear plants are “at risk” of an early shutdown due to market conditions, considered a sign from nuclear energy proponents their generation is improperly compensated. Platts reported last week during a U.S. Department of Energy nuclear summit, NEI CEO Marvin Fertel called the sector’s market struggles a “bad, systemic problem.” Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz said at the summit “the importance of incentivizing continued operation is very clear,” but added, “the solutions are less clear,” Platts reported Moniz said last week DOE’s Quadrennial Energy Review (QER) will look at how nuclear plants might be compensated, adding that the problem will be “at the heart of the analysis work going on right now in developing this QER.”
Kallanish Energy 25th May 2016 read more »
A US Department of Energy (DOE) summit held last week to identify policy options for improving the economic competitiveness of nuclear power plants has been described by the head of the Nuclear Energy Institute as a “wake-up” call on the urgency of preserving the country’s operating reactors.
World Nuclear News 24th May 2016 read more »