The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission today announced it has turned down Oklo Power’s application for a combined construction and operating license for its tiny (1.5-MWe) Aurora fast reactor on federal land in Idaho. The agency said Oklo has not been able to produce “information on several key topics….” The NRC said its application denial was … More NRC turns down Oklo combined license
The U.S. Department of Justice is dropping criminal charges against former Westinghouse CEO Danny Roderick in return for becoming a witness in the criminal cases involving the failed V.C. Summer two-unit, 2,000-MW nuclear construction project. The project cratered in July 2017 after spending some $10 billion and constantly lying to state regulators about the progress … More DOJ drops charges against ex-Westinghouse CEO in return for testimony in VC Summer criminal cases
Nearly 20 years after construction began, Finland’s 1,600-MW Olkiluoto 3 nuclear power plant could be in limited service early next year. The plant, a French-designed advanced pressurized water reactor has seen a world of troubles throughout its lengthy construction period, plagued by design issues and construction delays by the French-German Areva-Siemens consortium. Construction began in … More Finland’s Olkiluoto 3 nuke finally could be nearing the finish line
The Biden administration, facing over half a century of US failure to deal with spent nuclear fuel, including the latest, 30-year debacle of the now-abandoned Yucca Mountain geologic repository in Nevada, has decided to revive a push for monitored, retrievable interim storage. US high-level nuclear waste totals some 86,000 tons of metal, and the inventory … More Biden DOE pushing interim storage for nuke waste
As the Biden administration pushes advanced nuclear reactors as a weapon against global warming, including export of US technology, the Washington-based Nonproliferation Policy Education Center (NPEC) is warning that the Department of Energy should eschew export of sodium-cooled, fast breeder reactors. In a Nov. 29 letter to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, Henry Sokolski, NPEC executive … More Group warns against exporting fast reactors
It’s the nuclear news story that won’t go away. More delays look in store for the Southern Company’s troubled two-unit, 2,000-MW Vogtle 3-4 construction project. The Georgia Power project to build new, 1,000-MW Westinghouse reactors at an existing site, which began construction in 2009, with a project startup in 2014, could now be pushed back … More Vogtle Déjà Vu: More Schedule Delays?
It’s an all-too-familiar story. Southern Company subsidiary Georgia Power has again announced a delay in the long-anticipated, long-delayed, and vastly over budget opening of its two-unit Vogtle nuclear expansion project. Construction on the two-unit, 2,000-MW project, using Westinghouse AP-1000 advanced pressurized water reactors, began in 2009, with an anticipated startup of the first unit in … More More delays (yawn) at the Vogtle nuke project
Recent Ohio events have added details on how Akron-based utility giant FirstEnergy has owned Ohio’s utility regulators, the legislature, and, perhaps the state house. The utility has been accused of major bribery of the Republican Ohio House speaker, Larry Householder, in a scheme to promote and defend a $1 billion legislative bailout. More generally, critics … More Ohio events further detail depths of FirstEnergy’s intrusion into state government
The Southern Co. has begun demolishing its failed attempt to create a path to “clean coal technology” at the multi-billion-dollar Kemper County integrated gasification, combined cycle project (IGCC) in Mississippi. The Georgia-based power giant set off two explosions at the site on October 9. Here’s a video of the results of the demolition. Southern began … More Demolition at failed Southern Co. coal gasification project
The Tennessee Valley’s long nuclear nightmare at the Bellefonte plant in Hollywood, Ala., is over. The giant federally-owned regional power system says it will relinquish its Nuclear Regulatory Commission construction license after a 47-year failure to complete even one of its four originally-planned reactors. Engineering News Record reported that TVA “won’t renew permits requiring it … More TVA finally pulls the plug on Bellefonte nuke