Posted by NucNet on 10 February 2015 in NucNet
Plant Operation Nuclear energy accounted for the largest share of European Union domestic production of primary energy in 2013 with 29 percent, ahead of renewables (24 percent), solid fuels (20 percent), gas (17 percent), oil (nine percent) and non-renewable wastes (one percent), a statement released yesterday by the ...
Posted by SONE on 30 January 2015 in Newsletters
An energy world full of contradictions We live in a world of extraordinary contradictions, particularly if we work in the energy sector. In the UK a ten-year life extension for an important nuclear plant has just been announced while in Germany utilities have revealed that they are claiming ...
Posted by NucNet on 27 January 2015 in NucNet
Security & Safety The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has rejected a petition by an anti-nuclear group that called for the agency to suspend the operation of the country’s 22 remaining General Electric boiling water reactors with a Mark I primary containment system, which are the same as Units ...
Posted by NucNet on 23 January 2015 in NucNet
Plant Operation Rolls-Royce has been awarded a contract by EDF Energy to carry out boiler modification work at the two-unit Dungeness B nuclear power station in the UK, to support proposed plant lifetime extension to 2028. Rolls-Royce said the scope of work covers design, supply of parts, installation ...
Posted by NucNet on 13 January 2015 in NucNet
Decommissioning The UK government has stripped private consortium Nuclear Management Partners (NMP) of the contract to clean up the Sellafield nuclear site in Cumbria, northwest England. The Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) announced today that ownership of Sellafield Ltd, the company that manages and operates the ...
Posted by NucNet on 12 January 2015 in NucNet
Plant Operation The Office of Nuclear Regulation granted permission for the Heysham A-1 nuclear unit in the UK to return to the grid after the discovery of a crack in a boiler spine in August 2014 led to it being shut down as a precautionary measure. The ONR ...
Posted by NucNet on 8 January 2015 in NucNet
Research & Development The US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory will work with three nuclear products and services companies on projects that it says could unlock the potential of advanced nuclear reactor designs, helping create a new generation of safer, more efficient reactors. The projects will ...
Posted by SONE on 30 December 2014 in Newsletters
Old king coal remains centre stage Ten years from now Britain will no longer be generating electricity from coal – not even coal from other countries – if the Liberal Democrats have their way. An industry which dominated the UK energy scene for centuries and with a post-war ...
Posted by NucNet on 30 December 2014 in Issues
The need for nuclear development. The Government “Review of the Civil Nuclear R&D Landscape in the UK “ March 2013 said it all. “The capability in the UK’s national laboratories and industry is smaller and more fragmented than it has been in the past … fission R&D is ...
Posted by NucNet on 29 December 2014 in NucNet
Unplanned Events & Incidents Unit 6 at the Zaporozhye nuclear power station in Ukraine has been reconnected to the grid after the correction of a fault that led to its shutdown on 28 December 2014, operator Energoatom said. The Russian VVER V-320 unit is operating at 40 percent ...
Plant Operation Russia’s Rostov-3 VVER-1000 pressurised water reactor unit was connected to the grid on 27 December 2014, state nuclear power station operator Rosenergoatom said. Construction of Rostov-3, near the city of Volgodonsk in southwest Russia, began in 2009. The Rostov station already has two VVER-1000 pressurised water ...
Comment & People Fifty-eight percent of British adults support the use of nuclear power, including 21 percent who “strongly support” its use, according to a poll carried out by a new industry group. The poll, commissioned by New Nuclear Watch Europe, an interest group founded by the chairman ...
Security & Safety Stephen Burns, a 33-year veteran of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has been designated by President Barack Obama as the commission’s new chairman with effect from 1 January 2015. Mr Burns, who has been an NRC commissioner since November 2014, will become the commission’s 16th ...
Plant Operation The Fangjiashan-2 nuclear unit in Zhejiang province, eastern China, achieved first criticality on 25 December 2014, China National Nuclear Corporation said. Fuel loading at the Chinese-designed CPR-1000 pressurised water reactor unit began on 3 December 2014 and was completed ahead of schedule on 5 December 2014. ...
Posted by NucNet on 22 December 2014 in NucNet
Security & Safety Computer systems at South Korea’s nuclear station operator have been hacked, but only “non-critical data” was accessed and drills are being carried out to prevent it happening again, the company said in a statement. Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Co Ltd (KHNP) said there was ...
Posted by NucNet on 17 December 2014 in NucNet
Decommissioning Westinghouse Electric Company has won a contract to deliver a second skip handler machine for the UK’s First Generation Magnox Storage Pond (FGMSP) facility on the Sellafield nuclear site. The skip handler is a rail-mounted, heavy-duty crane that operates above a used-fuel storage pond. The FGMSP ...
