The budget proposal that President Obama sent to Congress on Feb. 9 confirmed the administration’s plans to terminate, nearly nine years after construction began, the multibillion-dollar Mixed-Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication Facility project at the Savannah River site in South Carolina.
The Tennessee Valley Authority on Dec. 13 secured the reactor vessel head after loading 193 nuclear fuel assemblies into the 1,150-MW newly built unit at Watts Bar nuclear generating station in Spring City, Tenn.
Construction of power upgrades, small modular and advanced nuclear reactors are now eligible for funding under the Energy Dept.’s $12.5-billion nuclear loan guarantee program, the White House announced on Nov. 6 as part of a nuclear energy summit.
In a huge deal that Wall Steet analysts said posed both rewards and risks for its key participants, Chicago Bridge & Iron on Oct. 27 said it would sell its nuclear construction business in the U.S. and China to Westinhouse Electric.
Entergy Corp. says it would be premature to discuss the contract delivery method or whether the New Orleans-based energy firm would request competitive bids for decommissioning work at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth, Mass.
Hurricane Sandy exceeded officials’ worst fears and dealt a knock-out punch to New York City’s century-old-plus-infrastructure, leaving an unprecedented 800,000 customers without power and millions more without public transportation for what could be weeks.
States are scrambling to site small modular nuclear reactors under development and funded by $452 million in federal grants; four design concepts have been submitted by companies.
Mitsui Inc., one of Japan’s largest construction firms and also one of its major nuclear fuel traders, is investigating the feasibility of building biomass power generators to help dispose of debris from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami as well as help recycle waste from the reconstruction effort.
