Regulators are putting the design of nuclear reactors slated to be built in the U.S. under additional scrutiny following the March disaster at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. Related Links: Searching for Clues in Quake-Maddened Seas Japan's Tsunami Debris Offers Wealth of Data Nuclear Rebirth On May 20, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission released a statement that Westinghouse must resolve design issues around the shield building of the AP1000, as well as the peak accident pressures expected within containment. The NRC is expected to conduct additional review of the design at the end of May, and that Westinghouse would submit additional

After 50-plus years in the making, the Alaska state Legislature recently gave the Alaska Energy Authority approval to build and own a new dam on the Sustina River in the Watana area. The 600-MW hydroelectric dam will be the first of its kind built in the United States in more than two decades. Photo By Google Courtesy Of Alaska Energy Authority The Sustina River dam site was first proposed in the 1950s, but the project was stalled by cost estimates. Gov. Parnell supports its revival as a component of renewable-energy goals. Preliminary work on the $4.5-billion Sustina Hydroelectric Power Project,

Although there may be a rush to take advantage of federal production tax credits for wind power before they expire in 2012, Peter Kelley, vice president of the American Wind Energy Association, says the end of the wind-power building boom is nowhere in site. “There are good prospects for the tax credit being renewed,” Kelley says. Wind power is creating manufacturing jobs throughout the country, which politicians like, and wind farms are creating an economic boom in the communities where they are built, he adds. AWEA is getting ready for its annual conference on May 22-25 in Anaheim, Calif. Four

Construction of what will be the first large-scale commercial carbon capture and storage project in the world began just hours after the Saskatchewan government gave SaskPower the go-ahead on April 26 to build the $1.24-billion plant. The project, at SaskPower's Boundary Dam coal plant, is notable not only for its size but also because it is moving forward at a time when other CCS projects are not because of CCS's high cost. Photo:Courtesy Of SaskPower SaskPower started work last month on the $1.24-billion job at its Boundary Dam coal plant. Mike Monea, a vice president of Sask- Power responsible for

Ten capped landfills will be reused as solar fields under an agreement between Cape & Vineyard Electric Cooperative, located in Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard, and American Capital Energy, North Chelmsford, Mass. The 18.3-MW project on Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard, the largest of its type in New England, is expected to produce 22,500 MWh per year, enough energy to power 3,132 Cape and Vineyard homes, according to the cooperative. Energy produced from the project will provide about 1.1% of electric power for cooperative customers. A construction date for the $83-million project has not yet been scheduled. The federal government

Utilities in the Southeast are rebuilding the electricity grid after deadly tornadoes and storms damaged powerplants as well as transmission and distribution lines. Photo: Courtesy TVA TVA crews scramble to restore more than 90 transmission lines that were knocked down. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports that 226 tornadoes touched down between April 27 and April 28, leaving a swath of destruction and 334 dead. Hardest hit within the energy infrastructure system were utilities in Tennessee, northern Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi. The Tennessee Valley Authority alone has 4,000 employees and contractors working on repairs. By May 3, TVA crews

It's too early to say whether the Japanese will need their version of Chernobyl's $1.4-billion, 29,000-tonne steelwork safe enclosure to clear away their nuclear ruins.

Construction on Chile's largest hydroelectric initiative, the 2,750-MW HidroAysén project, is awaiting final approval by the country's environmental agency, which is expected to respond by next month.

While Japan struggles to stabilize its wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant, engineers in Ukraine are only now starting construction of a new enclosure for Chernobyl's fourth reactor, almost exactly 25 years after it exploded and caused immense human and environmental damage in the region and globally. It's too early to say whether the Japanese will need their version of Chernobyl's $1.4-billion, 29,000-tonne steelwork safe enclosure to clear away their nuclear ruins. But the hard lessons learned in the development of Ukraine's $2.2-billion shelter implementation plan following the April, 26, 1986, disaster could give Japan's cleanup a running start. Chernobyl's shelter implementation

Construction on Chile's largest hydroelectric initiative, the 2,750-MW HidroAysén project, is awaiting final approval by the country's environmental agency, who is expected to respond by next month. HidroAysén—a joint venture between Chilean power utilities Empresa Nacional de Electricidad SA and Colbun SA—submitted its environmental impact assessment on April 15. A decision by the Chilean government on the environmental license for the project is expected in May. HidroAysén involves construction of five powerplants with an installed capacity of 2,750 MW; the project is located on the Baker and Pascua rivers in the Aysén region of Chile. Transporting the power from Patagonia