A new report on the construction status of the Vogtle nuclear plant, released Wednesday by Moody’s Investors Service, provides greater detail than a May 10 statement released by Georgia Power and cites a number of risks that could further delay the plant’s opening date. Moody’s report addresses a list of frequently asked questions about the Vogtle project as it relates to MEAG, the Municipal Electric Authority. MEAG is a partner in the Vogtle project, along with Georgia Power, Oglethorpe Power Corp., and the City of Dalton Combined Utility. The first sentence of Moody’s report observes: “Construction is progressing on the Vogtle Nuclear Units 3 and 4 in Georgia, offering additional credit stability to the owners of the units, though the work is still only around 50 percent completed and is several years behind the original schedule.”

Saporta Report 24th May 2018 read more »

Members of the New Mexico congressional delegation are fighting back against the Trump administration’s recent decision to make most of the nation’s plutonium “pits” – the cores of nuclear weapons – in South Carolina instead of at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Albuquerque Journal 26th May 2018 read more »

Some 360,000 Americans now work in the solar industry, more than in nukes and coal combined. In fact, more Americans are now working in California’s solar industry than are digging coal nationwide. And the U.S. wind business now employs more than 100,000 people. But President Donald Trump wants to change that. He has already slammed the solar industry’s growth by slapping a 30 percent tariff on imported Chinese panels, slowing installations nationwide. He’s also contemplating using an obscure Korean War-era “emergency” ordinance that would let the government bailout money-losing coal and nuclear plants at the expense of renewables.

Progressive 24th May 2018 read more »

The Russian nuclear power corporation Rosatom’s trading branch operating on the foreign market, Tenex, and Electricite de France (EDF) have signed a contract for recycling regenerated uranium from France. The contract was concluded at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. It will let the EDF improve economic parameters, preserve natural resources and diversify sources of supplies.

TASS 25th May 2018 read more »

Framatome has signed a contract to design, fabricate and supply fuel assemblies using enriched reprocessed uranium to French utility EDF between 2023 and 2032. Framatome noted the project is subject to administrative and regulatory authorisations. The fuel assemblies – to be produced at Framatome’s facility at Romans-sur-Isère in the Drôme region of France – will incorporate uranium that has been derived from the reprocessing of used fuel at the La Hague plant. Once enriched, this uranium can be used again to fuel nuclear power reactors. EDF is to use the fuel assemblies in a number of its reactors, which have been authorised to use such fuel.

World Nuclear News 25th May 2018 read more »

Unit 5 of the Yangjiang nuclear power plant in China’s Guangdong province has been connected to the electricity grid, China General Nuclear (CGN) announced yesterday. The unit – the first ACPR1000 reactor to be built and the first Chinese unit to feature a domestically-developed digital control system – is scheduled to enter commercial operation later this year.

World Nuclear News 25th May 2018 read more »

Iran has threatened to withdraw from the international nuclear non-proliferation treaty and demanded that Europe come up with an “economic package” to compensate for Washington’s decision to pull out of the atomic deal Tehran signed with world powers. The Islamic republic could exit the near-50-year-old NPT – the only binding multilateral treaty aimed at achieving disarmament by nuclear-armed states – should hardline forces in Tehran prevail, a senior Iranian official told the Financial Times. The warning highlights mounting pressure on European-led efforts to save the nuclear deal- known as the JCPOA – that Tehran signed in 2015 with the US, Russia, China, France, Germany, the EU and the UK. The official made the comments as Iran and the remaining signatories met in Vienna on Friday, the first such gathering without the US.

FT 25th May 2018 read more »

A public debate starts on Monday on the road map of France for 2019-2023 and 2024-2028. 400 French will be drawn, the others will be able to follow the exchanges. Nuclear power will be the focus of discussions.

Les Echos 19th May 2018 read more »

Electricity: EDF still believes in an increase in consumption. The electrician has published his contribution to the public debate on Multiannual Energy Programming. In contrast to RTE, it relies on a slightly positive change in consumption and confirms that it does not want to close any other reactor than Fessenheim before 2029.

Les Echos 23rd May 2018 read more »

Dave Elliott: Germany is continuing with its nuclear phase out, while pushing renewables strongly, with well over 100GW of wind and solar so far. Renewables overall, including hydro and biomass, should soon be supplying nearly 40% of its electricity. That has been helped by the fall in their costs and by continued support from consumer self-generation, mainly using PV, and locally owned projects, including wind. For example, the result of the first competitive German onshore wind tender in 2016 had prices ranging between 52 and 58 Euro/MWh for 807MW. That’s down from €80/MWh under the old FiT support system. 65 of the 70 successful projects were community-driven or co-operative schemes. Despite setbacks, it does not seem to be the case, as some insist, that Germany is replacing nuclear with coal, so that emissions are rising. The 2017 World Nuclear Industry Status report notes that, since 2010, the last year prior to the post-3/11 shutdown of the eight oldest nuclear plants, and 2016 ‘the increase of renewable electricity generation (+84.4 TWh) and the noticeable reduction in domestic consumption (-20.6 TWh) were more than sufficient to compensate the planned reduction of nuclear generation (-56 TWh), enabling also a slight reduction in power generation from fossil fuels (-13 TWh) and a threefold increase in net exports’: Though it is the case that Germany emission have been growing slightly, that’s mainly due to increases from transport.

Environmental Research Web 23rd May 2018 read more »

Berlin agrees to compensate power firms for nuclear phase out. The German government approved a draft law on Wednesday that paves the way for energy giants RWE and Vattenfall to receive hundreds of millions of euros in compensation for the country’s decision to phase out nuclear power. The exact sum has yet to be determined but the environment ministry said the amount was unlikely to surpass a billion euros. The draft law will bring Germany into compliance with a 2016 court ruling that found energy suppliers had a right to financial compensation over Chancellor Angela Merkel’s U-turn on nuclear energy.

The Local 23rd May 2018 read more »

Reuters 23rd May 2018 read more »

Despite the nuclear reduction target, EDF still hopes for new EPRs. This is the “wish list” of EDF in the context of the public debate accompanying the preparation of the next EPP, the famous multi-year energy program which must outline France’s main guidelines for the production of carbon-free electricity. ‘here to 2028, and draw the trajectory of the energy transition until 2035 and beyond. The electrician has submitted Monday to the National Commission of Public Debate (CNDP) its “actor’s book” to push its preferred scenario: “a complementarity between renewable and nuclear” in which the atom would remain in the decades to come “a a major asset for the country ” alongside hydropower, solar and wind energy.

Liberation 23rd May 2018 read more »