Tag Archives: Nuclear Regulatory Commission

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

NuScale Power Submits Letter Of Intent To Compete for U.S. Department Of Energy's Funding Opportunit

Leave a comment

By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

Filed under:


NuScale Power Submits Letter Of Intent To Compete for U.S. Department Of Energy’s Funding Opportunity Announcement

PORTLAND, Ore.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– NuScale Power LLC announced today that it has submitted a Letter of Intent to respond to the recent Department of Energy (DOE) Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) to accelerate the deployment of the company’s small modular reactor technology.

“We are eager to be a part of DOE‘s important effort to provide assistance for design certification and ultimate deployment of SMR technology,” stated John Hopkins, NuScale’s Chairman and CEO. “This program would provide the groundwork for full domestic and international commercialization of the NuScale SMR technology, and in doing so, would help rejuvenate a U.S. nuclear supply chain.”

As the only U.S.-based company established solely for the deployment and commercialization of its SMR technology, NuScale has developed unique and proprietary break-through technology for an innovative, simple, safe, economic, and scalable small modular reactor. Using proven light water reactor (LWR) technology, the NuScale Power Module is cooled by natural circulation, is entirely self-contained and installed underwater and underground to maximize safety.

The NuScale design also represents 100 percent factory-fabricated modules, including containment, and is fully transportable by truck or rail to deployment sites. It takes advantage of the “economies of small,” enhancing potential market acceptance through improved safety, efficient operation, and attractive economics. At 45 MWe per operating module, the NuScale SMR design is attractive to markets that no other LWR SMR design can reach. A NuScale power plant can include as many as 12 NuScale Power Modules to produce as much as 540 MWe.

NuScale’s design development began in 2000 under a DOE-funded research program and reflects 13 years of advancement and refinement—validated through comprehensive testing in a one-third scale prototype test facility since 2003.

NuScale was the first US-based SMR vendor to begin discussions with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission beginning in 2008 and has been engaged in pre-application discussions since that time. With a DOE submittal deadline of July 1, NuScale’s application in response to the FOA will fully detail its approach to achieve a U.S. NRC Certification in a timeframe that would support commercial operation by 2025.

Backed by a proven delivery model, NuScale Power has the support and technical assistance of Fluor Corporation, the majority equity partner and exclusive EPC contractor to NuScale, as well as a variety of specialty contractors, providing best-in-class project management systems, processes, …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Southern California Edison Submits Operational Assessment Requested by NRC

Leave a comment

By Business Wirevia The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Southern California Edison Submits Operational Assessment Requested by NRC

ROSEMEAD, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– A new technical evaluation of San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station Unit 2 demonstrates that the Unit 2 steam generators could be operated safely at 100 percent power and reinforces Southern California Edison’s (SCE) more conservative plan to begin operating Unit 2 at 70 percent power for five months.

SCE submitted the operational assessment of potential Unit 2 steam generator tube wear to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in response to NRC questions. The new evaluation determined Unit 2 could operate at full power for 11 months with full tube integrity. The assessment was performed by Intertek APTECH of Sunnyvale, CA, and supplements Intertek’s earlier assessment of Unit 2 operation at 70 percent power. Intertek performs operational assessments relating to steam generators for many nuclear power plants around the U.S.

“This evaluation confirms the structural integrity of the Unit 2 steam generators at 100 percent power, as requested by the NRC,” said Pete Dietrich, SCE senior vice president and chief nuclear officer. “While we have no intent to restart Unit 2 at full power, this demonstrates the amount of safety margin we have built into our analyses. We welcome this additional safety analysis but remain steadfast in our commitment to restart Unit 2 at only 70 percent power.”

SCE has proposed the reduced power operating level to prevent the conditions that caused premature tube wear in San Onofre Unit 3 and indications of wear in Unit 2.

The San Onofre nuclear plant is the largest source of baseload generation and voltage support in the region and is a critical asset in meeting California’s summer electricity and clean energy needs. Both units at San Onofre are currently safely shut down. Unit 2 remains shut down since it was taken out of service Jan. 9, 2012, for a planned outage. Unit 3 was safely taken offline Jan. 31, 2012, after station operators detected a leak in a steam generator tube.

NRC approval is required before SCE can restart Unit 2. The repair, corrective action and restart plan for Unit 2, along with additional technical information to address questions from the NRC, are available to the public at www.SONGScommunity.com.

More information, including videos that explain how a steam generator works and the role San Onofre plays in providing reliable electricity to the region, is available at www.edison.com/SONGSupdate and at www.SONGScommunity.com. San Onofre is jointly owned by SCE (78.21 percent), San Diego Gas & Electric (20 percent) …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Business, Finance, Occupation & Industry

Politics Pushes Back Against Nuclear Cost Overruns

Leave a comment

By Maxx Chatsko, The Motley Fool

Filed under:

Politicians who supported the construction of new nuclear reactors in their home states are in meltdown mode. Instead of thermal cooling towers, the only thing soaring over the skylines are budgets. Southern announced at the end of February that it needed $737 million more than originally expected for the construction of its two new reactors at Plant Vogtle in Georgia. The project will now cost $15.15 billion, if, that is, the price tag isn’t revised upwards again.

The cost overruns seem to be the last straw for Georgia and Florida — two states betting big on a nuclear renaissance — as the process for collecting project funds has also come under fire. One infuriated politician wants to penalize Southern for going over budget, but the angry mob is focusing its anger on Progress Energy and Duke Energy . Regulators aren’t taking it easy on the companies and their subsidiaries, either.

You won’t like him when he’s angry
The Florida Public Service Commission aired some dirty laundry from the now merged companies by stating that they collected nearly $819 million from their customers over the past several years for two nuclear projects: expanding the Crystal River facility and building an entirely new plant in Levy County. While there is nothing wrong with collecting funds from ratepayers for such expenditures, neither project has gained regulatory approval. In fact, the Crystal River project was scrapped after the facility was damaged beyond repair during the expansion.

Even worse, the company maintains that the first reactor at Levy won’t be operable until 2024 at the earliest. Yikes. I’ll take a guess and say that none of the funds will be returned to customers if the application for the Levy County reactors fails to impress the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, or NRC. Regional politicians are right to be concerned.

Customer relief?
Politicians from both sides of the aisle are proposing bills that would prohibit or significantly limit the amount of funds utilities are allowed to collect pre-construction. The bills also want to ensure that companies don’t profit from nuclear plants that never leave blueprint canisters. Whether companies will be required to pay a fine to the state or give credits to customers remains to be determined.

Do customers reserve the right to be upset? Absolutely. (I don’t even live in Florida and I cringed when I heard about it.) However, I believe basing your opinion of nuclear energy on the high costs of construction alone is a bit unreasonable. I recently explained that position in more detail, showing that the low cost of fuel and maintenance actually makes atomic energy cheaper than other energy sources in the long term. There’s a reason the NRC has pending applications for 28 new reactors to review — four more than the total submissions facing the Department of Energy for LNG export terminals.  

Who else is affected?
Should the proposed bills become law, there is some potential that utilities get spooked …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance