Archive for the 'Nuclear' Category
Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 25 Apr 2008 | Tagged as: Electric, Energy, Nuclear
Southerm Maryland Online:
Constellation Energy and the state of Maryland are moving forward on plans to add a third reactor to the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant, which Constellation hopes will be on line by 2015. The state of Maryland needs that power desperately: a report by the Public Service Commission late last year predicted a state energy shortage and rolling blackouts as early as 2011.
Slipped into a settlement of Constellation Energy’s recent legal battle with Maryland is an affirmation that the company will add a reactor to Calvert Cliffs.
The state hopes that adding more capacity to its section of the electrical grid that powers the Mid-Atlantic region will alleviate its expected shortages.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 22 Apr 2008 | Tagged as: Energy, Nuclear, Environment
Harrisburg Patriot-News:
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission will hold two hearings May 1 to take comment on environmental concerns.
The hearings are part of a detailed NRC review of AmerGen Energy Co.’s petition to extend its operating license for the Unit 1 reactor at TMI to 2034.
TMI’s 40-year license expires in 2014.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 21 Apr 2008 | Tagged as: Electric, Energy, Nuclear, Environment
AP via Topix:
Vermont’s love-hate relationship with its lone nuclear power plant is coming to a head: Lawmakers have to decide next year whether to shut down the reactor in 2012 as scheduled or keep it humming for another two decades.
Vermont is as known for its green living as its green landscapes, and some environmentalists in the state have come to appreciate nuclear power for its low greenhouse gas emissions, said Steve Terry, a former journalist who covered the construction of the Vermont Yankee plant in the late 1960s.
But the plant’s benefit ‘comes in a clash with a rather determined minority that has opposed nuclear power for basically radiological safety issues,’ said Terry, who went on to become vice president of Green Mountain Power Corp., one of the 36-year-old plant’s first owners.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 26 Mar 2008 | Tagged as: Nuclear
PennLive:
Federal regulators are investigating a security violation at Three Mile Island that could be of moderate to serious safety significance, but they aren’t saying what it is.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission will not disclose any potential weaknesses in the security systems at commercial nuclear facilities in the belief it would further weaken plant defenses.
More from the York Daily Record.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 03 Feb 2008 | Tagged as: General, Electric, Energy, Nuclear
CNN Money:
Constellation Energy Group (CEG) has threatened to build a new nuclear reactor in New York instead of Maryland if the state’s political and regulatory environment doesn’t improve.
In a statement released Tuesday, Michael J. Wallace, a Constellation executive vice president, said the company hopes to break ground on a new reactor at Calvert Cliffs as early as 2008, with completion scheduled by 2015. “However, if we encounter delays in Maryland, we are prepared to proceed with the first EPR (nuclear reactor) at our Nine Mile Point nuclear plant location in New York,” Wallace said.
The terse statement marked Constellation’s latest effort to challenge efforts by Maryland regulators and lawmakers to revisit deregulation.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 29 Jan 2008 | Tagged as: Energy, Nuclear
CNN Money:
An application to renew an operating license for the Three Mile Island power plant, submitted by a unit of Exelon Corp., is open for public review, a government agency said Monday.
AmerGen Energy Co., an Exelon subsidiary, is seeking to renew the license for the island’s Unit 1 nuclear plant until 2034, or 20 years beyond its current expiration date of 2014.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 09 Jan 2008 | Tagged as: Energy, Nuclear
Reuters:
A unit of Exelon Corp has filed an application with federal nuclear regulators to extend the operating license of Three Mile Island Unit 1 nuclear generating station by 20 years, the company said on Tuesday.
The current license for the 786-megawatt reactor in Lononderry Township, Pennsylvania, about 10 miles southeast of Harrisburg, expires in April 2014.
If approved by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Three Mile Island could operate until April 2034, said AmerGen Energy Co, a subsidiary of Chicago-based Exelon, the largest operator of nuclear plants in the U.S.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 09 Jan 2008 | Tagged as: Energy, Nuclear
Asbury Park Press:
A congressional committee is probing the operations of the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission following reports of security guards sleeping at an Exelon nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania, according to statements.
In addition, “investigations by the NRC’s Inspector General have unveiled questionable decisions” by the NRC on nuclear power plant relicensing, according to a statement from the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 09 Jan 2008 | Tagged as: General, Natural Gas, Electric, Energy, Nuclear, Environment
The Wall Street Journal (subscription):
California policy makers have set the most ambitious conservation targets in the U.S. The state’s three major investor-owned electric utilities were told last summer to reduce their combined energy use by the equivalent of three power plants to earn big bonuses — or face the possibility of big penalties if they fail.
Utilities across the country are watching for the results. About half of U.S. energy use flows through the nation’s utilities, and a powerful combination of rising fuel costs and climate-change fears is putting increasing pressure on them to find ways to reduce the demand. Coal plants are causing environmental concerns, natural gas is subject to huge price swings, nuclear plants remain controversial and even wind farms are proving hard to site without opposition. So producing less energy has new appeal for utilities’ bottom lines.
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Posted by Edward G. Lanza on 12 Dec 2007 | Tagged as: Energy, Nuclear
USA Today:
“Serious safety problems” plague U.S. nuclear plants because the NRC isn’t adequately enforcing its standards and has cut back on inspections, according to a report released Tuesday by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), a nuclear safety watchdog group.
The report also says that even though security at nuclear plants was increased after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, reactors still aren’t sufficiently protected against terrorist threats such as hijacked jets, and new reactors aren’t being designed to be significantly safer than existing ones. Increasing the number of reactors without creating “unacceptably high safety and security risks” could be difficult, the report concludes.
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