NEI Nuclear Notes

This sounds serious: [Sen. Barbara] Boxer (D-Calif.) said in a letter to Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chair Allison Macfarlane that a confidential report obtained by her office shows Southern California Edison and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the Japan-based company that built the generators, were aware of design problems before the equipment was installed. Boxer, who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee , said the report written by Mitsubishi raises concerns that Edison and its contractor rejected safety modifications and sidestepped a more rigorous safety review. A little mysterious, yes? This is about San Onofre , which has been off-line for a little over a year because of a steam generator problem. If Edison and Mitsubishi pressed ahead with a problematic steam generator, that would be very bad, but also rather inexplicable. Just to get you up to date, here’s a refresher course on what happened at San Onofre: Both of San Onofre's reactors ...

World Nuclear News recently reported a significant announcement by AREVA and Mitsubishi concerning their joint venture: Areva of France and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan announced that their newly-created joint venture will be known as Atmea. The joint venture will develop an "advanced Generation-III" nuclear power reactor, the Atmea 1. ... the Atmea joint venture will develop, market, license and sell an 1100 MWe pressurized water reactor (PWR), which will combine technologies of both companies. The reactor would be marketed at emerging countries wishing to begin nuclear power programs, as well as established markets such as the USA and Europe. I found this announcement fascinating for three reasons. First, until now, the strategy of reactor suppliers has been to devote all available resources to developing and licensing a single flagship design. The Atmea joint venture indicates that the market for new reactors has matured to the point that vendors now see a need to...

Going through my clips yesterday, I came across the following editorial from the Boston Herald concerning TXU and its plan to build new nuclear plants in lieu of coal-fired electric generation . Though I don't normally do this, I'm going to print the entire editorial: TXU Corp., formerly Texas Utilities, says it wants to build nuclear plants instead of the 11 large coal-fired plants - so scorned by environmentalists - that it announced earlier this year. It’s another welcome sign of the return to favor of nuclear power, which generates no greenhouse gases said to warm the earth. The problem is that TXU, one of more than a dozen utilities considering nuclear projects, wants a new plant design. But one of the reasons nuclear fell from favor was that U.S. utilities vastly overestimated their ability to cope with the new designs they kept ordering throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Of the 105 nuclear plants operating in 1986 (there are 102 today), there were 62 designs. One reason...

From AREVA : AREVA, the world's largest business group in the nuclear energy field, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) confirm the fast deployment of their alliance in the nuclear energy area, as established last October. ... Since October 2006, AREVA and MHI teams have worked together to define the conceptual bases on which the future advanced reactor will be developed. They have agreed on the main features of this reactor: an advanced generation 3, pressurized water, 3 loops reactor with a power of around 1100 MWe. It will integrate the latest features already adopted by AREVA and MHI in terms of safety (resistance to commercial airplane crashes for instance), environment (reduced spent fuel and waste) and efficiency (possibility of extended fuel cycles and capacity to use MOX fuel for instance). Sweet stuff!

From Reuters : Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd is set to receive a $5.2 billion order to build two nuclear reactors for U.S. power plant operator TXU Corp. the Nikkei business daily reported on Wednesday. TXU said in August 2006 that it planned to file construction and operating license applications in 2008 to build two to six gigawatts of new nuclear capacity at one to three sites in Texas. The company expects the new reactors to enter service between 2015 and 2020. This is the first company in the U.S. to announce intentions to build this type and it's the largest reactor (1,700 MW) yet. For a list of other company's new nuclear plant intentions in the U.S. click here .

Just off the wire : Washington GroupInternational (Nasdaq: WGII) announced today that it has been selected by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI), to provide design certification document engineering and licensing services to support MHI's plans to launch its new advanced pressurized water reactor model, the US-APWR, in the U.S. market. Washington Group will perform services to prepare the design certification document to assist MHI efforts to obtain Nuclear Regulatory Commission certification of the US-APWR design. After the design certification document has been approved, Washington Group will leverage its nuclear industry and regulatory expertise to support MHI's introduction of its technology in the United States. "Nuclear power is expected to return to prominence in meeting growing energy needs," said Lou Pardi, president of Washington Group's Power Business Unit. "Washington Group International has been providing nuclear expertise since the ...