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HELSINKI (Reuters) - Finland's much-delayed Olkiluoto 3 (OL3) nuclear reactor, Europe's largest, will begin regular output on Sunday, its operator said on Saturday, boosting energy security in a region to which Russia has cut gas and power supplies. Nuclear power remains controversial in Europe, primarily due to safety concerns, and news of OL3's start-up comes as Germany on Saturday switches off its last three remaining reactors, while Sweden, France, Britain and others plan new developments. OL3's operator Teollisuuden Voima (TVO), which is owned by Finnish utility Fortum and a consortium of energy and industrial companies, has said the unit is...

The first of two new nuclear reactors at Georgia Power’s Plant Vogtle is generating electricity for the first time, the Atlanta-based utility announced during the weekend. Unit 3 at the plant south of Augusta has successfully synchronized and connected to the electric grid, putting the reactor on a path toward going into full commercial operation in May or June. “What an incredibly inspiring time to join Georgia Power as we celebrate this milestone that marks the first day of generating clean, reliable power at this new nuclear unit, which will serve our customers over the next 60 to 80 years,”...

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has formally approved a small modular reactor design from NuScale.The U.S. has just given the green light to its first-ever small modular nuclear design, a promising step forward for a power source that remains controversial among some climate advocates but is experiencing a popular renaissance.The Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved the design, which was published Thursday in the Federal Register, from NuScale, an Oregon-based reactor company. The publication of the design in the Register allows utilities to select this type of reactor when applying for a license to build a new nuclear facility. The design would...

Will French nuclear power plants be able to operate for up to 80 years? What will be the cumulative effects of climate change on reactors? What will happen to future radioactive waste? On Tuesday, January 24, senators are expected to adopt the nuclear acceleration bill, which aims to facilitate the start of work on the sites where six new European Pressurized Reactors (EPRs) could be built. Concurrently, the French Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) has called for a “global and systemic” reflection on safety issues as part of the debate on the future of the energy system.The discussions need to cover...

Datacenters use a lot of power and despite our best efforts, a big chunk of that still comes from burning fossil fuels. But what if instead of relying on local utilities for power, these facilities generated their own – maybe using a relatively itty-bitty nuclear reactor?In a recent report, Omdia analysts Alan Howard and Vladimir Galabov made the case that using small modular reactors (SMRs) to power large datacenters might not be as crazy as it sounds.As the name suggests, SMRs are essentially just miniaturized reactors. Instead of a massive facility producing gigawatts or more of power, SMRs are designed...

The United States' 92 nuclear reactors currently in operation have a mean age of 41.6 years, the third oldest in the world. As Statista's Katharina Buchholz reports, the only nuclear fleets that are older are those of Switzerland (46.3 years) and Belgium (42.3 years). Also older are the singular reactors in use in Armenia and the Netherlands.You will find more infographics at StatistaThe U.S. was among the first commercial adopters of nuclear energy in the 1950s, explaining the number of aging reactors today. A building boom between the 1960s and 1970s created today’s nuclear power plants in the United States....

California’s last operating nuclear power plant was given another funding boost Nov. 21 as operators seek to keep it running for another eight years.The U.S. Energy Department awarded Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant $1.1 billion from the Civil Nuclear Credit Program funded by an infrastructure bill passed by Congress in 2021.“This is a critical step toward ensuring that our domestic nuclear fleet will continue providing reliable and affordable power to Americans as the nation’s largest source of clean electricity,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said in a statement on Nov. 21.Nuclear power provides half of the nation’s carbon-free electricity,...

Berlin (AFP) – Germany said Monday it would keep two nuclear plants on standby beyond the end of the year in a policy U-turn, as the shut-off of Russian gas supplies sends Europe scrambling for energy sources.Following a new network stress test, two of the three remaining power plants would "remain available until mid-April 2023 in case needed", Economy Minister Robert Habeck said in a statement.The move partly delays a nuclear exit planned under former chancellor Angela Merkel.The plants would be kept in reserve to potentially "make a further contribution to the electricity grid in southern Germany", where the development...

Electrifying most energy demand in order to replace fossil fuels with carbon-free sources of power like wind and solar is widely seen as necessary to prevent catastrophic climate change, but it comes with a significant side effect: using much more land to produce electricity. A team of researchers hailing from the University of Michigan, UC-Santa Barbara, UC-Berkeley, and the Breakthough Institute reported the finding last week in the journal PLoS ONE.... "Renewable energy sources like ground-mounted photovoltaics, concentrated solar power, and wind feature prominently in many decarbonization scenarios, but since they can have higher land use intensity than fossil fuels,...

Even before Russia invaded Ukraine, Germany’s decision to shut down its three remaining nuclear plants made no sense. But since the invasion Germany has very gradually been coming around to the idea that it might be time to reconsider those decisions. That’s especially true ever since Russia cut off most of the natural gas it was supplying to Russia in June.Today, it appears Germany has finally turned a corner. The Wall Street Journal reports plans to close the remaining nuclear plants are likely to be postponed.The decision has yet to be formally adopted by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s cabinet and...

The European Parliament on Wednesday voted not to block a proposed rule that would designate gas and nuclear power plants as “climate-friendly.” The rule will take effect unless 20 of the European Union’s (EU) 27 member states band together to stop it. The EU keeps a “taxonomy,” or rulebook, that designates which types of energy investment can be labeled “green.” The terminology is considered valuable for marketing purposes and to attract investors looking for climate-friendly projects. “Green” projects are also eligible for favorable government loans, and even outright government subsidies. The taxonomy is supposed to prevent “greenwashing,” loosely defined as...

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told the United States on Wednesday that attempts by the West to punish a nuclear power such as Russia for the war in Ukraine risked endangering humanity. Russia's invasion of Ukraine has triggered the most serious crisis in relations between Russia and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, when many people feared the world was on the brink of nuclear war. Medvedev cast the United States as an empire which had spilled blood across the world, citing the killing of Native Americans, U.S. nuclear attacks on Japan and a host of wars ranging...

Members of European Parliament (MEPs) voted on July 6 not to reject adding nuclear and natural gas activities to the European Union taxonomy for sustainable investments.Opponents of the change had to secure an absolute majority of the 705-member European Parliament, or 353 MEPs.Just 328 MEPs voted against the European Commission Act, which would define natural gas and nuclear as transitional activities that enable the mitigation of climate change.Although they outnumbered the 278 who did not object to the act, they still fell short of an absolute majority, with 33 MEPs abstaining.The act will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2023,...

Citizens of Louisiana and Mississippi south of the Old River Control Structure don’t need all that water. All it does is cause flooding and massive tax expenditures to repair and strengthen dikes. The best solution would be for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to build an aqueduct from the Old River Control Structure on the Mississippi to Lake Powell, fill it, and then send more water from there down the Colorado to fill lake Mead. About 4.5 million/gals a second flow past that structure on the Mississippi. As mentioned, New Orleans has a problem with that much water anyway,...

Outside the United States, nuclear is entering a golden era, especially in China. There is a record building boom in current and announced plants, including more than 225 plants in China alone. Costs are being driven down to exceptionally affordable levels. Best practice current nuclear plants deliver costs of $0.05/kwh versus the average U.S. electric bill of $0.14/kwh. Most impressively, technology is rapidly evolving to safe, low-waste fourth-generation technology, or GEN IV, expected to be commercialized by 2030. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, GEN IV high-temperature, low-pressure plants "offer impressive safety features and can be easy to construct...

Authored by Robert Bryce, host of the Power Hungry Podcast, executive producer of the documentary, “Juice: How Electricity Explains the World,” and the author of six books, including most recently, “A Question of Power: Electricity and the Wealth of Nations.” America’s electric grid is being mismanaged and consumers will pay a heavy price for that mismanagement…More evidence of that came with the recent closure of the Palisades Power Plant in Michigan. The 811-megawatt nuclear plant was shut down on the same day that the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) issued a report saying the U.S. electric grid doesn’t have...

As states race to keep plants open, California becomes a test case of how much the tide has shifted Charles Komanoff was for decades an expert witness for groups working against nuclear plants, delivering blistering critiques so effective that he earned a spot at the podium when tens of thousands of protesters descended on Washington in 1979 over the Three Mile Island meltdown. Komanoff would go on to become an unrelenting adversary of Diablo Canyon, the hulking 37-year-old nuclear facility perched on a pristine stretch of California’s Central Coast that had been the focal point of anti-nuclear activism in America....

The looming closure of the Palisades nuclear power plant at month’s end may push Michigan’s short-term climate goals out of reach, both industry experts and energy regulators agreed. The loss of 800 megawatts of carbon-free energy from the nuclear plant along Lake Michigan near South Haven is likely to result in more greenhouse gas emissions elsewhere as the electric sector pivots to natural gas while more solar and wind generation comes online. In Michigan, the state’s climate plan calls for 60 percent of the state’s power to come from renewable sources within the next eight years. Incremental goals in that...

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has approved Uganda’s plan to build East Africa’s first nuclear power station. Next step: getting $100 billion… China enters the chat… A statement from the government of Uganda said Aline des Cloizeaux, the IAEA’s director for Africa, had told Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni of the approval on Monday. Des Cloizeaux is reported to have said: “We have concluded that Uganda is ready for the plant. We in the agency are ready for all the support through training so that the project becomes reality.” An International IAEA team of experts conducted an eight-day mission to...

In a conversation with the LA Times’ editorial board on Thursday, Newsom said the state might pursue federal funding the Biden administration made available in its Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to keep uneconomic nuclear power plants open. The power plant, located in San Luis Obispo County and operated by utility company PG&E, is slated to cease operations by August 2025. PG&E said its priority was clean and reliable energy for California. “The people of PG&E are proud of the role that Diablo Canyon Power Plant plays in our state,” Suzanne Hosn, spokesperson for PG&E told CNBC. “We are always open to...