Following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor crisis in Japan, the U.S. nuclear industry is more closely scrutinizing existing facilities, and long-standing problems are placing some plants under the microscope . Courtesy of Progress Energy Crystal River plant has cracks in walls. Courtesy of NextEra Energy Engineers note alkali silica reaction at Seabrook. “U.S. nuclear facilities are under constant inspection regimens, but since the earthquake we are going at it even stronger,” says Mitch Singer, spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based industry organization.In one example, Progress Energy's Crystal River plant in Florida—offline since September 2009 for a refueling

In the midyear update to the 2011 McGraw-Hill Construction Outlook, one of the few sectors holding onto any gain is the electric utility market, and two power producers who spoke in Atlanta last week reinforced that forecast in a discussion of major works under way. TVA Speaking at the ENR-CURT Construction Business Forum on June 14, Robert Murray, chief economist for MHC, said there is a “huge amount of electric powerplant construction taking place,” supporting his continued forecast for overall growth of 3% in the electric utility market this year. But for all markets, Murray is revising his forecast to

To build Mexico’s 750-MW La Yesca hydroelectric project, the construction consortium first had to divert the Santiago River through a pair of 14-meter-square tunnels, one 830 m long and the other and 870 m. The $767-million concrete-faced rock-fill dam, with a 220-m-high crest and a length of 628 m, is on schedule for completion in 2012, according to Mexico’s largest contractor, Ingenieros Civiles Asociados, which is leading the project’s construction consortium. Work on the project—located 105 km northeast of Guadalajara, the capital of Jalisco State in western Mexico—began in 2007. The workforce peaked at 5,000 in April 2011. Ingetec S.A.,

Republican efforts to revive the Yucca Mountain high-level, long-term waste repository got a boost when a June 10 report from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Office of the Inspector General questioned NRC Chairman Gregory Jazkco’s use of a continuing budget resolution to shut down continued work on the repository.The report from Inspector General Hubert T. Bell found Jaczko was “not forthcoming with other Commissioners about his intent to stop work” on Yucca Mountain work, but Bell stopped short of calling Jazcko’s actions illegal. Jazcko says the report showed his actions were within his authority as chairman.In the meantime, on June 1,

The Electric Power Research Institute, Institute of Nuclear Power Operations and the Nuclear Energy Institute announced a joint organization to coordinate the U.S. nuclear industry’s study and response to the March 11 disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan. In a June 9 press conference, the three agencies said the coordination of the groups would ensure that all groups understand and implement “lessons” learned from the event. In addition to improving response capabilities and communication plans, the group will focus on technical areas including studying total loss of on-site and off-site AC power; the accident guidelines already in

A European Union environmental regulation is prompting big changes and some uncertainty about the future at the Tilbury B Power Station, located on the Thames River, 25 miles east of London. Work is under way to convert the former 1,050-MW coal-fired powerplant, closed in March, to what would be the world’s largest biomass plant, generating 750 MW. But thanks to the regulation  that prompted the plant's conversion, Tilbury’s future beyond 2015 is not yet certain, says its owner, RWE npower. Photo courtesy of RWE npower Tilbury is switching from burning coal to wood pellets as its fuel source. RWE, which

In response to Japan’s Fukushima disaster, the European Commission on June 1 began stress tests on143 nuclear powerplants operated within the 23 member states of the European Union. The EC expects tests to be complete by year’s end. Later this month, the commission will invite neighboring countries, including Russia, Ukraine and Turkey, to follow suit. For the most part, stress testing is a desktop exercise to review safety factors and is already a part of the licensing procedure for nuclear plants, says Andrej Stitar, chairman of the European Nuclear Safety Regulators Group, which helped devise the methodology. “All the natural

The Bonneville Power Administration, a federal agency that markets electric power from the Columbia River’s Bonneville Dam in the Pacific Northwest, is saving millions of dollars on construction of its latest transmission line and expects to save more in the future, thanks to new tower design and analysis software developed by one of its own engineers. Photo:Courtesy Bonneville Power Administration A new high-voltage transmission tower is tested at a facility in India. Force is applied via dozens of cables at various angles to see if the tower will hold up in extreme conditions. div id="articleExtrasA" div id="articleExtrasB" div id="articleExtras" Portland,

Swedish home-furnishings giant IKEA officially powered up its Brooklyn, N.Y., store’s rooftop solar system this spring after several delays, including a mid-construction switch of its main contractor. Photo: By Esther D'amico Store-top installation enables four different types of photovoltaic panels to be evaluated. The store is one of four worldwide participating in a $11.7-million pilot program IKEA established in 2009 with Loughborough University, Leicestershire, U.K., and the now-defunct contractor Perpetual Energy Ltd., Knutsford, U.K., to monitor and evaluate performance of photovoltaic systems. While the systems at each of the four sites are operational, their monitoring capabilities are as yet limited

In May, the U.S. Energy Dept. approved plans by Cheniere Energy Partners, Houston, to expand its Sabine Pass Liquefied Natural Gas terminal to export domestically produced LNG to any country in which trade is permissible. Cheniere is planning to spend about $2 billion to expand the terminal. The owner will add equipment to clean up the gas from domestic pipelines and cool it to 260ºF. The company has scheduled construction to begin next year and selected San Francisco-based Bechtel as contractor. DOE will allow Cheniere to export up to 800 billion cu ft a year.