Even before completion, the new National Enrichment Facility is being expanded. Parsons Corp., Pasadena, Calif., was awarded a two-year contract to provide engineering, construction and construction management to expand Louisiana Energy Services’ $3-billion uranium-enrichment facility in Eunice, N.M. The plant is one of three now being built in the U.S. to enrich uranium fuel for nuclear powerplants using energy-efficient gas-centrifuge technology instead of gaseous-diffusion technology.

Five tidal power schemes, the biggest able to generate 5% of U.K. electricity demand, have been shortlisted for the Severn Estuary, the long sea inlet that separates Wales and Cornwall in the southwest of England. The government's inclusion of a full, $30-billion barrage across the estuary has angered environmental groups. Slide Show DECC Fleming Lagoon's design, looping out from one shore, would not obstruct tidal flows as much as a barrage. Having eliminated five schemes, the Dept. of Energy and Climate Change will now consult on its shortlist till April, aiming to select its preferred option early next year. A

Wood, coal, gas and oil have long-fueled societies since prehistoric times but they all emit carbon dioxide and all are finite. Today, rapid economic growth is straining the Earth’s ability to meet demand for these fuels, and rising greenhouse-gas concentrations are threatening the climate’s stability. Clean, renewable energy alternatives are being proposed to replace these fuels, but many have limitations: Wind may not blow when demand is up, the sun shines only part of the day and drought can cripple a hydropower plant. Because fossil fuels are still abundant and relatively cheap, they will continue to provide the bulk of

Fusion is the sun’s energy source. It is essentially inexhaustible, and that’s a major reason for the interest in developing fusion technology to generate power. In the sun, light nuclei such as hydrogen, under extreme gravitational pressure and excited by temperatures of 10 million to 20 million°C, collide with such force that they are fused into heavier ones. The fusion generates heat, maintaining the high temperature and keeping the reaction going. Slide Show Photo: Agence Iter France Related Links: International Program Aims To Develop Energy Supply Without Limit Fusion in earth’s lower pressure requires a much higher temperature of 100

The Shaw Group Inc. and Westinghouse Electric Co. LLC have signed a contract for engineering, procurement and construction of a two-unit nuclear powerplant at a greenfield site in Levy County, Fla. Progress Energy Florida Inc., the owner, expects to receive a combined construction and operating license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by early 2012. Current plans are for operation of the plant in the 2016-18 time frame, after which Progress Energy will retire its two oldest coal-fired units at the Crystal River Energy Complex in Citrus County, Fla. The new units will be AP1000 pressurized-water reactors, rated at 1,105 MW.

The nuclear industry is sprinting to build nuclear-enrichment plants in the U.S. before its supply of en-riched uranium dries up in 2013. Bethesda, Md.-based USEC Inc. is building a $3.5-billion enrichment plant at the site of its shuttered plant in Piketon, Ohio. Louisiana Energy Services (LES), a subsidiary of U.K.-based Urenco Ltd., is building a $3-billion enrichment plant at a greenfield site in Eunice, N.M., and Paris-based Areva is seeking approval to build an enrichment facility at a greenfield site near Idaho Falls at cost of more than $2 billion. Photo: USEC Inc. March 2008 saw first concrete placed for

The pace of oil-and-natural-gas-related engineering and construction work has been nothing short of frenetic over the past several years, with global engineering and construction giants scrambling to find qualified professionals to staff a slew of multibillion-dollar projects. But the combined effects of falling energy prices, a slumping global economy and the lingering credit crisis are raising doubts about whether the world’s largest energy companies will continue to keep their capital investments flowing in 2009 and 2010. Photo: Nancy Groce, Smithsonian Institution Projects in Alberta’s oil-sands fields are being scaled back. Related Links: 2008 Top Global Sourcebook The international market for

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is conducting a Dec. 19 competitive lease sale for geothermal energy development on 61 parcels totaling nearly 200,000 acres in Utah, Oregon and Idaho. The event will be held in Salt Lake City to lease 47 parcels in western and southwestern Utah, totaling 146,339 acres; 11 parcels in Oregon, totaling 41,362 acres; and three parcels in south central Idaho, totaling 8,676 acres. Photo: Ormat Technologies Inc. Idaho’s first geothermal plant, Raft River, began operation this year. Utah has only two geothermal powerplants, totaling 47 MW, but it has 1,440 MW of developable potential, reports

Last year, the big news in the international powerplant design and construction sector was the unprecedented boom in coal-fired plant work in China, India and other fast-growing, “emerging” economies.

As large-scale wind farms continue to multiply across rural landscapes, building owners in denser locations are looking to save some green with pint-sized wind turbines. But the financial reward is not always the biggest factor weighing on owners’ minds, experts say. Photo: Cascade Engineering Michigan mill is generating public awareness. Concerns over energy prices and fossil fuels also have small wind blowing from all directions. The Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corp. is spending $25 million to put up rooftop turbines in New York, while a $11.2-million, low-income housing project designed by Helmut Jahn in Chicago has been generating rooftop power