NRC issues ruling in Calvert Cliffs 3 new reactor application prohibiting foreign ownership: Demise of French nuclear misadventure in US almost complete

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has ruled that embattled French governmental electric utility, Électricité de France (EDF) is ineligible to receive a Combined Operating License for the construction of the Evolutionary Power Reactor (EPR) in Lusby, Maryland. The Order finds the new reactor applicant, UniStar, is a U.S. corporation wholly-owned by the French government.  The NRC had no choice but to recognize the violation of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 which prohibits control of US domestic nuclear power by foreign governments. But in a "second last chance" notice, NRC gave the UniStar and Calvert Cliffs 3 an additional sixty-days to come up with a domestic partner after which the NRC licensing board will close the proceeding.  Beyond Nuclear, which has opposed the third reactor and supports a nuclear phase out, views the decision as simply a delay in the inevitable cancellation of all French reactor plans on US soil.

Exelon cancels Texas nuclear plans and calls new nukes "uneconomical"

A new reactor project in Victoria, TX is dead. Exelon has withdrawn its application for an early site permit for the proposed plant. Exelon stated that construction of new merchant nuclear power plants in competitive markets are "uneconomical now and for the foreseeable future” In 2008, Exelon announced a plan to develop two new reactors at the Texas site. But industry enthusiasm for new reactor construction has waned dramatically since then.  More.

Nuclear plants must go off line when needed most

Although electricity supply can be essential in an emergency, nuclear power plants can't help. Entergy shut down its Waterford, LA nuclear power plant near New Orleans on Tuesday in advance of Hurricane Isaac making landfall. In fact most nuclear plants are required to shut in advance of the arrival of hurricane-force winds of 74 mph or greater, rendering them a liability, rather than an asset during a natural disaster.

Edison poised to remove fuel from San Onofre reactor

The operator of the San Onofre nuclear power plant is preparing to empty the radioactive fuel from one of its twin reactors, writes the Associated Press. Tons of fuel inside the disabled Unit 3 reactor will be moved into storage in mid-September. The plant located between Los Angeles and San Diego has been shut down since January, after a break in a tube that carries radioactive water. Investigators later found unusual wear on scores of tubes inside the plant’s four steam generators. Removing the fuel comes on the heels of a decision to lay off 730 plant workers by year's end. Edison continues to claim it will repair Unit 2, an increasingly unpopular tact with ratepayers.

DOE wants Bechtel out of radioactive waste cleanup

The US Department of Energy wants Bechtel removed from a radioactive waste "cleanup" project at the Hanford nuclear weapons site after technical errors were uncovered along with ballooning costs. A DOE memo cites 34 technical problems attributed to Bechtel National, which designed and built the plant to stabilize and contain 56 million gallons of radioactive waste from a half-century of nuclear weapons production at the Hanford Site in central Washington. The memo says the Bechtel engineering performance "places unnecessarily high risk that the (plant) design will not be effectively completed." The project is already three times more expensive than its original estimate, having ballooned to $12.3 billion and the price is expected to soar even higher. Writes Peter Eisler in USA Today: "The sprawling, 586-square-mile Hanford Site was home to multiple nuclear reactors that produced plutonium for U.S. nuclear weapons throughout the Cold War. Cleaning up the waste — a mix of highly radioactive liquid and sludge stored in 177 underground tanks — is considered the nation's most complex and costly environmental restoration project." Many of these tanks have leaked, contaminating the Columbia and Snake Rivers.