by Arthur T. Motta

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbxHk7go7UU

Watch today's Friday Nuclear Matinee: A discussion regarding the big decision in NY on Monday, August 1, 2016 allowing nuclear to qualify for subsidies.

Our feature this week is the very latest update from Georgia Power on the construction of the brand new nuclear units at Plant Vogtle.  Some excellent aerial views are given of the plant, including down into the reactor building of Unit 3.  Don't miss this important update!

Elk River Generating Station, Rural Cooperative Power Association, Elk River, Minnesota.

The Elk River reactor, as it was generally known in the AEC parlance of the day, was a pioneering effort in America's nuclear energy history.  Hailed widely as "Rural America's first atomic power plant," the intention was to provide a pilot installation of a small, simple, and inexpensive nuclear steam supply system that could be duplicated at many far flung locations.  Unfortunately for the concept, the Elk River plant in the end proved unable to meet the task for technical reasons; yet, it remains firmly in history as one of the well known early nuclear energy installations.  What follows is a brief history of the project and its major players.

by Andrew Reimers

On Wednesday, ANS Nuclear Cafe published a piece on Small Modular Reactors.  Today, we present a short video covering some of the progress on Argentina's CAREM SMR, which was featured some time ago right here on this blog when the project to build it was launched.

In recent years the allure of small, flexible, easy to construct and operate nuclear plants incorporating small modular reactors (SMR) have continued to grow for a host of reasons. Here in the United States, we've watched the saga of the SMR unfold fairly slowly over the last few years, as companies have entered the fray to various levels of success and have achieved varied degrees of progress.*  Now, the latest large step in getting these small and versatile reactors into the worldwide commercial market has been taken - by an effort involving Saudi Arabia and South Korea.

Kansai Electric Power's Takahama Nuclear Generating Station. Unit 1 and 2 are on the right; Units 3 and 4 are in the background on the left. Courtesy Kansai Electric Power.

On July 12, the Otsu District Court in Japan made a significant decision regarding the future of Kansai Electric Power's Takahama nuclear station when it upheld a previous lower court injunction against the operation of Units 3 and 4 at that site.  The district court had received a petition from just over two dozen intervenors in Shiga Prefecture earlier this year; legal wrangling ensued, with Kansai Electric filing an objection which ultimately today appears to have fallen on deaf ears.  As it now stands, there is a provisional injunction against the startup of these two plants.

by Will Davis; information for this report obtained both from the 2016 ANS Annual Meeting session on Prototype Gen-IV Reactors and from representatives of the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI), its subsidiary Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor Development Agency (SFRA), KEPCO Engineering & Construction,+ and Argonne National Laboratory.

Opinion by Will Davis for ANS Nuclear Cafe.

by J.H. Stewart Melville III

http://www.eenews.net/tv/videos/2134  Today's matinee: an OnPoint interview with pronuclear environmentalist Michael Shellenberger, as he discusses the benefits nuclear energy has on the economy and the environment.

Watts Bar Nuclear Plant, courtesy TVA

On May 26, 2016 at precisely 2:16 a.m., what will probably be the final large unit in the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) nuclear fleet - Watts Bar Nuclear Plant, Unit 2 - achieved its initial criticality.  This event opens the final chapter of the extended construction history of this unit, and paves way for another gigawatt of generating capacity (in nameplate rating) to be added to TVA's generating portfolio.

Our Friday Matinee for today is the latest of the excellent Vogtle Timeline videos produced by Georgia Power to document the construction progress of Vogtle Units 3 and 4.  The series stands as one of the most thorough video documentations of nuclear plant construction ever filmed, and this latest update is every bit as informative as its predecessors.

This story was originally posted in What's New section of ANS.org.

Piqua Nuclear Power Facility as seen in June 1963. Press photo in Will Davis' collection.

In 1959, a small community in Ohio completed a lobbying effort to bring a modern marvel to town-a nuclear power plant. Piqua, a town of less than 20,000 people, took its place on the broader news map, and set its sights on the stars. The journey would stop short of the citizens' dreams.

Byline: the Nuclear Upended Team

Ikata Nuclear Power Plant, Japan. Courtesy Shikoku Electric Power Company.

Recently, the Nuclear Regulation Authority of Japan announced that Shikoku Electric Power Company's Ikata Unit 3 had cleared the new, three-step process required to restart nuclear plants in Japan.  This latest announcement also came with the closely coupled announcement that Shikoku would permanently close and decommission another nuclear unit, more or less in trade.