This week's ANS Friday Nuclear Matinee features the second quarter 2015 construction update from South Carolina Electric & Gas's V.C. Summer nuclear power plant, where two new AP1000 nuclear units are under construction. The massive size of the components and construction is well displayed in this video, which dates from late July 2015.

Media have been abuzz this week following the Reuters' story that attempts to portray the situation of Japanese nuclear power plant restarts as not nearly so rosy as had been hoped. Reuters predicted last year at this time that 14 nuclear plants would restart "in the near term," while this year it predicts seven will do so. This number is difficult to support, because the legal challenges faced by individual plants seem to come and to go. Certainly, those plants that are (or already have been) found to be on or near active faults by Japan's Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA) are in the deepest trouble.

It's that time! Popcorn in hand? Let's watch ANS member Kaylee Yuhas as she talks about how nuclear reactions actually work.

The 275th edition of the Nuclear Energy Blog Carnival has posted at Northwest Clean Energy.

In Part 1 of this post, I discussed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's final rule for the Clean Power Plan (CPP), the details of how it works, and its impacts on nuclear power. In Part 2, I further discuss the CPP's impact on nuclear, and also the political aspects related to the plan.

On August 3, 2015, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released the final rule for its Clean Power Plan (CPP), the goal of which is to reduce CO₂ emissions from the U.S. power generation sector. The plan establishes state-by-state requirements for power sector emissions reductions, over designated timeframes. The plan allows states to either reduce overall power plant CO₂ emissions or to reduce the tons of CO₂ per MW-hr generated (each by EPA-specified amounts).

Is nuclear energy safe? Kaylee Yuhas explains why it is the best option for our planet and our energy needs.

The 274th edition of the Nuclear Energy Blog Carnival has posted at Next Big Future

"The Atom Goes to Sea - Excursion in Science" a 1954 film by General Electric

Last month, I discussed how nuclear costs (for both construction and operation) have escalated rapidly in previous decades, and I asked why we can't achieve those previous costs, by just doing what we did then. Those issues are discussed further in this post.

by Will Davis

by Nicholas Thompson

President Obama took an historic step in establishing the first-ever national standards to limit carbon emissions from power plants in the administration's final Clean Power Plan.

"Movies and video games would have us believe that radiation is the most toxic thing you could be exposed to...how true is that?" Nuclear enthusiast Christopher Willis helps you to understand in his own witty way.

by Beth Kelly

Today's ANS Friday Matinee is an official video tour of Darlington Nuclear Station, produced for the public by Ontario Power Generation.

DISCLAIMER: The views expressed in this article 

This week's ANS Nuclear Cafe Friday Matinee features a video from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commmission on safety systems used in CANDU reactors.

This week's feature is a six and a half minute video from Argonne National Laboratory.

The 269th edition of the Nuclear Energy Blog Carnival has posted at Yes Vermont Yankee