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voltsdaily

Monday, 6 July 2026

12 briefs so farlast update 18:51 UTC

Key points

  • Bechtel Crews Break Ground on TerraPower's Natrium Reactor in Wyoming.
  • UK Grid Reform Flags Battery Surplus, Opens Industry Consultation.
  • DOE Redirects Puerto Rico Solar Fund to Bankrupt Utility, Grist Reports.
  • Westinghouse Files to Renew AP1000 Design Certification With Vogtle Lessons.
All sectionsPolicy & GeopoliticsRenewablesGrid & StorageGeneration

Generation

Westinghouse Files to Renew AP1000 Design Certification With Vogtle Lessons

Westinghouse asked the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on March 27 for a 40-year renewal of its AP1000 reactor design certification, an amended filing that folds in construction and operating data from Vogtle Units 3 and 4.

Those two units came online in 2023 and 2024. Westinghouse wants the NRC to sign off on the revised certification before the end of 2026.

The design certification first cleared the NRC in 2006, years before the Vogtle build forced changes to parts of the reactor design, Power Engineering reported. That certification runs through February 2046.

The timing complicates the request. NRC rules set a renewal window of 12 to 36 months ahead of expiry, and the March filing sits outside it, so Westinghouse will file a separate exemption from the deadline.

Interest in the AP1000 has picked up without translating into orders. Utilities and developers have floated deployments and site studies in recent months, yet none has submitted a combined license application.

Renewing and updating the certification would hand any future applicant a current design basis to cite, trimming the licensing path for projects still at the study stage. The amended filing writes in the engineering changes worked out during Vogtle's drawn-out construction.

Source: power-eng.com (opens in a new tab)1 sourcePermalink

Two large cylindrical reactor containment domes and cooling towers at a modern nuclear power plant under a clear sky.
Photo: Sean P. Twomey / Pexels (opens in a new tab)

Generation

Bechtel Crews Break Ground on TerraPower's Natrium Reactor in Wyoming

Bechtel crews have moved onto the Natrium Kemmerer Unit 1 site in Wyoming and started field work, with the firm serving as TerraPower's engineering, procurement, and construction partner.

Natrium became the first utility-scale advanced reactor in the United States to win a construction permit from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

The design pairs a 345-megawatt electric sodium-cooled fast reactor with molten-salt energy storage, a setup that can push output as high as 500 MW for short periods. TerraPower is targeting completion by 2030, with cost estimates running up to USD 4 billion.

The reactor holds steady at its rated capacity and taps the molten-salt store to dispatch extra power when demand spikes.

TerraPower is building next to PacifiCorp's Naughton power station outside Kemmerer, a western Wyoming coal town where units are being retired or converted. Siting the plant there keeps grid connections and the local coal workforce close at hand.

The schedule has slipped before. TerraPower announced a delay in late 2022, pointing to thin commercial high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) manufacturing capacity and the loss of Russian supply. HALEU is the fuel Natrium and several other advanced reactor designs in the United States depend on.

Source: power-eng.com (opens in a new tab)1 sourcePermalink

Generation

NRC Extends Duke Energy's Robinson Nuclear Plant License to 2050

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) renewed the operating license for Duke Energy's Robinson Nuclear Plant for an additional 20 years, extending operations until 2050.

The single-unit plant in Hartsville, South Carolina, runs one Westinghouse pressurized water reactor rated at 759 MW. Robinson supplies enough electricity to power 570,000 homes.

The NRC granted Robinson's original 40-year operating license in 1970. The renewal carries the reactor past that first term into a further two decades of service through 2050.

Duke Energy said it intends to seek subsequent license renewal for all 11 operating reactors in its fleet. That fleet supplies about 51% of customers' energy needs in the Carolinas.

Source: power-eng.com (opens in a new tab)1 sourcePermalink