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"The Public Service Commission voted unanimously Tuesday to require Florida Power & Light Co. to refund $13.9 million, including interest, to customers for costs related to a 2008 outage that left as many as 3 million Floridians without electricity. That will offset fuel costs for customers next year by about 14 cents a month for those who use about 1,000 kilowatt hours. About 950,000 Florida homes and businesses, including 596,000 FPL customers, lost power Feb. 26, 2008. The outage lasted several hours and was blamed on an FPL engineer, whose actions accidentally triggered the blackout. The incident tripped off two nuclear units at the Turkey Point plant near Miami, as they are designed to do for safety reasons."

A series of mishaps that occurred during a recent refueling outage at Duke Energy's Oconee nuclear plant near Greenville, S.C. exposed workers to dangerous levels of radiation, the Union of Concerned Scientists reports. On April 12, the plant shut down for refueling -- the 24th such outage since the reactor began operating in the early 1970s. But practice clearly did not make perfect, as one mishap after another occurred during the 36-hour shutdown. By the time the outage was over, the company had damaged two reactor coolant pumps, unknowingly exceeded reactor cool-down limits, and triggered a potentially disastrous loss-of-coolant accident.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspectors are determining why a shipment of lead shielding from Pilgrim nuclear station in Plymouth, Mass., to Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon exceeded radiation levels established by the federal Department of Transportation. The lead shielding is used to protect workers during refueling outages. "It's not uncommon for plants to share equipment during refueling outages," said Neil Sheehan, spokesman for the NRC. Both Pilgrim and Yankee are owned by Entergy.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has launched a special inspection of a crack in a containment building wall at Progress Energy's (PGN.N) 838-megawatt Crystal River nuclear power station in Florida, the agency said late Thursday. The unit shut Sept. 26 for an extended refueling outage that will include replacement of two steam generators and other work to increase the unit's output. A crack was found as workers began removing concrete to create an opening for new generators, Progress told the NRC in a report.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has launched a special inspection of a crack in a containment building wall at Progress Energy's (PGN.N) 838-megawatt Crystal River nuclear power station in Florida, the agency said late Thursday. The unit shut Sept. 26 for an extended refueling outage that will include replacement of two steam generators and other work to increase the unit's output. A crack was found as workers began removing concrete to create an opening for new generators, Progress told the NRC in a report.

The drop in French nuclear availability will cost EDF (EDF.PA) one billion euros ($1.49 billion) and availability in 2009 should fall by one percentage point on the previous year to 78 percent, EDF said on Friday. France, which relies on nuclear power for 80 percent of its electricity, has seen its nuclear availability at record lows in the past few months because of strikes in the spring which delayed maintenance and a high number of unplanned outages.

The drop in French nuclear availability will cost EDF (EDF.PA) one billion euros ($1.49 billion) and availability in 2009 should fall by one percentage point on the previous year to 78 percent, EDF said on Friday. France, which relies on nuclear power for 80 percent of its electricity, has seen its nuclear availability at record lows in the past few months because of strikes in the spring which delayed maintenance and a high number of unplanned outages.

Repairing a cracked containment wall will force Progress Energy to keep the Crystal River nuclear plant offline longer than anticipated. Progress Energy shut down the plant on Sept. 26 for a major maintenance project that was expected to last only into December. But on Friday the utility told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that it now plans a major repair: removing and replacing part of the containment wall, which has developed a gap below the surface. "It is clear that the repairs will require us to extend our outage," Progress Energy spokeswoman Jessica Lambert said.

Repairing a cracked containment wall will force Progress Energy to keep the Crystal River nuclear plant offline longer than anticipated. Progress Energy shut down the plant on Sept. 26 for a major maintenance project that was expected to last only into December. But on Friday the utility told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that it now plans a major repair: removing and replacing part of the containment wall, which has developed a gap below the surface. "It is clear that the repairs will require us to extend our outage," Progress Energy spokeswoman Jessica Lambert said.

"Federal nuclear regulators are meeting to discuss a special inspection of a South Carolina plant that shut down earlier this year. Staff from the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission are in Hartsville on Wednesday to talk about safety at Progress Energy's nearby Robinson plant. Two fires happened March 28 in the plant's electrical system. The commission says the plant and public were never in danger but decided that issues raised in an initial inspection warranted further study. The plant entered a refueling outage originally planned for mid-April and remains shut down. Last month, the commission sent in a special inspection team to review the events that led to shutdown. The agency will issue a report after the public hearing."

A typical Florida Power & Light Co. customer will receive an 87-cent refund this March, the upshot of a tiny hole drilled into piping at the utility's Turkey Point Unit 3 nuclear plant in 2006. The credit will show up on March bills. The Florida Public Service Commission, which oversees utilities, ruled today that FPL failed to prove it prudently managed temporary contract workers during a spring 2006 outage at the plant. On March 31 that year, a small hole was drilled in pressurizer piping. An investigation found that a disgruntled sheet metal worker who had a history of scrapes with the law, failed an initial psychological exam and was hired through an outside contractor most likely intentionally drilled the hole.

Less than three weeks after a congressman demanded more transparency from federal regulators about safety issues at the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in Lacey, the agency held a secret meeting with plant operators to discuss the implications of new corrosion discovered during the October outage. U.S. Rep. Christopher Smith, R-N.J., in a Dec. 4 letter to the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, insisted that citizens be apprised of ongoing safety issues, and specifically referred to corrosion discovered during the October refueling as a "significant case of high public interest." He cited the need for "full transparency" in the continuing corrosion and degradation of the reactor's drywell, the steel containment vessel that shields the public from radiation.

The discovery of more degraded wooden support beams in Vermont Yankee's cooling towers - this time in the reactor's only safety dedicated cell - raised questions Thursday about how thorough a special Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspection was this summer. Workers at the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant had to immediately replace five deteriorated major support columns in the one safety-related cell of the reactor's two cooling towers during the plant's recent refueling outage, according to the NRC. The degraded columns, which are about 40 feet tall, were discovered after Entergy Nuclear started its gradual overhaul of the two cooling towers, replacing the wood with fiberglass. The overhaul is expected to take a couple of years.

Federal nuclear investigators are examining a Salem County nuclear reactor to determine why it took eight hours for operators to determine they had drained 84 percent of the reactor's water coolant. PSEG shut down its Salem 1 reactor for a routine refueling outage earlier this month. On Oct. 15, operators there accidentally drew water coolent levels down to 16 percent, but thought they were at 80 percent, according to Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Neil Sheehan.

An initial report from Entergy Nuclear Vermont Yankee to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission indicated there were no signs of fatigue in structural welds in the power plant's steam dryer, wrote Neil Sheehan, spokesman for the NRC, in an e-mail to the Reformer. "As part of the Extended Power Uprate process, Entergy committed to the NRC to perform a detailed examination of the steam dryer in each of the three outages after attaining the uprated power level," wrote Sheehan. The steam dryer is a static device with no moving parts meant to extract water vapor from steam produced by the reactor before it is sent to the power turbine.

Vermont Yankee can operate reliably past 2012, concluded a panel appointed to review an audit of the nuclear power plant in Vernon. But its reliability, wrote the panel in a report issued Tuesday, can only be guaranteed if Entergy invests the resources needed to address recommendations made by the panel and the independent consultant that conducted the audit. Entergy must be committed to a high standard of reliable performance, it wrote, and a credible process trusted by the public must be put in place to verify the company is following through on its commitments. Nonetheless, wrote the panel, "VY has had a very good historical performance." In its 37 years of operation, Vermont Yankee has not had an outage lasting one year or longer, though nearly half of the boiling water reactors in the United States have.

The coating on a corroded radiation barrier at the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in Lacey should be fully inspected for failures during a fall 2010 refueling outage, according to a state official. Advertisement "It remains in the best interests of the residents of New Jersey that a robust and effective drywell inspection and water intrusion prevention program is implemented and maintained at Oyster Creek," according to a Feb. 6 letter from Jill Lipoti of the state Department of Environmental Protection to an Exelon Generation staffer. The corroded steel drywell envelopes Oyster Creek's nuclear reactor vessel. It is designed to prevent a radioactive release during an accident, protecting the public, and has an epoxy coating.

The top nuclear operator at Turkey Point resigned after a huge outage because he felt his bosses were demanding an unsafe restart. At 1:09 one afternoon last year, 90 metal rods slid into the cores of the two nuclear reactors at Turkey Point, part of an automatic shutdown that had been triggered by a utility worker's blunder moments earlier at a substation miles away. A million customers lost power. Florida Power & Light executives ordered that the reactors be back online within 12 hours, according to court documents. The plant's top nuclear operator, David Hoffman, said that would be dangerous. When FPL executives disagreed with him, he walked out at 8 p.m., refusing to participate in actions he felt were unsafe.

PG&E Corp plans to replace the reactor vessel heads at both reactors at the 2,240-megawatt Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in California during the next refueling outages, a company spokeswoman said Tuesday. PG&E plans to shut Diablo Unit 2 for refueling in the autumn of 2009 and Unit 1 during the autumn of 2010. The PG&E spokeswoman could not discuss the cost of the replacements or say how long the project would take. A usual refuel lasts about a month.

Areva Inc has announced a five-year deal that will see it become the comprehensive supplier of services and products for Progress Energy's four nuclear power plants. The deal will see Areva provide refuelling and outage services, replace and repair plant equipment, and provide engineering and maintenance support plus other technical services to Progress Energy's plants in North and South Carolina and Florida.

Areva, working in consortium with Korean engineering contractor Daelim Industrial, has secured a contract from Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power, South Korean nuclear power plants operator, to replace the six steam generators on the Ulchin 1 and 2 nuclear power plants during outages planned for 2011 and 2012. Areva as original equipment manufacturer will lead the consortium and perform the primary system and licensing operations in co-operation with Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) and Korea Power Engineering (KOPEC). Daelim will implement all the secondary and local activities associated with the project. Areva said that its resources, practices and technologies in France, Germany and the US will also be rolled out for the project.

Indian Point officials want to shuffle some of their used uranium fuels rods between nuclear reactors to create storage space, but federal regulators say they'll need to see a lot more details before they'll approve such a plan. Advertisement "This has not been done with any frequency in the United States," NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said. "So a lot of questions need to be answered. It is unusual and that's why it is going to take a great deal of study." A meeting is set at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Maryland headquarters today to go over details of the proposal, which hasn't officially been submitted, Sheehan said. Indian Point technically would be seeking a license amendment, which can take two years to complete and could involve public hearings, but the plant's owner, Entergy Nuclear, wants a fast-track version that would allow the move to be completed before a refueling outage in early 2011.