Industry News

 The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff has issued its Safety Evaluation Report with open items for the license renewal application for the 908 MW Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station in Oak Harbor, OH. The four open items are: management of shield building cracks during the period of extended operation, operating experience review prior to entering the period of extended operation, time-limited aging analysis of reactor vessel neutron embrittlement and pressure-temperature limits. The results show that plant owner FirstEnergy Nuclear Operation Co.

Xcel Energy said operators returned the 600 MW Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant near Monticello, Minn., and the Prairie Island Nuclear Generating Plant Unit 1, to full power August 20 after shutting them down the week prior. The Monticello plant was returned to full power after workers repaired a gasket on a pipe flange.

The Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago announced a deepwater competitive bid round for six offshore blocks in the East Coast Marine Area and Trinidad and Tobago Deep Atlantic Area earlier this year.

Wison Offshore & Marine Ltd. And BPZ Energy have announced that the world's first buoyant tower drilling and production platform is en route to Corvina field offshore Peru.

Following more than a year of development, STARS Alliance LLC has achieved legal identity after the chief nuclear officers of seven US plants added their signatures to official paperwork.

Babcock & Wilcox Co.'s test facility for its new class of mini nuclear reactors is fully operational. The Integrated System Text facility in Bedford County, Virginia will test the mPower modular reactor's design and performance by simulating energy generated by a nuclear core through heating the reactor electrically.

El Salvador's El Esplendor Development Corp and Israel's SDE Wave Power Plants company have formed an alliance to execute Wave Power Technology in California and El Salvador.   SDE is a leader in planning, building and marketing power stations that produce power from ocean waves.

   Chicago Bridge & Iron has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Shaw Group. Shaw Group is a Fortune 500 company, primarily servicing customers in the power generation and the government services sector.

As part of a Department of Energy (DOE) initiative to help restart the United States' nuclear industry, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has been awarded almost USD$1 million. To help improve reactor safety, performance and cost competitiveness and to help solve challenges in the nuclear industry, DOE awarded USD$10.

Canada’s Talisman Energy has hit gas in the final well of a three well campaign on the Szczawno concession in Poland’s Baltic basin.