News Nuclear Business While the new nuclear build may grab the headlines—just look at our cover photo this month and our Nuclear World story about Westinghouse in China—maintenance and repairs represent a great business and technological opportunity. Clarion Energy Content Directors 12.1.2009 Share Nancy Spring, Editor While the new nuclear build may grab the headlines—just look at our cover photo this month and our Nuclear World story about Westinghouse in China—maintenance and repairs represent a great business and technological opportunity. In North America alone, there are 124 aging nuclear reactors. Nuclear plant operators are busy uprating, upgrading and extending their units’ operating license lives—good news for electric customers and businesses that can tap into the market. When the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission renewed the operating licences of FirstEnergy’s Beaver Valley Units 1 & 2 for another 20 years, moving their expiration dates out to 2036 and 2047 respectively, that brought the total number of U.S. reactors with license renewals to 57 out of 104. “Most of these reactors were put into service prior to 1980 so they are getting old,” said Richard Reimels, president of The Babcock & Wilcox Company Nuclear Power Generator Group during our interview for this month’s Fuel for Thought. “One of our key focuses is to keep them running. Like an old car or an old house, they need a lot of repairs and maintenance.” Replacing steam generators is one of the most common projects at the aging plants. The new steam generators have been redesigned to incorporate stronger materials such as Alloy 690. Reimels said units built with the 690 material have been running about 15 years with no signs of stress corrosion cracking so far. The Davis-Besse plant in Ohio has just ordered steam generator replacements from B&W and Progress Energy’s Crystal River received two units in October, but most of the reactors in North America have already completed their steam generator replacement. On the Canadian side, B&W is building replacement steam generators for Bruce Station and that will probably take care of replacements north of the border as well. Uprating a nuclear plant is also a good value proposition. Because power from the older reactors is fairly low-cost, completing a 100-MW uprate at an existing nuclear power plant is less expensive than building a 100 MW natural gas plant or any other kind of generation. At the NUCLEAR POWER International conference this year, many of our sessions are about the business of nuclear power. (See Conference at a Glance below.) Clearly, there are opportunities on both sides of the equation, old plants and new. To paraphrase the president and CEO of Southern Nuclear Operating Co., Jim Miller, if you’re looking for a stimulus package, all you’ve got to do is look at nuclear power. Click here to enlarge image More Nuclear Power International Issue Articles Nuclear Power International Issue Archives View Power Generation Articles on PennEnergy.com Related Articles Babcock & Wilcox receives $246 million contract for coal-to-gas project Michigan regulators reject Consumers Energy proposal to exit biomass plant PPAs early Navigating the transition: Insights from Siemens Energy North America President Rich Voorberg Hydropower investment opportunities in U.S. remain untapped, per NREL report
