Reactor

A reactor at the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant has resumed operations after a planned refueling outage, owner Constellation Energy Nuclear Group announced Tuesday. In February, one reactor shut down after an electrical malfunction caused by melting snow on a leaky roof, triggering the other to shut down as well, a Constellation spokesman said at the time. One reactor returned to service March 1 after confirming there were no safety issues, but the second reactor was scheduled to be shut down for refueling.

One of two reactors at the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant in southern Maryland was shut down again Tuesday, the second unplanned outage in the past two weeks. Plant operators powered down Unit 2 manually around 5:30 a.m. after a pump that feeds water to a steam generator shut down because of high vibrations, according to Neil Sheehan, spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The cause of the pump's vibrations appears to be a failed mechanical coupling between the pump's motor and the pump, he said.

Operators of the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant in Southern Maryland have shut down one of the two reactors there because a control rod unexpectedly dropped into the reactor core, causing a reduction in power generation, a plant spokesman said Monday. The incident happened Sunday afternoon, prompting the plant's staff to shut the reactor down to find and fix the cause of the malfunction, according to Kory Raftery, spokesman for Constellation Energy Nuclear Group. Control rods are used in a reactor to limit the fission taking place among the reactor's enriched-uranium fuel rods.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission upheld a decision Monday preventing a French company from building a third reactor at the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant in southern Maryland, but it offered glimmers of hope for the project's proponents. The commissioners directed their staff "to review issues relating to foreign ownership" — the sticking point for the Calvert Cliffs proposal — and recommend whether changes to agency rules or practice are appropriate. The five-person commission would not overturn a decision by the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board that UniStar Nuclear Energy is ineligible for a new-reactor license because it is wholly owned by French energy group EDF. Federal law bans foreign ownership or control of nuclear plants.

UniStar Nuclear Energy has asked the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission to review the rejection of the French-controlled company's bid to build a third reactor at Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant. UniStar filed a petition Monday asking for a hearing before the five member commission on the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board's ruling that the company is ineligible for a reactor operating license because federal law bars foreign ownership of a nuclear plant. The licensing board on Aug. 30 gave the company 60 days to find a U.S. partner or its application would be shelved.

Joseph Cunniffe sees the proposed third nuclear reactor at Calvert Cliffs as a huge opportunity for his Sykesville-based firm GSE Systems, which develops simulation and training systems for the power-generation industry. So did more than 100 companies that gathered Thursday in Baltimore for an event drawing suppliers and vendors looking to do business with Areva, the world's largest reactor maker, which is designing and building the proposed third unit with construction company Bechtel.

Federal regulators plan a hearing Jan. 26 on a challenge to a French company's bid to build a third reactor at the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant, and will take public comments the day before. The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board will air contentions by four anti-nuclear groups that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has not adequately weighed alternatives to building the facility. The hearing begins at 9:30 a.m. in the Albright Building, 205 Main St. in Prince Frederick.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission upheld a decision Monday preventing a French company from building a third reactor at the Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant in southern Maryland, but it offered glimmers of hope for the project's proponents. The commissioners directed their staff "to review issues relating to foreign ownership" — the sticking point for the Calvert Cliffs proposal — and recommend whether changes to agency rules or practice are appropriate. The five-person commission would not overturn a decision by the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board that UniStar Nuclear Energy is ineligible for a new-reactor license because it is wholly owned by French energy group EDF. Federal law bans foreign ownership or control of nuclear plants.

One reactor at Constellation Energy's Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant automatically shut down Wednesday afternoon after a temporary problem distributing electricity to the grid, a company spokesman said. Calvert Cliffs I remains shut down as officials troubleshoot and investigate why that problem occurred at 1:51 p.m., said the spokesman, Dave Fitz. "Plant staff took appropriate action," he said. "The safety of Calvert Cliffs was never threatened from this activity." Staff reported the shutdown to the NRC within two hours, Fitz said.

Constellation Energy Group Inc. has filed the first partial application to build a new nuclear reactor in the United States in almost 30 years. Constellation filed an environmental report with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission that seeks permission to build a third reactor at its Calvert Cliffs site in Lusby, according to documents on the commission's Web site. "They're the first in the door with some part of a request to actually build a new reactor," Scott Burnell, spokesman for the commission, said yesterday.

The Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant shut down one of its reactors Tuesday after employees at the southern Maryland facility detected problems with a control rod. Operators took the plant's Unit 1 reactor offline around 8:30 a.m. to replace one of the electrical coils connected to a control rod and test all the other control rods, said Kory Raftery, a spokesman for Calvert Cliffs. The move came after monitoring of the reactor picked up "electrical noise" in that control rod, a sign that part of the connection might have gone bad, he said.

UniStar Nuclear Energy has asked the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission to review the rejection of the French-controlled company's bid to build a third reactor at Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant. UniStar filed a petition Monday asking for a hearing before the five member commission on the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board's ruling that the company is ineligible for a reactor operating license because federal law bars foreign ownership of a nuclear plant. The licensing board on Aug. 30 gave the company 60 days to find a U.S. partner or its application would be shelved.

Once promoted as the vanguard of a "nuclear renaissance," a proposed new reactor at the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant in Southern Maryland now faces a major new roadblock, with federal regulators threatening to shelve the troubled $9.6 billion project unless the French-controlled developer comes up with a U.S. partner in the next two months. The ruling Thursday by the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board was not unexpected, as the board's parent Nuclear Regulatory Commission had warned Unistar Nuclear Energy more than a year ago that it could not get a license for the Maryland reactor without a U.S. partner.

Federal regulators denied a license Thursday to the French-controlled company for a proposed third nuclear reactor at the Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant in Southern Maryland, giving the company 60 days to find a U.S. partner. At the end of those 60 days, the three judges of the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board wrote, they would be forced to terminate the company's application proceedings entirely. The decision follows warnings from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in April 2011 that UniStar Nuclear Energy, which is owned by Electricite de France, is not eligible to control the proposed $9.6 billion Calvert Cliffs 3 project under its current ownership structure.

A reactor at the Calvert Cliffs nuclear plant remained shut down this morning as officials assess the damage caused when a piece of debris tossed by heavy winds damaged a transformer. A spokesman said as of 8 a.m. this morning that “Unit 1 is safely off-line.” A second reactor was working fine at 100 percent power, said Mark Sullivan, the spokesman for the Constellation Energy Nuclear Group. “All employees are safe,” he added. Sullivan said Saturday night that officials believe the damage was caused by a large piece of aluminum that was torn loose from a building.