The Omaha Public Power District has notified the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that it will permanently shut down its Fort Calhoun reactor on Oct. 24. The OPPD board unanimously approved a recommended shutdown in June, but officials had not provided a date for when the plant would stop operating, only saying it would by the end of the year.

With the shutdown date set, the plant’s decommissioning will kick into gear. That includes the removal and transfer of nuclear fuel from the reactor into the spent fuel pool, where fuel rods will be placed for about 18 months while they cool to a level that permits transfer into longer-term storage.

The decommissioning process could take up to 60 years and will cost OPPD as much as $1.5 billion. The 43-year-old, 478-MW Fort Calhoun is the smallest nuclear plant in the country, which made it financially untenable to continue operating.

More: Omaha World-Herald

Firm Lands DOE Grant for Flameless Combustion Plant

Southwest Research Institute has received a $3.28 million grant from the Energy Department to develop a project that could eliminate smokestacks and reduce emissions from coal-fired power plants.

The project is described as a “flameless pressurized oxy-combustion plant” by Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), who announced the grant. The organization also received nearly $900,000 in private industry support for the research.

SwRI, a research and development nonprofit, said the smoke produced from burning coal will be purified in a process that captures carbon dioxide and results in zero emissions. The captured CO₂ will be kept out of the atmosphere by injecting it underground.

More: San Antonio Business Journal

DOE Estimates $1.2B to Retrofit Colstrip Plant

Energy Department representatives said that retrofitting the Colstrip coal-fired power plant in Montana to reduce greenhouse gas emissions would cost at least $1.2 billion, but that price tag could be partially offset by selling captured carbon dioxide for use in oil fields. Colstrip emitted about 16.5 million tons of CO₂ in 2014, two-thirds of the state’s total, according to EPA.

The department presented its analysis of reducing emissions from the Colstrip plant at the request of Montana Gov. Steve Bullock. A Democrat up for re-election in November, Bullock has faced a barrage of Republican criticism for not doing enough to protect the aging plant.

“We need to be saying, what can we do to find solutions?” Bullock said to utility and mining executives gathered at the governor’s office in Helena to hear the Energy Department’s findings. “Those discussions only become more urgent given recent developments at Colstrip.”

More: The Associated Press

FERC Approves Dominion Pipeline Expansion in Md., Va.

FERC has approved an expansion of one of Dominion Transmission’s natural gas pipelines necessary to serve new generating stations in Maryland and in Virginia. Dominion filed to expand the Leidy South Project in May 2015.

The project involves adding compressor stations and other equipment to the pipeline, which crosses Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia. Ultimately, it will allow natural gas to be carried to the Panda Stonewall generating station planned for Loudoun County, Va., and the Mattawoman Energy project in Prince George’s County, Md.

Dominion estimates the expansion will cost $209 million.

More: GenerationHub

NRC Cites FirstEnergy for Inaccurate Medical Info

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission cited FirstEnergy for failing to provide accurate medical information after a nuclear operator at the company’s Davis-Besse plant lied about taking his prescribed medication.

The commission found that the operator, who resigned before the investigation began, failed to notify the plant when he stopped taking medicine for diabetes and high blood pressure. As a result, the commission said, the company unknowingly provided it with inaccurate information.

A FirstEnergy spokesperson said the operator’s failure to take his medication did not impact the plant’s operations. The company has agreed to modify its fitness-for-duty procedures as a result of the incident.

More: The Blade

TVA’s Watts Bar 2 Offline After Transformer Fire

A main transformer fault at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s new Watts Bar 2 nuclear station caused a transformer oil fire and tripped the reactor last week. The incident occurred during testing of the unit before it goes into commercial operation.

TVA had achieved 99% of maximum output during the test before the fire broke out. It completed construction of the plant this year.

The fire was extinguished and there were no injuries. TVA said it is completing a full examination of the incident and the plant before resuming the testing. It said it didn’t know when it would go back online.

More: POWER Magazine