After a 34-year hiatus following the Three Mile Island incident, the USA is restarting construction of nuclear power facilities, reported constructiondigital. Despite growing public worry over the safety and long-term consequences of nuclear power, the United States is set to resume construction of reactors after more than three decades of a building freeze that followed the incident at Three Mile Island in March of 1979. The Three Mile Island accident involved a core meltdown in Unit 2 of the nuclear generating station in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania. Nearly 40 thousand gallons of radioactive material was released into the nearby Susquehanna River, resulting in a nearly US$ 1 billion cleanup effort. Though the incident failed to derail the nuclear power industry in the United States, a moratorium was issued on construction of new nuclear facilities. The four reactors currently slated for building - two in Georgia and two in South Carolina - will be the first since the accident. The AP1000 1,100 megawatt reactors are expected to be operational by 2016, using turbine equipment provided by the Toshiba Corporation. When completed, the reactors will bring the United States' total number to 108. More than 26 reactors are under review by the USA Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The recent problems at Japan's Fukushima plant have again thrust the issue of nuclear power into the public spotlight. With the end of the moratorium on USA facilities, though, plans to expand the nation's capacity will break ground all over the country. While a possible boon to a contracting construction industry, the expansion of American reactors has many concerned about the long-term tradeoffs of nuclear energy. The Three Mile Island accident was a core meltdown in Unit 2 of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania near Harrisburg, United States in 1979. Before the Chernobyl accident, which happened seven years later, the Three Mile Island accident was considered the largest in the history of world nuclear power and is still considered the worst nuclear accident in the USA, in its course was severely damaged reactor core, part of the fuel melted.

Work on the world's largest solar bridge formally begins, as the first of more than 4.400 solar panels are installed above the new "Blackfriars" station platform, reported The Guardian. When complete in 2012, the "Victorian" bridge will play host to some 6 thousand square meters of photovoltaic (PV) panels, making it London's largest solar array. The historic London site is undergoing a multi-million pound refit, which includes extending the platform along "Blackfriars Bridge", a structure built in 1886. "Solarcentury", the UK company, managing the installation, expects the panels to generate around 900,000kWh of electricity a year, providing half of the station's energy and reducing annual CO2 emissions by an estimated 511 tons. "Station buildings and bridges are fixed parts of our urban landscape and it is great to see that this one will be generating renewable energy every day into the future. For people to see that solar power is working is a vital step towards a clean energy future," said "Solarcentury" chief executive Derry Newman in a statement. Other energy saving measures, such as rain harvesting systems and sun pipes for natural lighting, are also being fitted at "Blackfriars", as part of Network Rail's plans to reduce carbon emissions by 25 percent per passenger kilometer by 2020. One other solar bridge is known to exist, "The Kurilpa" footbridge in Brisbane, Australia, although 16 thousand solar panels were laid on the top of a train tunnel in Belgium earlier this year.

As reported by press-center of Armenian government five small automated hydropower systems will be constructed in Kotayk region by Hov-Khache LTD. The company in 2010 constructed and put into operation Yotnaxbyur-Garni free-flow water line, which supplies with drinking and irrigation water Garni, Gheghard, Goght, Hatsavan, Geghadir and Vokchaberd villages. According to Hov-Khache agreement with the government, it will be allowed to make a deferred payment of VAT upon the import of turbine-generators till September 2014. The cascade of small hydropower systems is planned to put into operation in 2012.

Last week California's Governor Jerry Brown was joined by U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar for the ground breaking ceremony of the world's largest solar thermal facility near Blythe, California, reported constructiondigital.com. Once construction is completed, the site will feature four solar thermal power plants with a total generating capacity of 1,000 megawatts of electricity. This would be enough energy to power 800,000 (corrected by construction.am according to the US Energy Department data) American homes using a clean, domestic source of fuel. Blythe Solar will cover about 7,025 acres of land. Governor Brown praised the solar power plant as a key step toward his goal of building a green economy of the future in California."We're going to be the world leader in solar energy," Brown said during the groundbreaking ceremony. Preparations for the facility have been underway since 2010, with early work already being done on the first two solar power plants that will be able to generate 242 megawatts of electricity. The first two plants are expected to be operational and connected to California's power grid by 2014. In April the Blythe solar project received a loan guarantee of $2.1 billion from the US Federal Financing Bank. The total projected cost of the project is expected to reach about $2.8 billion. The facility is being built by the Solar Trust of America and the Solar Millennium Group, two of the world's top producers of solar thermal technology. The Solar Millennium Group built the first operational parabolic trough power plants in Europe. Parabolic trough is the only type of solar technology that has been proven since the 1980s to be able to produce enough electricity for commercial use in large power plants.

The history of construction of two hydro-power plants on the Arax (Araz) River lasted nearly 10 years, with estimated in 2001 construction cost about US$60-80million. After signing on March 19, 2007 the interstate agreement between Armenia and Iran, the Armenian Energy Minister Armen Movsisyan announced the construction of 2 power plants with capacity of 140 megawatts each, with estimated construction cost about US$140million and construction start in 2008. And finally, according to the latest announcement of Minister, the construction of two 130 megawatts power stations will start in early 2011 with estimated cost US$323million... A distinctive feature of the License Agreement between two countries is that the Armenian side does not finance and build these power stations, and everything is done by the Iranian side. The Armenian part of the station, which is called Meghri HPP must be given to Armenia without indemnity after 20 years, which include 5-year construction period and 15-year exploitation and payback period through the sale of electricity to Iran. Construction will be implemented by the Iranian company Farad-Sepasad, which will solve on its own all the financial and organization problems concerning the construction and the exploitation of Meghri HPP. Meghri HPP energy output is planned to be about 800 million kWh/year, and it must be founded jointly that at the transmission time the electromechanical and hydro mechanical devices have resources for the 10-year effective operation, and the tunnel (18.2km) and engineering structures have resources for 30 years. Along with the construction of hydroelectric power stations, parties are going to start building of a new additional third high-voltage (400kV) transmission line which will increase the power transmission between the two countries to 1000MVt. The construction of this third high-voltage line and "Noravan" substation will cost about € 108 million and will be implemented during 18 months. The length of the transmission line in Armenia is approximately 275 kilometres (from the border of Iran to "Noravan" substation- 80 kilometres, from "Noravan" substation to Hrazdan fifth energy block - 195 kilometres) and 163 kilometres in Iran.