** A new reactor at a nuclear power plant in Georgia has reached its full power output for the first time and is scheduled to enter commercial operation within the next month. Georgia Power Co. announced Monday that Unit 3 at Plant Vogtle, southeast of Augusta, has reached its full output of 1,100 megawatts of electricity.
** Anti-pipeline activists gear up for another push against the Mountain Valley Pipeline now that the White House has essentially endorsed it.
** The U.S. is pushing back on China’s ban on memory chips from Micron Technology, which was announced last week and based on vague national security concerns. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo spoke Saturday at a news conference following a multinational trade meeting on the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework and said the U.S. government “firmly opposes” China’s ban on Micron and “won’t tolerate” the restrictions.
** Part of a wind turbine at a Massachusetts water treatment plant breaks and flies through the air, leading to an emergency response but no injuries.
World
** European natural gas fluctuated near the lowest level in two years as traders assessed the impact on demand from record German solar output while new outages were announced at a Norwegian facility.
** The world’s largest solar manufacturer slashed prices for a key component as growing capacity in the sector intensifies cost competition. Chinese company Longi Green Energy Technology Co. cut wafer prices by as much as 31% on Monday. Wafers are silicon squares that are wired up and pieced together to form solar panels.
** Coal cargoes unwanted in Europe are heading to Asia, where utilities are stockpiling the fuel amid sweltering temperatures heading into the summer.
** The European Union stripped out explicit references to China as a non-market economy in its joint trade strategy with the US. In a negotiation that highlighted lingering hesitations over Washington’s more confrontational approach to China, EU nations agreed on a watered-down text of joint conclusions from a meeting of EU-US Trade and Technology Council in northern Sweden that starts Tuesday, according to people familiar with the matter.