Müller: Ban on German Reactor Construction to be Reversed

From the World Nuclear Association weekly news summary:

Werner Müller, the former utility executive who as economy minister negotiated a national nuclear energy phase-out with nuclear power generators, predicted this week that the deal, as well as a 2001 legislative ban on new reactor construction, would be reversed for energy security and climate policy reasons . . .

He revealed his thinking in an interview in the Handelsblatt newspaper on 28 February. Müller said, ‘in 50 years we will certainly no longer be burning oil, and the heyday of gas-fired power plants will probably also be over. And if we take (the issue of) carbon dioxide avoidance seriously, and there are no brand-new energy sources which fall to Earth from heaven, then at some point we are going to end up with nuclear power, and the Greens will spearhead the movement’ in favour of nuclear energy. ‘

As we've noted before, there are a number of environmentalists who are already on board.

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Fluor Invests in NuScale

You know, it’s kind of sad that no one is willing to invest in nuclear energy anymore. Wait, what? NuScale Power celebrated the news of its company-saving $30 million investment from Fluor Corp. Thursday morning with a press conference in Washington, D.C. Fluor is a design, engineering and construction company involved with some 20 plants in the 70s and 80s, but it has not held interest in a nuclear energy company until now. Fluor, which has deep roots in the nuclear industry, is betting big on small-scale nuclear energy with its NuScale investment. "It's become a serious contender in the last decade or so," John Hopkins, [Fluor’s group president in charge of new ventures], said. And that brings us to NuScale, which had run into some dark days – maybe not as dark as, say, Solyndra, but dire enough : Earlier this year, the Securities Exchange Commission filed an action against NuScale's lead investor, The Michael Kenwood Group. The firm "misap

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Wednesday Update

From NEI’s Japan micro-site: NRC, Industry Concur on Many Post-Fukushima Actions Industry/Regulatory/Political Issues • There is a “great deal of alignment” between the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the industry on initial steps to take at America’s nuclear energy facilities in response to the nuclear accident in Japan, Charles Pardee, the chief operating officer of Exelon Generation Co., said at an agency briefing today. The briefing gave stakeholders an opportunity to discuss staff recommendations for near-term actions the agency may take at U.S. facilities. PowerPoint slides from the meeting are on the NRC website. • The International Atomic Energy Agency board has approved a plan that calls for inspectors to evaluate reactor safety at nuclear energy facilities every three years. Governments may opt out of having their country’s facilities inspected. Also approved were plans to maintain a rapid response team of experts ready to assist facility operators recoverin

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