From the NEI Clip File

Here are some news clips we're reading today at NEI. Science and technology Web site RedNova is asking its readers if they are "Ready for a Nuclear Comeback?":

Ray Ganthner sells new nuclear power plants.

His industry has had a rough couple of decades, he acknowledges. But one recent development is making his job easier. His company, Maryland-based Framatome ANP, designed the $3 billion-plus nuclear plant going up in Finland, the first built in Western Europe in more than a decade.

"I point out we're the only company building one," said Ganthner, a senior vice president for the firm, which has a 500-employee office in University City.

Ganthner and his team of engineers are hoping the European plant helps to spur a renaissance of nuclear plant construction across the United States and in the Carolinas.

The team for Framatome is working to translate the Finland design into U.S. specifications, to get it approved by U.S. regulators. They're trying to convince U.S. utilities to become the first to order a new reactor since the '70s.

The question is: Are Carolinians and Americans ready for it?

I'm sure you can guess what our answer is. Also at RedNova, there's some news on the uranium front in South Carolina:

Hydrogen fuel research in South Carolina will get another major international player today when the University of South Carolina signs its second partnership in its Next Energy initiative with Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems of Freiburg, Germany.

USC hopes to show "measurable" results from the partnership in the coming academic year, said Tony Boccanfuso, USC's director of research and economic development. He said USC hopes the partnership will grow to include Fraunhofer ISE as a resident on the new Columbia research campus being developed around Assembly Street.

Boccanfuso said Fraunhofer is one of the world's leading research groups focusing on the commercialization of new energy technologies. He said commercialization is a top priority for both USC and Fraunhofer.

And finally, in Australia, the debate about a future with nuclear energy continues, this time around uranium enrichment:

Uranium explorer Hindmarsh Resources' chief Kate Hobbs said the Federal Government was content for Australia to be involved in mining and exporting uranium.

Enriching uranium would give Australia greater control over its end use, she said, while also adding value to the resource.
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"Australia has probably got one of the most responsible statutory environments and I think we need to carefully look at if we were to take part in the enrichment of it, we might have a greater influence over its eventual use," Ms Hobbs said.

"I think that we should responsibly be looking at . . . the whole train from exploration, through mining, through enrichment, through using it as a power source and disposal, which we are ideally fitted to do."

Check back every day for new content from the NEI Clip File.

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