Skip to main content

The NEI Afternoon Clip File

Here are some of the news clips we're reading at NEI this afternoon. Oil prices briefly rocketed to an all-time high of $67.10 before easing to $66.70 - which is still 95 cents higher than yesterday's record.

Ontario Power Generation is canceling plans to refurbish two nuclear generating units that have been "mothballed" since 1997, saying there is no "sound business case" for returning them to service. However, OPG says it will spend the money it saves on this project on other nuclear generating projects.
President and CEO Jim Hankinson was quick to assert the decision does not reflect a diminishing role for nuclear power in Ontario.

"The decision on Units 2 and 3 should not be seen as a lack of confidence in nuclear power," Mr. Hankinson said in a statement. "OPG continues to believe strongly that nuclear power remains an important element of the province's electricity generation mix. Nuclear fuel costs are stable and nuclear reactors do not contribute to smog or global warming."

Instead, OPG will proceed with re-furbishing Units 1 and 4 at Pickering and will study the case for extending the life of the Pickering B station as well as Darlington.
Come back Monday morning for more news from the NEI Clip File.

Technorati tags: , , , , ,

Comments

DV8 2XL said…
Short odds that a "sound business case" shows up soon after the re-furbishing Units 1 and 4 near the end.
Jeff Faria said…
Is Canada generally less "allergic" to nuclear than we are in the US? What about Mexico?
Engineer-Poet said…
Note to the administrators:  if you allow spam comments like #4 to remain, you will attract even more spam.

Popular posts from this blog

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

An Ohio School Board Is Working to Save Nuclear Plants

Ohio faces a decision soon about its two nuclear reactors, Davis-Besse and Perry, and on Wednesday, neighbors of one of those plants issued a cry for help. The reactors’ problem is that the price of electricity they sell on the high-voltage grid is depressed, mostly because of a surplus of natural gas. And the reactors do not get any revenue for the other benefits they provide. Some of those benefits are regional – emissions-free electricity, reliability with months of fuel on-site, and diversity in case of problems or price spikes with gas or coal, state and federal payroll taxes, and national economic stimulus as the plants buy fuel, supplies and services. Some of the benefits are highly localized, including employment and property taxes. One locality is already feeling the pinch: Oak Harbor on Lake Erie, home to Davis-Besse. The town has a middle school in a building that is 106 years old, and an elementary school from the 1950s, and on May 2 was scheduled to have a referendu

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