Nuclear Reactors Make Elle Magazine's Top 25 List

Joining entries such as Martha Stewart and the Supreme Court, No. 14 on the Elle 25 - Elle Magazine's annual list of the top 25 "hot and happening" people and things - is none other than "Nukes! Hot Reactors":

1979 was a tough year for nuclear power—remember Three-Mile Island and The China Syndrome? In fact, it pretty much stopped the atomic clock for a generation — but that's about to end. In the spring, the head of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission began mumbling about the need for 100 new reactors, an energy consortium quietly nominated six candidate sites for two new nuclear plants, and President Bush speechified at one of those sites for the urgent revival of nuclear power.

Next month the two winners will be named (several of the nearby towns are actively campaigning to be selected), but the renuking debate is already being joined in earnest. The pro-nuke line: If you're serious about global warming, you've got to go radioactive because fossil fuels are like a car engine running in a garage—a consideration that has already won over such eco-minded notables as Greenpeace cofounder Patrick Moore, Stewart Brand of Whole Earth Catalog fame, and Gaia hypothesist James Lovelock.

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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...

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...

Activists' Claims Distort Facts about Advanced Reactor Design

Below is from our rapid response team . Yesterday, regional anti-nuclear organizations asked federal nuclear energy regulators to launch an investigation into what it claims are “newly identified flaws” in Westinghouse’s advanced reactor design, the AP1000. During a teleconference releasing a report on the subject, participants urged the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to suspend license reviews of proposed AP1000 reactors. In its news release, even the groups making these allegations provide conflicting information on its findings. In one instance, the groups cite “dozens of corrosion holes” at reactor vessels and in another says that eight holes have been documented. In all cases, there is another containment mechanism that would provide a barrier to radiation release. Below, we examine why these claims are unwarranted and why the AP1000 design certification process should continue as designated by the NRC. Myth: In the AP1000 reactor design, the gap between the shield bu...

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