Nuclear Energy Industry Transitions

President Bush has sent five nominations to the Senate for new positions on the Tennessee Valley Authority board of directors. The nominees include:

• Dennis Bottorff, chairman of Council Ventures and Council Capital Management
• Robert Mike Duncan, chairman and CEO of Community Holding Co. and Community Thrift Holding Co.
• William Sansom, chairman and CEO of H.T. Hackney Co.
• Hward Thrailkill, former president of Adtran
• Susan Richardson Williams, owner of Susan Williams Public Affairs

Peter Oleksiak will replace Daniel Brudzynski as controller at DTE Energy. Brudzynski will in turn become vice president of Regulatory Affairs. Oleksiak has been with DTE Energy since 1998, most recently as assistant controller. Brudzynski joined the company in 1997. He has been controller since 1999 and vice president since 2001.

ComEd has announced that, effective immediately, a new five-member board of directors has been elected for the company. The five directors are:

• Frank Clark, chairman and chief executive officer of ComEd
• Sue Ling Gin, founder, owner, chairman and CEO of Flying Food Group LLC• Edgar Jannotta, chairman of William Blair & Co. LLC • John Rogers Jr., chairman and CEO of Ariel Capital Management
• Richard Thomas, retired chairman of First Chicago NBD

ComEd’s previous board members were Barry Mitchell, Gary Snodgrass, John Rowe and John (Jack) Skolds.

In addition, the company announced the appointment of a new slate of ComEd officers:

• Darryl Bradford, vice president and general counsel
• Frank Clark, chairman and CEO
• John Costello, executive vice president and chief operating officer
• John Hooker, senior vice president of government affairs
• Bob McDonald, senior vide president and chief financial officer
• Barry Mitchell, president
• Anne Pramaggiore, senior vice president of regulatory affair

Duke Energy and Cinergy Corp. have proposed a top executive team for the new company that will result from their merger. The following appointments will be subject to the approval of the new company’s board of directors:

• Paul Anderson, Duke Energy’s chairman of the board and CEO, will be the new company’s chairman of the board.
• Paul Barry, currently vice president of mergers and acquisitions for Duke Energy, will lead Duke Energy Americas.
• Julie Dill, vice president of shareholder and investor relations for Duke Energy, will lead investor relations and corporate communications.
• Fred Fowler, now president of Duke Energy, will be CEO of the new company’s gas businesses, Duke Energy Gas Transmission and Duke Energy Field Services.
• Lynn Good, Cinergy’s executive vice president and chief financial officer, will be the new company’s treasurer.
• David Hauser, current group vice president and chief financial officer for Duke Energy, will continue in that role for the new company.
• Marc Manly, Cinergy’s executive vice president and chief legal officer, will continue to lead the new company’s legal group.
• Jim Mogg, current group vice president and chief development officer, will become adviser to the chairman.
• Thomas O’Connor, Duke Energy’s group vice president for corporate strategy, will head U.S. franchised electric and gas operations for the new company.
• James Rogers, Cinergy chairman and CEO, will be president and CEO.
• Christopher Rolfe, current vice president of human resources for Duke Energy, will continue in that capacity.
• Ruth Shaw, Duke Power’s current president and CEO, will provide executive leadership for nuclear strategy and operations, environmental policy and other public policy issues.
• B. Keith Trent, current group vice president, general counsel and secretary for Duke Energy, will lead corporate development.
• James Turner, Cinergy president, will lead U.S. franchised electric and gas commercial functions.
• Steven Young, current vice president and controller at Duke Energy, will be the new company’s controller.

Technorati tags: Nuclear Energy, Environment, Energy, Politics, Technology, Economics

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

NEI Nuclear Notes

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