Nuclear Energy Industry Transitions

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards has re-elected Graham Wallis as chairman, William Shack as vice chairman and John Sieber as member-at-large.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has appointed Jeanne Lopatto to the newly created position of special assistant for federal and international programs. Lopatto previously served as director of public affairs for the Department of Energy.

Donald Miller, vice president of Urenco Inc., left the company on Jan. 20. He had been with Urenco since 1985.

Constellation Energy’s subsidiary, Constellation NewEnergy, has named Terry Harvill vice president of regional regulatory and government affairs (Michigan and Ohio). Harvill joins Constellation NewEnergy from DTE Energy Co., where he was director of regulatory policy and operations. Harvill also served as a commissioner of the Illinois Commerce Commission.

Robert Eby will lead USEC Inc.’s American Centrifuge engineering and manufacturing operations in Oak Ridge, Tenn.

Philippe Garderet is the new scientific vice president of AREVA. He will head the ITER project for the company. Alain Bucaille has filled Garderet’s former position as senior vice president, research and innovation.

The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) has announced that Hank Courtright will serve as vice president of the environment and energy analysis sector. He previously served as vice president of the generation sector. Chris Larsen will replace him in that role. Larsen previously was managing director of EPRI International Inc.

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

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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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