Skip to main content

Nuclear Energy Industry Transitions

Image
By Janice
President Bush announced his intention to nominate Philip Moeller and Jon Wellinghoff to be members of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Each would serve the remainder of five-year terms, expiring in 2010 and 2008, respectively. Moeller is executive director of the Washington office of Alliant Energy Corp. Wellinghoff is a partner at Beckley Singleton.

The Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO) elected Lewis Hay III as chairman of its board of directors. Hay is chairman and CEO of FPL Group Inc. INPO also elected David Ratcliffe as the board’s vice chairman. Ratcliffe is chairman, president and CEO of Southern Co. INPO re-elected the other members of its board for 2006.

Kirk Schnoebelen has been elected president of Urenco Inc., effective immediately. He succeeds Charles Pryor, who continues to serve as non-executive director and president and CEO of Urenco Investments Inc.

UniStar Nuclear, the joint venture between Constellation Energy and AREVA Inc., has announced the members of its advisory board. Membership includes:
• Richard Meserve, Ph.D., president of the Carnegie Institution and former chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
• General John Gordon (U.S. Air Force, Ret.), former assistant to the president and homeland security adviser under president George W. Bush. He also was the deputy national security adviser for counter terrorism and the national director for counter terrorism. Gordon was undersecretary of energy and the first administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration.
• James Asselstine, a managing director of Lehman Brothers and former NRC commissioner.
• Kyle McSlarrow, president and CEO of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association and former deputy secretary of energy. He also served on President George W. Bush's Management Council and as the American co-chair of the U.S.-Russia Energy Working Group.
• Neil Todreas, Ph.D., a professor of nuclear science and engineering and mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

AREVA has appointed Jean-Pol Poncelet adviser to the chairman of the executive board. He also is vice president of new energies policy in the international affairs and marketing department.

The United Kingdom’s Nuclear Decommissioning Authority has appointed Mark Leggett its new commercial director, effective March 13. Previously, Leggett was managing director of Aker Kvaerner’s Engineering Services business.

Technorati tags: , , , , , ,

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Activists' Claims Distort Facts about Advanced Reactor Design

By
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...
23 comments
Read more

What Happens During a Refueling Outage?

By
You may have noticed over the past few weeks that a number of nuclear plants are shut down for refueling outages or are resuming operations after just returning from one. This type of routine outage usually occurs in the spring or fall when electricity demand is low so that nuclear reactors can replace about one-third of the spent fuel rods with new fuel and conduct other routine maintenance and repairs at the plant. To get a better sense of how refueling works at a nuclear energy facility, I spoke with Marcus Nichol, NEI’s senior project manager for used fuel storage and transportation, and asked him to explain the basics. Why does a nuclear plant need to replace one-third of its fuel? Nichol: The main purpose of a refueling outage is to replace older fuel that is depleted—meaning it can no longer efficiently produce energy from nuclear fission reactions—with new fuel. This “used fuel” has typically been used in the reactor for four-and-a-half to six years before it is pe...
6 comments
Read more

Nuclear Utility Moves Up in Credit Ratings, Bank is "Comfortable with Nuclear Strategy"

By
Some positive signs that nuclear utilities can continue to receive positive ratings even while they finance new nuclear plants for the first time in decades: Wells Fargo upgrades SCANA to Outperform from Market Perform Wells analyst says, "YTD, SCG shares have underperformed the Regulated Electrics (total return +2% vs. +9%). Shares trade at 11.3X our 10E EPS, a modest discount to the peer group median of 11.8X. We view the valuation as attractive given a comparatively constructive regulatory environment and potential for above-average long-term EPS growth prospects ... Comfortable with Nuclear Strategy. SCG plans to participate in the development of two regulated nuclear units at a cost of $6.3B, raising legitimate concerns regarding financing and construction. We have carefully considered the risks and are comfortable with SCG’s strategy based on a highly constructive political & regulatory environment, manageable financing needs stretched out over 10 years, strong partners...
Post a Comment
Read more