Nuclear Energy Industry Transitions

TXU Corp. last week announced several leadership changes. Mike Childers is the new CEO of Generation Development. Chief Financial Officer Kirk Oliver and General Counsel Eric Peterson will be leaving TXU Corp. David Campbell, executive vice president of corporate planning, strategy and risk, will temporarily assume Oliver’s responsibilities. David Poole will be the company’s new general counsel and executive vice president of legal.

The Shaw Group has hired Dave Barry as president of the Shaw Stone & Webster Nuclear Services division. Barry joins Shaw from Bechtel, where he had been for six years, most recently as operations manager for fossil power projects.

PG&E Corp. has elected Richard Rollo as vice president of strategic development and business integration, effective March 29. Rollo joins PG&E from Health Net Inc., where he was vice president of corporate development and M&A.

Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD) has named Traci Bender its vice president of finance, risk management and rates, and its chief financial officer, effective immediately. Bender has been with NPPD since 1990, most recently in the position of corporate planning and risk manager. She succeeds Ron Asche, who was named NPPD’s president and CEO in February.

Bernard Estève has been appointed executive president of AREVA North America, effective April 1. Xavier Jacob will replace Estève as senior executive vice president of AREVA NP, Plants Sector. AREVA Inc. also appointed Philippe Hatron chief financial officer.

David Oatley, vice president and general manager of the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant, retired from Pacific Gas and Electric Co. March 13.

David McCarthy will be the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s new chief energy counsel, effective next month. He will succeed the departing Mark Menezes. McCarthy’s previously served as deputy commissioner of U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, overseeing the bureau’s implementation of the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

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

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Fluor Invests in NuScale

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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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