Skip to main content

Industry Leaders State the Facts

By
Poised on the brink of the largest capital investment program in its history, nuclear energy industry leaders this morning opened their 55th annual conference with pledges to face facts squarely and appraise the challenges and opportunities honestly as nuclear power energizes a low-carbon future.

Skip Bowman, president and CEO of the Nuclear Energy Institute, told nearly 500 industry executives gathered in Chicago for the Nuclear Energy Assembly that a factual presentation and reasoned approach would make the nuclear resurgence a reality. He marshaled several facts to make his point:
  • One million megawatts of electricity-generating capacity powers America’s grid, but 45 percent of that infrastructure is more than 30 years old. Meanwhile, the nation has deferred investment in new, more efficient baseload plants, including new reactors.
  • The 2005 Energy Policy Act’s loan guarantee program is a “very small step” in the right direction, but insufficient to rebuild electric power infrastructure.
  • The nation and world are seeking clean-air energy sources, like nuclear, to address climate change.
  • Electricity demand will increase by 25 percent by 2030, according to government officials.
“There is no credible strategy to address the conundrum of climate change and increasing electricity demand unless nuclear power is part of the portfolio,” Bowman said.

John Rowe, president, CEO and chairman of Exelon Corp., called for a “hardheaded approach” to what is needed to bring about nuclear’s resurgence.

He detailed the industry’s “steady progress,” including the filing of nine construction and operating license applications with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for 15 new reactors in the United States, a drumbeat of announcements about companies ordering long-lead components, and state policymaker support for new-reactor construction.

“There is a growing need for baseload generation and a need to find ways to address the climate challenge,” Rowe said.

“Each of the three candidates for president has taken a clear position on the need for action on climate change,” he noted. “We can only hope that will translate into realistic support for new nuclear generation.”

Rowe added, “It is simply not possible for rational policymakers to think we can solve our national goals for economic security, energy security or environmental security without a large block of new nuclear power plants.”

JoAnn Sperber
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fluor Invests in NuScale

By
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
1 comment
Read more

An Ohio School Board Is Working to Save Nuclear Plants

By
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
Post a Comment
Read more

Wednesday Update

By
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
Post a Comment
Read more