One Nuclear Energy Student Makes the Case for Cost Recovery Laws

Diego Garcia (left) and Gators for long-term energy planning.

Earlier this week, a Florida State Senate committee held a hearing on the state's nuclear cost recovery law. Paul Genoa was on hand to deliver testimony on behalf of NEI, but today I'd like to focus on another individual who testified on Monday.

His name is Diego Garcia. He's a senior at the University of Florida currently and is double majoring in nuclear engineering and political science. He's also president of the campus chapter of the American Nuclear Society. That's him in the picture with a few of his classmates who showed up at Monday's hearing.

So why should we listen to Mr. Garcia? Put simply, nuclear cost recovery laws have been put in place all over the country in order to allow electric utilities to engage in the sort of long-term planning that's desperately needed on the electric grid. And when we're talking about facilities that could potentially be producing emission-free power for up to 60 years, it's safe to say that Diego and his young compatriots at UF have some genuine skin in the game.

Here's an excerpt from his testimony that I found particularly compelling:

It is easy to understand why the debate about nuclear power plant financing has become a topic of debate. I share the same values of accountability and oversight that many have been discussing. However there is much more to the issue than meets the eye; aspects that I have only been able to understand through my full-time studies of energy and the energy markets.

[...]

CO2 burning power stations are much faster and cheaper to build upfront. Nuclear power plants have significantly higher costs because of the magnitude of the infrastructure and the stringent regulatory standards that ensure safety, security and environmental protection. However, the subsequent operating costs (including fuel costs) for nuclear energy are low, making it economically competitive alternative to fossil fuel plants over the life of the plants. The problem of cleaner air is an economic one too. It is laws like the nuclear cost recovery clause that allow our state to move toward 0 emissions and a more stable energy market.

Nuclear energy is the only CO2 –free form of reliable electricity that can provide customers with stable electricity costs for decades. Because of its low operating cost and high reliability, nuclear power is not vulnerable to the price spikes that both oil and natural gas-fired plants can impose on customers. The nuclear cost recovery clause allows the private sector and ratepayers to be able to pass the hurdle of upfront costs in order to provide reliable, affordable, and clean-air energy solutions for our state.

We talk a lot about the future of the nuclear work force here at NEI, and safe to say, we're very anxious to see Diego graduate this Spring and take a job working in our industry. As far as we're concerned, he can't get here quickly enough.

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...

How many nuclear plants does it take to meet the world's energy needs?

Several weeks ago Joshua Pearce at Clarion University in Pennsylvania released a study titled “ Thermodynamic limitations to nuclear energy deployment as a greenhouse gas mitigation technology .” In the study he stated... nuclear energy production would have to increase by 10.5% per year from 2010 to 2050 to both replace fossil-fuel-energy use and meet the future energy demands. This line, of course, made the headlines and has been picked up by several outlets and blogs . When looking into his calculations for this statement, he made one assumption error that overstated the above sentence by nearly a factor of three. Page 121, Section 4.1 of the study states: Richard Smalley pointed out that in 2004, the global economy consumed the equivalent of 220 million barrels of oil per day, which converted into electricity terms is the equivalent of 14.5 TeraWatts (TW), or 14,500,000 MegaWatts (MW) (2005). … With a nuclear plant having about 1000 MW (1 GW) of capacity, we would need 14,500...

What Happens During a Refueling Outage?

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...

NEI Nuclear Notes

Search This Blog