NEI Nuclear Notes

The following is a guest post from Matt Wald, senior director of policy analysis and strategic planning at NEI. Follow Matt on Twitter at @MattLWald . It’s time, says the expert, to step back and take a look at the role of natural gas. Electricity demand shifts up or down in a heartbeat, or considerably faster. The hardware that supplies power generally changes slowly, because power plants and transmission lines take years to plan and build. Those two considerations are balanced by an expert organization called the North American Electric Reliability Corporation . NERC looks ahead a decade and projects whether the system will have enough “reserve margin.” That is, will it be able to produce as much power as consumers will demand. But this year NERC, as it is known, shifted gears. Yes, it raised questions about the adequacy of generating capacity in some regions in the next decade, but it also took notice of a different problem: a huge fraction of that generating capacity uses a...

Pam Cowan The following is a guest post by Pam Cowan, Vice President of Regulatory Affairs at the Nuclear Energy Institute. Earlier today, the Wall Street Journal published a story concerning manufacturing records and forgings at AREVA’s Le Creusot forge in France. A very limited number of U.S. facilities are using components forged at Le Creusot. After an investigation by AREVA in coordination with the affected plants, it was determined that the components were safe and met required quality standards. Additionally, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to date has not identified any safety significance at U.S. plants, stating, “examination of the evidence, to this point, fails to raise a safety concern.” Here's more from AREVA : Significant progress has been made on both investigations, including the identification of components that may have been affected in the United States, and the review and verification of the quality and safety of those components. AREVA co...

Maria Korsnick The Nuclear Energy Institute’s chief operating officer, Maria Korsnick, made the following statement in response to a Bloomberg News report today that President-elect Donald Trump’s advisers “are looking at ways in which the U.S. government could help nuclear power generators being forced out of the electricity market.” “Americans will benefit immensely from the incoming administration’s focus on existing nuclear generating plants as part of maintaining and improving our nation’s critical infrastructure. Federal and state leaders must act urgently to preserve at-risk nuclear energy facilities, just like lawmakers and agency officials in Illinois and New York have done, to help achieve a stronger economy, cleaner air and enhanced energy diversity and security. Thanks to the actions taken recently in Illinois and New York, thousands of jobs have been saved and consumers will be spared the cost of replacing the carbon-free electricity generation reliably provided by ...

Marv Fertel The following statement is from NEI President and CEO Marv Fertel concerning the closing of Palisades Power Plant . "Palisades has been churning out emissions-free electricity since the end of 1971. It provides 600 people with well-paid, year-round jobs, and it is the largest taxpayer in Van Buren County, in southwestern Michigan. It helps stabilize the grid, and provides a vital hedge against severe weather (like most of the U.S. is experiencing now) or other events with a potential to interrupt fuel supplies." "But the market does not value the plant for providing any of those benefits. Nuclear plants are operated by corporations, with an eye on the bottom line. What is not paid for does not endure. Governor Rick Snyder called it 'a major employer and economic engine for the region.' We hope that some other source of employment will follow on that spot, on the sand dunes of Lake Michigan, and that it will be as quiet, safe and clean....

It's a great day in Illinois, as Gov. Bruce Rauner has signed the Future Energy Jobs bill at a ceremony at Quad Cities nuclear plant. With his signature, Gov. Rauner has helped save over 4,200 jobs at the Quad Cities and Clinton nuclear power plants. Watch the video below. Next, the governor is headed to the Clinton nuclear power plant for a second rally. For more on how support for the bill came together, read this  blog post from our Matt Wald .

Today in Vienna, the Nuclear Threat Initiative released a report on cyber security at nuclear energy facilities. While we've yet to have the chance to review the research in depth, it's important to note that efforts to address cyber security at nuclear facilities got underway in earnest shortly after the 9-11 attacks in September 2001, when an industry task force to address the issue was formed that exists to this day. As of the end of 2012, working at the behest of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, every U.S. nuclear plant had implemented a raft of programs to address a wide variety of cyber-threats . So how do those programs measure up? In October 2015, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security published an unclassified version of a report that analyzed cyber security in the broader U.S. nuclear sector , including radioactive materials and waste facilities. The report concluded that the sector's programs, “combined with the industry’s exacting standards and cultur...

Matt Wald The following is a guest post from Matt Wald, senior director of policy analysis and strategic planning at NEI. Follow Matt on Twitter at @MattLWald . Building consensus is hard work, especially in energy policy. But when local governments, organized labor, environmental organizations and energy providers all come together, they can create a positive future for everyone. That’s what happened this week in the Illinois legislature in Springfield. The legislature, in a special session, approved the Future Energy Jobs Bill , with strong bipartisan support. Governor Rauner pointed out in a statement that the bill will save thousands of jobs, and will protect ratepayers from large increases for years to come. With this law, Illinois follows New York in recognizing that like wind and sun, nuclear is a zero-carbon energy source and should be valued as such. The bill went through many twists and turns over two years. Negotiations over its shape were long and hard partly b...