NEI Nuclear Notes

The following guest post was submitted by NEI Media Manager, Mitch Singer. Perhaps it’s asking too much in today’s media climate (no pun intended), but it would’ve been nice if Ginger Zee refrained from making the flippant comment on America This Morning that cooling ponds near nuclear plants are “either getting too low or too warm for the plants to function safely.” Ginger’s wrong on a number of accounts. Safety is paramount to the nuclear industry and all plants have contingency plans in place to adjust to extreme weather conditions and continue operating, albeit at a lower electrical power output. All nuclear power plants operate under their respective states’ water discharge permits and when the water’s ambient temperature reaches a certain level the plant’s power output must be lowered. Thus, they continue to “function safely.” The Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant in Alabama operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) provides a great example of how in spite of extre...

The suspense and tension are over : After hearing about 70 speakers support or oppose nuclear power and the completion of the half-finished Bellefonte Nuclear Plant, the TVA board voted unanimously on Thursday to restart construction. So it wasn’t even a near thing. But that meeting sounds like it was pretty interesting. The local paper, The Scottsboro (Ala.) Daily Sentinel, sent writer Ken Bonner over to take a listen : "We're very excited to see it," Jackson County Economic Development Authority President and CEO, Goodrich "Dus" Rogers said. "Now we move into a capitalized project rather than one just in the planning stages." Rogers, and a group of 26 other people from northeast Alabama who attended the meeting were excited with the outcome. The contingent included 22 people from Jackson County including governmental, business and civic leaders, four from Fort Payne and Guntersville Mayor Bob Hembree. Jackson County is home to Bel...

I’m not sure if it belittles the importance of the event to call it, well, suspenseful : Later this month [this Friday, to be exact], the board of the Tennessee Valley Authority could take up a proposal to complete the Bellefonte nuclear power plant in northeast Alabama. TVA administrators are conducting a campaign to gain public support for the project and nuclear energy in general despite a dangerous incident at a Japanese plant this year. TVA had already put off making this decision once: TVA staff says the most reliable and least costly option for future growth in electricity needs is nuclear power and completing the Bellefonte plant in Hollywood, Ala., for an estimated $4 billion to $5 billion. The board’s vote on the proposal, which had been expected this past spring, was put off after a nuclear fiasco in Japan. “Dangerous incident,” “nuclear fiasco.” We may in for a long period of creative description-making for the accident at Fukushima. I’m not crazy abou...

April Fools? Maybe not: Nuclear energy is, for the most part, clean. Though not inexpensive to build, power plants do provide energy at a reasonable cost to consumers for many years. In remarks made recently during a meeting with national, regional and local news media Ray Golden, TVA’s senior manager of nuclear communication, said, “You cannot abandon use of this fuel.” Golden is correct. Nuclear energy has to be in the mix as does coal, natural gas, wind and solar energy. This is from the Scottsboro (Ala.) Daily Sentinel. A little more, explaining the TVA connection: After meeting with TVA and NRC officials numerous times over the years and recently being involved in a tour at TVA’s oldest nuclear facility I’m [Ken Bonner is the writer] convinced that nuclear power must play a larger role in the future. It must be regulated and icensees diligent in operating and maintaining the plants. “Our nuclear reactors at TVA have been safely operated for years,” TVA chief nuclear officer P...

From the AP : The Nuclear Regulatory Commission plans a public meeting Tuesday night at Northeast Alabama Community College on a proposed nuclear plant in Jackson County. A group of power utilities is expected to submit an application to the NRC on Oct. 31 for a license to build and run two reactors at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Bellefonte site near Hollywood. As part of that group, TVA spokesman John Moulton says the agency would be the licensee because it owns the site. NRC spokesman Roger Hannah said Tuesday's meeting will be for informational purposes only. He said the public is invited to ask questions. For directions to the campus, click here .