NEI Nuclear Notes

In a conference call detailing Duke Energy's latest quarterly performance, CEO Jim Rogers talked about some of the activities the company is undertaking in conjunction with plans for new nuclear build : Rogers said he's pushing for new N.C. legislation to allow the company to recoup financing costs from nuclear plant construction before a project is completed. Current N.C. law allows for costs to be passed onto consumers only after power plants are up and running. A new law would allow the company to stay financially fit during the construction process for the expensive twin reactors, estimated to cost up to $3 billion each, Rogers said. He cited a new study from the Electric Power Research Institute in California, the research arm for the electric power industry. The study concludes the country needs about 58 new nuclear reactors by 2030 to meet growing electricity demand. "There are a set of things that are not totally in our control but critical to our long-term success...

From the Charlotte Observer : Duke Energy Corp. Chief Executive Jim Rogers said environmentalists and Congress should support nuclear energy or risk failure in battling global warming. The strident talk from Rogers, one of the first utility executives to call for regulating carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants and other industrial sources, comes as Duke plans a nuclear project in Cherokee County, S.C., estimated to cost up to $6 billion. It also comes at a time when the Democratically controlled Congress considers how to tax or otherwise regulate industrial carbon dioxide emissions. Coal-fired power plants are a major source of carbon dioxide, blamed by climate scientists as a cause of global warming, which threatens to melt polar ice and cause flooding, among other environmental disasters. Nuclear energy, on the other hand, has zero emissions, and the President Bush-backed Energy Policy Act of 2005 provides financial incentives for utilities to start building plants again. But ...

He recently spoke to Amanda Griscom Little of Grist : Q. You've recently tried to define one approach via the U.S. Climate Action Partnership. Tell us how that alliance formed, and the process of give-and-take that got you to the final agreement. A. Most of the executives knew each other and had had ongoing conversations with environmental groups on a range of issues, so there was a set of existing relationships that brought us all into the room. I think the pivotal moment was in December when we began to agree on how we would structure the cap-and-trade program. The really big issue was: Can coal be part of the energy equation in the future? We agreed that it will be, given the fact that 50 percent of our electricity in this country comes from coal. The other issue was the recognition that nuclear had to play an important part in the equation. This is a tightrope that the environmental community is walking. On the one hand, they want to solve climate. On the other hand, nuclear is...

In today's edition of the News and Observer , Duke Energy Chairman, President and CEO Jim Rogers lays out the rationale for his company's long-term plan to provide reliable, affordable and environmentally responsible energy to North Carolina. Though Rogers may be talking about one state, the following three paragraphs could easily be applied to any region of the country: Some people who oppose our plan do so out of a belief that renewable energy and energy efficiency alone can address our energy challenge, but that is wishful thinking. Having a duty to provide electricity to a growing customer base of 2.2 million, we do not have the luxury of detaching ourselves from reality. Instead we must meet our customers' growing demand for power with real electrons that customers can depend on. Our duty is to provide reliable, affordable electricity to support a growing population. By 2030, North Carolina's population is predicted to grow from 8 million people to 12 million -- a ...