NEI Nuclear Notes

To every debate, there are two sides of the coin. How will nuclear energy stack up in a post-Fukushima world? Heads—nuclear energy will continue to prosper and become even safer despite potential regulatory hurdles that could befall the industry. Tails—Fukushima’s impact on the industry will force new nuclear energy production to come to a screeching halt. David Crane , president and CEO of NRG Energy , believes that the future outlook for nuclear energy is “dim.” The Hartford Business Journal writes : America’s long-term energy future lies with both large- and small-scale solar and wind generation, especially solar, backed up by baseload and peaker power plants using a variety of fuels, Crane said. The bulk of that back-up fuel source was supposed to be nuclear power, he said, but after the Japanese nuclear disaster in March, the regulatory burdens make expanded nuclear nearly impossible. The Journal continues: The problem with nuclear isn’t the typical not-in-my-backyard nei...

Want to see how complicated business can be? Consider : Nuclear Innovation North America LLC or NINA, the nuclear development company jointly owned by NRG Energy, Inc. and Toshiba, has awarded the engineering, procurement and construction contract for South Texas Project Units 3 & 4 to a restructured EPC consortium formed by Toshiba America Nuclear Energy Corporation, a US based Toshiba subsidiary, and The Shaw Group. Both the new nuclear units of the South Texas Project will use ABWR technology. The actual contract is a natural, as NRG owns 44 percent of the South Texas Project , so Toshiba and NRG have awarded a contract for an NRG part owned project to a Toshiba part owned subsidiary. Here’s how the Shaw Group fits in: Engineering service provider Shaw Group, Inc. announced Monday that it will expand its global strategic partnership with Japanese electronics maker Toshiba Corp. And one of the provisions: Under the global strategic partnership, Shaw will inv...

Is the expansion of nuclear energy stopped in its tracks in light of Constellation Energy’s withdrawing from the loan guarantee process? Not so fast . Brain Wheeler at Power-Gen checks in with several companies to see what’s happening. Here’s NRG: Although many may see the Calvert Cliffs 3 and the South Texas Project (STP) as very similar, [NRG spokesman David] Knox said there are in fact more differences than similarities in the two. He said that by selecting a reactor that has already been built … [in Japan], it decreases the amount of risk when building a nuclear plant. NRG expects to receive a license from NRC in 2012 and said that both planned units at STP would cost roughly $10 billion, total. What Knox is getting at is that Constellation and NRG’s projects are different enough to result in a different, better OMB [Office of Management and Budget ] score for STP. This may or may not prove to be true – the major argument to be made here is that OMB uses a formula for ca...

Yesterday, SCANA held its Spring 2010 analyst meeting which provided an update on the progress of Summer nuclear units 2 & 3. Among the wealth of new pictures (pdf) and stats, the biggest pieces of news are that the project is slightly under budget and may come in almost $1B less than planned once completed (still early though). Here’s Steve Byrne (pdf) - SCANA Corp.’s Executive VP and Chief Nuclear Officer (p. 26): Quick cost update; this is a total project cost which includes for us escalation and contingencies. So generally our contract was negotiated in 2007 dollars, here what you're seeing are escalated numbers [chart below]. The project to-date should have spent about a little over $1 billion, we spent a little under $1 billion. You can see that the project budget is about 10.6 based on the current escalation factors; we think we're going to come in at about 9.8. Those numbers are going to change. I don't get too excited about them dropping or raising...

By now I’m sure most readers here have heard that NRG’s cost estimates to build two new reactors at South Texas Project increased around $4 billion just recently. Apparently quite a bit of the increase was due to a weaker dollar. From the Wall Street Journal : Dollar weakness helped drive up cost estimates for two new reactors NRG Energy Inc. (NRG) is planning in Texas with Toshiba Corp. An NRG executive said last month the cost of equipment and materials from Japan climbed 13% to an estimated $2.5 billion compared with a 2007 estimate, mostly due to declines in the dollar. … Currency risk is just one variable for developers. Scana and Southern already have taken steps to eliminate the risk by using dollar-dominated contracts. For other projects, currency fluctuation typically is viewed as part of the larger issue of construction costs. Developers are trying to balance the massive cost and lengthy construction timetable with a tricky outlook for power demand and prices. ...

David Crane, president and chief executive of NRG Energy, has an op-ed up at the Washington Post in which he leaves aside current energy politics and proposes a closer look not only at technologies that are viable now but also where they are most viable geographically. This last bit strikes us as original if perhaps a touch too definite – after all, he’s right that solar panels and turbines work best in certain parts of the country, but nuclear energy and electric cars aren’t  bound by geography. Here are his bullet points : The West gets the sun. The Midwest gets the wind. The South gets nuclear. The Northeast gets the electric car. Pursue "clean coal" as a national priority. This method gets a lot of good information on the page in an organized way – we have to conclude Crane really likes organization – his sock drawer must be a marvel - so we’ll take it. Here’s his paragraph on nuclear: Democratic policymakers have focused like lasers on...

NRG Energy Inc. has partnered with Toshiba Corp. to create a new company to pursue new nuclear energy projects. Nuclear Innovation North America LLC will focus on “marketing, siting, developing, financing and investing in advanced design nuclear projects” in the United States and Canada, NRG Energy said in a news release. In addition to a $300 million investment over the next six years and 12 percent equity ownership, Toshiba Corp. will serve as the prime contractor on all of the joint venture’s projects. Half of Toshiba’s investment will support development of two new South Texas Project reactors (STP 3 and 4). The other half will focus on new projects and accelerating development and deployment of additional Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (ABWR) projects in North America. “New advanced nuclear is a key part of the future for affordable, reliable and zero-carbon baseload generation not only in Texas but throughout the United States,” said David Crane, NRG president and CEO. “And after...

From the AP : GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy said Tuesday it has received a tentative multimillion-dollar order from power plant operator Exelon Corp. to provide parts for two possible nuclear reactors. The deal for steam turbine generators and other components depends on whether Exelon's nuclear division decides to continue with plans for a plant in Texas. GE Hitachi said Exelon needs to have plans in place ahead of time to make sure the parts are available. And the hits keep on coming.

From NRC : The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has accepted for review a combined license (COL) application for two new reactors at the South Texas Project site near Bay City, Texas. The agency is seeking more information, however, before it establishes a complete technical review schedule for the application. This is the first COL application the agency has accepted for review. “We have what we need to open a file, or ‘docket,’ on this application, and we’ll start analyzing those pieces that have enough detail to review properly,” said Bill Borchardt, Director of the NRC’s Office of New Reactors. “We’ve also listed those areas where the applicants, NRG Energy and South Texas Project, will have to give us more detailed information.” The companies submitted the application and associated information Sept. 24. The NRC’s acceptance letter, as well as the application’s public version (minus proprietary or security-related details), will be available on the NRC Web site here: http://www.nrc.g...

My apologies for the lack of posts today, as I was down on Capitol Hill this morning for the press event announcing NRG's license application with NRC to build an additional two reactors at the site of the South Texas Project . For more details directly from NRG, click here . I was at the event with my video camera, so I should have some footage to share later this afternoon. Congratulations to everyone at NRG and STP on taking an important first step -- one that hasn't been taken in the U.S. since 1978 -- on the road to building America's next new nuclear reactor. UPDATE : Here's NRG Energy's President and CEO, David Crane, at the press conference: UPDATE : And here's a clip of a statement from Senator Pete Domenici:

Another diarist at DailyKos (not our friend N Nadir) drove 80 miles to attend a public hearing on NRG's potential plans for new nuclear build in Texas . He sounds bullish on nuclear energy: Expanding electricity capacity in Texas from nuclear, wind, and potentially in the future, solar, while pushing hard for conservation is our only hope for a fossil fuel phase-out. Not only are these measures necessary on their own, they provide the necessary foundation for transitioning our transportation network to fully-electric or transitional-synthetic fuels (e.g. DME using CO2 from atmospheric/process sequestration). Unlike other long-term movements towards a sustainable, fossil-fuel free, more socioeconomically just Texas, changing electricity production sources is relatively "behind-the-scenes," and is a path that can be pursued vigorously and immediately because it requires no large, structural rearrangements in society or our built environment. As such, it has a high probabil...

Details from Reuters .

Details from We Support Lee .

More from the Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA) Annual Meeting, this time from the Houston Chronicle : David Crane, president and CEO of power plant operator NRG Energy, said he believed "the end game for Texas is nuclear," and that the state should focus less on coal-fired plants to meet its power needs. "This is the ideal place for nuclear because it doesn't use a lot of water, it doesn't threaten the nonattainment zones of the two largest cities, and it has wide open spaces so you do not have to put plants right hard up on 10 million people," he said. For more on the meeting, be sure to check out the CERA Web site which has been providing daily summaries.