NEI Nuclear Notes

What can be happening in editorials these days? Is nuclear energy going pear shaped under the weight of – economics? natural gas? gastric distress? No, none of these. Actually, the views of different news outlets and their op-ed writers is not so bad. Take this from NJ dot com , a website shared by several state papers (the op-ed comes from the Times of Trenton): There is good reason to give nuclear power a fresh look. It can replace fossil-fuel-burning power plants for generating electricity 24/7, avoiding air pollution and carbon dioxide emissions that could contribute to global warming. This is nothing new to readers here, but we certainly purr when we hear it in the mainstream press anyway. Now, this is interesting, an argument that really does tend to dwell among the nuclear friendly only: There is a humanitarian imperative to using nuclear power. More than 2 billion people still lack access to electricity for basic needs such as clean water, cooking, sanitat...

Two recent editorials grapple with nuclear energy issues relevant to their states. The York (Penn.) Record becomes disturbed about some corrosion discovered on used fuel containers. A Nuclear Regulatory Commission report said that some of those casks could leak. It cited water-damaged containers that held spent fuel from both of our local nuke plants - TMI and Peach Bottom. It's nothing to be too alarmed about right now. No radiological material leaked. The terse style is unusual – feels like someone on the board has internalized Hemingway. Anyway, its recommendation: Leaving this radioactive material lying around at hundreds of sites across the country is just not an acceptable disposal solution. Do we have leaders capable of making the tough political decisions to resolve this issue? Well, it’s not exactly lying around and, of course, the problem with the containers was found and fixed without further incident. But, it’s true. Whether by following ...

A number of environmental groups have put together a petition to close down New Jersey’s Salem nuclear plant. Norm Cohen of the Stop the Salem Nuke Fish Slaughter Campaign appears to be the mastermind here and he’s pretty convinced that fish are being killed by the plant. How many fish? A whole lot : Salem kills over 3 billion Delaware River fish a year, with changed technology they could reduce their fish kills by as much as, or even more than, 95%. By which he means cooling towers. Not being able to erect mandated cooling towers factored into a decision to shutter Oyster Creek early and Cohen rather disingenuously hides behind cooling towers to shut Salem. Why do I think that? With the Oyster Creek decision to shut down in 2019 now a done deal, officially sanctioned by the NRC, it is time to focus on Salem Units 1 and 2, and their continued slaughter of billions of fish and other aquatic life because of PSEG's refusal to invest in a closed cooling system (cooling to...

As opposed to Bob McDonnell below, governor-elect Chris Christie of New Jersey tilts rather away from the national Republican party on energy issues. Might not mean anything: It may just be that he has a genuine desire to move New Jersey to solar energy and will clear away hurdles to make it happen. Why the push for solar? Well, the Garden State has an image problem, though one not actually confirmed by the data: while most of the state justifies its nickname handily, what travelers though New Jersey see – driving up I-95 or taking Amtrak to New York – are monstrous-looking industrial plants that spew – something – into the air, making the night sky a sickly bright orange. It’s like one of Dante’s lower circles of Hell. Yet nuclear energy supplies 50% of the electricity in New Jersey – see here for the EIA stats for the state – so Christie’s plan has the effect of working with the other 50%. (Natural gas is the number two generator, at 30% or so. It’s really not a massively pollu...

Jon Corzine [D], current Governor of New Jersey and former U.S. Senator, appeared earlier today on CNN's American Morning . The interviewer was John Roberts (no, not that one ) and the transcript/video can be seen here . The pull quote: Roberts : On that subject of nuclear energy, would you be prepared to see more nuclear plants built in the garden state? Corzine : Well, we actually have an energy master plan where we're working on the safety and security and the storage of waste. If we can come to positive conclusion on that, I absolutely would. We already get about 50% of our energy from nuclear power here in the state. We have four plants. They're aging and we're going to have to think about whether we want to renew that. I'm not arguing that's the only step. We need to be in wind, solar, biofuel, all of those other areas. And Senator Obama is talking about spending $150 billion in the next ten years in those kind of production activities coming from a cap a...

Last night Alec Baldwin moderated a forum on the health effects of the Oyster Creek nuclear plant in New Jersey. From APP.com : Actor Alec Baldwin said he would like to see the state force the owners of the Oyster Creek Generating Station to build cooling towers to replace an outdated boiling water reactor system. ... "This is one of the truly complicated issues I've ever dealt with,'' Baldwin said. Um, replacing cooling towers is not the same as replacing a BWR system. If he thinks that is the case, then I can see why he thinks this is a complicated issue. I wonder if Mr. Baldwin can locate the cooling towers in this diagram of a BWR system. Hint: the towers are not there . I could get more into this but I think the comments on the article speak for themselves : Just because he is a celebrity, people put a microphone in front of him, and just because someone put a microphone in front of him he thinks he is an expert on all things. ... Alec Baldwin has no business spea...

Details from northjersey.com .

From the wire : Nearly 9 out of 10 New Jersey voters agree that more needs to be done to increase the state’s electricity supplies and, by a 2 to 1 margin, support the use of nuclear power to meet that need, according to a new poll released today by the New Jersey Affordable, Clean, Reliable Energy Coalition (NJ ACRE). Although the survey showed a majority believe nuclear power to be safe, reliable, affordable and clean, most had no idea that more than half of the electricity consumed in New Jersey comes from nuclear energy plants, placing the figure instead at only 26 percent. Speaking today at the New Jersey AFL-CIO conference in Atlantic City, Dr. Edward H. Salmon, chairman of the Coalition and a former president of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, told the assembled union leaders that the poll underscored the need to educate the public to all available clean energy options. “We believe nuclear energy, with its proven ability to safely produce large amounts of base-load ele...

At Forbes , Public Service Enterprise Group President and CEO Larry Izzo is touting the benefits of nuclear energy in a balanced energy portfolio : [B]oth wind and solar will remain small parts of the energy mix for the foreseeable future. We will still need large power stations that can supply electricity with zero- or low-carbon emissions--and do so abundantly around the clock throughout the year and not just on sunny or windy days. Nuclear stations are the greenest option available to provide this power. The most widely discussed alternative--carbon capture and storage technology--needs to be developed but is a distant and uncertain prospect at this time. Looking further ahead, we can anticipate significantly greater demands on the electric grid as we move toward a low-carbon economy. Americans are on course to consume 40% more electricity by 2030. The greening of the transportation sector could conceivably increase this growth considerably more over time: A future in which people p...

Joseph Mangano , is at it again with his baby teeth act, this time in the pages of the Star-Ledger with an op-ed calling for the closing of Oyster Creek Nuclear Power Plant. One more time, here's the crux of our case against Mangano . Eight state departments of health have investigated Mangano's claims, and all eight states (Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Minnesota and Michigan) refused to validate them. Even better, here's what the New Jersey Commission on Radiation Protection had to say about Mangano's research: The Commission is of the opinion that "Radioactive Strontium-90 in Baby Teeth of New Jersey Children and the Link with Cancer: A Special Report," is a flawed report, with substantial errors in methodology and invalid statistics. As a result, any information gathered through this project would not stand up to the scrutiny of the scientific community. There is also no evidence to support the allegation that the ...