NEI Nuclear Notes

The following post was sent to us by Southern Nuclear’s Joshua Andrews for NEI’s Powered by Our People promotion. Powered by Our People is part of the Future of Energy campaign that NEI launched earlier this year . This promotion aims to communicate innovation in our nation’s nuclear facilities in the voices of the people working at them.  Joshua Andrews is a nuclear engineer in the Nuclear Fuel Supply group at Southern Nuclear who has been in the nuclear industry for three years.  For more on this promotion, take a look at the featured content on our website and follow the #futureofenergy tag across our digital channels.  Joshua Andrews Why I enjoy working in nuclear  My job allows me to make decisions that will directly and positively impact the lives of people I care about and the entire footprint of our service area. There will always be a need for electricity, so I can’t think of a more meaningful way to secure a positive future for myself and my ...

D.C., rejoice! Season 2 of "House of Cards" is almost here. If you haven’t seen the first season, spend your snow day binge-watching because tomorrow we get the next chapter in this thrilling political drama. The award-winning series —centered on Kevin Spacey's Frank Underwood, House Majority Whip and ultimate political schemer—is filled with nuanced characters, excellent performances and unexpected plot twists. Want an even better reason to watch? Nuclear energy gets some time to shine. Energy is touched upon peripherally throughout the series, and by season's end, the plot hits upon the nation’s energy supply and nuclear’s role in it. For those wanting a quick recap of how nuclear energy ties in during season 1, read on. [Spoilers ahead] In the penultimate episode, Underwood visits billionaire Raymond Tusk to vet him as a possible replacement for Vice President. Tusk, an influential friend of the President, is a big investor in nuclear power: Underwood: Y...

The following guest post was submitted by Elizabeth McAndrew-Benavides, NEI's Senior Manager, Workforce Policy and Programs. Shannon Rafferty-Czincila is neither a doctor nor nurse. But she is a mother of three, a nuclear energy professional and a local leader who is supporting advanced health care in her community. Shannon Rafferty-Czincila Shannon works as the license renewal lead at a nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania and is the Chair of NEI’s License Renewal Implementation Working Group. Her job is to document how her company's nuclear power plants will continue to meet federal safety requirements if they are approved for continued operation beyond their original 40 year licenses. “Right now I believe that running our current plants is a good option to help support our growing need for energy,” said Rafferty-Czincila. “By obtaining a new license for a nuclear power plant we are ensuring that we will have clean, safe and reliable power for many more years.” Ra...

Major news, nukes! In less than 15 years of existence, NAYGN has registered 10,000 members. That means thousands of young, energized and influential nuclear professionals dedicated to shaping our industry's future. Exciting stuff, I know. Take a look at the press release below: The North American Young Generation in Nuclear (NAYGN) is celebrating a milestone achievement –the organization has registered over 10,000 unique members since its inception. “We have now become the premier leadership development activity for the nuclear energy industry. With so many opportunities at the local, regional and continental level, we provide some of the first opportunities for young professionals to practice their leadership skills,” says Past President Elizabeth McAndrew-Benavides . NAYGN started with seven members who were passionate about nuclear science and technology, and it continues now with 10,000 members who share their same passion. The organization remains a strong pro-nuclea...

NEI’s Top Industry Practice Awards recognize innovation in the nuclear energy industry. Presented at NEI’s annual conference, the awards honor accomplishments that help the industry improve safety, streamline processes and increase efficiency. In a special series of articles this week, our publication Nuclear Energy Overview highlights the challenges and successes of five winners. Eight-time TIP Award winner Jim Tusar is no stranger to ambitious projects. His most recent, which earned this year’s GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy Award, is no exception. The industry standard is to schedule refueling and maintenance outages once every 18 months or two years, but Tusar and his team at Exelon Nuclear pioneered an annual outage schedule at the Clinton Power Station in Illinois. “The idea came from acknowledging the value of [the facility] was decreasing due to the fact we had such high fuel costs, and at the same time power prices were decreasing,” said Tusar, Exelon Nuclear’s manager o...

NEI’s Top Industry Practice Awards recognize innovation in the nuclear energy industry. Presented at NEI’s annual conference, the awards honor accomplishments that help the industry improve safety, streamline processes and increase efficiency. In a special series of articles this week, our publication Nuclear Energy Overview highlights the challenges and successes of five winners. The staff at the Calvert Cliffs nuclear energy facility developed a new welding process that not only has improved efficiency at the plant but also saved millions of dollars. The project earned a team from the plant the B. Ralph Sylvia Best of the Best Award, which honors the highest achievement among all TIP Award winners. Led by Lennie Daniels, a senior project manager at Constellation Energy Nuclear Group, the team streamlined the welding required to install pressurizer lower head heater nozzles and level nozzles. The results of the new process, known as “Mini-ID Temper Bead Weld...

This week the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) held its third annual energy innovation summit in Washington, D.C., to discuss the future of energy technologies in the U.S. marketplace. Among the impressive lineup of speakers was a notable nuclear energy advocate Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft and of the nuclear startup company TerraPower . Although I wasn’t able to attend the conference in person (I found out too late—bummer!), I followed along on Twitter using the #eis12 hashtag to see what nuggets were said about the future of energy. In a panel with Secretary Chu , Gates said that research and development for energy technologies is “greatly underfunded.” "People underestimate how far away we are," Gates said. "That's partly why we can end up underfunding the innovative work that needs to go on." Boosting funding for research doesn't guarantee that there will be a technological breakthrough, but it does improve the chances of...

In case you missed the tweets from @SouthernCompany or @EnergyPressSec yesterday, Energy Secretary Steven Chu   toured the site where two new reactors are being built at Plant Vogtle in Waynesboro, Ga. Reconfirming his commitment to nuclear energy, the Nobel Laureate spoke to the more than 500 workers already on site on the need to build new nuclear plants to create jobs for American workers and boost U.S. competitiveness . “In his State of the Union address, President Obama outlined a blueprint for an American economy that is built to last and develops every available source of American energy,” said Secretary Chu. “Nuclear power is an important part of that blueprint. The work being done in Georgia and at research organizations like Oak Ridge National Laboratory is helping restore American leadership in the global race for the nuclear energy jobs of tomorrow.” Just how many new jobs is Secretary Chu talking about? Business Week says : About 1,700 workers are alrea...

Each year I wait with anticipation to find out whether the groundhog will see his shadow and winter will continue, or if he won’t see his shadow and spring will come early. Although I know it is just folklore, it is still interesting to see what weather patterns Punxsutawney Phil will predict. Much like the groundhog tradition, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists conducts its own annual tradition of changing a metaphorical Doomsday Clock based on how well they believe the world is addressing nuclear nonproliferation and climate change. Each minute closer to midnight signals doom and this year the scientists have moved the clock forward yet another minute closer to midnight to 11:55. The Bulletin explains : Two years ago, it appeared that world leaders might address the truly global threats that we face. In many cases, that trend has not continued or been reversed. For that reason, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is moving the clock hand one minute closer to midnigh...

Over the past few months, anti-nuclear groups have regularly attacked our industry for allegedly resisting implementing changes at our facilities in the wake of the incident at Fukushima Daiichi. While that’s simply not the case , it’s a perception that often gets reinforced in the press—and this morning’s mailbag contained yet another example. Politico Pro posted an article this morning, “ NRC Won’t Make Post-Fukushima Safety Recommendations Mandatory ,” that is misleading and egregiously inaccurate. At issue is how the term “mandatory” is used to show how the Nuclear Regulatory Commission will both implement and mandate its post-Fukushima recommendations. The lede states: The NRC on Thursday cemented a to-do list of post-Fukushima safety recommendations for U.S. nuclear plants but won't make them mandatory. That caught the attention of Jason Zorn, NEI’s assistant general counsel, who made it clear to me in no uncertain terms that this is incorrect. I spoke with him ...

I came across an article this week penned by professor Benjamin Sovacool that purports to give readers “the dirt on nuclear power.” The article gives way to hasty generalizations and leaves readers with a false view of one of the nation’s safest industries, and I’d like to point out a few places where there are holes in his arguments. The first problem: Sovacool lumps common industry terms, “incidents” and “accidents,” into one venti-sized category of “accidents.” Why does he do this? I’m guessing to add to the Armageddon-like anxiety he wants his readers to feel. Sovacool states: Incidents are unforeseen events and technical failures that occur during normal plant operation and result in no off-site releases of radiation or severe damage to equipment. Accidents refer to either off-site releases of radiation or severe damage to plant equipment. … Under these classifications, the number of nuclear accidents, even including the meltdowns at Fukushima Daiichi and Fukushima D...

Several news articles late this week have reported that Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant may be in “cold shutdown” by mid-December. Although the reports are mostly accurate, there is a difference between the traditional “cold shutdown” of a nuclear plant and what is happening at Fukushima. First, what is cold shutdown? The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission defines it as: The term used to define a reactor coolant system at atmospheric pressure and at a temperature below 200 degrees Fahrenheit following a reactor cooldown. In non-nuclear speak, it basically means the conditions within the nuclear reactor are such that it would be impossible for a chain reaction to occur. This term usually comes into play whenever a reactor is shut down periodically for refueling or for the final time prior to the long-term before it is decommissioned. When a reactor is in cold shutdown, the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) can be safely opened with great care and additional water is adde...

Investigative journalism. Works well when reporters do their homework, but is questionable when they make up their own facts. This week I ran across an article in the San Diego Reader on an interview with Greg Palast – “corporate fraud investigator turned investigative journalist.” For those of you who always buy into anything under the veil of “investigative journalism,” I’m here to point out where it can sometimes get iffy. In the interview with Palast, The Reader says: Diesel engines take time to warm up before they reach full power-generating capacity. But these massive engines, with base horsepower ratings well into the thousands (and subsequently doubled by strapping on a turbocharger), need to be online and running at full capacity in 10–12 seconds after a failure occurs in order to avert disaster. Frequently harvested from retired cruise ships, the engines simply aren’t capable of firing up as required. Frequently harvested from retired cruise ships? What? I know the ...

Today, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission published its Fukushima task force’s Recommendations for Enhancing Reactor Safety in the 21st Century (pdf). This is a significant report because it sets the stage for what’s to come over the next few years to enhance nuclear safety. Here are a few nuggets from our press release on the report: The task force report confirms the safety of U.S. nuclear energy facilities and recommends actions to enhance U.S. nuclear plant readiness to safely manage severe events. … The task force report does not cite significant data from the Fukushima accident to support many of its recommendations. Given the mammoth challenge it faced in gathering and evaluating the still-incomplete information from Japan, the agency should seek broader engagement with stakeholders on the task force report to ensure that its decisions are informed by the best information possible. … The industry reiterates our commitment to make nuclear plant safety our t...

From NEI’s Japan Micro-site : No Problems at Fukushima From Weekend Quake July 12, 2011 Plant Status • An earthquake of magnitude 7.3 struck northeast Japan Sunday morning, prompting tsunami warnings for the coast, including Fukushima prefecture. Tokyo Electric Power Co. ordered workers at the Fukushima Daiichi plant to move to higher ground and suspended the transfer of low-level contaminated water from the plant to a large steel storage barge. However, no problems at the plant were reported after only a small tsunami wave reached the coast. Cooling water injections into reactors 1, 2 and 3 and nitrogen injections into reactors 1 and 2 continued as normal. • TEPCO suspended operation of its water decontamination system for 12 hours Sunday to repair a leak in the system. The continued operation of the system is crucial to establish a circulatory cooling system for the reactors and to decontaminate and reduce the water accumulating in the reactor building basements. TEPCO has ...

Earlier today Congressman Ed Markey sought to score political points for renewables by referencing a monthly report on energy use (pdf) by the Energy Information Administration. Here’s Markey: Buried in a report issued by the U.S. Energy Information Administration are these facts: domestic production of renewable energy has now surpassed nuclear energy, and is swiftly gaining on oil. In their “Monthly Energy Review” released last week, the EIA said that in the first quarter of 2011, total domestic production of renewable energy (2.245 quadrillion BTUs of wind, solar, water, geothermal, biomass/biofuels) outpaced domestic production of nuclear energy (2.125 quadrillion BTUs). While words and numbers can explain a lot, below is the applicable chart that shows trends in U.S. energy production since 1973. Nuclear energy surpassed renewable energy in the early 1990s and has been ahead for most of the last 20 years. Primary Energy Production (Quadrillion Btu) p. 4 There’s ...

Duke Energy got a motley crew of protestors at its annual shareholder meeting, with environmentalist upset with coal and nuclear and the local tea party upset that Duke apparently helped bring the Democratic National Convention to Charlotte. "We need to move away from coal," said Kim Jackson, an activist. "Yet they continue to embrace it. And nuclear isn't much better. Look what happened in Japan. Does nuclear look safe to you?" Not to understate the seriousness of the accident in Japan, but to date the death toll from the plant is zero. Jane Bilelle of the Asheville, N.C., Tea Party said [Duke chief executive Jim] Rogers should be ashamed of himself for giving "shareholders' money to the Democratic Party." "That's theft of shareholder's money," she said. If she’s a Duke shareholder, she should complain; otherwise, it’s just words on the wind. Duke spokesman Tom Williams said the utility has long support...

It’s funny how nuclear energy can sometimes be sucked into larger geopolitical considerations. Case in point, this week’s proposal by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to create a nuclear power holding company with Ukraine: “We have made massive proposals, referring to generation, nuclear power engineering, and nuclear fuel,” Putin told reporters after a meeting with Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in Kiev today. Any cooperation may be phased, Putin said after the surprise visit to Kiev. On the face of it, it sounds good for both partners: “Ukraine will get $40 billion to $45 billion of investment from Russia in the next ten years because of a gas agreement reached last week, with fuel supplies subsidized by Russia’s budget, Putin said.” Russia gets “…to take “an active part” in upgrading Ukrainian reactors and will allow Ukrainian partners on the Russian market, Putin said. Nuclear cooperation in third countries is also possible, he said.” But t...