NEI Nuclear Notes

Several governors and senators from Southern states met this week at the Southern States Energy Board to discuss topics such as oil and gas development, nuclear energy legislation and Environmental Protection Agency regulations. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)  and Governor Haley Barbour (R-Miss.) were among the participants who led the conversation on nuclear energy issues. Gov. Barbour voiced his support for building another nuclear energy plant in Mississippi. Candidly, we’d love to have another nuclear power plant. … We don’t have, ‘Not in my backyard.’ We have, ‘Please in my backyard.’ Gov. Barbour’s support for nuclear energy is not unfounded, as Mississippi’s Grand Gulf 1 nuclear energy plant makes up more than 17 percent of the state’s total electricity generation and 100 percent of the state’s total emission-free electricity. The state relies heavily on natural gas (54 percent), which can cause steep fluctuations on electricity prices for the state’s resident...

The Anderson (S.C.)Independent Mail has the news : U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham [R-S.C.] stood in the welcome center of Duke Energy’s Oconee Nuclear Station and said he had learned something new about his hometown nuclear plant. “I didn’t know how easy it is to shut down,” Graham said. “There’s one button they can press and it drops the fuel rods. With one button, they can shut down the reactor within a second.” There’s the clean energy angle: At stake, Graham said, is a clean energy source for future generations of Americans. Wind and solar power, he said, can’t replace the coal-fired plants that dominate the energy production landscape today, but nuclear can. And the economic angle: Graham also underlined the station’s role in the local economy, as it has a $90 million payroll and has paid $27 million in property taxes to Oconee County. About 1,500 people work regularly at the plant, said Richard Freudenberger, the plant’s regulatory support manager. Another 2,0...

"I have a lot of faith in the nuclear industry, and I feel safe living five miles away from a nuclear power plant," [Sen. Lindsey] Graham [R-S.C.] said of the Oconee Nuclear Station run by Duke Energy Corp. Graham said it would be ill-advised to stop building nuclear power plants, noting that 20 percent of U.S. power comes from nuclear sources. Sen. Graham’s comments (and there’s more – click the link for that) are well appreciated and also rather remarkable. I’ve seen a number of politicians voice support for nuclear energy when it would be just as easy – easier, really – to abandon it in light of Japan. The recognition that events at Fukushima Daiichi were truly extraordinary and that the American industry is quickly, effectively and honestly responding to it and dealing with the domestic implications seems quite widespread. Still, this was a nice report to run into. Does the heart good.