NEI Nuclear Notes

With utilities looking ahead and seeing increased electricity demand, building new nuclear generating capacity becomes a real possibility. Here's an excerpt from a story by the AP's H. Josef Hebert: “Adding nuclear capacity ... makes a lot of sense,” says Henry “Brew” Barron, in charge of nuclear operations at Duke Power, a subsidiary of Duke Energy that serves 2 million customers in the Carolinas. By 2014, Duke will need at least one more large power plant to meet demand in one of the country’s fastest growing regions. Many other utilities around the country are facing similar electricity demands. Once the logjam is broken with the first orders, the U.S. reactor market could become the world’s second largest, after China, given expected growth in U.S. electricity demand and environmental and cost concerns about rival fossil fuels, says Andy White, president of GE Energy’s nuclear business. (GE is the parent of NBC, which is a partner in MSNBC.) “We’ve probably never had a be...

The business publication takes a look at NEI's new Chairman . Technorati tags: Nuclear Energy , Environment , Energy , Politics , Technology , Economics

We've learned that Time is planning to run a story on security at nuclear power plants in their next issue, due to hit news stands on Monday morning, June 13. The story will be posted online at Time.com on Sunday just after midnight. Here's what we know: Time military/defense writer Mark Thompson has been working on this piece for about a month and has toured Exelon's Peach Bottom nuclear power plant to get a first-hand look at security -- as much as Nuclear Regulatory Commission safeguards restrictions will permit. He interviewed NEI Vice President Steve Floyd, NRC Chairman Nils Diaz (for audio excerpts from his March 2005 speech at the National Press Club, click here , here and here ), Exelon executives at Peach Bottom Nuclear Plant and most likely anti-nuclear activists and members of Congress. This week, reporters from Time arrived unannounced in vehicles at the North Anna and Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plants in an attempt to breach security. In neither ca...

In a column in today's edition of the Deseret Morning News (Utah), the paper's editor, John Hughes, detailed how various nations around the world are addressing growing demand for energy . He concludes: As experts weigh the world's growing overall energy needs against known resources, they are examining renewable alternatives to the non-renewable ones such as oil, gas and coal. These include wind and solar and hydro powers. There is even renewed interest in nuclear power for peaceful purposes. India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will likely press for U.S. nuclear technology for India when he visits Bush next month. The conundrum is when to support nuclear development for peaceful purposes, as distinct from its use for nuclear weapons development in countries like North Korea and Iran. Am I the only one that thinks it's a shame to have countries around the world in line to purchase American technology - but they're in line ahead of the U.S.? Technorati tags:...

Just off the newswire : Adam C. Heflin will join the AmerenUE Callaway Nuclear Plant as site vice president, reporting to Senior Vice President and Chief Nuclear Officer Charles D. Naslund. Heflin joins AmerenUE after serving as Unit 2 plant manager at Arkansas Nuclear One (ANO-2), owned by Entergy Corporation Heflin assumes a position left vacant with the fall 2004 resignation of the former site vice president. He holds both mechanical and general engineering degrees. Heflin received his nuclear training and started his nuclear career during a six-year tour of duty with the U.S. Nuclear Navy, where he was assigned to an attack submarine. After serving his country, he joined Entergy Corporation's nuclear operations in 1992. Heflin has served as a reactor operator, a senior reactor operator and shift manager at ANO-2. Heflin also served as ANO-2's outage manager and operations manager. He is slated to join AmerenUE on June 27. Technorati tags: Nuclear Energy , Environment , Ener...

Here's John Atkinson's take on the proposed 1,000 megawatt offshore wind farm slated for construction off of Kent in the U.K.: [I]t's not hard to imagine windfarm opponents asking why a 152 mi 2 offshore wind farm is necessary when you can get more and more reliable power from a single nuclear plant. I like wind power OK, but I feel that in the not-too-distant future, we'll look at these kinds of megafarms as kind of bizarre anomalies, an amusing reminder of the uncertainty that characterized our first efforts to solve the Global Energy Problem Thing. Technorati tags: Nuclear Energy , Environment , Energy , Politics , Technology , Economics

The San Diego Union-Tribune has an illuminating take on the ANS conference going on this week in San Diego. If you have any doubt as to whether it's worthwhile to present the factual benefits of nuclear energy, then check out part of Ruth Weiner's story, a former anti-nuclear Sierra Club member in the state of Washington. She helped write policies to prevent portions of the state from becoming repositories for radioactive waste. Her efforts indirectly helped create the system used today, in which states sign compacts with one another to accept waste. Weiner credits the "not in my back yard" public outcry during those experiences with changing her mind. After meeting lobbyists on both sides of the issue, she switched to support the industry she once resented. Nowadays, her advice to operators of nuclear power plants is to cut down on propaganda and slogans. The whole article is an excellent treatise on how facts, involvement and persistence are the way to overcome ...