NEI Nuclear Notes

In an October 16, 2006, letter (PDF) to Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell said he is a "strong advocate for the creation of a national repository of spent nuclear fuel at Yucca Mountain in Nevada" and urges the senator to "take whatever action is necessary to ensure that construction of the final repository proceeds." In particular, he states his support for S.3692 , the legislation proposed by Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) Sept. 27. Pennsylvania has nine nuclear power plants on five sites. Due to the lack of a permanent SNF [spent nuclear fuel] repository, the commonwealth has now accumulated one of the largest inventories of SNF in the nation. Unfortunately, many of the spent fuel pools in Pennsylvania are filled to or near capacity. As a result, those sites in Pennsylvania have been forced to add on-site dry storage capacity. These facilities are expensive to build and maintain, and they obviously are not capable of addressing long-term s...

The latest issue of Nuclear Energy Insight is now available online. In it, you'll find an article on a new uranium enrichment facility that will bring jobs and economic stability to New Mexico. There also are reports on a noted environmentalist’s continuing support for nuclear energy and a Maryland county courting a new nuclear plant project. Other articles include new-plant activity in Texas, strong public backing for nuclear energy, and a former nuclear plant’s return to nature. Technorati tags: Nuclear Energy , Nuclear Power , Environment , Energy , Politics , Technology , Economics

Public debate over climate change must include low-emission, baseload nuclear energy, Australian Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane told the opening session of the 15th Pacific Basin Nuclear Conference in Sydney on Monday. “Nuclear energy could be—I argue it must be—a major part of the global strategy to curb greenhouse emissions,” Macfarlane said, noting that while “there are emissions across the entire cycle of building, maintaining and decommissioning a nuclear power station,” these emissions are “one-hundredth of the total emissions of a fossil-fueled power station.” “We are now seeing a global collision of economic and greenhouse challenges,” Macfarlane added. “Nuclear power has the potential to bridge that emerging gap between this country’s economic development and the impact it has on our environment.” For the full speech, click here . And for our coverage earlier this week of Prime Minister John Howard's favorable attitude toward nuclear, click here . Technorati tags: Nucl...

Rod and Shane interview Ruth Sponsler , the brains behind We Support Lee . Technorati tags: Nuclear Energy , Nuclear Power , Environment , Energy , Politics , Technology , Economics , Uranium

For more, visit We Support Lee , which has a nice roundup. Congrats to everyone at Toshiba, Westinghouse and British Nuclear Fuels, PLC. Congrats also to the Shaw Group and Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries Co., Toshiba's minority partners in the sale. Technorati tags: Nuclear Energy , Nuclear Power , Energy , Technology , Westinghouse , Toshiba , Ishikawajima-Harima , Shaw Group , British Nuclear Fuels PLC

The recent NERC report on grid reliability should focus our attention on one of the advantages of the next generation of nuclear build – “net load rejection.” While only a very few nuclear units today can withstand a grid blackout without scramming, the newly designed plants will all be able to. Net load rejection allows a nuclear unit to automatically disconnect from a dead transmission grid, decrease reactor power to only internal demand, and keep running. Those “hotel” loads are typically 5% of maximum power and include pumps, fans, control rod drive mechanisms, etc – everything to keep the plant running. The generator keeps spinning at rated voltage but only energizing plant loads. Once the grid is stabilized, the system dispatchers then will have the option of using the large nuclear units to help bootstrap the grid (and the tripped generating units) back up to normalcy. Restoring a dead grid from a system’s large nuclear units is much easier than doing the same from the typicall...

From a column by David Lazarus : Peter Darbee, now winding up his second year as chief exec of PG&E Corp., is a self-professed conservative and no great friend to progressive causes. So he's as surprised as anyone to find himself emerging as a corporate leader in, of all things for an energy industry heavyweight, saving the planet from global warming. "If you had asked me five years ago, this wouldn't have occurred to me," Darbee acknowledged in an interview. "Somewhere in this process (of becoming CEO), I developed a point of view." That point of view, specifically, is this: "The Earth is warming. Mankind appears to be responsible. The need to take action is now." [...] "What he's talking about is very welcome," said Carl Zichella, California regional director for the Sierra Club. "It's important to have business leaders of his caliber talking about this." Not that PG&E and the Sierra Club are suddenly in bed to...