NEI Nuclear Notes

Over the past several months, I'm sure many of you have noticed that posting on the blog has become, well, a little more "bursty" than it had been historically. The reasons for that are pretty simple, as I've been deeply involved in the redesign of NEI's public Web site for a number of months now. It's been an arduous process at times, but now the we're looking to launch the brand new site at the end of July. While it may be a number of weeks before the site goes live, I'm happy to give our readers a sneak peak of what's coming next. Again, click the image in order to enlarge it: As you can see, the new site is quite an upgrade over the current one when it comes to design. But the changes didn't end there, as we re-wrote mounds of content, and reorganized hosts of links into a structure that was easier to understand and a whiz to navigate. As we get closer to the actual launch date, I'll be sharing more details of what's to come ne...

From the Houston Chronicle : Exelon Nuclear has picked two possible sites for for a proposed nuclear plant both located southwest of the Houston area. Illinois-based Exelon, which operates the largest number of nuclear plants in the country, is considering building a plant in Matagorda County or Victoria County. If it goes forward the primary site is a 1,250-acre tract about 10 miles south of Collegeport in Matagorda County. The secondary site covers 11,500 acres about 20 miles south of Victoria in Victoria County. Matagorda County is already home to the The South Texas Project, near Bay City. The owners of that plant is seeking to build two new reactors. The proposed sites are needed to seek a permit allowing the company to build and operate a plant, should it go decide to build one. Exelon said it expects to submit the application to the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission in November of 2008. UPDATE : Our friends at Exelon have shared a map of the designated sites with us. Click ...

A Czech pro-nuclear group turns the tables on their anti-nuke counterparts in Austria : The members of Start Zwentendorf, a freshly minted Czech nuclear power advocacy group, are on a bold mission. “We call for the immediate launch of Zwentendorf nuclear power plant,” the group’s Web site proclaims. “Austria’s populist, alibistic, unecological politics must stop.” Zwentendorf, Austria’s only nuclear power plant, has been inactive since its completion in 1978, when Austrians decided in a public referendum they would prefer not to launch it. Start Zwentendorf (SZ), an open-source community that operates through an online wiki site and has no organizational hierarchy, claims to be a partner organization of Austria’s Stop Temelín, an anti-nuclear group. The latter has for years been a vocal opponent of the Czech Republic’s Temelín nuclear power plant, organizing border blockade demonstrations to protests a perceived lack of safety measures. SZ says the inactive Zwentendorf is more harmful ...

From Reuters : Lithuania's parliament adopted a law on Thursday on building a new nuclear power plant, the formal start of a project that is expected to involve Baltic neighbours Estonia and Latvia as well as Poland. The 3,000-3,500 megawatt plant, to replace the ageing Soviet-era Ignalina nuclear reactor, which has to be shut down under a deal with the European Union, is expected to be built by 2015. One goal is to strengthen the region's energy independence from Russia. "Lithuania has made a strategic step, which will enhance our energy independence and strengthen our cooperation with partners in the region," Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas told parliament after the vote.

"We very much feel that nuclear has to be a significant part of the energy mix. If one is truly serious about global warming, it is the only carbon-free alternative we have right now,". That's Container Store founder Garrett Boone , one of the founders of Texas Business for Clean Air . Thanks to We Support Lee for the pointer.

From today's edition of Electric Power Daily (no link): EPRI estimates that a 500-MW solar plant would cost about $1.5 billion, or $3,000/kW, Bedard said. A just-built 64-MW solar plant in Nevada cost about $4,000/kW, he said. Nevada Power is buying the output from the Nevada Solar One project. EPRI has had little involvement with solar power in the last decade, Bedard said. But climate change and renewable portfolio standards have renewed utility interest in the technology. Currently, electricity from a CSP plant costs about 16 cents/kWh, compared with 7 cents/kWh for wind and 5.5 cents/kWh for coal, he said. That's a serious chunk of change.

In conjunction with the release of its World Energy Review , BP has also released an energy charting tool and conversion calculator that allow you to manipulate the data in some very interesting ways. I played with it to create this chart about U.S. consumption of nuclear energy between 1965 and 2006: Kudos to BP for doing such a great job. Applications like these really help advance public understanding of energy issues. And it doesn't hurt that they're fun to use too. Dive in, there's no reason for me to have all the fun.