NEI Nuclear Notes

Last week , we pointed NNN readers to Angie Howard's video submission to the upcoming PBS special, Planet Forward . Today, we feature the clip submitted by Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley . Titled We're Way Behind , O'Malley makes the case for expanding nuclear energy production in his state and the U.S.

President Barack Obama has provided a regular thrill ride when it comes to nuclear energy, tamping down Yucca Mountain, inspiring commissions galore on what to do with used nuclear fuel, and suffering our parsing his every word. Well, we parse no more. Obama said this to the Czechs gathered in Prague to hear him speak – and by extension, everyone with a TV or radio. The subject was nuclear disarmament (we’ll leave it to you to decide how you feel about that), but what then to do with nuclear energy ? The basic bargain is sound: Countries with nuclear weapons will move towards disarmament, countries without nuclear weapons will not acquire them, and all countries can access peaceful nuclear energy. To strengthen the treaty, we should embrace several principles. We need more resources and authority to strengthen international inspections. We need real and immediate consequences for countries caught breaking the rules or trying to leave the treaty without cause. It gets better....

The Wall Street Journal looks in at the nuclear doings on the Arabian Peninsula. We’ve looked at this before, but a lot has happened in a relatively short time: Dozens of American engineers, lawyers and businessmen have converged on Abu Dhabi in recent months to help the United Arab Emirates get the Arab world's first nuclear-power program running by 2017. Why so many Americans? The answer may surprise you: Even as the U.S. remains determined to block Iran from developing nuclear weapons, President Barack Obama sees the U.A.E. program as a "model for the world," according to a senior White House official, and by mid-April could move to present a bilateral nuclear-cooperation treaty to Congress for approval. This is the so-called 123 agreement negotiated late in the Bush administration (123 refers to the section in the U.S. Atomic Energy Act of 1954 that permits trade in nuclear materials and technologies.) And while there was some doubt Obama would conc...

Harvey Wasserman's HuffPo post, Cracking the Corporate Media's Iron Curtain Around Death at Three Mile Island , shows that he knows no bounds in his determination to scare and mislead the public. It is grossly irresponsible for him to claim that the accident at TMI killed people without offering a shred of evidence to support the claim. And by implying there has been a cover up, he also has severely insulted the good people of Pennsylvania. Wasserman claims that the "Soviet-style Iron Curtain" formed between corporate media and the "alternatives" is hiding deaths caused by the accident. This not only denigrates media outlets that won't embrace his unfounded allegations, it maligns Pennsylvanians. Would the people of the Middletown Press & Journal , the Harrisburg Patriot-News and numerous other local and regional newspapers, radio and TV organizations hide the truth from their friends and neighbors? Would local doctors, the Harrisburg Hospital, Pen...

We’ve been a little busy at the NEI Central portion of our, shall we call it, job, but we still want to share some interesting stories with you: Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) wants to quit pussyfooting around and just pull the plug on the Yucca Mountain used fuel repository: McCain said he disagreed with the administration's choice to rule out Yucca Mountain, but since nuclear power is "vital" for U.S. energy needs, the nation must consider other options. McCain said his amendments would shutter Yucca Mountain and repay fees paid by electricity customers for building a repository. He said other nuclear amendments would address fuel reprocessing. Grandstanding? Symbolic gesture? In any event, we think it’s pretty effective - and it’s had an impact: Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) said the committee will designate some time during the markup to consider nuclear energy and waste. The panel is expected to have the next markup in a series of four or more the week...

NEI's VP, Angie Howard, has made her case: submitting a video to PBS's Planet Forward show. Scheduled to air on April 15th, the primetime special will feature viewer-submitted video clips that address the feasibility of moving away from fossil fuels, domestically and globally. Visitors can rate and comment on Angie's clip, Teaming Nuclear and Renewable Energies , on the Planet Forward website. (Vote now - and often. The highest-rated submissions are more likely to be selected for the show.) The video can also be seen on NEI's YouTube channel here .

Here’s some interesting news out of Florida: A state Senate committee today approved a bill that would require Florida's electric utilities to get 20 percent of their power from "clean" energy, including nuclear and coal, by 2020. Under the bill, which was approved in a 6-3 vote, 5 percent of that 20-percent goal can be met with nuclear or new coal-burning technology. We’ll let coal take care of itself, but we think nuclear could very well get Florida to that 20 percent mark quite handily. Why? The Shaw Group Inc. and Westinghouse Electric Co. LLC have signed a contract for engineering, procurement and construction of a two-unit nuclear powerplant at a greenfield site in Levy County, Fla. Progress Energy Florida Inc., the owner, expects to receive a combined construction and operating license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by early 2012. And the schedule for this? Current plans are for operation of the plant in the 2016-18 time frame, ...