NEI Nuclear Notes

A British wind utility, Ecotricity , and French nuclear company EDF are fighting for the rights to a “green” union jack to use at the 2012 London Olympics – EDF is the “sustainability partner” for the Olympics, so that’s pretty green all the way around. (EDF is the majority stakeholder in British Energy, hence their interest in this.) On the Wind Energy Planning Web site, the news story about the squabble concludes : EDF have submitted a trademark application for their green union jack - however Ecotricity is retaliating by taking the company to the high court. EDF energy are 85% owned by the French State. They are the worlds third largest producer of nuclear waste. It’s all a matter of perspective, we guess. We reckon we would support EDF if we had much feeling for the set-to, but let’s be generous – and disinterested – and wish it and Ecotricity equal luck. Either way, we’ll see a lot of green Union Jacks. --- We, of course, have no beef with anyone who believes the Ear...

Every year NEI surveys our nuclear plant members to judge and rank the best new practices they've implemented that have allowed them to better run and maintain a nuclear plant. Besides issuing the usual press release announcing the winners... ... NEI has produced a series of short videos that examine safety innovations recognized at our recent annual conference with a Top Industry Practice award. The four releases will be posted here , one per week, throughout July. The first video, “High Tech Stress Relief,” recognizes achievements by employees at the Salem power plant in New Jersey and the Fort Calhoun power station in Nebraska. The four minute video is also on YouTube , enjoy!

The Senate Environment and Public Works committee took up the energy bill this morning and honed in quickly on nuclear energy – honed in on it so insistently, in fact, that if President Barack Obama really wants bipartisan support for the bill – which squeaked by in the House – speaking out for a more prominent role for nuclear energy might be a way to achieve it. But Republicans, as we’ll see, were not the only ones positively focused on nuclear. The panel included Energy Secretary Steven Chu, EPA administrator Lisa Jackson, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. The latter two became a little stranded with only a few questions asked of them, especially Salazar, but these hearings tend to go where they will. Let’s start with opening statements from the committee members and our old friend, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.): “Why are we ignoring the cheap energy solution to global warming, which is nuclear energy. If what we're really intereste...

We’ve been accused of not noting nuclear-favoring Democrats lately and that’s fair enough. We take them as they come, and it’s certainly true that Republicans find nuclear a good fit with their virtually all-inclusive energy approach. Thus, they say more about it. Many Democrats, by contrast, seem a bit stuck between old guard environmentalists – although a fair few of them are coming around -and a desire to see renewable energy sources take off, giving viable mature industries short shrift. But we think more Democrats than not support nuclear energy and if they would work it into their messaging more, we’d be more than happy to spotlight them. So meet Rep. Tom Perriello (D-Va.). Coming from the same area as Mecklenburg, which we spotlighted last week, Perriello has an editorial in the Appomattox News is which he aims to clarify his energy policies. He mentions some of the companies from last week’s story: We are already seeing companies like Mod-u-Kraf homes become a nation...

Seed Magazine has an interesting set of articles that roost under the title: The Lesser Evil: Nuclear or Coal? Well, you have to give a magazine room to gin up its content. Gwyneth Cravens, author of the Power to Save the World: The Truth About Nuclear Energy , offers an entry : Wind and solar are too diffuse and intermittent to provide baseload, and they require backup, mainly from fossil fuels. Nuclear has about the same carbon footprint as wind but is astronomically more compact and efficient and operates at 90 percent capacity (coal: 53 percent capacity; wind: 34 percent). Nuclear waste is therefore tiny in volume. The world’s entire annual inventory could fit in one large townhouse. Nuclear waste recycling, done abroad, drastically reduces volume, radioactivity, and the need for long-term disposal. Civilian nuclear plants have never produced atomic bombs. That doesn’t sound like a lesser evil, that sounds like a good. We admit that, just as Cravens can make us purr like ...

Seattle? Nuclear energy? We think of Seattle – and Washington state -as hydro, wind, perhaps coffee – but not really nuclear. But of course, Washington has a nuclear plant – Columbia Generating Station – and nothing really stops any state from using nuclear energy. Still, we were a bit surprised to find in the Seattle Times a pretty clear-eyed article . Demand can easily rise 10 to 15 percent over the several years it takes to permit and build a substantial power-generation facility. So, by all means continue to implement conservation and support all the wind, biomass, solar, geothermal, wave and tidal power that can be brought online. But realize we can't stop there. We must also have full-time baseload power generation to back up intermittent renewable-power sources to ensure we have power when the wind is not blowing and the sun is not shining. In Washington, the two realistic options available today for full-time baseload power are natural gas and nuclea...

These are funny : 1. Fission shmission, relax, I'll increase the water level after my coffee break. 5. Who forgot to pay the water bill? 10. It's Russian technology. 17. Is that a 60 minute film crew out there? 20. Look at the good news: we are going to find out whether people actually glow in the dark. Be sure to check out the rest !