NEI Nuclear Notes

In 2008, NEI published a study based on an analysis by the Management Information Systems, Inc. that detailed the amount of subsidies that go to each energy source. The study has just been updated and now shows 60 years of energy incentives . Here’s the intro: With concern about the price and availability of energy increasing, public interest in the role of federal incentives in shaping today’s energy marketplace and future energy options has risen sharply. That interest has met with frustration in some quarters and half-truths in others because of the difficulty in developing a complete picture of the incentives that influence today’s energy options. The difficulty arises from the many forms of incentives, the variety of ways that they are funded, managed and monitored, and changes in the agencies responsible for administering them. It is no simple matter to identify incentives and track them through year-to-year changes in legislation and budgets over the 50-plus years that...

Earlier today, the Financial Times published a story concerning how computer hackers might be able to attack America's electric infrastructure . While the story didn't mention the nuclear energy industry specifically, we thought it would be a good idea to remind everyone that NEI's in-house expert on cyber security, Bill Gross, recently tackled the issue of how the nuclear industry has been responding to these potential threats : The nuclear sector is a leader in the area cyber security. The Nuclear Energy Institute established a Cyber Security Task Force in 2002 to begin developing recommendations and guidance for nuclear facilities to address cyber security threats. In 2006, in the absence of regulations, the nuclear power plants adopted and, by May of 2008, implemented a robust cyber security program. This program was recognized by both NRC and NERC as adequate for the protection of critical systems. In March of 2009, the NRC issued mandatory and comprehensive perfor...

Yesterday, Roger Witherspoon of New Jersey Newsroom took yet another hack at the nuclear energy industry, this time using security at the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant to grind his axe. Here's what NEI's Steve Kerekes had to say in the comments section following the article: The writer conveniently ignores the $2 billion in security enhancements made across the U.S. nuclear energy industry over the past decade. Since that doesn't rate as so much as a "prong" in the writer's eyes, savvy readers shouldn't have much difficulty discerning the agenda behind this selective "reporting." Similarly, there was nothing voluntary about the security orders that were imposed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission after the 9/11 terrorist attacks that every U.S. nuclear energy facility implemented by the NRC's October 2004 deadline (see http://www.nei.org/newsandevents/nrcdeadline/ ). The phrase "reader beware" seems appropriate where this repo...

Even after the Fukushima Daiichi facility achieves a cold shutdown and even if no one becomes sick or dies as a result of the accident – no one has so far – the impact to the nuclear energy industry on a global basis is not yet in full focus. This lack of focus became, um, clearer after I read an interesting story in the New York Times that aims to address this issue – it’s here , called “After Fukushima, Does Nuclear Energy Have a Future?,” that does a reasonable job of surveying what different countries are doing with nuclear energy in the shadow of Fukushima. The story tilts toward what one might call the worst case scenario, but it’s not unrealistic and it points out inconvenient counter-facts, always a plus in my book. Despite this relatively dismal outlook for nuclear energy, the London-based World Nuclear Association predicts a 30 percent increase in global nuclear generating capacity over the next decade; it foresees 79 more reactors online by 2020, for a total of 514, e...

From NEI’s Japan micro-site: NRC, Industry Agree on Near-Term Actions at U.S. Reactors October 7, 2011 Industry/Regulatory/Political Issues U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner Gregory Jaczko this week said the agency’s near-term priorities to supplement safety and emergency response at America’s nuclear energy facilities include revising existing rules to cover emergency preparedness at multi-reactor facilities and used nuclear fuel pool monitoring. A video of Jaczko’s remarks is available on the National Journal’s website. The nuclear energy industry agrees with the majority of issues identified for near-term action. Tokyo Electric Power Co. said radiation is not suspected in the death an employee who became ill at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear energy facility and later died. TEPCO said it could not reveal the cause of death until authorities issued a death certificate. Two other Fukushima workers have died since stabilization efforts began at the Japanese reactor, ne...

A mini-debate over at Business Week’s appropriately named Debate Room blog highlights something we often see when pro-nuclear energy meets anti-nuclear energy. See if you can spot it. First, NEI’s Vice President of Communications Scott Peterson: Nuclear plants alone won’t improve our air quality but coupled with renewable energy sources, they are a sustainable energy resource that will produce electricity for 60 years or more. As the auto industry develops electric vehicles, using carbon-free nuclear energy to charge them is a win-win for our environment and national security. One nuclear energy facility could charge more than 1.8 million electric cars each night and power mass transit, homes, and businesses during the day. And Greenpeace’s Nuclear Policy Analyst Jim Riccio: Our best bet for reducing pollution from coal plants is energy efficiency and renewable energy. These solutions can be deployed more quickly and affordably than wasting billions on a new nuclear rea...

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission this week released a staff paper that prioritizes the recommendations from the near-term post-Fukushima task force report into three tiers—or categories—of importance based on the potential to enhance safety at U.S. nuclear plants. As part of its Tier 1 recommendation, or actions that “should be started without unnecessary delay,” the NRC elevated the importance of implementing spent fuel pool instrumentation, or monitoring equipment, at U.S. nuclear energy facilities. Why did the NRC elevate this issue? A Bloomberg article explains: Improved cooling-pool equipment wasn’t listed as a concern warranting immediate NRC action in a Sept. 9 staff memo. Agency staff made it a priority after determining that resources exist to improve monitoring instruments, which aren’t often designed “to remain functional under accident conditions,” according to the report released today. Moving the recommendation to the first tier does NOT indicate that current...