NEI Nuclear Notes

Construction at the Sanmen Nuclear Power Station in China. Earlier this week, the law firm of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw LLP issued a report concerning the legal and regulatory obstacles that stand in the way of U.S. companies fully capitalizing on the international growth of the nuclear energy industry. From the NEI press release : To the detriment of U.S. national security interests and the economy, U.S. energy companies and manufacturers face impediments in capitalizing on the enormous market opportunities presented by the global growth of nuclear energy, business and industry leaders said today in unveiling a new report on nuclear export challenges . The report comparing nuclear energy trade regimes in five leading supplier nations concludes that “the U.S. export control regime places (U.S. companies) at a serious disadvantage next to their competitors in the international export market.” Following the release of the report, representatives from Pillsbury, NEI, Exelon Gen...

Back on September 21, we took note of an article at AOL Energy , where reporter Margaret Ryan spent some time talking to a variety of policy analysts to devise questions about energy policy that reporters ought to ask during the 2012 Presidential debates . The first in the series of four debates -- three featuring the candidates for President and another the candidates for Vice President -- airs tonight from the University of Denver at 9:00 p.m. U.S. EDT. Though I've pointed this out before, I think this proposed question bears repeating: What's the future role of nuclear power? Can the nation have a serious climate policy without a serious nuclear one, including finally confronting the issue of nuclear waste? How should the US deal with nuclear waste? Would the candidate endorse continued research and development work in small modular nuclear reactors ? Here's hoping that question gets asked. For more information on the debates, click here for more from Politico.

Pete Dietrich, SCE For most of 2012, the nuclear industry has been keeping a close watch on the situation at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, where continuing issues with the plant's steam generators have kept both units offline. As NEI member company and plant manager Southern California Edison (SCE) has been investigating the source of the problem, it has faced a unique challenge with its own employees: how to communicate about the situation when the path forward is uncertain. In the following guest post, SCE's Senior Vice President and Chief Nuclear Officer Pete Dietrich describes how he and his team embraced this unique set of circumstances. Today's post is the first in an ongoing series concerning the status of the plant. Part 1 – Aligning the understanding and expectations of a large plant workforce when the path forward is uncertain At 3:05 p.m. this past Jan.31, control room operators at our San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station detected a small ste...

A Danish windmill - in Iowa Denmark’s current energy goal is much more easy to achieve than it would be for many other countries: The share of renewable energy sources in Danish power supply is set to rise from 40 percent in 2011 to 69 percent by 2020, Denmark’s Energy Agency said on Sept. 28. Why easier? Well, Denmark has about 5.5 million people, with 20 percent of them in or near Copenhagen, the capital. Still, given that hydro is tapped out, that leaves intermittent wind and solar energy to take up the cause. And really, they can’t. So what to do? Denmark is planning to link its electricity market to other countries as it prepares for the growing role of intermittent renewable sources of power. I suppose you could ding Denmark for taking the “green” route domestically while still getting the electricity it needs from its neighbors. It certainly makes the positive, feel-good profile of the plan murkier. The loss of coal generation will make Denmark particularly depend...

A Betamax machine Energy is energy – and producing electricity doesn’t have an ideological bias. But how electricity gets produced is another matter. It involves interactions between government, industry and citizens, which quickly gives it an ideological cast. In England, Green Party leader Natalie Bennett and Caroline Lucas, the first Green Party member of parliament offer what represents energy manna to them in a recent Guardian article: If there weren't already a solution at hand, we'd have to be frantically hunting around for one. But the fact is that there is - renewables, combined with a serious drive for energy conservation, which would also have the added benefits of making our homes more comfortable and our air more breathable. They put this at the end of the article, the capper on a loosely reasoned piece on the downsides of nuclear energy, which they call  the Betamax of the energy world. I wouldn’t even call Betamax the Betamax of the videotape world – ...

We just announced a new friendly Facebook contest to help NEI name its new conference rooms. For details on the contest and to enter, you must visit NEI’s Facebook page . Don’t forget to ‘like’ our page while you’re there!

The Wall Street Journal has up a single item poll. The single item? Should the world increase its reliance on nuclear energy? Go on over to the site and cast your vote. As of Wednesday morning, the totals were 80 percent yes and 19 percent no. That’s 20 points to make up! (Not that we’re suggesting how you should vote – but then again, this isn’t Beyond Nuclear dot com either. Just saying.)