NEI Nuclear Notes

60 Minutes will air a report on Fukushima Daiichi during its broadcast this Sunday, April 6 at 7:00 p.m. U.S. EDT. If you're watching on Sunday, we have a number of online resources you can consult for additional information about the accident , the clean up of the site and how the U.S. nuclear industry is applying lessons learned from Fukushima to improve safety at its own plant sites. Over the past three years, we've shared much of this coverage here at NEI Nuclear Notes: Earlier this week, NEI's Scott Peterson outlined how U.S. plants are applying the Fukushima experience to protecting nuclear plants from earthquakes ;  Just a few weeks ago, NEI's Senior Technical Advisor, Steven Kraft, shared his personal reflections on the 3rd anniversary of the accident ;  In October 2013, NEI's Tom Kauffman outlined the myriad ways that the U.S. industry differs from Japan when it comes to the way plants are operated and regulated ;  Last September, a de...

It may seem like an unseemly bit of crowing, but nuclear energy really did show its value during the polar vortex and subsequent winter deep freezes. We’ve talked about this in an ad hoc fashion, noting stories about the strain on the natural gas supply and even raising mild controversy about whether Beaver Valley shut down due to the cold – when in truth, it did shut down whatever the reason. Why split hairs? But now there is a more systematic assessment of that period from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission . FERC describes its role thusly: “[It is] an independent agency that regulates the interstate transmission of electricity, natural gas, and oil. FERC also reviews proposals to build liquefied natural gas terminals and interstate natural gas pipelines as well as licensing hydropower projects.” And there’s more! Read here for that. FERC’s authority over electricity transmission (and other of its activities) covers every manner of generator, so its work overlaps into the ...

St. Luice Nuclear Plant For the past few weeks, we've taken note of attempts by the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy to cast doubt on the safety of the steam generators at the St. Lucie Nuclear Power Plant . Just this afternoon, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission put an end to the nonsense by rejecting a request asking the commission to delay the plant's re-start : FPL spokesman Michael Waldron said, “There should be no doubt that this decision confirms the continued safety of the St. Lucie plant and the steam generator system. The NRC’s rejection of SACE’s petition clearly shows that the inflammatory rhetoric, scare tactics, and testimony by so-called “expert” witnesses, is about political theater, not safety. FPL would not put a nuclear unit online if it was unsafe, nor, would we be allowed to do so by our federal safety regulator.” In today’s order, the NRC said, “SACE’s concerns are connected to the 2007 replacement of the plant’s steam generators; the plant, how...

It’s a great pleasure and surprise when someone who has not said much about nuclear energy one way or another comes out strongly in favor. So here’s New York City’s former Mayor Rudy Giuliani in the Daily News: We were recently reminded why maintaining a diverse fuel supply is so critical. The extreme cold weather that hit the city this winter caused New York City’s electricity prices to surge to record highs; customers saw their bills spike more than 20%. Many attributed the boost to rising prices for natural gas, which powers most of our electricity generators. To protect against even more volatile price increases, we need to protect and preserve safe and stable-priced sources of power — such as the nuclear plants at Indian Point. Electric reliability and the possibility of power outages were constant concerns of mine during my years as mayor, during the brutal winters as well as grueling, hot summer months. Our electric infrastructure is a vital part of New York — ...

Mixed oxide or MOX fuel uses more than one oxide of fissile material. Uranium can be one, plutonium another. The United States wants to use 34 metric tons of weapons-grade plutonium in commercial MOX fuel. No plant currently uses it though most could adapt to its particularities– more fuel rods are bundled together than in an uranium powered reactor, for example. Arizona’s Palo Verde plant can use MOX fuel without adaptation, though it has never done so. CANDU reactors (which do not operate in the United States) can also use MOX fuel as is. But the first step is to fabricate the mixed oxide fuel. That will be the job of a facility the government is building at its Savannah River site in South Carolina. Construction on the MOX Fuel Fabrication Facility began in 2006 and is about 60 percent complete – and will be completed if the government doesn’t pull the plug on it (this is on page 77). Following a year-long review of the plutonium disposition program, the Budget provid...

Scott Peterson The following is a guest post by Scott Peterson, NEI's Senior Vice President of Communications. Companies that operate America’s nuclear energy facilities today will submit new information regarding seismic safety as part of a series of actions the industry is taking to implement lessons learned from the 2011 Fukushima accident . This comes at a time of heightened interest in earthquakes given the Los Angeles-area temblors this past weekend . However, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2012 required energy companies to reevaluate potential seismic hazards for each of America’s 100 reactors. Nuclear energy facilities were designed and built with extra safety margin, in part to be able to withstand an earthquake even beyond the strongest ever at each site . Nonetheless, over the past decades, the industry has re-evaluated the seismic safety of its facilities. Each time new seismic information became available, plant operators have confirmed, and in many ca...

Scott Peterson The following is a guest post by Scott Peterson, NEI's Senior Vice President of Communications. The red clay landscape of rural Georgia may seem like an unlikely setting for technological innovation in the nuclear energy industry. The expansion of Plant Vogtle is the largest construction project in the state’s history. The project is midway through building two state-of-the-art reactors that will power 500,000 homes and businesses. Nearby, Mark Verbeck , a Navy veteran and second-generation industry leader, is training the men and women who will operate the massive electricity-producing machines. “I’m one of 5,000 workers building the future of nuclear energy,” says Verbeck. “Nuclear plant construction is creating jobs and growing local economies around the world.” As Georgia Power ’s manager for reactor operators training at full-scale, digital simulators, Verbeck oversees the development of a next generation workforce in the nuclear industry. New em...